One New Change St Pauls Cathedral http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/6719579213

AndyRobertsPhotos

2012 London Olympics Clock Countdown Trafalgar Square

Greenwich Cutty Sark set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/sets/72157628637994451/

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

AndyRobertsPhotos

London Theatre Breaks 2011/2012

Broadgate Ice Rink, near Liverpool Street Station London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVQdl4EFLh0

Ghost London Cast Changes http://ghostlondon.com/98/ghost-london-cast-changes-for-2012/

Theatre Breaks in London http://theatrebreaks.co/2941/theatre-breaks-in-london/

AndyRobertsPhotos

Occupy London UBS

I went to WordPress London meetup number #7 last night, hosted by Headshift at their office near Shad Thames, along the south bank of the Thames, east of Tower Bridge. Nice to have something on the East side for once, although south of the river, I wouldn’t normally mention the general location but for Londoners, having different travel options is essential and I was pleased to be able to exit the Transport For London  system at a zone 2 tube station, Bermondsey. WordPress London is not really a mainly social gathering like some of the bloggers meetups, it’s a business learning event and last night there were three sections, each packed with fast moving presentations full of detail, actionable insights and deeply understood data. First up, a round up of news from the world of WordPress from Chris Adams  of Headshift with a peek at the new drag and drop file upload interface for WordPress 3.3, out very soon. There was also a heads up for the ManageWP service launched this month, a service which I use myself and would also heartily recommend for anybody who maintains more than one self-hosted WordPress installation, in fact it’s brilliant if you have dozens or more. WordPress London Meetup Then David Bain delivered a comprehensive briefing about SEO for WordPress, including an outline of a hub and spoke structure for content based on using pages for the main parts of a site, supported by posts  All based around keyword targeting, which, while possibly on it’s way to becoming somewhat old-school,  is after all what search engine optimisation is all about. One or two plugin tips to be followed up there. Finally, Keith Devon a WordPress developer explained how and why to use WordPress Custom Post Types. Custom post types are not types of posts at all, but other types of content alongside of posts or pages. The example given was that of a real estate property rental site, for which the element “Property” needed to be a thing of itself, with it’s own display template in the theme, neither a post nor a page but with it’s own “add Property” section within the dashboard. This gave me some great ideas for how I might have designed one or two of my existing sites much better had the concept been around a few years ago. Keith showed us how to implement custom post types by dropping in chunks of code into functions.php “because it’s easier” but discussion from the audience suggests that using specialised plugins for the purpose may be the way to go if you want to be able to keep your site up to date with new software releases. Time for some brief discussions and an optional visit to a Samuel Smiths pub afterwards, so I walked back along the south bank and over London Bridge back to dry land. Hashtag: #WPLDN Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogWordPress London #7

AndyRobertsPhotos

But What Are The Alternatives?

Google Money Masters

Money as debt

Occupy London - Finsbury Square - Real Democracy Now

AndyRobertsPhotos

Yurt - Occupy London - Finsbury Square - Real Democracy Now

Two weeks ago we visited the Islington Local History Centre, part of Islington Library, and underneath which you’ll find Islington Museum (@IslingtonMueum). Yes it’s all about Islington in this post – and Islingtonians! – because Islington Council in London runs a People’s Plaques scheme in which the public can nominate and vote for plaques to be erected in the borough. We thought this warranted a closer look… The People’s Plaques initiative was started in 2009 with the first plaques being erected in 2010. Local people and events commemorated so far include Mary Wollstonecraft, The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, and Kenneth Williams. But the council has been putting up (green) plaques for longer than that – George Orwell’s being a famous one – and also lists their own and other plaques within the borough on this A-Z of Islington plaques page. They’re also helping us update our list of plaques erected by Islington Council.

Listen to the audio below for our interview with heritage services manager Cheryl Smith and heritage assistant Ben Smith. We chatted about how the People’s Plaques scheme was born, how their plaque criteria differ from English Heritage’s, the possibility of reusing their data at a History Hackday, plaque design and manufacture, what’s coming up with the next public vote, and more besides… [Note: the web streaming sound levels are rather low, so I'd recommend listening with headphones or via a connection to external speakers]

  The Local History Centre and it’s team provide a lot more than plaques: they host and curate the local history archives including a large pool of historic images, maps, census records, and electoral roles. In turn they house several special collections for Islington notables of yore, such as artist Walter Sickert and playwright Joe Orton. They also have a great blog for Sadlers Wells Archive – ballet fans take note! If that wasn’t enough they also host exhibitions and events, list local walking and cycling tours links, and much more. They’re part of Islington Heritage Services which also runs the Islington Museum located downstairs and we had a good chat with the museum’s Alex Smith afterwards. Looking at their site I found that the first mention of Islington can be traced back to an early Anglo-Saxon charter and it was originally named Giseldone, then Gislandune. According to their short history of Islington: “The name means ‘Gisla’s hill’ from an old Saxon personal name Gisla and dun meaning ‘hill’. According to one early writer, it was a savage place, a forest “full of the lairs of wild beasts”, where bears and wild bulls roamed. On the edges of the forest was a pasture for hogs. In The Domesday Book of 1086 the name had mutated to Isendone, and then Iseldone, which remained in use until the 17th century when it was replaced by the modern form.” I could go on but you can find out more by exploring from their Heritage Services webpage.

The blue plaques idea was first conceived of by Liberal MP William Ewart, who went on to co-found the scheme with the RSA in 1866. Another thing Ewart is renowned for is his pioneering advocacy of free public libraries, the formation of which he helped pass into law in 1850. It’s apt then that our first meeting with council staff to find out about plaques was in a library, when the history of both plaques and public libraries is so intimately connected. Three final notes for the diary: public nominations for the 2012 People’s Plaques vote open in December 2011 (anyone can nominate and vote – last year they had nominations from as far away as New Zealand!), and two further plaques voted in by the public in 2010 will be put up in 2012 – for Suffragettes martial arts instructor Edith Garrud and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams. We’ll keep you posted on both here and via Twitter. – [photos: George Orwell plaque CC licensed courtesy of trailerfullofpix on Flickr, and Mary Wollstonecraft kindly donated by Islington Heritage Services]