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Now and Then
As it was: These photos compare London as it is now with how it was 100 years ago
The interactive graphic from Expedia places London as it was 100 years ago side by side with how it looks in modern times.
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LONDON IS A TERRIFIC city – steeped in culture, good food, and things to do. It’s also enormous.
But have you ever wanted to know what the English capital was like in the past? Well, now you can find out – thanks to a new interactive map that shows users what parts of the city looked like up to over a century ago.
The Historic London graphic from Expedia UK allows users to explore the history of 14 areas in the British capital, including Whitehall, Clapham, Stockwell, Cheapside, and Brixton.Photos of tourist spots like Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Street, as well as landmarks such as Westminster Abbey, and Harrods are also featured.The graphic was created using Google Street View technology, which provides modern-day footage of the city, overlaid with photos of London from over 100 years ago.
Expedia worked on the project “in order to show just how many glimpses of untouched, historic beauty are still visible today”, according to a press release from the travel booking site.
Check out a series of side-by-side photos from the graphic that show parts of London as they look today compared to how they did in the past.
Oxford Circus is just as busy today as it was in 1904, but the buildings and the vehicles on Oxford Street look vastly different.
The area surrounding Harrods is now full of shops like Carphone Warehouse; back in 1904, there appears to have been a bakery shop in its place.
Hyde Park doesn’t look as elegant as it used to in the 1920s.
Even Covent Garden has changed. Here it is in 1905.
Fleet Street still has a gorgeous view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, but the bridge that was standing in the photo from 1890 is no longer there. One of the historical buildings is also now home to a mobile phone shop and artisan cafe.
Piccadilly Circus has become even more commercial, with retail giants like The Gap replacing the small off-licence shops that were there in 1949.
From the roads and buildings to the modes of transport used to travel across it, Cheapside has changed immensely. Here’s a photo of the famous road from 1909.
Now, check out the interactive graphic from Expedia here.
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