I am pleased to announce that I am officially a ‘Spotter’. By that I mean, I have joined the travel website Spotted By Locals as one of their locals for London.
When I started my Made In Earnest City Guides in 2008 with a guide to Helsinki I was asked by a friend how I was going to keep the guide up-to-date and the truth was, I couldn’t. I wasn’t able to visit to cities often enough to keep them useful and I wanted them to be personal so I knew from the start I had a problem. A problem that has meant the City Guides are now not online (although I may put them up just so there is an archive of them). So, I thought about potentially doing a personal City Guide to London, but I ruled that out almost immediately because of the size and the nature of the city. Too big and too changeable. That was when I first contacted Spotted By Locals. I had been a fan of the site and thought it was the perfect solution to my city guide writing problem. And now, some years later, I am part of the team!
I live and work in the east of the city and readily admit that most of my ‘spots’ are going to be in that area. It is an exciting and thriving part of the London, constantly changing and evolving. The spots are, by design, personal, so you can expect design, art and architecture to the fore and the odd mention of jazz, funk and soul, of course. Oh, and coffee and cakes. The pic above is of the excellent Counter Cafe within Stour Space in Hackney Wick, one of my first articles up on the site and an ideal place for both coffee and cake.