London After Midnight is a free, open-source Gatsby starter for building image-centric portfolio and publishing sites, with built-in dark-theme recoloring and tag support.
What is London After Midnight?
London After Midnight is a custom, image-centric Gatsby starter theme derived from the London starter template, designed for publishers and portfolios that lead with visuals. It takes Gatsby site configuration and Markdown/MDX content as input and outputs a responsive static site with a blog and portfolio layout. It is released under the MIT license and can be deployed to Netlify with one click.
Key Features
- Tag support — unlike the base London theme, this starter supports tagging posts, making it easier to organize content into categories.
- Full recoloring for dark themes — every color value in the theme can be parameterized, so you can restyle the entire site, including dark variants, without editing individual files.
- Prism.js syntax highlighting — code blocks in posts are rendered with Prism.js highlighting out of the box.
- Korean and Japanese support — the starter includes typography and language handling for Korean and Japanese content.
- Parameterized colors — all colors are exposed as configurable variables, giving you direct control over the palette.
- Thumbnailless postcard format — the format for posts without thumbnail images has been changed from the original London design.
- Fully responsive layout — the theme adapts to different screen sizes and is free to use under MIT license.
Who is it for?
- Portfolio creators — showcase graphic work, photography, or design projects in a visual-first layout.
- Publishers — run an image-heavy blog or magazine with tag-based organization and syntax-highlighted code.
- Developers — customize a Gatsby starter with a fully parameterized color system and GraphQL data layer.
What can you do with London After Midnight?
- Photographers: publish a portfolio of high-resolution images in a responsive grid and write posts about individual shoots.
- Designers: use the dark-theme recoloring to match the site to a personal brand by changing only color variables.
- Technical bloggers: write posts with code snippets that get Prism.js highlighting, and organize them with tags.
How does London After Midnight work?
Create a new site by running npx gatsby new my-awesome-portfolio https://github.com/weensykim/gatsby-london-after-midnight, then start the development server with gatsby develop. The site runs at http://localhost:8000 with a GraphiQL explorer at http://localhost:8000/___graphql, and the browser hot-reloads when you edit pages.
FAQ
Is London After Midnight free?
Yes, the starter is released under the MIT license and is completely free to use for personal or commercial projects.
What makes it different from the original London starter?
It adds tag support, full recoloring for dark themes, Prism.js syntax highlighting, Korean and Japanese support, parameterized colors, and a changed format for thumbnailless postcards.
How do I deploy it to Netlify?
The repository includes a one-click Deploy to Netlify button that sets up a new Netlify site from the GitHub repository.
Does it support dark mode?
Yes, it has full recoloring for dark themes, meaning you can adjust all colors for a dark variant.
