At 13, Greta Bellamacina was acting in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. At 24, she was short-listed as the Young Poet Laureate for London. Soon after, she co-founded New River Press with her now husband, the artist and poet Robert Montgomery. She’s directed a film (Hurt by Paradise), appeared in ad campaigns for Prada and Chanel, and graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, and she will appear in the film Tell That to the Winter Sea, which she co-wrote along with its director, Jaclyn Bethany. A brainiac It Girl—but with none of the attitude—she will publish a new poetry collection, Who Will Make the Fire, next year. She makes the rest of us look lazy, and we love her for it. —Ashley Baker
developer
Born in Paris, raised in New York, and now based in London, Laura de Gunzburg runs an advisory firm that works with institutions and brands looking to engage with the arts. Her husband, Gabriel Chipperfield, has become one of London’s most in-demand developers, bringing his contemporary design sensibility to the Shreeji newsstand (a partnership with Air Mail) on Chiltern Street, the Fort Road Hotel, in Margate, and, most recently, a 50,000-square-foot housing development in Bayswater that was originally built in the 19th century. —Bridget Arsenault
Every Thursday and Friday mornings, Zakia Sewell spins what she calls “celestial sounds” for East London’s superlative NTS Radio. Her eclectic sets effortlessly oscillate between deep-cut folk and free jazz to jungle and 2000s R&B, anchored by her easygoing charisma. The self-described “pagan broadcaster” has produced exploratory audio documentaries for BBC Radio, including My Amey and Me, about her relationship with her mother (a sufferer of schizophrenia who is now a regular and wonderful guest on The NTS Breakfast Show). She hosts NTS’s first podcast, Don’t Assume, interviewing innovators such as Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. —Spike Carter
Tomos Parry first came to my attention in 2015, when the canny owners of Kitty Fisher’s proudly introduced me to their new chef. His great talent was immediately recognizable, and it was endorsed by top literary agent Ed Victor, who was already talking about a cookbook. At Brat, his restaurant in Shoreditch, he proposed a new take on Basque cooking with dishes that are both simple and sublime. At Mountain, which opened this summer in Soho, he has established himself as one of the very best chefs of a generation. Yet he remains both modest and focused—an example to all. —Jeremy King
Nicola Dinan’s debut novel, Bellies, is an intimate triumph. A smart, melancholic romance with a Sally Rooney–like ease, it stretches across international borders and other boundaries, too. Awkward Tom falls in love with self-possessed Ming, but this is more than boy meets boy: Ming is transitioning. Dinan takes that act and places it within the boundaries of a youthful relationship, explicating the tensions, hopes, and pains of that decision in the similar fluctuating shapes of a love affair. It’s a terrific study of how we find our true selves. —George Pendle
Few can mix textures, trends, and eras with Luke Edward Hall’s panache and style. The consummate multi-hyphenate, he exhibits paintings, drawings, and ceramics, makes his own fabrics and furnishings, and even designs restaurants. Recent triumphs include Chateau Orlando, an addictive resource for fashion and homewares, and Hotel Les Deux Gares, in Paris, where guests can enjoy full immersion in his one-of-a-kind sensibility. Readers of Financial Times Weekend are already well versed in that—he’s been answering their style and design questions since his column launched, in 2019. —B.A.
Butter was once demonized; now it is trending, and Thomas Straker is partly responsible. One of London’s most talked-about culinary talents went viral during lockdown, when his cooking videos spread far and wide on YouTube and TikTok. When his excellent Golborne Road restaurant, Straker’s, opened late last year, it lived up to the hype. Raised on a small farm in Hertfordshire, Thomas cooks, hunts, forages, entertains, and innovates incessantly. His fans—there are more than two million on Instagram alone—devour all of it. His latest launch is All Things Butter, a line of compound butters that may tempt even the lactose intolerant. —A.B.
Matilda Goad came up with her first design, a scalloped raffia lampshade, in her living room. It became a thing—a big thing—and today she oversees an interiors empire. Matilda Goad & Co. specializes in the art of everyday living; she manages to make something small, such as an egg cup, into something special. Now she operates out of the Tay, an idyllic studio in Kensal Rise that is open to her adoring public, and her monthly newsletter, the Dispatch, is studied by stylish readers around the world. —Skye McAlpine
Joy Labinjo describes her subjects as “histories, the figure, and race.” Her paintings depict Black characters in situations derived from her own life or from stories, both real and imagined. Drawing on a range of sources, from family photographs and historical records to her own body, she creates images that combine monumentality with a sense of the fleetingness of time. Born in Dagenham in 1994, Labinjo went to art school in Newcastle and Oxford and is back in London. She is represented by the Tiwani Contemporary gallery, and launched its new Cork Street space last month. —Emily King
As East London’s gypsy cinema curator, film-school grad and record-store clerk Steven Hanley founded Deeper into Movies (a reference to Pauline Kael’s collection of film criticism), a roaming repertory cinema with no brick-and-mortar theater of its own. Initially organizing small VHS screenings at a dive bar, Hanley’s programming took off once he partnered with Hackney’s Moth Club and the Rio Cinema in Dalston. Late last year, he launched the Deeper Movies Channel, an online rental platform with 400 films. Hanley’s organization, a small team of like-minded cinephiles, now includes a podcast-and-soundtrack label, and they have collaborated with Chloë Sevigny, Gaspar Noé, Sofia Coppola, the Safdie brothers, A24, and Heaven by Marc Jacobs. —S.C.
Royal Ballet and actor
Her body may torque, levitate en pointe, and leap into the arms of suitors, but what you really see of Francesca Hayward (to her friends, Frankie) is her soul. Like all great prima ballerinas, she bares it every time. Catch her commanding the nuances of character demanded by the neoclassical canon (see her 2018 reprise of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon), or unleashing her energy in contemporary roles–she is favored by the notoriously gymnastic choreographer Wayne McGregor. When she’s not onstage, you can find her everywhere else—gracing high-fashion editorial, photographed in Tatler. Up next: starring roles in the Royal Ballet’s productions of McGregor’s The Dante Project, The Nutcracker, and Manon. —Genevieve Marks
Charlie Casely-Hayford, who studied at Harrow, Central Saint Martins, and the Courtauld Institute, launched Casely-Hayford on Savile Row with his late father, Joe Casely-Hayford, the storied Gieves & Hawkes designer. Casely-Hayford’s tuxedos and double-breasted suits may be archetypes of old-fashioned British tailoring, but they are tinged with a sense of rebellion. As he continues to push British fashion forward, he remains one of our strongest advocates for the bespoke tradition. Always the best-dressed man in every room, he’s also become an international ambassador for British style. —Tom Chamberlin
Born in Sweden, Beata Heuman started her career working for Nicky Haslam and has become one of the design world’s top talents. Whether she’s masterminding a home for model and activist Adwoa Aboah or a tranquil retreat on Nantucket, her interiors re-interpret the English sensibility. Her book, Every Room Should Sing, is already a classic; her Hôtel de la Boétie, in Paris, is a magpie’s delight. She also makes furnishings, lighting, hardware, fabric, and accessories, all sold in her online shop, Shoppa, and she recently transformed her neighborhood with 188, her studio in Hammersmith, where clients and fans alike can experience her magical world. —S.M.
Can a button change everything? Rejina Pyo would know. One of London’s most inventive and reliable fashion designers, her eponymous collection is anchored in smartly tailored jackets, dresses, and tops that work for real life. She’s an artist, too—she paints beautifully, and she also designed the furnishings for her new shop, in Soho. And London’s most stylish are often found around her dining table; her husband, the chef Jordan Bourke, recently celebrated her birthday with a three-foot-long mille-feuille. —A.B.
and Greg Haley, Hale Zero
They are at the raging heart of London’s party scene; three classically trained D.J. brothers from Brixton whose explosive setlists (mash-ups of hip-hop, pop, rock, and dance) are sought out by the fashion crowd, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. The trio of Carl, Raf, and Greg, whose heads bob in unison to the beat, are much more than just sharply dressed music curators—they’re Pharrell Williams–style polymaths. They compose scores for brands, television shows, and films, create illustrations for magazines, design their own clothes, and have even worked with Rihanna and Rita Ora. —Vassi Chamberlain
Frecknall has quickly become London theater’s great revivalist. She debuted with a bang at the Almeida Theatre in 2018, when she turned Tennessee Williams’s neglected Summer and Smoke into a must-see, with fellow rising star Patsy Ferran in the lead. This inspired Eddie Redmayne to sign her up for a new, blockbuster production of Cabaret, which won seven Olivier Awards—a record number for a revival. This year, Frecknall has followed up with A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Ferran and Paul Mescal, a vibrant reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, and her first production for the National Theatre, Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. In Frecknall’s hands, everything old becomes new again. The only problem is getting a ticket. —Dorian Lynskey
The King’s Counsel, or K.C., is the highest honor a British lawyer can receive. It’s dished out by the reigning monarch and often takes years of struggle and study to attain. Cumming was just 34 when he was made one (then known as a Queen’s Counsel), the youngest to achieve the honor for eons. He’s acknowledged by his peers as a legal superstar, and his practice covers everything from sports claims to private-wealth disputes to art, in particular reclaiming works looted from war-torn countries. “There is nothing like giving a voice to your clients that they might not otherwise have,” he says. Those who remember Bridget Jones’s Diary might be reminded of Mark Darcy, Colin Firth’s dashing, noble barrister. Those who don’t will think solely of Edward Cumming. —G.P.
Clark’s novels tend to stick with you. This is a good thing, even if her subject matter is not exactly light. Boy Parts, her 2020 debut, explored the complicated relationship between a B.D.S.M.-leaning fine-art photographer and her subjects, who didn’t always provide consent. Penance, which was published by Faber in July, is her latest coup. Her take on the true-crime genre, it attempts to unravel a teenager’s gruesome murder which rocked a wealthy resort town on the English coast. And there’s much more where that came from—Clark’s first short-story collection, She’s Always Hungry, will arrive in 2024. Hurry, please. —A.B.
In a different time, Porter would have been editing an interiors magazine, one of the greats. She started her career as a stylist at House & Garden, launching her Web site, Tat London, on the side. It became a juggernaut, and today, Tat and its wildly popular Instagram account are among the Internet’s primary sources of stylish interiors. With her unrivaled eye, Porter dives into the details of each room, and to share her sensibility with the rest of us, she also sells a few antiques—art, candlesticks, ceramics. And Tat’s job board, full of listings for good jobs in design and architecture, is monitored by everyone who’s anyone in the industry. —A.B.
Formerly a rising star at UnHerd, Lloyd was poached by The New Statesman last December. Since then, the writer-editor has been busy driving around Scotland with former M.P.’s, traipsing through Transylvania for a much-talked-about cover story on King Charles, or sitting at a London pub writing terribly rude reviews of books while nursing a Bloody Mary. He is a formidable young talent, capable of handling even the most explosive of subjects, but every now and then you’ll get a glimpse into his waggish side—such as his column on how he gave up vaping. (Spoiler: he picked up smoking cigarettes.) —Kara Kennedy
behind Jazz Emu
Imagine a gangly Edgar Allan Poe in beige polyester flares and a brown leatherette jacket, and you have the image of Jazz Emu, the wonderfully strange alter ego of Henderson. Jazz Emu thrives on the Internet, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers with his quick-fire, high-production videos backed by slick electrofunk songs on subjects such as the scratchiness of towels or the bouncing DVD logo. At least that’s where they begin. By the time they’re over, they’ve taken you on a ride far, far away to the other side of sanity. Flight of the Conchords (the band) is an obvious precursor, but Jazz Emu lives in a more surreal universe, stuck together with his absurdly good musical skills. —G.P.
Imagine if Nico, the husky-voiced German chanteuse, had survived past 1988, picked up an electric guitar, and joined the alternative-music scene, heading up the Pixies or the Breeders. That’s not a bad starting point in understanding the allure of Haenlein, known by her stage name, Gretel Hänlyn. Her voice floats atop a sea of spiky synth, angular guitar lines, and driving bass. It’s a potent combination. Wet Leg has led the U.K. revival of female indie guitar music, and there’s a nostalgia for a time when women rocked as hard as, if not harder than, men. But there’s also something new with Hänlyn: the thick fog of her voice, stretching out to encompass the world. —G.P.
In June, Heather Agyepong confronted a white woman at MoMA’s “Black Power Naps” installation for laughing loudly in what was supposed to be a safe space for Black visitors. After the museum escorted Agyepong out, she accused them of racial insensitivity, and demanded a very public apology. She got one. Her award-winning photographs have just been acquired by the Walther Collection and have been shown everywhere from the Tate to the Mead Art Museum. (To see her work, stop into the Taylor Wessing Photo Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.) Or catch her on-screen, where she stars in the Prime Video series The Power. Up next: she’s back onstage in February. —Elena Clavarino
With a surname like Garland, Freddie’s destiny seemed preordained. (His parents were also in the flower business.) While working for sustainable-produce deliverer Abel & Cole in his mid-20s, he parlayed his green-thumbed upbringing into a similar business model. His former boss, Keith Abel, was his first investor, and in 2014, Freddie’s Flowers launched from his parents’ garden gazebo, in Wandsworth. His affordable subscription service of unstructured bouquets has since bloomed into a spectacularly successful business, and his delivery bikes are now one of the most cheerfully ubiquitous sights on London’s streets. —S.C.
Dux femina facti: “A woman was the leader of the enterprise.” That’s how Virgil describes Dido’s role in founding Carthage, in the Aeneid. The new femina on the academic block is Honor Cargill-Martin, TikTok classicist and author of Messalina: A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery. (Messalina, the wife of Emperor Claudius, was nicknamed “the Whore Empress.”) Cargill-Martin began writing a children’s-book series at school and is now studying for a Ph.D. at Oxford. She’s been described as the next Mary Beard, her hero. Incidentally, Cambridge professor Beard, 68, has just brought out a new best-seller, Emperor of Rome. Women rule the world of classics. But that’s nothing new—just ask Dido, Queen of Carthage. —Harry Mount
