Earlier this year, I decided that early next year I would put On London into a state of suspended animation – or cold storage or hibernation, whichever metaphor you prefer. To be precise, I will be doing that on 1st February 2027, which will be exactly ten years after I started the website in a more rudimentary form after more than nine years as London Commentator of The Guardian.
My reason is simple: it is because I have finally faced the inconvenient truth that unless I stop running On London, which I have published and edited single-handedly from my home throughout its existence, I will never find the time to complete (or, in some cases, even start) the various other London-related projects I have been failing to give the necessary attention to for too long.
I doubt I am alone in sitting down early in January each year and making a list of things I intend to (finally) get to grips with in the 12 months ahead, only to be forced to accept, at some sobering point between spring and the end of summer, that most of the items on that list have not been crossed off and aren’t going to be by 31 December.
In my case, the list has repeatedly included various books, a play or two and a couple of other – possibly quite mad – enterprises that I really, really must get properly to grips with before I run out of the energy and commitment they will demand.
I will, however, not – absolutely not – stop writing about the politics, places and people of the capital city. Among other things, I will continue to publish my own stuff – including my On London Extra newsletters, sales of which fund this site – on my personal Substack, with some mixture or other of free and paid-for pieces, as now.
I’ve used the term “suspended animation” to describe what I’ve planned for On London because, at this point, I’m not ruling out bringing it back to life at some time further into the future should I conclude that doing so would bring me joy (I am not, to be clear, looking for buyers or anything like that).
And for the next four months it will be business as usual for On London and its many outstanding writers, with more of the same coverage of politics, policy issues and a little bit of culture, written by people with deep expertise in their fields and often with serious, hands-on experience of actually getting things done in this vast, imperfect and infuriating yet also enthralling and exhilarating city. In other words, keep on reading.
OnLondon.co.uk is funded by sales of publisher and editor Dave Hill’s twice-weekly newsletter On London Extra. To start receiving it, become a paying subscriber to Dave’s personal Substack. Thanks.