Capital Letter
Dispatches, essays and city notes from around London and beyond.
1 October 2026
Performative Males and Josh O’Connor
London on the Inside cries copycat, ICA seasons, terrible men and an Almeida Golden Boy
No. 40 17 September 2026
Fashion Week’s New Cabal
Six young designers to watch at London Fashion Week; Louis Fratino's first UK show, at David Zwirner; and Tilda Swinton in Man to Man at the Royal Court, reviewed. Also: Café Clement fails to define the summer, Skoob for out-of-print books, the Instagram critic Helen Prior, and Goldfinger's houses in Hampstead and Highgate for Open House.
No. 39 3 September 2026
How to Own Kensington
Jimmy McIntosh walks Kensington, from Church Street to the Anglesea Arms. Time Out's list of London's 35 best galleries, corrected, with two video shows in east London to catch before Sunday. Also: the best pint in London is at a grocer's on Swain's Lane, the wine list at Authentique in Tufnell Park, the fading queues at All'Antico Vinaio, and a vineyard at Forty Hall under the M25.
No. 38 20 August 2026
Our Seafood Must Be Cleansed
The Oyster Shack at High Beach in Epping Forest, reached on foot from Leytonstone. Sarah Kane's Cleansed at the Almeida, Rebecca Frecknall's last show as associate director, reviewed. Also: the Met Orchestra's Proms debut with the final scene of Salome, the meadow at Springfield Park, Angus Colwell's 50 places to live, fossils in the Portland stone of the City, and non-restaurant restaurants including Londis N16 and Centre 151.
No. 37 6 August 2026
Lighting a Candle
Asha Birdi visits two markets under threat, Ridley Road in Dalston, trading by torchlight since the landlord cut the power, and Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank. Godfrey Old of Pentameters Theatre, remembered, as the theatre is evicted from above the Horseshoe. Also: Hawksmoor's St Anne's in the old Chinatown of Limehouse, how to shop Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton, the sale of Harvey Nichols, and the Bell at Walton-on-the-Hill.
No. 36 23 July 2026
Cotton Eye Joe Meets Polyphemus
Tien Albert meets Jeffrey Louis Reed, sound man at the Elephant's Head in Camden, manager of Rednex and unreliable narrator of his own life. Jackson Boxer's Vesper on Exmouth Market, and Brutes, a 12-seat martini bar in Mayfair. Also: Alexander Koberidze's Dry Leaf at the ICA as an alternative to The Odyssey, Tyondai Braxton for CTM, RALLY sold out, and David Tudor's centenary at Cafe Oto.
No. 35 9 July 2026
Cold Noodles with Martha Graham
Where to drink, eat and swim in a heatwave, from North Nineteen and Xi'an Impression to the West Reservoir and Abney Park Cemetery. Rajiv Joseph's Archduke at the Royal Court and Hideki Noda at Sadler's Wells, reviewed. Also: Squarepusher in the venue beneath Outernet, Martha Graham's company booked for Sadler's Wells in January, the Morris showroom that became a Kwik Fit on Finchley Road, and Bermondsey's stretcher fences.
No. 34 25 June 2026
A Night at Club Cheek
Asha Birdi at Club Cheek, the no-phones night in Brixton. Alice Lindsell on the radical history of Clerkenwell Green and Newington Green, from Lenin at the Crown Tavern to Mary Wollstonecraft. Also: A Bar With Shapes For A Name on the Kingsland Road, Yu Nishimura at Sadie Coles, rules for behaving at the theatre, cheap coffee at Soho Dairy, and Mountain over Kiln in the National Restaurant Awards.
No. 33 11 June 2026
The World’s Your Oyster
Sama Ansari Pour's guide to south-west Asia and North Africa without leaving London, from Golborne Road to Harringay and Finchley Central. Prunella Clough, Stephen Shearer and Terry Winters in Mayfair for London Gallery Weekend. Also: the rise of the ersatz Irish pub, G's Selections on Total Refreshment Centre, Church of Sound and Shai Space, White Rabbit Red Rabbit at the Duchess, and Lucian Freud's untouched house on Kensington Church Street.
No. 32 28 May 2026
Werewolves in London
Sofia Hallström asks Jeremy King and the neuroscientist Sophie Scott what the full moon does to a restaurant. Parinaz Mogadassi's TRAMPS BAR off the Old Street roundabout, with Harry McKenzie cooking under a Peter Doig. Also: Fridtjof Ryder on Equus at the Menier Chocolate Factory, G's Selections on Steam Down, the BBE Store and plentyppl, the crowds at the Heath ponds, and Marvin Gaye at Cheeks in Deptford.
No. 31 14 May 2026
Russel Square Nudism
Gary Oldman directs, designs and stars in Krapp's Last Tape at the Royal Court, reviewed. Suha Kidwai rates the Metropolitan Police's custody suites, from Islington to Lewisham. Also: Sylvia Sleigh's The Bridge at Daniel Malarkey's gallery in Russell Square, Otto's as London's most vulgar restaurant, Quatuor Ébène at Wigmore Hall, suits from Reign Vintage, Blackout II and Chris Ruocco, and Wren's St Antholin's spire on a Sydenham estate.
No. 30 30 April 2026
The West Meadow
The Macbeth in Hoxton, Jamie Allan's gastropub, reviewed, and the £28.75 breakfast in the Grand Divan at Simpsons-in-the-Strand. Yousef Sweid's one-man show Between the River and the Sea upstairs at the Royal Court. Also: the West Meadow above Kenwood as the finest prospect in London, Channel One Soundsystem at Village Underground and cm.Peace at Cafe OTO, and the lost spa of Kilburn Wells.
No. 29 16 April 2026
Up and Down the City Road
Ralph Jeffreys hunts for a decent pool table, settling on the Charlotte Despard in Archway, and remembers the family billiards workshop on the City Road. Playbody's Easter party in Hackney Wick turns away hundreds of ticket-holding gay men at the door. Also: Marx's three decades in NW5 and the Robert Peel, Managed Approach at Riverside Studios, the Wooster Group at the Coronet, and the rookery under the Boundary Estate bandstand.
No. 28 2 April 2026
The Rats of Parliament
Rich Bunn follows Stuart, the Houses of Parliament's pest controller, setting traps for rats immune to poison. Sophie Clark works a Saturday at Broadway Market on the Tokyo Kebab stall and remembers Stephen Selby, who revived the market. Also: William Raban's Thames Film and Matter of Britain at the Open City Documentary Festival, split-case beers at Gerry's on Old Compton Street, and Scratching Fanny, the Cock Lane ghost.
No. 27 19 March 2026
Dover Street Counter
Dover Street Counter in Mayfair, reviewed, and whether the coolest restaurant in London matters more than the best. Nicholas Kent, formerly of the Tricycle, on Ukraine Unbroken at the Arcola and meeting James Baldwin at Willesden Library. Also: Baldwin's London from Hasker Street to the CLR James Library, Cloth Fair and Canonbury Tower, the queues for lost and Spud Bros, and Queenhithe Dock off Upper Thames Street.
No. 26 5 March 2026
I Lost My Mum in the Club
Phoebe Pascoe goes through the lost property of London's nightclubs, from half a loaf at Infernos to an IV stand at the Lexington and an urn at Maggie's. Tim Crouch's The Tempest and Chadwick Boseman's Deep Azure at the Sam Wanamaker, reviewed. Also: Ukraine Unbroken at the Arcola, a £4 pint at The Tarmon on the Caledonian Road, and the site of the Tyburn Tree at Marble Arch.
No. 25 19 February 2026
The New Underground
Asha Birdi on the Gen Z underground, from Victory Lap Radio at Manor Place in Kennington to the rappers Ledbyher and EsDeeKid. Ben Daniels in Rattigan's Man and Boy at the National, reviewed. Also: Maazin Buhari's guide to vintage furniture shops in Hackney, the most expensive pint of Guinness in London at the Spaniards Inn, VOYAGE in Deptford, and Atticus Evans-Lombe at the clowns' Grimaldi Service in Hackney.
No. 24 5 February 2026
Monasteries Not By Lynch
Cici Peng on the film seasons to catch, from the Werner Schroeter retrospective at the ICA to a counter-history of Britain on television at the BFI. The remains of London's medieval monasteries, from Whitefriars to a priory arch in a Leadenhall Street WeWork. Also: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime at Sadie Coles, and the issue play, from Guess How Much I Love You? at the Royal Court to Darkie Armo Girl.
No. 23 22 January 2026
Avoiding Rain and Blues in Chinatown
A one-dish-per-restaurant crawl of Chinatown, from Wong Kei's cold barbecued meats to Lanzhou Lamian's hand-pulled noodles and custard fish at Chinatown Bakery. Bronagh Hughes on Operotica, the fetish-club opera duo from Haringey. Also: why Toby Jones's Iago spits so much, the London Short Film Festival's British Lives at the BFI, and a wander around the Savoy, its chapel, Lower Robert Street and the American Bar.
No. 22 8 January 2026
There Are No Pubs in Southfields
The theatre to book for 2026, from Tim Crouch's The Tempest at the Sam Wanamaker to Rattigan's Man and Boy at the National and Baldwin v Buckley at Wilton's. Why Southfields Grid went a century without a pub, and the legend of Augusta Beaumont's temperance covenant. Also: Westminster Abbey in the cold, Daquise in South Kensington before it closes, and an unplanned night out in Dalston from Superstore to Om.
No. 21 11 December 2025
Ambika Mod’s Meer Obsession
Porn Play at the Royal Court, with Ambika Mod, reviewed and found timid; Kathryn Hunter steps in as the tiger in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Wayne Thiebaud's American Still Life at the Courtauld, and why 2026 will be the year public art goes private. Also: the empty cellars of Davy's Wine Bar in St James's, and the vanished Yiddish theatres and backslang of the old East End.
No. 20 27 November 2025
Peak Posh Pub
The rise of the posh pub, from The Devonshire to The Hart in Marylebone, and the money behind it. Stephen Fry's The Importance of Being Earnest reviewed, with better bets for winter theatre. Also: Norpell Wilberforce on working the Christmas party circuit, Jodie Harsh at Spotify and the club nights Smut Press and Club Are, Joseph Yaeger at Modern Art's new gallery, and pie and mash at Goddards in Greenwich.
No. 19 13 November 2025
Beigels, Berghain and Baquo
A tour of the East End's synagogues, from Bevis Marks and Sandy's Row to the abandoned rooms of 19 Princelet Street, and what their pews say about anglicisation. The first nightlife dispatch takes in Eutopia in Barking and Kylie Goes Berghain in Stoke Newington. Also: David Hockney's new paintings at Annely Juda, Katanga at Film Africa, Watts of Tufton Street, and My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne.
No. 18 30 October 2025
The Ziggurat and the Citadel
A walking tour of London's spy bases, from the US Embassy and MI6 in Vauxhall to the Russian Trade Delegation in Highgate. Ben Perkins's round of zine and record shops from Deptford to Peckham. Also: the Royal Court's 70th season, Kentridge's Faustus in Africa at the Coronet, Bob Thompson and Eva Helene Pade in the West End, monthly wrestling at the Bedford in Balham, and Highgate village after Don Ciccio.