A lone soul, whose passion for the heritage of Bangalore has no bounds, has got into the act of chronicling this City. Ronnie Johnson walks the length and breadth of the City with his camera and makes a praiseworthy effort to capture its history for posterity. 
This venture has resulted in him creating a rare archive on Bangalore, a website called geocities.com/ronniejohnson. It presents the story of Bangalore's past and is used as a reference by many who try to trace their roots to the City. It has write-ups on buildings, parks and monuments along with criticisms about the present urbanisation drive. 
Speaking about the place he holds so dear, Johnson says, “Bangalore is a city that’s always in transition. The change was slow from the 1950s’ to the late 1960s’, but after that, it has transformed at a lightning pace.”
Johnson’s first love was music but a chance reading of T P Issar‘s book ‘City Beautiful’ inspired him to work on the heritage buildings here. And since then, Johnson has been doing it with a fervour that makes his work more than a mere hobby. This enthusiast is racing against time in a City where rapid growth also means rapid need for space. Spacious bungalows have been converted into multi-storeyed apartments and Jonhson rushes to places where buildings are to be demolished and takes pictures of them. He has even gone to the extent of placing advertisements in newspapers requesting the owners or concerned authorities to inform him before they demolish a building so that he could capture its last moments. It has, however, been a futile exercise.
Johnson laments this kind of callousness on the part of the public and feels that this very attitude is responsible for the loss of a City’s history and heritage. He is yet to get over the total destruction of the War Memorial opposite the Hudson church in 1964 and fears a similar fate awaits the memorial at Minsk Square due to the impending Metro Rail project.
Ronnie has also chronicled the history behind the City’s cemeteries and has unravelled certain stories of the past which have connections with prime spots in the City. His latest work is on the almost 200-year old cemetery at Agram in AC Centre where fallen British soldiers from pre-independence were buried.
When asked about City roads, Johnson shares a very thought-provoking comment. “They were meant for horse carriages and have not been improved upon since then.”