Tech Tuesday: Hyper-local London Bloggers

Both myself and Ian Collie, your faithful Tech Tuesday columnists, love to write our weekly posts – but it’s a challenge to keep them lively and informative for readers with varying degrees of technological knowledge. As Ian writes about the complex Bitcoins, I thought I would take an early stab at my next offering and write about blogging.

So what is blogging? It’s a term that has different connotations, but for me a blog is an online presence, a voice for the user. Whether its used as an internal company newsletter or as an online magazine, the content is there to be shared and stored in some way.

When you read an article in a newspaper, sources (should) be quoted, but they can be taken out of context. With a blog, it is much easier to convince your audience that you are an authoritative source, as hyperlinks to research you are quoting and to images and videos of events allow readers to see how you drew your conclusions. When trust is placed in a blog by its readers, a community grows and from that we can see why homegrown hyper-local blogs are popular.

What is a hyper-local blog?

Hyper-local blogs have become a reliable source of information and knowledge for communities in recent years. As towns and cities expand in terms of population, and the traditional local newspaper falls further into decline, it’s harder to know what is happening in your area. A hyper-local blog may cover the village fete, but that is not what has earned it fame. Coverage of local candidates in national elections can now be found on blogs online, with some analysing a politician’s claims (and disputing them if no truth is found).

Offici ally, a hyper-local blog is one that is focused on a specific area. A ‘London’ blog would be deemed to general; a blog that sticks to one area like Greenwich, Earlsfield or Bow would be seen as hyper-local. That said, I have also included a few general, and extremely popular, London blogs as I think they give a great insight to life in the capital.

Hyper-local London blogs

Below are a list of blogs about London, divided broadly by area. Please note that South London, for instance, is a broad area with a lot of hyper-local bloggers – I have tried to put a postcode after each link to give you a better idea of the content you’ ll be led through to.

North London Blogs
LoveCamden - Camden
Kings Cross Environment - Kings Cross
West Hampstead Life - West Hampstead
The Kentish Towner – Kentish Town
Brunswick Life – Residents of Brunswick in Bloomsbury
Park Life – Kensal Rise and Queen’s Park

West London Blogs
Notting Hill – the online guide - Notting Hill
Fulham Road – Fulham
South West Six – Fulham

South London Blogs
853 - Greenwich/ South East London
Faded London  - South West London
Love Clapham - Clapham
The Blackheath Bugle - Blackheath
Greenwich.co.uk - Greenwich
Lurking About SE11 - SE11
Camberwell Online - Camberwell
London SE1 - SE1
Brockley Central – Brockley
Vassall View – SW9 / SE5

East London Blogs
East London local - East London
Whats In Wapping - Wapping
Loving Dalston – Dalston
Yeah!Hackney – Hackney
Spitalfields Life - Spitalfields

Central London Blogs
The City - Square Mile

London Blogs
Dave Hill’s London Blog - Guardian blog
London on the Inside - Music, culture and fashion
IanVisits  Off the tourist trail events and listings
Diamond Geezer Intelligent, regularly updated site
Pigeon Blog Birds eye view of London
Black Cab London Emotive blog from a proud London cabbie
Annie Mole – London Underground!
Cabbie Blog – Another great blog from a London cabbie
The London Perspective – Things to do in London

Do you read any other London blogs? Leave the link in a comment below and we will add it to the list.