Populist 2008

A new year's eve pick and mix of our most popular and favourite posts of the year - linking up a mere smattering of our content. Putting it together reminded us what an amazing 12 months it's been. As hinted, 2009 is going to be big, as long as we continue to please you. So do keep reading, commenting and giving us feedback. We're nothing without you.

Thank you for your support in 2008 and bring on the New Year - we're ready!

In the news:

• We found ourselves first on the scene of the Camden fire in February as it burned through Canal Market and gutted the infamous Hawley Arms. The blaze was caused by a small heater that had been left on in a trader's stall. The Hawley Arms has now reopened and celebrated by putting Razorlight on the roof. Unfortunately, they didn't fall off.

• In May we got a new Mayor, Boris Johnson. He made his mark with Etonian notions for youth violence, banning booze on public transport and wiff-waff waffling in Beijing. Watch out for Ken Livingstone, though, he's out but not down.

• Economic doom and gloom dogged the news for the second half of the year and Recessionist was born, to popular acclaim, and our very own shopkeeper brought the trials and tribulations of the urban corner shop to the fore.

• Resourceful as ever, we managed to Londonise coverage of the Beijing Olympics, profiling our local stars and and letting you know when they were on. Post handover, we're all about 2012 as venues go up, budgets get cut and culture and legacy abound as keywords.

• US election fever infected us and we stayed up all night liveblogging the results from a central London bar.

• Heathrow Terminal 5 opened to incomprehensible chaos while Westfield gave us a reason to visit White City and and also bequeathed west London a new tube station too.

• Crossrail finally got the green light and Boris launched a bus design competition, with the winner mashing 2 designs together.

Check out the news archives for much, much more.

What was hot:

• We thanked our lucky stars for the opportunity to ride in an airship over London on a beautiful summer's day and also followed SS Robin on its way out of the Thames to dry dock for repair.

• Tube Lines let us Underground in the middle of the night and we nosed into the bowels of the British Library. Helpful for our subterranean map.

• Architecture criticism reached another level with our appraisal of Frank Gehry's wonderful summer Serpentine pavilion while the artsy types saw many strange, abusive, dramatic, erotic, Londony, occasionally disappointing and often wonderful things. Camden Fringe nearly finished us off with its alarmingly diverse and hectic programme which we loved.

• Our musos were all over Meltdown, out and about at the big gigs: Radiohead, Coldplay, Muse and Nelson Mandela's birthday party and stage diver dodging at the grubbier, more eclectic ones too. We even had a go ourselves, letting rip at a karaoke bar, murdering many classic hits and simultaneously discovering outrageous musical talent in our midst.

• BYO restaurants seemed appealing to our thin wallets although we spent a fair wedge on sandwiches and still went down the pub as much as ever.

For more browse the Arts & Events and Food & Drink archives.

Images clockwise from top left: Cans Festival, pants at St Pancras, Notting Hill Carnival, STYLEist on Carnaby Street. Keep track of our most popular posts by checking out Favourites or using the Populist tag.