How to write for the Greater London Project
What to pitch and how to pitch it
The Greater London Project publishes guest posts from our community. Anyone can write for us – you don’t have to be a professional writer, just passionate about London. We publish a few different kinds of pieces:
Ideas to make London better, primarily from a policy perspective. Examples include these posts on building more housing and safer streets.
Ideas from other major cities which London could benefit from. Examples include these posts on train networks and self-driving cars.
Ideas from London that the rest of the world could learn from. Despite talking about lots of the things which make London great in our launch post, we haven’t published any of these yet, and would love to.
Pieces about parts of London’s past, present or near future which are just cool, and deserve more attention. An example looking at London’s history is this post on street markets. Not every piece has to have a ‘policy angle’ if it's describing something interesting and important which other Greater Londoners should know about!
But that list is non-exhaustive, and if you have an idea for something you’d like to write then get in touch to tell us about it!
We are especially interested in pieces about:
Megaprojects: where should we build the next bridge across the Thames? How could we expand the airports around London? Could we divert traffic through tunnels to pedestrianise more of the city centre?
Public health: how do we make the tube less polluted and noisy? How do we improve sanitation (toilets and sewers)?
London’s parks: their history, management and lessons we can learn from them about improving public spaces.
Architecture: which parts of London are the most beautiful and why?
Transport: what is happening with the Bakerloo line extension, or Hammersmith Bridge? Where would you put more tram routes?
‘Work from London’: what changing patterns of work in white collar industries mean for the centre of London.
Cultural capital: what do you love about London’s galleries, museums, music venues, nightclubs?
Governance: the history of London’s local governments, and how they function (and don’t) today.
Sport: what can we learn from other cities about how to make London more friendly to big matches and crowds, where to show more sport in public places, and how to get more people into local teams.
Crime and anti-social behaviour: clever ways to make London friendlier and safer.
And we’re open to other subjects as well. If you’re searching for inspiration, you can read about some of the things we think are cool in our launch post, or why we are doing this in the post where we explained why the GLP exists.
We want pieces to be between 500 and 800 words + up to three images (if relevant). But we will take longer pieces in some cases, and are happy to have shorter pieces (but the scope needs to be really tight).
Pitching
If you want to pitch us an article, please send over 1-3 short paragraphs summarising what your article will claim, or report on, or argue, to the email address below. Your paragraphs should clearly show what idea and/or argument your piece will demonstrate and what core facts you will rely on to support it.
It doesn’t need to be overly formal, but we want you to convey why it really matters to you. Like our guide to writing for us, it should be in plain English - if a technical concept is really important to your pitch, then you need to explain it so we can understand it.
If you have more than one idea, that’s perfectly alright, send us a few and we can help you choose one which is the best fit for the Greater London Project.
It’s important to note that we can’t pay for pieces, any work is entirely voluntary. We will give authors full credit, including linking to their own publications or socials, and we encourage you to repost it.
All pitches should be sent to founders@greaterlondon.co
If we want you to write the pitch, we’ll send more guidance, including our style guide.
If you have any questions, just ask. We look forward to hearing from you!
— the GLP team