The Fence

Snooker Loopy

Two writers face off in a grudge match of snooker: the fanciful, ludicrous game of punished error and forced embarrassment. Róisín Lanigan cues off first...
Anonymous

A Long Stretch

Ever wondered what happens on a long-term jury trial? A jury foreman reveals all. Well, not quite all. That would be contempt.
Francesca Bratton

This Turbulent Priest

Cake and coffee with Pat Buckley, a whistleblower; ex-priest; newspaper columnist; gay rights activist; HIV activist; husband; and the scourge, in his own words, ‘of everyone’.
Rebecca Fallon

Goodbye England’s Rose

A grotty hotel that stood against the forces of east London gentrification is no more. But what exactly was happening within its four walls?

Issue 22 available now

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Max Daly

A Hackney Story

In the early 2000s, Clapton was the scene of a spate of public shootings, often conducted in broad daylight. The area earned the tabloid sobriquet 'Murder Mile'. But who was behind the violence?
Francisco Garcia

Last Days of Soho

London's most infamous neighbourhood has a glamorous mythos. Meet the dwindling band of residents who call it home.
Features

Features VIEW ALL →

Francesca Bratton

This Turbulent Priest

Cake and coffee with Pat Buckley, a whistleblower; ex-priest; newspaper columnist; gay rights activist; HIV activist; husband; and the scourge, in his own words, ‘of everyone’.
Max Daly

A Hackney Story

In the early 2000s, Clapton was the scene of a spate of public shootings, often conducted in broad daylight. The area earned the tabloid sobriquet 'Murder Mile'. But who was behind the violence?
Francisco Garcia

Last Days of Soho

London's most infamous neighbourhood has a glamorous mythos. Meet the dwindling band of residents who call it home.
Lauren Bensted

Over the Hill and Far Away

Every summer Barnard Castle hosts a special festival dedicated to the music of John Martyn: a moveable Graceland in the Teeside Hills.

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Facts

Facts VIEW ALL →

The Fence

Snooker Loopy

Two writers face off in a grudge match of snooker: the fanciful, ludicrous game of punished error and forced embarrassment. Róisín Lanigan cues off first...
Anonymous

A Long Stretch

Ever wondered what happens on a long-term jury trial? A jury foreman reveals all. Well, not quite all. That would be contempt.
Fergus Butler-Gallie

A Professional Service

A visit to the oldest undertakers in London, who have been in operation since the Battle of Trafalgar.
Rebecca Fallon

Goodbye England’s Rose

A grotty hotel that stood against the forces of east London gentrification is no more. But what exactly was happening within its four walls?

Issues SHOP →

  • 22
  • 21
  • 20
  • 19
  • 18
  • 17
  • 16
  • 15
  • 14
  • 13
Last Days of Soho by Francisco Garcia
The More They Feel, the More They Buy by Clive Martin
Over the Hill and Far Away by Lauren Bensted
A Load of Bollocks by Bron Maher
Down on the Farm by Claudia Cockerell
Icarus Also Flew by Ella Fox-Martens
The Buddha of Siberia by Miles Ellingham & Cormac Kehoe
A Memorable Meal by John Banville
A Hackney Story by Max Daly
A Long Stretch by Anonymous
Snooker Loopy by The Fence
Something in the Water by Fiona Mozley
If You Can’t Beauchamp, Join Them by Margaret Mitchell
A Pint of Plane by Jimmy McIntosh
A Haunting in Shoreditch by Jordan Michelman
Bib Brother by Joe Bishop
End of a Sentence by Anonymous
The Princess and the Pitta by Róisín Lanigan
The White Whale by Orlando Whitfield
West End Confidential by Clive Martin
Among the Russians by Camilla Bell-Davies
Sling Voters by Bron Maher
Two Eds are Better than One by Ed Cumming
Bread and Circuses by The Fence
Something to Tell You by Sachin Kureishi
The Drugs Don't Work by Margaret McCartney
A Cozzer Snout by Francisco Garcia
Absolutely Buzzing by Thomas Gorton
Two Eds are Better than One by Ed Cumming
The Kid Stays out of the Picture by Anonymous
Burning with Pleasure by Sophie Elmhirst
Failure to Turn by Geoff Dyer
Kaiser Wilhelm’s Folly by Eve Webster
When One Grows Tired of Cyberdog by Clive Martin
Lunch for The Fence by Ed Cumming
You’re the One, Ellie Roebuck by Rosie Hewitson
Ghost ‘n’ the Machine by Fiona Mozley
Catman Scoop by Robbie Armstrong
Dog Day Afternoon by Hussein Kesvani
Looking for Bagley’s by Jimmy McIntosh
The WeHo Siege by Harvey James
The Show Must Go On by Isobel Thompson
Twenty out of Twenty by Joe Bishop
The Fuck Tree by Bron Maher
Against Nature by Joe Zadeh
Twenty out of Twenty by Joe Bishop
Bruce & Jeffrey by Jane Rankin-Reid
Oliver Reed’s Big Night Out by Jimmy McIntosh
At Auntie’s Knee by Emma Magnus
Salt Over Your Shoulder by Sarah Haque
The Enfield Blazers by Jade Angeles Fitton
Cruising in the Trenches by Anonymous
Taboo or not Taboo by Josh Mcloughlin
Zebra, Crossing by Sophie Elmhirst
Riders on the Storm by Killian Faith-Kelly
Paying in Sweat by Ophira Gottlieb
Aisle B, Back by Davey Brett
Posillipo Nights by Francisco Garcia
Laugh Like you Used to by Clive Martin
What Became of the Cat Meat Man? by Sally Howard
At His Majesty’s Pleasure by Jimmy McIntosh
Helter Skelter in Honiton by Josh Barrie
Taxi Cab Confessionals by Mark Blacklock
An American Tail by Michelle Taylor
The Julian Fellowes Benevolent Fund by Caspar Salmon
Just the Tonic by Robbie Armstrong
Las Babas del Diablo by Róisín Lanigan
You’re Tearing Me Apart, Lisa by Madeline Grant
Something Is Rotten on the Street of Denmark by Jimmy McIntosh
A Postcard from Vesuvius by Danielle Thom
Fashion Beasts! by Clive Martin
Shiny Happy People by Róisín Lanigan
Lifestyles of the Professionally Jaded by Kieran Morris
Where the River Joins the Water by Jimmy McIntosh
Restart My Fire by Jack Beaumont
Columba Palumbus, Living Amongst Us by Grace Linden
Standing on the Pipes by William Vandyck
Shreds of Approval by Misti Traya
In Defence of Mean Girls by Sarah Haque
Mr Blobby Has a Cold by Tom Nicholson
A Freak Is a Long Time in Politics by The Fence
Blair’s Blokes by The Fence
The Rhyme of the Ancient Marketer by Hugh Morris
Goblin Mode by Fergus Butler-Gallie
Around About the Trent by Josh Mcloughlin
Welcome to the Pleasuredome by Róisín Lanigan
Think You’re Hard Enough? by Kieran Morris
Destitution Row by The Fence
With a Thud by Séamas O’Reilly
Do I Dare to Eat a Peach? by Michelle Taylor
Strangers in the Night by Jimmy McIntosh
Fiction

Fiction VIEW ALL →

Lucas Oakeley

Empty Orchestra

A short story in a pub.
Tim MacGabhann

Cleaner

A short story from cartel country by Tim MacGabhann.
Eva Wiseman

The Knife

A thumb-biter of a tale.
Yoel Noorali

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

A newly unemployed journalist tries and fails to expose a window-smashing ring in south London.
  • Opinion
  • Food
  • Investigations
  • Culture
Geoff Dyer

Failure to Turn

The majordomo of literary non-fiction meditates upon his mortality, his ear hair, and his complicated feelings toward the oeuvre of Luca Guadagnino.
Nesrine Malik

Elder States, Man

To spend your life online is to live at one remove from reality – stand back too far, and you might find the years speeding by before your eyes.
Róisín Lanigan

The Chic Young Divorcée

Making a swift 180 down the aisle.
Harriet Rix

Lost in the Woods

Guy Shrubsole’s schemes have the potential to unleash havoc in the British countryside.
Richard Woodall

The View from Mount Olympus

2012’s Summer Olympics were a harbinger of the dreadful decade to come.
Fergus Butler-Gallie

At the Altar of Capital

How the Conservative Party lost their religion to the pull of the market.
Richard Smyth

The State of Nature

A classic treatise against men writing about the natural world.
Séamas O’Reilly

FBPE Fantasia

Unpicking the last four years of Remaniac delusions.
Joe Kennedy

Herdmindedness

Do good novelists have to write good novels?
John Banville

A Memorable Meal

Novelist John Banville once went for lunch in an Umbrian tavern. He's remembered it for the past fifty years. He recounts it for us now.
Joe Bishop

Bib Brother

The Michelin Guide is arcane, self-serious and totally nonsensical. Even the chefs themselves can't workout the star system. And yet, we can't bear to break away from it.
Róisín Lanigan

The Princess and the Pitta

Truly the people’s café.
Margaret Mitchell

If You Can’t Beauchamp, Join Them

Learning the secret of eternal life.
Ian Trueger

The Feast of Saint John

A particular central London restaurant has enjoyed an offally good time over the past few years, wouldn't you agree?
Charlotte Ivers

Baker’s Dozen

Tom Baker was a hard-drinking, fine dining Soho legend. Charlotte Ivers retraces his step in a new, more sanitised era.
Ed Cumming

Two Eds are Better than One

Ed Cumming has a funny name. He's not the only one. So he took his name twin out for lunch to commiserate this reality.
Ed Cumming

Lunch for The Fence

How often do you have to file in order to be called a regular columnist? As this story proved, the answer is 'two years', as our free lunch editor returns for his second bite at the cadging cherry.
Jimmy McIntosh

Oliver Reed’s Big Night Out

Our pints correspondent drinks in the shadow of a giant.
Max Daly

A Hackney Story

In the early 2000s, Clapton was the scene of a spate of public shootings, often conducted in broad daylight. The area earned the tabloid sobriquet 'Murder Mile'. But who was behind the violence?
Emma Magnus

At Auntie’s Knee

Do you pay your TV license? Course you don't. Nobody does. Particularly not the license pay vigilantes fighting the good cause - we meet them.
Camilla Bell-Davies

Among the Russians

Around 30,000 Russians fled to Serbia at the beginning of the Ukraine war. At a foggy banya in the middle of Belgrade, some of them tell us why.
Jordan Michelman

A Haunting in Shoreditch

The Ace of shades.
Clive Martin

West End Confidential

A tour of the filthy and glamorous capital.
Fiona Mozley

Something in the Water

Why do people drink their own piss?
Clive Martin

Giving it the Big One

In the heart of the east end of London, a memorial is held to Dave Courtney, the city's celebrity gangster. Clive Martin raises a glass to a legend.
Tim Wyatt

In the Shadow of St Paul’s

One of the most extraordinary investigations we've ever published, uncovering a torrid legacy of deceit, fraud and suicide at the heart of the Church of England.
Gus Carter

Hacks, Stacks & Perfect Sniffing

Lifting the veil on the London Library, our capital's most clandestine reading house.
Clive Martin

The More They Feel, the More They Buy

Mad//fest, or Madfest for short, is an advertising and marketing conference where speakers declaim that 'brands are dead' or 'brands are God.'
Orlando Whitfield

The White Whale

'Failed art dealer' and author of All That Glitters, Orlando Whitfield recounts his dealings with 'The White Whale', one of the industry's trickiest and most enigmatic characters.
The Fence

Beach Bums

In France? Sure. In Italy? Why not. But in chilly Blighty? Surely nobody could stand it. Some can. We uncover the naked truth behind Britain’s nudist beaches and their stern, shrivelled patrons.
The Fence

Who Louis Should’ve Met

Rather than the worthy docs about mental health and alcoholism, here are the programmes that Monsieur Theroux should have seen through: the weekends away with the freaks, bad hats and oddballs that used…
John Phipps

Life of Reilly

In the heart of Drogheda lives an Irish man on a peculiar crusade. We meet Tom Reilly, a historian hellbent on clearing the name of Oliver Cromwell.
Olly Haynes

Houellebecq Honeypot

Jini van Rooijen is an OnlyFans model and a member of the experimental Dutch art collective KIRAC. She also honeypotted Michel Houellebecq, the world's horniest author.
The Fence

Bread and Circuses

There are a lot of industry parties in London. Not all of them are good. We ranked them in all the key metrics (professional advancement, fun, chat, narcotics, horniness).
The Fence

The Carbuncle Cup 2024

The Fence presents the Carbuncle Cup, crowning what we believe to be the very worst new building in Britain to be opened since 31 August 2018, the last time the award was handed out.
Bertie Brandes

How to be a Young Landlord

People will call you a scumbag. They will say you are a leech. Here's how you can try to shut them up.
Etc.

Etc. VIEW ALL →

The Fence

Beach Bums

In France? Sure. In Italy? Why not. But in chilly Blighty? Surely nobody could stand it. Some can. We uncover the naked truth behind Britain’s nudist beaches and their stern, shrivelled patrons.
The Fence

Nature’s Cruellest Mistake

Take even a cursory glance at the natural world and very soon you will find all sorts of creatures with ridiculously outsized capabilities to slay the planet’s one true custodian: us lot, humankind.
The Fence

Who Louis Should’ve Met

Rather than the worthy docs about mental health and alcoholism, here are the programmes that Monsieur Theroux should have seen through: the weekends away with the freaks, bad hats and oddballs that used…
Bertie Brandes

Proceed to Checkout

That Ninja creamy has been sitting in your basket for months now. And you're not really going to buy that ceremonial matcha bowl, are you?

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Most Read this Month

Francisco Garcia

Last Days of Soho

London's most infamous neighbourhood has a glamorous mythos. Meet the dwindling band of residents who call it home.
Max Daly

A Hackney Story

In the early 2000s, Clapton was the scene of a spate of public shootings, often conducted in broad daylight. The area earned the tabloid sobriquet 'Murder Mile'. But who was behind the violence?
Rebecca Fallon

Goodbye England’s Rose

A grotty hotel that stood against the forces of east London gentrification is no more. But what exactly was happening within its four walls?
Ella Fox-Martens

Icarus Also Flew

Deep in the heart of the world's first lockdown, Ella Fox-Martens flew from Perth to London to move in with a man she'd fallen in love with but had never met. This is their love story.
Fergus Butler-Gallie

A Professional Service

A visit to the oldest undertakers in London, who have been in operation since the Battle of Trafalgar.
Anonymous

A Long Stretch

Ever wondered what happens on a long-term jury trial? A jury foreman reveals all. Well, not quite all. That would be contempt.