Hunker down This Winter With EyeOnLondon: Edition 29
Dear EyeOnLondoners,
Winter is when London really comes into its own and offers a good moment to pause, look back on the year just gone, and think about what you want more of next. This new edition of EyeOnLondon is made for that mood.
Inside, you’ll find writing that reflects the city at its best: engaged, thoughtful and alive to what’s happening now. Our writers explore exhibitions worth your time, films and theatre that invite discussion, music to listen to properly, places to eat well, ways to travel with purpose, and ideas for staying active through winter and beyond.
Most of all, this is an edition to enjoy.
As we head into 2026, thank you for reading and being part of the EyeOnLondon community. We hope this edition keeps you company over the winter weeks and gives you plenty to look forward to in the year ahead.
From all of us at EyeOnLondon, Happy New Year.
A Year in Focus
As the new year begins, we take a clear-eyed look at the year just passed.
2025 brought sustained pressure across public life, with politics, the economy and institutions felt more closely in everyday experience.
In 2025: The Year That Tested Authority, Trust and Democratic Nerve, EyeOnLondon examines how power was exercised, how confidence in systems shifted, and what people came to expect from those in charge. We also consider what carries into 2026, where many of the same questions remain unresolved and continue to shape the months ahead.
This edition’s arts & culture supplement presents….
Secret Maps at the British Library
Philip Ashby Rudd shows us that to walk into Secret Maps at the British Library is to encounter maps as living objects, shaped by ambition, belief and imagination.
The exhibition brings together artefacts that carry both historical weight and human curiosity. Among them are Robert Louis Stevenson’s hand-drawn Treasure Island map and John Dee’s Aztec obsidian mirror, objects that blur the line between imagination, belief and authority.
The material ranges widely, placing colonial sea charts and wartime escape maps concealed in everyday items alongside Lawrence of Arabia’s silk map and modern examples of surveillance and urban planning.
Seen together, these objects show maps as instruments shaped by power, secrecy and intent, rather than neutral records of the world.
Turner and Constable at Tate Britain
At Tate Britain, an exhibition brings together the intertwined lives of Turner and Constable, two painters who moved through the same institutions, exhibitions and professional pressures while shaping English landscape painting in distinct ways.
Simon Tait guides readers through a rivalry formed within the Royal Academy, where reputation mattered deeply and the summer exhibition could determine a career.
Born within a year of each other, Turner and Constable shared public stages while following different paths, shaped by temperament, background and opportunity.
What emerges is a study of artists working under shared cultural conditions, each refining a personal vision while contributing to the growing seriousness and ambition of landscape painting in Britain.
Classical Music CD Reviews
Simon Mundy’s selection of classical CD reviews is well suited to the colder evenings,
As always, his choices are well worth spending time with, whether for the quality of the playing, the thought behind the interpretations, or the circumstances in which the music was written.
The reviews range from Handel’s Chandos Anthems in alert, carefully prepared performances, to Shostakovich and Hindemith shaped by political pressure, and Haydn’s Op. 76 string quartets played with warmth and clarity by the Quatuor Arod.
There is also a striking historical release capturing Albert Sammons in his final public concerto appearance, recorded under Sir Adrian Boult.
Cinema | The Fight for London’s Screens
The Cinema Club section addresses a troubling moment for London film culture.
In two connected articles, Henry Scott Irvine examines the uncertain future of the Curzon Mayfair and places it within a wider pattern of cinema closures across the capital.
The Curzon Mayfair, long regarded as the birthplace of international art house cinema in Britain, faces the loss of its identity following acquisition by a new freeholder.
Henry traces the cinema’s architectural and cultural history, from its intact 1966 interiors to the films and filmmakers that shaped its reputation, while setting out the legal and financial pressures that forced Curzon to step back from the site.
The second article steps back to look at the wider picture, charting the closure of six London cinemas between 2024 and 2026, including well-known Odeon and Picturehouse sites.
Cinema | New Voices and New Directions
Cinema also welcomes a new voice this issue, with Ted Redsull making his debut as EyeOnLondon’s film reviewer.
In Pillion, Redsull responds to Harry Lighton’s debut feature with warmth and attentiveness, focusing on the tenderness that develops within an unconventional relationship.
He writes perceptively about the performances of Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, and about a film that approaches its subject with humour and emotional care.
He then turns to Wake Up Dead Man, the latest entry in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, where the murder mystery framework gives way to a reflective examination of faith and authority.
Redsull pays close attention to Josh O’Connor’s performance, the film’s visual restraint, and the way Johnson uses genre to explore belief in the present moment.
Theatre | The Stage Door
This issue’s Stage Door focuses on two large-scale productions that bring familiar stories to the West End with ambition, scale and very different results.
At the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Othello arrives with a formidable cast, led by David Harewood in the title role, returning to a part he first played at the National Theatre in 1997. Alongside him are Toby Jones as Iago, Caitlin FitzGerald as Desdemona and Vinette Robinson as Emilia. John Martin acknowledges the quality of the performances, particularly Robinson’s finely judged Emilia, but finds the modern-dress production oddly uncertain in its choices. Costume, staging and cuts to the text never quite settle into a coherent world, leaving a play rich in tension and motivation feeling distant rather than gripping.
At Troubadour Canary Wharf, The Hunger Games on Stage takes on Suzanne Collins’s dystopian story inside a purpose-built arena. The production leans heavily into physical effort, with a young cast asked to run, climb and fight almost constantly. John Malkovich appears on screen as President Snow, a striking piece of casting that adds star presence without fully anchoring the drama. Martin admires the athletic commitment and technical ambition, but questions what the stage version adds beyond spectacle, finding that narrative clarity and theatrical invention struggle to keep pace with the scale of the production.
Chess | Barry Martin
It is with great sadness that this edition includes the final chess column written by our friend and colleague Barry Martin. Barry was part of EyeOnLondon from the beginning, and his intelligence, warmth and curiosity helped shape the publication in lasting ways.
In Staunton of Arabia, Barry writes with the wit, digression and generosity readers will recognise immediately. Beginning with a dinner in honour of Howard Staunton in Soho, the piece travels through history, personal memory and an extraordinary moment speaking about chess to Bedouin nomads in Petra. It captures Barry’s belief that chess lives through people, places and stories, and that its reach often appears where one least expects it.
The page also includes one of Barry’s characteristic chess challenges, drawn from Staunton’s 1851 game against Bernhard Horwitz, analysed with clarity and evident pleasure.
Elsewhere in this edition, we carry an obituary celebrating Barry’s life as an artist, teacher, writer and chess thinker, and remembering the generosity of spirit he brought to EyeOnLondon and to everyone who knew him. He is greatly missed.
Grand Appetites | Modern British Cooking in London
This month’s Grand Appetites stays close to home, with Philip Ashby Rudd spending time at two London restaurants where modern British cooking feels assured, generous and quietly confident.
At Tom Brown at the Capital, Tom Brown returns to the room where he first made his name, cooking seafood that draws naturally on his West Country background. Philip relishes the warmth of the welcome and the calm intimacy of the dining room, before settling into a menu full of thoughtful detail. Raw Orkney scallops, cod with Roscoff onion and a small but perfectly formed beef and oyster oxtail pie linger in the memory long after the plates have gone.
Over in Fitzrovia, 74 Charlotte Street makes its point without fuss. Chef Ben Murphy’s cooking is rooted in British tradition, handled with classical confidence and a lightness of touch. The tasting menu unfolds smoothly, from milk bread and eggs and soldiers through to monkfish and venison, before the ice cream trolley rolls in with just the right note of pleasure and play.
Health & Fitness | Looking Ahead to 2026
As the new year comes into view, the Health & Fitness section looks at how people are training now and where that is likely to lead in 2026. In a double-page feature, Natalie Shanahan draws together the fitness trends that gathered pace over the past year and are beginning to settle into everyday routines.
She looks at the spread of wearable technology and AI-led coaching, the appeal of hybrid training and large-scale events, and the way reformer Pilates has moved beyond flexibility into serious strength work. Zone 2 training also comes under examination, alongside a broader shift towards longevity, balance and resilience.
What emerges is a sense of training becoming more deliberate and sustainable. The focus is on habits that last, whether preparing for competition, maintaining strength through midlife, or protecting mobility and independence in later years.
Travel | Journeys With Purpose and Place
Travel this month takes two distinct routes, both shaped by curiosity and a desire to return with more than photographs.
In one feature, Mike Pickup looks at holidays that combine travel with learning, from salsa dancing in Cuba and painting in Tuscany to horse riding in Patagonia, cooking in southern Spain, bridge breaks closer to home, flotilla sailing in the Adriatic and scuba diving in Indonesia. These trips are built around shared experience, skill and sociability, allowing travellers to engage properly with where they are.
In a second piece, Mike turns to Macao, a place shaped by centuries of Portuguese influence and its modern role within China. Moving through the old town, Taipa and Cotai, he captures a city where colonial streets, temples, gardens, casinos and food culture exist side by side.
Sport | Winter Fixtures & Events
The Winter period brings one of the busiest stretches in the sporting calendar, and this month’s fixtures gather it all in one place. From packed football grounds across London to full rugby programmes, winter cricket, golf and tennis, there is much to follow as December gives way to January.
Alongside the major fixtures, the listings also reflect the participatory side of sport at this time of year. Boxing Day and New Year’s Day swims return across the country, with charity dips taking place on beaches, lakes and waterfronts. London’s New Year’s Day fun runs, including the Serpentine 10K and 3K, offer a gentle way to begin the year in motion.
Looking further ahead, the listings extend into motorsport, athletics, boxing, martial arts and endurance events, providing a clear view of the sporting calendar into early 2026.
EyeOnLondon is shaped by the city and by the people who take the time to read it. If this edition speaks to you, explore more of the stories on the site, share them with someone who loves London, and stay connected as we continue to reflect the life, culture and conversations that make the city what it is.
Follow us on:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!
We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!
