The Chiswick Calendar party 2026

Organisations and individuals come together to celebrate our joint enterprise – promoting the good stuff in Chiswick

The Chiswick Calendar celebrated our eleventh year on Wednesday 7 January with lots of lovely people in the Boston Room at the George IV. It was a bitterly cold night and both Brentford and Fulham were playing important home games, so I did wonder if anyone would come, but the room was packed, full of warmth and good will.

The great and the good of Chiswick were there, including a strong political showing headed by the MP for Hammersmith & Chiswick Andy Slaughter, our former MP Ruth Cadbury, and the Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Amy Croft.

Top: MPs Andy Slaughter and Ruth Cadbury; Below: Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Amy Croft, and guitarist Giulio Romano

I am particularly grateful to Andy for coming to present the prizes for our CRAP awards (Chiswick Residents Active Participation) as he gave up a prized ticket for the Fulham v Chelsea game to do it.

READ ALSO: The Chiswick Calendar CRAP awards 2026

Leader of Hounslow Council Shantanu Rajawat came; many of our local councillors and some of the new candidates for this year’s local elections in May. There was a strong turnout also from the organisers of Chiswick’s cultural life: the Chiswick Book Festival; Theatre at the Tabard; Chiswick Cinema; Chiswick House; Ballet4Life; and a posse of Chiswick’s artists and regulars from Jazz at George IV.

Top L: Simon Reilly, co-director of Theatre at the Tabard with Simon Thomsett, The Chiswick Calendar’s theatre reviewer; Top R: Conservative candidate for Homefields ward, Michael Denniss, with Cllr Jack Emsley. Below L: Steve Nutt, one of the directors of the Chiswick Flower Market; Below R: Lucy Cufflin, one of the directors of the Chiswick Cheese Market

The RNLI, DKMS UK and West London Welcome were among the charities represented. The Repair Cafe, the Flower Market and the Cheese Market flew the flag for voluntary organisations; while residents associations the Strand on the Green Association and West Chiswick & Gunnersbury Society came, along with individuals, our lovely readers, who came just representing themselves.

The Chiswick Calendar is now the local media in Chiswick with the biggest reach. We have on average 1,600 people using this website each day, and on a good day that goes up to 10,000, which represents a 12% increase on last year. Thank you to all of you who use the website, subscribe to the newsletter and support us financially with monthly payments to keep independent local journalism alive.

Top L: Michael Gallagher of cancer charity DKMS UK; Top R: Chiswick RNLI Station Manager Andy Mayo. Below L: Ann Collins, chair of Strand on the Green Association; Below R: Marie Rabouhans, chair of West Chiswick & Gunnersbury Society

This year we will continue to run the Jazz nights every Thursday at George IV; the art exhibitions at the Clayton hotel – the next one will run for six weeks from Sunday 1 March – and our Media Club events – next one will be Joe Mayes talking about his book Can You Run the Economy on Wednesday 21 January – and we will be organising another Chiswick In Film festival with the Chiswick Cinema in March.

New this year – we have created Children’s Chiswick, a whole new section of The Chiswick Calendar website bringing together children’s entertainment and activities, a shopping guide, information on children’s sport, health, and education, which we have been able to do thanks to Orchard House School for sponsoring it.

Orchard House are very community minded – they support the Children’s Book Festival and the Bedford Park Festival. They sponsor the Junior Football Club at Rocks Lane, and the Baby Friendly screenings at Chiswick Cinema.

Another new section we are about to launch on the website is Access Chiswick, thanks to Alan Weavis.

Alan Weavis front left

Alan didn’t use a wheelchair until a year ago and has been horrified at how unnecessarily difficult life is for wheelchair users. The number of ground floor places you can’t get into in Chiswick because they don’t have a ramp is staggering. So, we are creating Access Chiswick, which is a list of all the public places you CAN get into in a wheelchair. Look out for the ‘Wheelchair Happy’ stickers.

Thanks to our sponsors who advertise with us – Asahi, the Hogarth Club, Chiswick Cinema and the London Bath Company, who now sponsor our What’s On listings, and all the other businesses who advertise with us or who are members of our Club Card scheme – which is becoming more and more popular.

Thanks also to George IV for hosting the party; Harriet Benton and Alan Weavis for providing the food; Fuller’s and Sipsmith for providing booze; Giulio Romano for playing; Alice Burns from luxury travel company Sirocco for sponsoring the CRAP awards; and Anna Kunst for taking the photographs.

Photographs Anna Kunst

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