One achievement is that the team has managed not to chase the old clientele out. This isn’t some gussied-up, ersatz version of a pub, new scrubbed for the emerging middle classes. It remains what it always was, with a bar at the front full of regulars deep into their pints and the dining room out back. They’ve given the place a lick of paint but done little else. The menu is admirably short, with four starters and mains supplemented by a couple of specials…

[The wine list] is, like the entire operation, without pretension; they are absolutely not trying to be all things to all people. They are only trying to be themselves. Unlike with many places I review, I will definitely be returning, probably often.

It’s good to see the hard work getting some recognition – and great to have both food this good so enticingly close to home and one of our two pubs back in full swing.

The routes promise clear blue markings for the cycle lanes themselves, together with smoother road surfaces and better safety measures.  It’s not yet clear how much practical difference this will make – the document listing the implementation works is decidedly vague for something which is already underway:  the statement that existing cycle lanes will be widened ‘where possible’ does not inspire immediate confidence, and continuous blue cycle lanes through juntions are only being trialled.  There is though some willingness, at least in principle, to think slightly more strategically about some of the bigger junctions:

A survey will be conducted to assess the impact of reducing the two lanes heading northbound towards the A3 at the Stockwell Gyratory to one lane, allowing the installation of a new segregated cycle lane at this location.

Meanwhile, of course, the existing London Cycle Network route 3 winds its way from Clapham Common to Waterloo along Aldebert Terrace and Stephen’s Terrace, dealing with busy main roads largely by avoiding them.  That’s the paler blue route on the map below – an extract from a larger map showing the whole route of the new cycle superhighway – which casually allows Meadow Road to cross South Lambeth Road to join up with Larkhall Lane, so let’s hope nobody tries to use it to find their way.

But how super will the cycle superhighway really be?  Andreas Kambanis, who blogs as the London Cyclist is not optimistic, comparing what, on past form, we are likely to get in London with the rather more ambitious plans for cycle superhighways in Copenhagen.  No prospect for us of copying the ‘green wave’ which means that cyclists travelling at a steady 20 kph will get green lights at each succeeding junction – but at least a recognition that cycling is increasingly one of London’s core modes of transport.

The winning design has been announced in the architectural competition for the new US embassy to be built at Nine Elms.  It’s a dramatic and eye catching design which should be a vast improvement on the current scattering of anonymous warehouses. There is a long and well illustrated description on the site of the winning architects, KieranTimberlake.

The design places the embassy building at the center of the Nine Elms site and develops the surrounding area into an urban park. The new embassy meets all the required security standards while honoring the English tradition of urban parks and gardens as the context for many civic buildings. The new embassy, with its gardens, will establish a strong framework for the urbanization of the Nine Elms redevelopment zone.

There are two major east-west pedestrian and vehicular paths, one existing and one to be improved, and the other proposed as part of the enabling infrastructure for the Nine Elms development. The existing infrastructure is along the south Thames embankment and is composed of a river walk paralleled by Nine Elms Lane. The proposed new infrastructure to the south of the embassy site is a pedestrian greenway that will connect the embassy site to Vauxhall Station, the nearest tube stop to the east, and on to the proposed new Battersea developments to the west. Poised strategically midway between these parallel paths, the embassy becomes part of an urban park that connects the Thames embankment to the new pedestrian way to the south.

The paving about and within the embassy site utilizes the familiar limestone used in many London walks and parks. London Plane trees provide shade and form at the perimeter and along Nine Elms Lane as well as the proposed new walk to the south that connects the site to Vauxhall Station.

Seen from the north along the Thames embankment and Nine Elms Lane, the new Embassy Park contains a pond with walks, places to sit and landscape along its edges, all open to the citizens of London.

Trees near the pond are to be North American species, such as the Weeping Willow and the Bald Cypress. Others, while native to North America, were long ago brought to England and are now common to the English landscape.

There is a lot more about the building itself, but it is the exterior and the landscape in which it is set which are much more important for most of us who are unlikely to have much occasion to go – or be allowed – inside.

The original outline plan included proposals for opening more routes through the Nine Elms site to the river, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.  It’s not clear from this description whether all that has survived – but it’s one to keep an eye on, as it is potentially a significant benefit to our area.  The other direct effect is likely to be increased pressure on transport.  The proposed Northern Line extension to Battersea is still in the Mayor’s Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area Planning Framework, but the US Embassy is probably not big enough by itself to provide any assurance that it will ever materialise.  Increased pressure on Vauxhall, further exacerbated by the policy of encouraging new tall buildings there, risks crowding out existing transport users.

According to the Washington Post, construction is due to start in 2013 and be completed by 2017.

The track record of the new Canton Arms team meant that the chances were good, and it sounds as though the reality has come up to the promise.

The question now is whether they can pull off the trick of being the pub on the corner while also being a more upmarket eating place. Let’s hope they do – and things are clearly off to a promising start.

Update: Giovanni di Lieto is supplying bread – which certainly adds to the attractions.

On the other side of town, off the northern end of the Clapham Road in sunny Stockwell, there’s a very different Albert Square. The surrounding area’s characterised by a hotchpotch of diverse residential styles, jammed randomly together as though some Lambeth town planner filled each block by rolling a dice. If so, then Albert Square’s the local 6.

It’s fascinating to read the description of something so familiar to us by somebody who is seeing it all for the first time.  He’s not terribly impressed by the state of the Square garden and still less with the architectural merits of Regency Court.  But other than that, “Albert Square SW8 is a place with true character and history, and even boasts its own blog”.

One of the comments on that piece is a bit less generous, describing this site as “teeth grindingly nimbyish”.  I don’t think that’s a fair criticism – but it’s a good reminder not to get complacent, so I would encourage any suggestions for improvements to the site or subjects we should be covering – and would welcome contributions from anyone in the neighbourhood.  Please send any thoughts to assa@assa.org.uk.

(and thanks to our near neighbour Jason Cobb for spotting the Diamond Geezer post and for his generous words in the comments)

Interesting to see how South Lambeth Road has bent through 90 degrees since its early life along what we now know as Dorset Road – to say nothing of the metamorphosis of South Highland Place into South Island Place, when there are neither highlands nor islands to be seen. It’s also possible to see very clearly how street names capture traces of the past.  The Lawn of 1827 has a faint echo in Lawn Lane, the sometime grandeur of Clayland House survives in Claylands Road.

There is now a new exhibition which runs until 1 April of photographs by Sonalle, highlighting the experience of people in ethnic minorities who have come out about their sexuality. More about Sonalle and her photographs can be found on the flyer for the exhibition and on her web site.

You can find opening hours for the Tate South Lambeth Library here.

Another public meeting has been arranged about the Vauxhall area planning framework (earlier coverage here and here).  The additional meeting has been arranged by the Kennington Oval and Vauxhall Forum and will take place on at 7pm Wednesday 10 February at St Peter’s Church, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall.

The deadline for comments on the draft planning framework has now been extended to 28 February – details are on the Mayor’s website.

From now on, updates on the Kennington Oval and Vauxhall Forum website news page will be picked up in the News From Other Stockwell Sites area of this site.

The future of Vauxhall and the wider ‘opportunity area’ has been a long-running topic, and doubtless will continue for a long time yet.  We featured the Vauxhall Supplementary Planning Document here just over a year ago and the proposed Northern Line extension last summer.

Part of the problem for residents (and their associations) trying to keep track of all this is that the decision making is very fragmented.  In a separate post, Lurking Around SE11 makes the perceptive point that:

It seems that there is an ongoing issue pertaining to the requests for permission lining up with the Mayor’s Plan for Nine Elms and the Vauxhall Supplementary Planning Document. Each time a developer submits a request for planning permission for a new building, the transport and infrastructure questions are only considered for the building in question by the local council (in this case, Lambeth). Does this mean that the developers will keep having planning permission granted because “just one more building” won’t affect the underground tube congestion? As long as Lambeth Council are seen to be proceeding on a building by building basis, there is less need for anybody to consider the overall area, and the effects that new buildings will have on older buildings and the surrounding townscape. Indeed, it’s rather impossible for residents to object, approve or comment on each new building because it’s so time consuming to work in this manner. Please could we consider multiple buildings and their effects on one another, before we have to comment on the next in the series?

The service has now been restored although with a slightly cryptic warning that is functioning with reduced postcode accuracy.  But it should mean that we don’t have to rely on spotting notices on lamp posts to find out what is going on.

The return of Planning Alerts may be linked to today’s launch by Sir Tim Berner-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, of a new government website giving access to a huge range of government data for creating just these kinds of useful applications. Planning Alerts is one of the first batch of applications featured on the site.