Kennedys, 305 Walworth Road

Over the decades, Walworth has attracted a community of people from Xinjiang, a region in the north-west of China, and the restored shop has become a restaurant serving the regional cuisine - voted in Timeout’s Top Ten best London Chinese restaurants, 2024. The shop was opened in the 1920s by Kennedy’s Sausages, spread from humble beginnings to many highstreets all over south London; famed for the quality and consistency of their shop fittings too. Kennedy’s wound up in 2007, with the Walworth Road site being the most intact survivor, but suffering long term neglect and vacancy; thus being posted on the Heritage at Risk Register. Working with our client, Southwark Council and Historic England, we designed a scheme to gently restore the shop whilst providing a new look for its new owner: Lao Dao. This new setting was created whilst respecting conservation needs and delivered through extensive archival research and close collaboration with a network of local craftspeople to replace lost or damaged elements of fabric. Restoration of the historic environment plays a critical part in a resilient future for our places and communities. Small conservation projects like this hold deep value and have touched the lives of many people. These are not exclusive assets owned by great estates in affluent postcodes, but the backdrop to the social and material stories of our local places. As architects in Walworth we were honoured to work on this project and see the shop removed from the Heritage at Risk Register. This is the last surviving Kennedys interior and we love that now this space is reflective of another cornerstone diaspora in Walworth. Its rich history continues for a new chapter.