Yet more montages of old images superimposed on modern views of the same scenes (I love these!). This time it's the Museum of London that has released images of London street scenes from yesteryear and today. I find the one of Foyle's Bookshop in Charing Cross Road particularly poignant ...



People and traffic in Oxford Street around the turn of the 20th century (Pic: Museum of London)


An exterior shot of the completed Gloucester Road Station on the underground Metropolitan and District Railway, which was opened on 3 October 1868 (Pic: Museum of London)


A street seller of sherbert and water is photographed on Cheapside completely unaware of the camera (Pic: The Estate of Paul Martin)


A 1902 view of Duncannon Street decorated with bunting and banners for the coronation ceremony of Edward VII (Pic: Museum of London)


A view of Bow Lane, off Cheapside in the City of London, looking south to the crossing with Watling Street and St Mary Aldermary in the middle distance (Pic: Museum of London)


Blackfriars station entrance from outside 179 Queen Victoria Street c.1930 (Pic: Museum of London)


A street scene in London's Covent Garden with the underground station and a horse and cart in the background (Pic: Museum of London)


A view of the forecourt of the Southern Railway's terminus at London Bridge (Pic: Museum of London)


A view from the west side of Tower Bridge, George Davison Reid, composed this photo looking out across the 'Upper Pool' c.1930 (Pic: Museum of London)


This photograph shows Byward Street near Tower Hill c1930 (Pic: Museum of London)


An evening street scene outside Foyles book shop on Charing Cross Road, c.1935 (Pic: Wolf Suschitzky/Museum of London)


1950 - Boy shining shoes outside the Tea Room at Victoria station. A group of porters can be seen with their trolleys waiting to help travellers with their luggage (Pic: Henry Grant Collection/Museum of London)


Piccadilly Circus on Coronation Day, 2 June 1953. Crowds gather to witness the Coronation procession of Elizabeth II (Pic: Wolf Suschitzky/Museum of London)


People sunbathing in Hyde Park in 1956 with Marble Arch and the Odeon cinema in the background (Pic: Museum of London)


1957 This photograph captures the view north up Brick Lane in Spitalfields, close to the markets. Some of the textile businesses can be seen (Pic: Roger Mayne/Museum of London)


A night shot outside the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, before an evening's performance. 1958 (Pic: Estate of Bob Collins/Museum of London)

Superb photos - something very eerie about them, too.

I know this is a bit of right-brainer nonsense, but the pictures made me think of a the opening of T.S. Eliot's Burnt Norton:


Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.

Apparently some boffins are now saying that it is feasible to travel faster than the speed of light (they've done the sums), and that one day we will be able to have photographs/images of events that happened a couple or more thousand of years ago. Photos of London then and now from 60ADish? A Roman edition of Hello! magazine? One's mind is all a-boggle.

Could make trials faster and easier.