The Fence Magazine

2 months ago | the-fence.com | Michael Holden

If irony – of a kind – is the layering of comedy and tragedy, there are some places in London where it becomes fully three-dimensional. I arrived early, because Monopoly Lifesized tickets come by email with a stern warning about lateness. As I walked toward Tottenham Court Road, I passed the furniture store, Heal’s – beds costing £10,089 – and the myriad of tents outside it – £40 from Argos – a few doors down, and considered the changing and recurring fortunes of this patch of London.

2 months ago | the-fence.com | Gary Grimes

Our writer, a lonely tweenager in rural Ireland, took to his computer and found new galaxies of possibilities – on a Big Brother forum. Walking through central London in early October, I was stopped in my tracks by a billboard that read, ‘Big Brother – The Ultimate Social Experiment’.

Jan 23, 2025 | the-fence.com | Miles Ellingham |Cormac Kehoe

An oil trader and an Old Etonian with a genius for PR, was Justin Welby the worst Archbishop of Canterbury since Thomas Arundel? ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’John 16:33In the spring of 1974, an 18-year-old Justin Welby decided to climb Mount Kenya. He’d arrived in Africa following a turbulent year at Eton.

Jan 16, 2025 | the-fence.com | Henry Wismayer

A celebration of an establishment in deepest south London with a tricksy landlord and a never-changing clientele. An ode, then, to the beauty of the mediocre pub. One morning last month, after dropping my kids at school, I bumped into the local publican in the corner shop. He looked pallid and put-upon, which wasn’t unusual, though he said hello with his usual Geordie bounce, and headed straight for the beer fridge. It was 9am.

Nov 25, 2024 | the-fence.com | Fergus Butler-Gallie

A visit to the oldest undertakers in London, who have been in operation since the Battle of Trafalgar. ‘There’s a lot that can be blamed on David Bowie.’ Tom France speaks with an accent so distinctly Lahn-dan that I am absolutely prepared to believe him on this. But Tom doesn’t detail the other things that might be blamed on Bowie. While those rumours about underage groupies might be on his agenda, Tom is interested in only one area of Bowie’s cultural legacy: the no-frills funeral.