London Feeds Itself

London Feeds Itself

Note from the editor: I wrote and edited the first edition of London Feeds Itself back in 2022, and, although I didn't conceive of it like this back then, it is very much Vittles: Issue 0. So much of the thinking (and indeed, some of the writing) has come out of early Vittles, and the restaurant sections (there are 125 recommendations interspersed between the chapters) remains the only place to get my restaurant recommendations in print (and luckily they mostly hold up). This is the second edition released in 2024, as a very rare co-publishing project between Open City and the brilliant Fitzcarraldo Editions, to whom I'm indebted. Out of all the things I've worked on, this is still the thing I'm most proud of, and it's been heartening to see so many of the essays from its incredible list of contributors go on to have a life of their own outside of the book. Jonathan Nunn, Nov 2026

In a city of rising rents, of gentrification, and displacement, this new and updated edition of London Feeds Itself, shows that the true centres of London food culture can be found in ever more creative uses of space, eked out by the people who make up the city. Its chapters explore the charged intersections between food and modern London’s varied urban conditions, from markets and railway arches to places of worship to community centres. 26 essays about 26 different buildings, structures and public amenities in which London’s everyday food culture can be found, seen through the eyes of writers, architects, journalists and politicians – all accompanied by over 125 guides to some of the city’s best vernacular restaurants across all 33 London boroughs.

Contributors: Carla Montemayor, Jenny Lau, Mike Wilson, Claudia Roden, Stephen Buranyi, Rebecca May Johnson, Owen Hatherley, Aditya Chakrabortty, Yvonne Maxwell, Melek Erdal, Sameh Asami, Barclay Bram, Ciaran Thapar, Santiago Peluffo Soneyra, Virginia Hartley, Jess Fagin, Leah Cowan, Ruby Tandoh, Jeremy Corbyn, Dee Woods, Shahed Saleem, Amardeep Singh Dhillon, Zarina Muhammad, Yemisi Aribisala, Nabil Al-Kinani, Sana Badri, Laura Goodman, Nikesh Shukla. 

Photography by Peter Arkley Bloxham, Zoë Cave, Malcolm Glover, Sirui Ma, Max Miechowski, Hark1karan, Elainea Emmott and Yvonne Maxwell

Design by Studio Christopher Victor

Illustration by Anna Hodgson and Harry Darby

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