Editorial

A radical reawakening

A civic building reawakened. We look back at the year that brought Prada Mode, NVIDIA’s AI summit, and hundreds of neighbours through these doors and forward to what radical means in 2026.

There’s a particular silence that settles after an event concludes, when Vision Hall empties but the energy hasn’t quite left. You can still feel the conversations that travelled beyond the room, the ideas that shifted in real time, the sense that something began rather than ended. That silence held something different this year. It held the recognition that a building had been reawakened, which had been waiting almost a decade to discover what it could become.

For nearly 90 years, these walls echoed with civic debate, protest, and possibility. Completed in 1937, this neoclassical monument served as Camden Council’s heart until 2018, when it closed for what would become nearly a ten-year restoration. In July 2025, we opened our doors, learning what the space could hold.

When the doors opened

By September, Di Petsa brought London Fashion Week to the marble in Inner Space, proving that fashion belonged in a building that had spent decades watching the neighbourhood transform around it. What followed proved the breadth this building can hold. Prime Minister Keir Starmer stood on this stage alongside NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang to announce £31 billion in AI infrastructure.

Adidas transformed Vision Hall into a roller disco. Who What Wear celebrated their Next in Beauty Awards. Sony Music filled these rooms with sound and celebration.

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What followed

October arrived with Frieze Week, and Prada chose Town Hall for Mode, their thirteenth iteration of the travelling cultural club. Elmgreen & Dragset’s installation The Audience turned Vision Hall into a meditation on spectatorship, filling the room with hyper-realistic spectator sculptures. It was a signal: Town Hall had returned as a place where culture is made.

The Knowledge Quarter’s 10th anniversary summit brought together leaders from nearly 100 institutions, but it also welcomed neighbours and local residents, many stepping inside for the first time in years to see what the building had become. The Camden Sports Awards celebrated local achievement in halls where civic recognition had always belonged. These moments mattered because they reminded us this building’s history belongs to everyone who fought to preserve it.

When culture came home

Town Hall Presents launched as something more than programming: a living forum where art, innovation, and ideas converge. Five tracks: Culture, Innovation, Impact, Community, Big Ideas, all designed to challenge and connect.

The programme brought different energy. Cynthia Erivo discussed her book before 700 people. Slavoj Žižek debated artificial intelligence with Alex O’Connor, philosophy meeting technology on a stage built for serious discourse. Richard Ayoade presented Afterthoughts with characteristic precision. Every event sold out. Every event proved these halls could be shaped by the people in them.

The people who made it possible

But what defines a year isn’t the names. It’s the people who chose to show up when the building was finding its rhythm. To the organisers who trusted us early, the partners who brought craft and ambition: Avenue Events orchestrating precision and atmosphere for NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure announcement, Kennedy channelling the raw creative energy that has launched generations of London designers, Blonstein bringing the immersive production expertise that defines London Fashion Week, Story Events proving that industry showcases could be crafted with warmth and imagination.

To Rhubarb, who understood that hospitality is how a building welcomes its guests, and Pixl, who ensured that technology remained invisible until the moment it needed to be spectacular. To Prada, Adidas, Who What Wear, Sony Music, and NVIDIA for choosing this stage. To our team, who met every challenge with conviction because they understood excellence isn’t a system but a standard. You helped us prove what this place could become.

WHAT COMES NEXT

The year ahead carries its own momentum. In March, we open Her Stories Untold, our inaugural exhibition curated in collaboration with The Circle, founded by Annie Lennox. It examines how women have been portrayed, silenced, celebrated, and reimagined across generations. Featuring Jonathan Yeo, Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf, Richard Wathen, Wen Wu and leading voices in contemporary art, the exhibition marks the beginning of Town Hall’s annual programme dedicated to platforming bold ideas and amplifying underrepresented voices.

Town Hall Presents continues to build its cultural offering with conversations and performances that shape culture rather than reflect it. And later this year, Town Hall Society launches to create a community for the unlike-minded.

The walls are awake. For the doers. For the creators. For the dreamers.