From Roman Londinium to the modern financial district, the City of London has been shaped by the people who live, work, trade and build here over millennia. City of London Magazine wants to make sure the next chapter is told by them too.
There are few places in Britain where history feels quite as close as it does in the City of London.
Walk through the Square Mile and almost every street seems to lead into another century.
Roman London lies beneath modern offices. Medieval lanes still shape parts of the street plan. Ancient churches sit beside glass towers. Livery companies continue traditions stretching back hundreds of years, while some of the world’s most modern financial, legal and technology businesses operate only a few minutes away.
It is an extraordinary place precisely because it has never stood still.
The City has survived fire, plague, war, economic upheaval and enormous changes in the way London works. Each generation has rebuilt, adapted and added something new.
And behind all of that history have always been people.
Merchants and apprentices. Craftspeople and clergy. Dockers and bankers. Publicans, printers, shopkeepers, office workers, residents, students, entrepreneurs and visitors.
That human story is what City of London Magazine wants to keep telling.
More than a financial district
Around the world, the City of London is instantly associated with finance.
That reputation is deserved.
The Square Mile remains one of the world’s most important centres for banking, insurance, law and professional services.
But anyone who spends time here knows there is much more to the City than markets and office towers.
There are churches and gardens hidden between buildings.
Independent cafés serving people who have been coming through the same doors for years.
Historic pubs tucked down lanes that can easily be missed.
Markets, museums, galleries, schools, charities, community organisations and cultural institutions.
There are residents who know their streets intimately and workers who spend much of their lives here.
There are hundreds of organisations making decisions, building businesses, restoring buildings, supporting communities and creating things every day.
Those stories deserve somewhere to be told.
Local news should still feel human
News about the City can sometimes become dominated by numbers.
Markets rise.
Companies merge.
Buildings are valued.
Deals are completed.
Economic figures are published.
Those stories matter, but they are not the only way to understand a place.
Behind every organisation is a person.
Behind every new business is somebody who took a risk.
Behind every restored building are people who cared enough to protect it.
Behind every charity are volunteers and staff trying to improve somebody’s life.
Behind every cultural event are organisers, performers, artists and audiences.
We want City of London Magazine to bring more of those people into the story.
That means reporting on what is happening here while making sure the City never becomes an abstract collection of institutions, buildings and statistics.
The Square Mile has one of the richest histories of any urban area in the world.
Its modern stories should feel just as alive.
A place that has always depended on exchange
The City has been built on connections for centuries.
Goods.
Ideas.
Skills.
Money.
Information.
People arriving from elsewhere and adding something of their own.
That openness is part of what made London what it became.
We think local media should work in much the same way.
A publication becomes more interesting when the people who know a place are able to contribute to it.
Not only professional journalists.
Not only large organisations.
Not only people with a press office.
Everyone.
That is why City of London Magazine is open to submissions from anybody with a genuine story connected to the City.
You can tell us what is happening
Perhaps your organisation is doing something remarkable but nobody outside your immediate circle knows about it.
Maybe you have opened an independent business.
Your team has reached an important milestone.
A historic building is being given a new purpose.
A charity needs volunteers.
A community group has achieved something worth recognising.
You are organising an exhibition, lecture, concert or public event.
You know somebody whose contribution to the City deserves to be celebrated.
Or perhaps there is simply a fascinating story hidden in one of those streets that thousands of people walk through every day without noticing.
Tell us.
You do not need to know an editor first.
You do not need to write in newspaper language.
And you do not need to make an ordinary local story sound like a national crisis to get our attention.
If it matters to people in the City of London, that is enough reason for us to consider it.
A more open route into local publishing
City of London Magazine uses magazine.ad to manage editorial submissions.
The principle behind it is straightforward.
Instead of trying to find the right email address, sending attachments into an inbox and wondering whether anybody has seen them, contributors can submit a story through one editorial platform.
You can write or upload the story, include photographs, provide the relevant details and select City of London Magazine for consideration.
The submission can then move through editorial review in a structured way.
For people who only ever submit one story, it provides a simple route into the publication.
For charities, institutions, businesses, cultural organisations and communications professionals who regularly have stories to share, it provides a much more organised way of working with local magazines.
Most importantly, it creates a clearer connection between the person who knows the story and the editor who can help publish it.
Genuine local news is welcome
There is also an important distinction between journalism and advertising.
Commercial promotion has its place and paid opportunities are available for organisations that require them.
But genuine news and community stories do not need to begin with a marketing budget.
If something genuinely interesting, useful or newsworthy is happening within the City, it can be submitted for editorial consideration.
That might come from one of the world’s largest companies.
It might come from a resident.
Both should be judged first on whether there is a worthwhile story to tell.
Professional without becoming impersonal
The City of London is a professional environment.
City of London Magazine should reflect that.
We want accurate information, credible organisations, well-told stories and serious local journalism.
But professional should never have to mean cold.
Some of the most memorable business stories are ultimately about individuals.
Some of the best historical stories begin with tiny details.
Some of the most interesting developments in the City are not interesting because of how much they cost, but because of what they change for the people around them.
Our aim is to combine the professionalism expected of a publication covering the Square Mile with the curiosity and humanity that makes local journalism worth reading.
History is still being made here
It is easy to think of the history of the City as something finished.
Roman walls.
Medieval guilds.
The Great Fire.
Christopher Wren.
St Paul’s Cathedral.
Old maps displayed behind glass.
But history does not stop because somebody has written a book about it.
The office opening this morning may still be here in fifty years.
The building being restored today may become part of somebody else’s heritage.
A small business beginning in the Square Mile could eventually become an institution.
A community project that seems modest now may influence what the City becomes.
The people walking these streets today are part of the same continuing story as everyone who walked them before.
That is what makes local news so interesting.
It is history before anyone knows which parts will become historic.
Help us tell the next chapter
City of London Magazine cannot know every story happening across the Square Mile.
No publication can.
But the people who live and work here collectively do.
That is why we want contributors to become part of the publication.
Businesses.
Residents.
Charities.
Historians.
Cultural organisations.
Schools and universities.
Livery companies.
Professional bodies.
Artists.
Community groups.
Photographers.
Visitors with something genuinely interesting to share.
And people who simply know a good story when they see one.
The City of London has spent almost two millennia being built, rebuilt, argued over, traded through, celebrated and written about.
There are still thousands of stories left to tell.
If you know one of them, we would like to hear it.
Submit your story through magazine.ad and select City of London Magazine.
The Square Mile has always been shaped by people. Its news should be too.