*”Now That’s What I Call London Shoes-2024″ – (End of Year Review for 2024)

As another year of my London Shoes activity comes to an end, I always like to take a look back to reflect on what Shoes has achieved in terms of experiences / places visited / knowledge gained and above all the fun times I’ve had had.

2024 started off on the wrong foot, well – on neither foot actually – as a result of being mown down by a food delivery rider on an electric bike – as I was crossing Fleet Street in December 2023 whilst out on the road doing a blog.

The result of this altercation, left me with a shattered right ankle and a badly bruised and nerve damaged left leg. So – my London Shoes were laid up throughout January and half of February of 2024.

When I started London Shoes back in 2017 – I set myself a target of publishing 1 x blog per week – a target that obviously went a bit off-kilter during the Covid pandemic – and similarly, because I was laid up for a month or so at the beginning of this year, I wasn’t quite able to achieve my aspirational annual target of 52 blog publications in 2024……but I wasn’t far off it.

So, looking back – 2024 has been another great year for London Shoes – that’s taken me to places in the ‘Smoke’ that I’d never been to before, almost every nook & crannie of our wonderful capital city  / I’ve found out stuff I never knew before /  I’ve met some extremely interesting people /  I’ve sunk many a  ‘cheeky’ beer in some excellent pubs / I was invited to be a ‘technical advisor’ by a film project organisation making a documentary, who then asked me to actually appear in the film / I was approached by an Australian magazine that publishes articles on ancestry, and asked to write articles on a couple of specific areas of London / I’ve been interviewed by a journalist for my views on a particular event that took place in London a couple of months ago / and even during the past week, I’ve been approached by an East London Heritage organisation, who would like to hook up with me to assist them in articles they are looking to cover off in 2025……so all in all, its been a very productive and enjoyable year for me old London Shoes.

Now – I’m fully aware that there are people out there who must think that I’m a right proper geek, and they probably wonder why the hell I bother putting my time and energy into something that’s not generating any financial reward for me……and in some ways I get where they’re coming from.

But, for me – all I can say in answer to questions as to why I bother, is that I thoroughly enjoy what I do with London Shoes.

When I initially started creating London Shoes, upon my retirement in Jan 2017 – Mrs Shoes told me that, to avoid getting under her feet, I needed to find a hobby – and to make sure it was a hobby that kept me off the streets and out of the pubs!!! Well – the irony or ironies is that ‘streets and pubs’ is to a large extent, exactly what London Shoes is all about !!!

When I look back and see that since its inception in 201 7 the London Shoes website has accumulated a bonkers total of over 200,000 ‘followers’ to date – followers all over the globe, from countries such as Brazil/Australia/New Zealand/ USA/ Canada/Spain/Germany/France – then I know that there are people out there who actually like and enjoy what I do.

Throughout 2024 the London Shoes website has averaged 480 ‘hits’ per day that have generated hundreds of viewer/reader ‘comments’.

Via the Shoes website, I receive on average anything between 20 to 30 e-mails per day from people from all over the world who are either commenting/enquiring about specific blogs posts or themes, or just simply complimenting my work or even being critical of my work – and its  because of all this activity and reactions from ‘followers’ of the London Shoes Website – Facebook – Instagram & X (ie Twitter) –  I know that this little ‘hobby’ of mine that I took up upon my retirement – has all been worthwhile, and its given me immense enjoyment.

So – I hope you’ve enjoyed this little ‘look-back’.  I’ve attempted to put together a compilation of 10 ‘best of’  2024 blog publications, which you may or may not wish to browse through at your leisure  – that I’ve amusingly entitled “Now That’s What I Call London Shoes-2024” .

Dependent on the ‘big guy in the sky’, I intend to continue doing what I enjoy doing – so keep an eye out for more London Shoes blogs coming your way.

Wishing all London Shoes followers everywhere a very Happy & Healthy 2025 – take care of yourselves – always be kind and stay safe at all times – and many thanks again for following the ‘Shoes’ – your loyalty and continued interest is very much appreciated

My very best wishes…..GEOFF

_____________________________________

Top 10 complication of London Shoes publications – 2024 

* the “Brixton Windmill” – Brixton-London SW2 – London Shoes

* the “Since 9/11-Memorial” – Olympic Park-Stratford-London E20 – London Shoes

* the amazing “Keystone Crescent” – Kings Cross-London – London Shoes

*”Joseph Grimaldi”-the ‘King of Clowns’ – from the cradle to the grave !!! – London Shoes

* the “Duke of Wellington Mounting Block” – Pall Mall London SW1 – London Shoes

* “Lionel Bart” – from cradle to grave – possibly London’s greatest songwriter – London Shoes

* all about “Kew Bridge” and “Kew Green” – London TW8 – London Shoes

*the “Poppy Fields at the Tower” – Nov 2024 – London Shoes

*the “London Overground Lines” – Named & Coloured – Nov 2024 – London Shoes

Some of the other blogs published on the London Shoes website throughout 2024