OOF Gallery will host Roger Mayne: Football, a new exhibition running from 28 November 2025 to 1 March 2026, celebrating one of Britain’s most important post-war photographers and his enduring connection to the game played on the streets.
Mayne’s black-and-white images of West London in the late 1950s capture more than poverty and hardship. They show the unfiltered vitality of children at play – bare knees on concrete, makeshift goalposts, and football as freedom. His photographs record moments of improvisation and joy, proving how football’s simplicity made it accessible to anyone with a ball and a patch of space, with a focus on a shared language of youth and community.
The exhibition marks the first time Mayne’s work has been shown through the specific lens of football. It includes original prints of his most iconic images: kids leaping for headers, diving for saves, and sprinting down roads where the street doubled as a pitch. Through Mayne’s eyes, football becomes a metaphor for resilience, imagination, and the togetherness of working-class childhoods.
Roger Mayne: Football runs at OOF Gallery, Warmington House, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, N17, from 28 November 2025 to 1 March 2026. The gallery closes 21 December to 14 January. Admission is free.
OOF Gallery is the world’s only contemporary art space located inside a football stadium. Since opening, it has explored the crossover between art and football culture from new perspectives. With this exhibition, OOF turns the spotlight on the roots of the game – when football was simply play, and the street was the stage.
