Saturday 11 February 2023

The Saturday List #396 - The Top Ten Tweets by the NW London TimeMachine @time_nw local history twitter feed

 This week, the North West London Time Machine account passed 5,000 views! If you don't follow it you should. It has spent four years publishing some of the most amazing historical pictures of North West London and has rightly become an account that anyone who has even a passing interest in our North West London community follows. It doesn't do stunts, boast or promote itself. It simply posts interesting content about our area. It epitomises what a local Twitter account should be. 

 This account has become an amazing resource. Although I take no credit for it's success, this is 100% down to the hard work of Mr Mark Amies, the BBC Radio London Industrial Historian, I think I can claim a small tad of credit with regards to the creation of the site. I was having a conversation about what local Twitter accounts should do if they want to be genuinely successful. Myself and Mark both believe that an account should primarily post interesting content. Mark said that he was convinced that an account that simply posted good content on a regular basis would soon gain a large following, just based on word of mouth. He set up @Time_NW to prove this. 

Within a very short period of time, it exceeded both his and my expectations. This genesis has almost been forgotten as the account has developed into a brilliant example of what's good about Twitter. Now as regular readers will know, the account regularly features in our tweets of the week. This is not because Mark is a mate, or because I have a stake (I don't). It is because it is wonderful. So I thought, as the account passed 5,000, which was a milestone we discussed in the early days, I'd have a look at the best tweets that the account has published. I must add that on many of Marks posts, the discussion they spark are even better than the original tweet and even better pictures pop up. 

What is not to like? So here we go. In chronological order.

1. So lets start at the beginning. The very first post to appear in the Tweets of the week back in April 2019. I did wonder what it would be like and it's pretty damn good!


2. By June, the account was getting great traction and engagement. This tweet about the Expresss Dairys bottling plant in Cricklewood is a good example


3. One theme that Mark is keen on is ariel pictures, which again spark wonderful debates. This is a great example from November 2019


4. Mark has a fascination with the history of aviation in NW London. This is one of many great tweets. A great example of the work put into his tweeting


5. On feature of Mark's work is threads of several tweets. This is a great example


6.


7. One theme Mark likes to develop is to clear up little local puzzles, often using drawings from the pre-photography period.


8. Sometimes Mark finds wonderful pictures of buildings that you'd forgotten. This is one such example from August 2021. I can remember going there with my Dad as a nipper. Have to be honest, this isn't how I recall it!


9. Another great theme in Mark's tweeting is local film locations. This is a rather good one from July 2022, as he pulls in the local film studios as well. STirling work!


10. And finally, the most recent tweet to feature. This is the first in a long chain, which is well worth a look



And finally, thanks to Mark. I hope that if you haven't done so already, you have been persuaded to follow his account! He puts in a lot of work and I don't think you'll find a better local account to keep an eye on.

That's all folks!

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