City's best photos of 2022, as chosen by Peterborough Telegraph photographer David Lowndes - including prime minister visit

Freelance photographer David Lowndes is commissioned by the Peterborough Telegraph as a photo journalist – and has chosen his top 25 images of 2022.

After starting out as a photographic assistant working for the paper in September 1973, there isn’t much in Peterborough David hasn’t seen as he gears up to celebrate 50 years in the business.

But, we think it’s fair to say, that this year has been different from all others.

As Peterborough reared it’s head from lockdown, 2022 has been full of surprises and job bookings were put back on David’s diary in abundance from our journalists.

None of David’s days ever look the same, though.

He can be booked for a job taking photographs of a ‘cat house’ which was built at Tesco in Werrington (simply because the shoppers liked the cat) or he is told to drop everything last minute and dash over to cover a crime scene.

He said: “What a year that was, so many highs and lows. “Will we ever get a quiet time on the paper? “I doubt it.”

It’s hard to cast our minds back now to January 2022 as the city was still under Boris Johnson’s Government and Covid isolation measures were still in force.

On January 6, the prime minister himself made a last-minute visit to our very own office to talk about the future of the city before he travelled to the vaccine centre at Queensgate as the country were being told to get their booster jabs.

Political eyes were cast on the city when Liz Truss was on the campaign trail in Peterborough back in July as she started the final stage of her bid to become PM.

Speaking to The Peterborough Telegraph, Mrs Truss said she was “a big fan of Peterborough” and also pledged to come back if she was successful in her leadership bid.

A promise, it’s believed, she didn’t honour after resigning from office after just a mere seven weeks. It’s probably fair to say we won’t see her again in these parts any time soon.

Aside from politics, we’ve had a lot of fun as a city as we’ve thrown our arms open to welcoming back what we do best – hosting some of the best exhibitions, sports matches, beer festivals, concerts, and dancing.

Manchester City came to play at the bright lights at London Road in March, we celebrated Queen's platinum jubilee months before losing Her Majesty, students celebrated the opening of our new university in Peterborough and we all wilted during the hottest day on record.

Take a look at the next 25 photographs and soak up what’s been a rollercoaster of a jam-packed year for our growing city: