Our latest show at the Bonnington Café comes from Andy Insh, a ‘painter of dreams’ creating a wonderful new ambience for the whole of September.
Andy first exhibited at the Café in November 2022, with a dazzling array of paintings which he envisaged as “part of a tradition that runs from Blake through Samuel Palmer, Stanley Spencer, Lowry and Cecil Collins,” all artists whose work, he says, was “to one side of the art of their day.”
As Lowry painted Manchester and the North-West, so Insh says he wants “to ‘do’ London and the places that I know.” Aiming at “dreamlike or internal reality,” he renders scenes in a Pointillist style, illuminating the spaces between things, with a delicate sense of perspective. The titles are deliberately open to interpretation as “the best thing about a painting is its mystery,” according to Balthus.
The best way to see Andy’s art is to eat at the Café – which is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 6pm to 10.30pm, and on Sundays from 11am to 3pm. And 20% of all sales will kindly be donated by the artist to the Bonnington Centre. Check out Andy’s Insta for more on his work at andyinsh1234
London Colour is a new exhibition by Fred Barrington taking place in the Bonnington Café this August!
Fred Barrington describes himself as an opportunistic photographer, born and bred in London. He says he’s an enthusiastic amateur who has won many awards and was honoured to be awarded Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2022.
Fred is very well travelled. However for this – his first solo exhibition – he has chosen his first love which is London, and very much with a local flavour. Many of these images were taken within walking distance of the Bonnington Cafe gallery.
The Bonnington Café is open for Sunday Brunch from 11am to 3pm; and for Dinner from 6pm to 10.30pm each Tuesday to Saturday evenings. The artist will also be in residence on Saturday 10th August, Thursday 15th, Saturday 24th and Saturday 31st August, all from 1pm to 4pm. All are welcome, so do pop in to be inspired!
It’s all about celebrating Craft and Diversity in the Bonnington Café this month!
The multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer, Anurag Wallace, whose mixed media combines with traditional Indian craft, is showing his first collection of stylish handcrafted jackets, on Monday evening July 8th. You can also see samples of these beautiful fabrics, hanging on the Bonington Café walls in stylish circles throughout July.
Anurag’s work celebrates differences in cultural and gender identity, with the focus on individuality. The collection showcases a series of ‘One of a Kind’ and ‘One Off’ outfits. Anurag’s gorgeous jackets feature the traditional Indian craft of handblock printing: fashioned out of cool organic cotton. The collection reflects how each piece is inspired to show elements of design and individual identity within the community.
The Collection Reveal is on 8th July. Doors open 6pm, with the Fashion Show at 7.30pm in the Centre’s Top Room. And there are rumours of piano playing, photo shoots, cheese, wine and fabulous guests!All are welcome. Please RSVP (text or Whatsapp) to 07867 080947
The Bonnington Café is happy to announce a second Private View for musician John Torjussen and his Exhibition of Photos, which perfectly capture his squatting days in 1980s Brixton.
On Sunday 23rd June from 7-10.30pm, John will once again be playing alongside his old Reggae bandmates in the Café space.
All are welcome, so please do come and enjoy John’s historic photographs, with great live music in a very special atmosphere. There’ll be cake and wine too!
Can’t make it but still want to see the exhibition? John’s photos will be on the walls of the Bonnington Café throughout June. The space is open for diners from Tuesday to Saturday 6-10.30pm, as well as on Sundays and Tuesdays from 11am – 3pm.
Local resident, Druid, and occasional Tarot reader David Spofforth will be launching his new book, Heaven’s Moon, at the Bonnington Café on Monday June 24th at 6.30pm.
David tells us there’ll be signings and a talk about his book, which is focused on “discovering the path to become your ultimate Divine Self.”
Here’s what David has to say about “Heaven’s Moon: The Astrological Power of White Moon Selena”:
“Shining through from the Spiritual Realms, White Moon Selena illuminates your astrological birth chart with the power of Selene, the Classical Greek Goddess of the Moon. Orbiting the Earth every seven years, this ‘hypothetical second moon’ from Russian Astrology is a portal to a spiritual moonlight that shines on where your highest aspirations in can be found, and how you best strive to reach them.
“Through an exploration of how White Moon Selena is expressed in all twelve Signs of the Zodiac, you can understand your White Moon Selena placement in your birth chart. It shows you which part of your life offers you the path towards your highest purpose. Learn how the transits of the Planets every day can affect your path of evolution to your Divine Self. Which Planets are helping you? And what Astrology techniques can you positively employ to overcome the aspects that hinder you? Your Sun Sign shows you who you are… Your White Moon Selena Sign shows you the highest expression of who you can become.”
June’s exhibition at the Bonnington Café displays John Torjussen’s wonderful historic photographs, documenting his years in Brixton: “There was an atmosphere of being a bit free and a bit mad, welcoming freedom and madness.”
From his squatting days in Kellett Rd onwards, John Torjussen photographed what he saw – providing a spontaneous record of street scenes. “I think I took all the portraits because I felt it was a special time, interesting people from all over the world visited, and I just tried to document that without style or agenda. I am inviting people from those days to the exhibition-those that are still alive-to see themselves and familiar faces and scenes from the past.”
Torjussen squatted a lot in Brixton, and watched the 1981 Riots from his front step. His vivid portraiture and street scenes evoke the vibrancy and immediacy of that period, as well as his years as a reggae musician, playing “in houses and basements, rather than in public.”
Drop into the Bonnington Café to explore or revisit those heady days – when squatting was legal and art was everywhere!
The Café and Exhibition are both open throughout the whole of June – Tuesday to Saturday 6-10.30pm, and Sundays & Tuesdays 11am – 3pm. And starting the month off, there’s a Private View this Sunday 2nd June, from 6.30pm to 10.30pm, with live Reggae music and a Donations Bar. All welcome!
Torjussen’s work warmly captures the joy and art of 1980s Brixton
This Friday, May 24th, there’s a special weaving event at the Bonnington Café!
Loomeweight is an interdisciplinary durational performance piece created by Patricia Auchterlonie and Hester Dart of Bonnington Square. The project revolves around the creation of an Iron Age style warp-weighted loom, made from a simple wooden frame and hung with found hagstones (rocks with a single hole worn by the sea).
The loom provides a framework for the creation of a tapestry that is woven from ‘trash’ or rejected and broken items (eg plastic bags, rope, discarded clothing). While working, traditional weaving songs are passed between two voices, undergoing microchanges as the project unfolds. These improvised changes will involve very gradual shifts in rhythm, melody, and microtonality, as well as experimental vocalisations and other non-sung materials.
The installation is designed to be a marathon piece which slows down the making process while utilising pre-industrial, slow techniques and focuses on micro-changes and irregularities. Through this slow endurance, loomeweight critiques and questions mass production within late stage capitalism. It also references directly the historical gesture of singing and weaving as a paired pursuit, and explores the close relationship between these practises and folk culture / ancient histories. The project highlights the failures inherent in a system which promotes marketability and consumption over the sustainable processes of creating and community building. There is also exploration of the omnipresent theme of ecological collapse through the re-use of thrown away objects.
Hester and Patricia will be performing and touring the piece around the UK during the summer. They are currently confirmed for the Nozstock Festival in July. If you’d like to hear and see them at your own festivals, please get in touch!!
Our fabulous series of Art Showcases at the Bonnington Café continues, with this UK premiere during May 2024 of Jane Higginbottom’s superb Colours of Finland and Beyond, a set of naturally-dyed weavings and drawings from her 2022 Finnish residency at Kulttuurikauppila, augmented with more recent larger weavings using her hand-dyed Finnish yarn.
Jane’s work is she says a direct response to the land itself, exploring the emotional texture of distance from family- the living and the ancestors. It is imbued with a warmth of feeling, expressed in delicate yarn, and with natural colours drawn from the landscape.
Jane Higginbottom has an MA (Camberwell/Chelsea) and is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. In 2023 she spent a week in Sweden with the Swedish artist, Susannah Gunnarson, as part of the Bridge project (Artcan), showing their work at the OSKG Tjornedala gallery space in November 2023. Swedish artists are visiting London in 2024 for a return exhibition.
Jane also works at Roots and Shoots, “a sanctuary for nature” in central London, offering vocational training for the local community with its biodiverse wildlife gardens. The organisation will also be cooking in the Bonnington Café over the summer, starting 14th May from 11am to 1pm (Tuesdays only) for 6-8 weeks initially, offering meals on a ‘pay-what-you-can basis’ to support Roots and Shoots and its students.
To see Jane’s work during May, you can visit the Bonnington Café to dine during the evening on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and on Sunday and Tuesday lunchtimes. Jane will also be hosting a Private View on Monday 13th May between 6pm and 9pm All are welcome. And she’ll also be hosting a Weaving Workshop on Tuesday 14th May from 11am to 1pm. The workshop price is £20 for 2 hours (materials included), or you pay what you can afford on a sliding scale of £5 to £20. For enquiries, please contact Jane at jane@janehigginbottom.co.uk
Roman Lokati is an extraordinarily versatile artist, who’s exhibited widely in London and across Europe. His paintings dazzle with colour and energy; many are peopled with figures caught up in their own solitary worlds. He reproduces these images in fabric and ceramics; and he works in oil, acrylic and water colours, using different printing techniques to show how humans function through the complexity of modern urban life. Roman’s recent life-size sculptures in Chelsea, some with rucksacks, are alone, gazing around uncertain of their next step.
Fascinated by the worlds of plants and animals, Lokati has run community workshops focused on water colours and printing techniques to explore the intricacies of the natural world in more depth. And his recent collaboration with fashion designer Paul Smith has produced paintings in one of the new Paul Smith shops in Borough Market.
The Bonnington Café and Centre warmly welcomes the Roman Lokati exhibition during April. For more on our opening times and the full address, see the poster below. Come and enjoy!
Trustees of the BCCA are pleased to announce that one of south London’s most iconic restaurants – the community run Bonnington Caféin Vauxhall – is fully reopening from Tuesday February 6th onwards.
Outstanding and affordable vegetarian and vegan food from around the world will once again be available for bookings and walk-ins each Tuesday to Saturday night from 6pm to 10.30pm – and for Sunday brunch between 11am and 3pm. The Caféis just a short walk from Vauxhall Station.
Cooks in the Caféwill change nightly – with the present roster including food strongly influenced by Syrian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Polish, Iranian and English cuisine, and with more outstanding cooks being added in the weeks ahead.
Natalia Boteva, the Bonnington Café’s new organiser, is excited about regrowing the community business. “It’s been a delight to discover local chefs and their amazing food. Now we can’t wait to provide affordable meals for both Vauxhall residents, and also for London’s many vegetarian and vegan food lovers.”
Green oasis
Set in the green oasis of Bonnington Square, the Bonnington Caféat SW8 1TD is a Lambeth gem, first opening its doors in 1982 during the neighbourhood’s famous squatting years. In the early 1990s, the Bonnington Centre Community Association (BCCA) purchased the entire building at 11 Vauxhall Grove thanks to a National Lottery grant, and has run the site for the benefit of the whole community ever since. After decades of success, the Caféwas temporarily closed in late 2021. Since then it has undergone significant renovations – and the local community has devoted considerable effort to restoring the Caféto its former glory.
Today the Caféis directly managed by the BCCA – though with the same commitments to affordability, great vibes, and fantastic vegetarian and vegan cooking. The Caféis also maintaining its tradition of not being licenced to serve alcohol, with customers instead welcome to BYOB.
Hind is one of our new cooks on the roster
Diverse cuisines
Since late 2023 the Bonnington Caféhas been building up its roster of cooks both new and old, in readiness for this week’s full reopening.
“The community has come together to revive our much missed Café, welcoming new chefs and old, and building on our diverse neighbourhood’s history of local action and self-help,” says Megan Doolittle, the BCCA chair. “The wonderful Caféin the Bonnington Centre is alive and well again!”
Among the regular cooks today is Hind Danoun. Hind is from Syria and came to the UK six years ago. As a way of helping her feel she belonged in her new home, she started making her mum’s recipes, going on to found her own catering business called Utopia.
Vic Conran actually lives in Bonnington Square – so is as local as it gets. Vic was a cook at the Caféduring its early years – and relishes the chance to cater for a new generation of customers. “It’s great to be back with a fresh start, and have the chance to bring the community imaginative, seasonal and delicious food once again,” she says.
And many long time Bonnington Cafécustomers will surely remember Misiek, one of the original cooks’ collective who continues to dazzle with his Polish-inspired dishes.
