The Londoneer – A Retrospective of 2011

Before the New Year arrives (and a brand new design comes to the blog – you only have 48 hours to wait) I thought I would touch on some of the interesting things that have been featured on the blog over the last twelve months.

In no particular order, here are ten of the best posts from the Londoneer in 2011:
From January here’s my piece on the rather dark and foreboding Admiralty Citadel at the top of London’s Mall:
From February, the talk I attended at the London Transport Museum on the fascinating construction projects undertaken in London by Isambard Kingdom Brunel:
Illumini Electro-Late

From March, Jane Webb (the artist behind the Illumini series of events) invited me along to act as official photographer for Electro-Late at the Museum of London, and there were some spectacular photographic results:

A short post from April on one of my abiding passions – graffiti art. This time, taking a very quick look at some of the new work to appear in London’s trendy Shoreditch over the previous few months:
Another one from April, the beautiful Tibetan Peace Garden that sits rather incongruously next to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. One of London’s few genuine escapes from the hustle and bustle of our city:
From May, a post that highlights the benefit of getting out of central London if you want to learn more about the city’s past. Constructed on the site of old industrial buildings on the riverside out towards the docks, I give you the Thames Barrier Park and the sad tale of the Brunner Mond explosion of 1917:
Another one of my interests, graveyards, puts in an appearance in June with a tour of the City of London Cemetery in Wanstead, conducted by the Superintendent himself, Gary Burks (and which was accompanied by a soft little sales pitch – rather macabre and rather sweet at the same time!):
The Vigiland Memorial

July marked a bit of a break from blogging, but before that I ventured a little further out than usual – visiting the warm and friendly people and colourful sights and sounds of Macedonia and Kosovo. Picking out a specific post from that trip is difficult, but perhaps my post on the magnificent Matka Gorge above Macedonia’s capital city, Skopje, will suffice:

From October then, another graffiti post – the truly breath-taking annual International Meeting of Styles which I go along to every year…
Finally, something that’s right up-to-date. An indulgent pre-Christmas evening I spent at the Shaker & Co cocktail bar near Warren St. An opportunity to sample some great food and drink, and to be a food photographer for a night: