Roman Road LDN is a online community published by not-for-profit media organisation Social Streets C.I.C. It provides daily content about the area around Roman Road in East London. Our patch includes Bow, Globe Town, Fish Island, Mile End and Stepney – about 50,000 local residents.
Tabitha Stapely
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
2016 to present
Tabitha is the founder and director of Social Streets C.IC, the not-for-profit news and media organisation that publishes Roman Road LDN. She has worked as a magazine editor at several top publishing houses, including Hearst Magazines where she lead on digital content strategy for titles including Elle, Red, Esquire, Handbag and Harpers, and previously The Telegraph Saturday Magazine. Stapely was Chair then CEO of Roman Road Trust from 2013 to 2018 and has extensive experience of local governance, neighbourhood forums and community capacity building.
Ellie MacInnes
NEW BUSINESS & MARKETING ASSISTANT
July 2022 to present
Ellie MacInnes is a law graduate, graduating from Dublin City University in 2021 with a focus on gender, asylum and international law. Following her passion for social justice MacInnes briefly worked at Ireland’s Department of Justice before joining Social Streets C.I.C to support its mission of using journalism to strengthen the local community. Growing up in rural Donegal, MacInnes understands the value of community and the stories that shape local identities.
Polly Nash
DEPUTY EDITOR
Digital Editor Journalism Graduate Scheme
September 2022 to present
Polly is a print journalist who studied English Literature and History at the University of Edinburgh, and MA International Journalism at City, University of London. In her spare time Polly volunteers as a correspondent for EarthRefuge, the world’s first legal think-tank dedicated to climate migrants. She hopes to share the stories and experiences of lesser-heard voices in the local community, and also enjoys writing lifestyle and culture pieces. See all work by Polly Nash
George Hayes
INTERN
December 2022 to present
George is a British-Thai journalist who graduated with an MA and BA degrees in English Literature from the University of Leeds. He qualified with a gold standard in his NCTJ diploma in multimedia journalism, during which he developed a keen interest in stories about British politics, social class, and world news, especially in his native Thailand. George’s ambition in journalism is to write articles that challenge readers’ views without alienating them. He hopes to develop his feature writing to fully and accurately represent the everyday problems people face that are often omitted in news bulletins. See all work by George Hayes.
Want to work with us? As a social enterprise, we have an entirely educational editorial floor providing a mixture of training and work to people starting their careers in journalism, including opportunities exclusively for local young people. Read more about Social Streets C.I.C opportunities here, including internships, academic placements, citizen journalism and our Digital Editor Trainee and Leadership programmes.
Previous staff, interns, and work placement students
Victoria Miller, Editor
After working in the charity sector, Victoria Miller transitioned into journalism. She graduated with an MA in Magazine Journalism from City University in 2021 before joining Roman Road LDN as part of our Digital Editor Leadership Scheme, leaving as Editor in December 2022. See all work by Victoria Miller.
Panayiota Demosthenous, Intern
Goldsmiths University MA Television Journalism graduate Yioda Demosthenous joined the Roman Road LDN team as an intern for three months from May 2022 to July 2022. She has a particular interest in the analysis and coverage of identities, whether that’s gender, race, culture or sexuality. See all work by Panayiota Demosthenous.
Polly Nash, Intern
City of London International Journalism MA student Polly Nash undertook a four-month placement from January 2022 to April 2022. See all work by Polly Nash.
Atiya Chowdhury, Work Placement
City of London Journalism MA student Atiya Choudhury undertook a two-week placement with us as part of her studies. See all work by Atiya Chowdhury.
Oyin Osin, Intern
Oyin graduated from the University of Warwick and joined us for a three-month internship from September 2021. Oyin’s work has also appeared in Black Ballad magazine, where she writes about the daily experiences of Black women in modern Britain with the hopes to educate others on racism and misogynoir. See all work by Oyin Osin.
Evie Breese, Editorial Assistant
Evie graduated from Goldsmith’s University with an MA in Journalism and joined in March 2021. She left in Ocober 2021 to become Digital Reporter at the Big Issue. See all work by Evie Breese.
Anna Lamche, Intern
Anna graduated from UCL with a first in English Literature in 2020 and joined us as an intern from April to July 2021. She went on to become a Reporter for the Islington Tribune. See all work by Anna Lamche.
Natasha Shah, Partners and Patrons Manager
Natasha Shah ran her own creative agency for ten years before joining us as Partners and Patrons Manager. She established our Partners, Patrons and Pubilcation ecosystem and lead our crowdfunding campaign in November 2022 successfully raising £15,000.
Tom McGhie, Intern
Tom graduated from Goldsmiths with an MA in Journalism and joined us as an intern between January and March 2021. is now a Digital Reporter at Boat International Media. See all work by Tom McGhie.
Siva Thangarajah, Editorial Assistant
Siva graduated with a MA in International Journalism from City University in 2018. She joined us as Editorial Assistant in December 2019 and was promoted to Commissioning Editor. Siva left in December 2020 to become Digital Communications Officer at Imix. See all work by Siva Thangarajah.
Grace Boyle, Intern
Grace graduated from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017, where she trained as an actor. She joined us as an intern for three months between September 2020 and November 2020 following a newly discovered passion for sharing stories in the written form. See all work by Grace Boyle.
Edna Bannor, Work Placement
We first met Edna Bannor, a Year Eleven student at Bishop Challenor School in Shadwell, when she took part in our Mad About Grime project, a youth project designed to give insights into the media industry to local young people. Enthused about reporting on politics Edna then undertook a work placement with us the following year and is now studying politics at university.
Francesca Lister-Fell, Intern
Francesca graduated in English Literature from The University of Edinburgh in 2019 and joined us as an intern in 2020 from September to November, an extra-long internship due to the pandemic. She went on to do an MA in Journalism at City University in 2020 and now works as a reporter at Welwyn Hatfield Times. See all work by Francesca Lister-Fell.
Atifah Chowdhury, Work Placement
Atifah Chowdhury, student at Mulberry UTC in Bow, undertook a two-week work placement to get hands on experience in the creative and media industries.
Anna Lezard, Intern
Anna graduated with an MA in New Media and Digital Culture and joined us an an intern in March 2018. She was promoted to Social Media Assistant and helped developed the website giving her taste for coding. She left in December 2019 is now a qualified website developer. See all work by Anna Lezard.
Fred O’Brien, Editorial Assistant
Fred joined us in 2018 as Editorial Assistant while completing his NCTJ in Multimedia Journalism. He worked for Roman Road LDN between November 2018 and November 2019. He is now a software engineer for The Guardian. See all work by Fred O-Brien.
Scarlet Hannington, Intern
Scarlet graduated with First Class Honours in 2018 and joined us as an intern from November to February in 2019 and is now pursuing a career as a freelance journalist. See all work by Scarlet Hannington.
Natasha Forrest, Intern
Natasha Forrest graduated in English Literature graduate from Queen Mary University of London 2018 and joined us as an intern in 2019 from January to March. She is now Editorial Assistant at The Cultural Me. See all work by Natasha Forrest.
Dominkia Kubinyova, Intern
Dominika Kubinyova graduated from City University in 2018 where she did her MA in Magazine Journalism. After her internship here between September 2018 and December 2018, she pursued her interest in fashion journalism and is now Copywriter for French Connection. See all work by Dominika Kubinyova
Megan Agnew, Intern
Megan was a graduate of City University where she did her MA in Magazine Journalism. After interning at Roman Road LDN from May 2018 to July 2018 she went on to the Sunday Times Magazine. See all work by Megan Agnew.