Watch The London Perambulator – Walking In London Documentary

The London Perambulator is a wonderful short documentary about walking in London’s fringes. Although it was made in 2009, I’ve only just come across it. Directed and shot by John Rogers it focuses on Nick Papadimitriou and his walks on the edges of London.

It includes interviews with Will Self, Iain Sinclair and bizarrely Russell Brand. A lot of the discussion focuses on the psychogeography and deep topography of London; two terms I’ve never heard of before, but something I can certainly relate to on my tube walks.

I won’t spoil any more of it here, you’ll just have to watch it.

For more visit The London Perambulator website.

London in Motion – Travel Patterns From 3.1 Million Oyster Users & 16 Million Daily Transactions

This visualization in the video above builds upon the thesis research of Jay Gordon. It was sponsored by the MIT Transit Research Group and Transport for London.

From the YouTube Description:

This visualization merges all 16 million daily transactions made on London’s Oyster card with vehicle-location data from the city’s 8,500 buses to infer the travel histories of that day’s 3.1 million Oyster users. After inferring the times and locations of each bus boarding and alighting, bus and rail transactions are combined to reconstruct each cardholder’s daily travel history.

Each pixel represents an approximately 100-square-meter section of Greater London, and the brightness of each of the three RGB color components indicates the number of riders in one of three categories. Green indicates the number of passengers in the transit system, whether on a bus or in one of several rail modes. Blue indicates the presence of riders prior to their first transaction of the day or after their last: it is assumed that the location of a rider’s first or last transaction approximates their place of residence. Red indicates cardholders who are between transit trips, whether transferring, engaging in activities, or traveling outside the transit system.

By matching Oyster transaction records to data from the iBus vehicle-location system, buses are shown to traverse the street network at their observed speeds, and their brightness reflects the number of passengers on board. Rail customers tap their cards when entering or exiting stations, but their waiting times and choices of line and transfer location are not known (in this version). Rail passengers are therefore shown traveling in straight lines at constant speeds, interpolated between their entry and exit taps.

Found via Reddit.

Yet Another London Timelapse, This One By Greg Brummel

If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a London timelapse video. The one above was created by Greg Brummel and features your standard London locations. The footage was clearly taken over a relatively long period of time, as shots of sledding are followed by those in the summer. I found some of the crowd sounds a little creepy, but its well worth a watch. Hope to see more from Greg in the future.

Speakers Corner 1986 – What a Difference 27 Years Makes

The video above is from sometime in 1986 and is some of Syd Pearman’s ‘best of’ footage. I find it interesting for two reasons. One, it seems much more lively with relatively larger crowds than you’d find today. Two, there seems to be much more interaction between the speakers and the crowd than you find these days. What do you think?

SUBCITY – Black & White London Underground Video

Given that SUBCITY starts at Queen’s Park (on the Bakerloo Line) I thought now would be a good time to post it. It features lot of great Black & White sequences at various famous London stations such Baker Street, Liverpool Street, Waterloo, King’s Cross and Farringdon among others. Watch for several good lingering and timelapse shots.

Found via reddit.