London photos

Marking 1,300 days since I first began posting a photo a day on Facebook from my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, which I began five years earlier, in May 2012, this article provides some of my reflections on the last eight and half years, including, of course, the unprecedented upheavals of the last eight months, since Covid-19 turned the world upside down, and largely shut down the City and the West End.

As the second Covid lockdown bites, I wonder how many “non-essential” businesses will survive, but take heart from the news that office rents are collapsing, and that residential rents in inner London are down by 14.9% on this time last year. I can only hope that the uncontrolled property greed that was so dominant before Covid has finally hit a wall, and will be unable to recover.

Every three months I ask you, if you can, to make a donation to support my ongoing work as a reader-funded journalist, campaigner and photo-journalist, working to get Guantánamo closed, and also recording London on a daily basis via photos and accompanying essays in my project ‘The State of London.’

Marking 3,000 days since I first set out on my bike on a daily basis to take photos of the changing face of the capital for a project that became known as ‘The State of London.’ On the fifth anniversary of the start of the project, I began posting a photo a day on Facebook, where I have now posted 1,176 photos.

An article marking 120 unbroken days in which I’ve been taking photos on daily bike rides throughout the coronavirus lockdown in London, and posting them as part of my ongoing photo-journalism project ‘The State of London.’ This article features my reflections on this extraordinary time, as well as some previously unpublished photos. Enjoy!

Every three months, I ask you, if you can, to make a donation to support my work on Guantánamo, which I have been working to try and get closed for 14 years now, and my ongoing photo-journalism project, “The State of London’, which has been attracting significant attention lately, via the photos I have been taking during the coronavirus lockdown. As an independent freelance journalist and activist, I rely on your support to enable me to continue my work, so if you can help out at all, please do. It will be very greatly appreciated!

I look at the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the construction industry in London, enthusing about the shutdown of sites, and hoping that the entire bloated industry will collapse – not only because its developments are either unnecessary or overpriced, or both, but also because the entire industry is so environmentally ruinous. My critique is also part of a wider analysis of the huge drop in emissions since the lockdown began, in which massively reduced car use has played a major part, although this progress will be rapidly undone without a renewed commitment to a permanent reduction in emissions as countries begin to try to ease their way out of lockdown.

Today I’m marking the eighth anniversary of when I set out on my bike, with my camera, to take photos in all of London’s 120 postcodes. Eight years later, I haven’t stopped, and, in the last seven weeks, I’ve been seeing the capital through new eyes during the unprecedented coronavirus lockdown.

One year ago, Extinction Rebellion activists (myself included) occupied several sites in central London, bringing traffic to a halt, in an environmental precursor to what the collapse of “business as usual” looks like under the coronavirus lockdown. How can we make sure that, as the crisis passes, we don’t simply return to the suicidally irresponsible culture that existed until just a month ago, which was speeding us towards environmental destruction.

Here’s my latest quarterly fundraiser. As an independent journalist and activist, I’m dependent on the support of my readers to enable me to keep writing about Guantánamo, and working to get the prison closed, and also to support my ongoing photo-journalism project ‘The State of London.’ I hope that you can help!