Our man Wes gives us the low-down on South London's best kept secret...
Kingston is a place that exists in this weird limbo. Whilst technically being part of London, it's a bit too far out to enjoy all the crazed stuff that happens in central London without the mother of all night bus journeys to get back, leaving it a bastion of chain bars, shitty kebab shops and casual pub violence.
But where there's students, there's a bunch of people determined to have a good time whatever the cost, and Kingston has it's fair share of bored and often inventive London students. To get the inside track on what’s going on down there, we decided to get in touch with our mate Wes, who's studying for a degree in politics at Kingston University at the moment.
Apart from being the only decent Villa fan in the world, Wes is also a bit of a well known face on the hardcore scene, putting on a series of shows back in Brum under the moniker 0121 (which is the area code of Birmingham if you didn't already know). He's also only person we know who goes out in deepest South West London all the time.
So what's Kingston actually like for partying?
Wes: Well, because it's only a small town and there's tons of students here it's pretty good for that. Although there's not many clubs, the place has a good mix of 'old man' boozers and 'trendy' bars for young attractive people unlike myself.
Like most small towns does the nightlife revolve around a Friday and Saturday night?
Luckily because of the high student population it's good for going out in the week as well, the local 'Scream' chain pub has £1 pints on Monday, and Bacchus is open most nights.
Is there anything to do if you’re not into hard house?
Every other Wednesday Bacchus hosts a night called New Noise, which is pretty popular with punk kids, it's run by Banquet Records who do a lot for the nightlife in Kingston, They also run New Slang which is an Indie night every Thursday, they have a band playing most weeks and have had The King Blues, Les Savy Fav, The Weakerthans and Jay Reatard coming up. Generally it's full of idiot posh London students with 'vintage' clothes from Top Shop and the music is pretty terrible but I think it's a good thing that there's regular live music for the masses.
The Fighting Cocks is also a hub for punk/hardcore/ska/metal gigs: it's a bit pricey but they have plenty of varied gigs happening, and The Peel hosts bigger shows in that vein, plus they have a strip bar upstairs too! The Cricketers has an open mic night on Sundays and that's a nice, friendly pub that’s good to watch the footie in.
That kinda brings me on to the next question - are there any decent pubs to have a drink in? All I can remember is the Wetherspoons.
Yeah for sure, there's a real nice pub behind my uni called The Spring Grove which has good ales, a log fire, pool table, a juke box and scrabble. Nice mix of regulars and students in there.
The Cocoanut is a favorite pub of the arty students, chilled in the week, nice garden with DJ's every evening playing all sorts, then at the weekend it's absolutely packed and lots of electronic music
Are there any decent places for food down there?
Yeah there's an awesome veggie restaurant on the river, voted Veggie Restaurant of the Year a few years back, it's called something like River Front Vegetarian: very inventive.
Ooh, and also a lovely thai place called Thai on Thames near the Fighting Cocks. Other than that it's all Pizza Express and GBK.
Lastly, how does Kingston compare to Birmingham?
Birmingham has really picked up in terms of nightlife in the last 2 years but it's all electro, ketamine, stupid clothes and posh kids trying not to be posh. Kingston is not too dissimilar except there are more posh kids here and less drugs.
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