What is a Londonist, Anyway?
A spot of navel-gazing.
Welcome to the Friday edition for paying subscribers, with a generous teaser for everyone else.
I’ve been asked many times over the years: “What is a Londonist?”. Well, it’s the name of a website, but it also has a much older definition. In today’s slightly navel-gazing newsletter, I thought I’d dip into that history, and then set out a list of habits and behaviours that might mark you out as a Londonist, as opposed to a regular Londoner. That’s for the main section. First, the History Radar:
History Radar
Upcoming events for fans of local history.
📸 TRANSPORT PHOTOS: London Transport Museum's latest exhibition is rather clever. Then and Now: London's transport in photographs showcases historic photos of the transport network (ticket gates, Tube station tunnels), some dating back as far as the 19th century. Alongside them are modern snaps taken by photographer and TfL train driver Anne Maningas, who used a Bronica medium format film camera from the 1990s to add a sense of continuity between the old photos and the new. Runs until 2026.
💦 WELLS AND SPRINGS: Learn about the ‘clerk’s well’, which gave Clerkenwell its name, and the spas of Islington, in a water-themed maps-and-documents session at Islington Museum on 1 July.
🧒🏻 WORKHOUSES: Head down to the crypt of St Marylebone parish church on 2 July for a talk on Victorian workhouses by Rachel Barrett of London Archives. Workhouses are remembered as institutions of destitution and dehumanisation, but what can archival sources tell us about the reality of the workhouse?
🗣️ ADAM DANT: On 5 July, head to the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner to hear from artist Adam Dant, whose intricate maps often depict stories from London’s history. In this illustrated talk though, Dant focuses on his time as Official Artist of the 2015 General Election, when he was granted rare access to certain aspects of modern politics. Hear about his encounters with some of Britain’s most powerful and peculiar institutions, from the corridors of Westminster to centuries-old guilds.
📣 PODCAST: I’d urge you to listen to the latest episode of Radio Sohemia, the podcast of the Sohemian Society. Episode 9: The Scandalous History of Dolphin Square is an absolute joy, as former MP-turned-author Simon Danczuk discusses the sordid history of the Pimlico apartment block. There’s even a Pam Ayres impression. The whole back catalog is worth a listen. I particularly enjoyed the Nick Drake episode.
What is a Londonist, Anyway?
I’m often asked why this newsletter is called Londonist: Time Machine and not, for example, London: Time Machine.
The simple answer is that it’s a spinoff of Londonist, the independent website about London and everything in it, for which I’ve been writing for 20 years this month. 🎂
The longer answer, at risk of sounding like Alan Partridge, is that Londonist is an attitude; it’s a frame of mind. It’s a way of looking at this great city.
To be a Londonist is to be one who celebrates or champions London. Not in a blind or naive way — for London has many problems. But with optimism, positivity, curiosity and an eye for the history and continuities of the city.
Londonist: Time Machine, I hope, embodies all of those characteristics. I take inspiration from the reformed Scrooge, who vows “to live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me”. The city’s story is best told when all three come together, and through a Londonist lens.
Where did the phrase ‘Londonist’ come from?
The word Londonist was coined in 2004 by Rob Hinchcliffe and Euan Mitchell. They set up Londonist.com as a UK analogue of already popular American sites such as Gothamist (New York) and Chicagoist. (Note that the website is Londonist, not The Londonist… in the same way you wouldn’t say The Time Out.)
Londonist in its current form might only be 21 years old, but the term has a much older antecedent.
The first person to use the phrase, so far as I can see, was Marcus Fall in his 1880 book London Town: Sketches of London Life and Character. Fall titles his very first chapter ‘The Londonist’, and sets out to define such a person:
This vast confluence of streets, and lanes, and squares, and parks, and institutions, and nationalities, and telegraph wires, and interests, and commerce, and ambitions called London is to him the most amazing and glorious spectacle ever presented to the human eye, the most enthralling theme ever given to the human tongue.
Fall notes that a typical Londonist is not necessarily from London, but often from a small northern or midland town. Incomers from big cities like Manchester or Liverpool, or from overseas, have too much sense of rivalry and pride in their origins to ever fully embrace London. I’m not sure how true that is generally, but as someone from a small midland town (Grimsby), it certainly describes me.
For the Londonist there is no place in all the world like the region of his worship. You may seek to argue with him. You may tell him Calcutta is hotter; Quito is higher; Paris is less muddy; Rio Janeiro is better situated; Rome is crowned with the laurels of successive histories;—all to no purpose. So far as he is concerned, he thinks it better to be buried in London than live and reign anywhere else on Earth.
Oh dear. I feel seen. Almost 150 years after those words were written, here I am, Mr Londonist, a man who has not left the country in 11 years, because he gets all the travel thrills he needs from a rainy bus journey through Penge. No, I really do.
Are you a Londonist?
Here are some habits that might mark you out as a Londonist, as opposed to a regular Londoner. How many can you tick off?
You never walk by the quickest route, but by the most interesting route.
A regular Londoner will never admit to visiting ‘tourist traps’ like Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus or (shudders) The Mall. But you do, because you know that there is life and wonder and history in these places, too.
You carry a Tube map everywhere. Not for navigation, but so you can tick off every station you’ve been to.
You instantly know the answer to the old pub-quiz question: “Which is the only Tube station to contain none of the letters in ‘mackerel’.
You know precisely where to stand on the station platform so that you’re in the optimal spot for the exit at your destination.
Open House weekend(s) in September, when lots of buildings open their doors to visitors, is marked on your calendar a year in advance. You have turned down wedding invitations to ensure you don’t miss it.
You know the difference between a K2 and a K6 phone box. And who designed them. And what else he designed. And who his grandfather was.