East London Lines

When the East London Line extension finally does open next year it will make a big difference not just to how people move around London but perhaps to how they perceive the city. By directly linking Croydon and Hackney (or at least Dalston) via Brockley and New Cross it could generate a sense of East London that crosses the river. Today when people talk about East London they generally mean the Eastern part of the city north of the Thames, whereas in Victorian times for instance, Deptford was often described as being in East London.

Anyway ahead of the curve on this shift is EastLondonLines, 'an independent news website produced by students and staff of Goldsmiths, University of London. It will be the virtual shadow of the new East London Line, connecting communities in virtual space, just as the new line connects them in physical space'. What this means in practice is that it is a news site covering Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Croydon.

They've already run some good local stories, including one on health inequalities: 'life expectancy in Lewisham is still below the national average... Department of Health figures reveal that a baby girl born and bred in Kensington and Chelsea can expect to live up to 8 years longer than one in Lewisham, where female life expectancy averages around 80'.