Posted on 03/18/2010 6:47:11 AM PDT by C19fan
They are a remarkable window onto a bygone age. A snapshot of a city in transition - with horse-drawn carts and cobbled streets replaced by a booming industrial revolution.
Lost in the archives of English Heritage for 25 years, these never-before published images have now been compiled into a book. From Victorian London to the devastation of two world wars, they provide a unique record of a vanishing way of life in the capital.
Here, CLAIRE COHEN compares the London of a century ago with photographs taken at the same locations today.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I vote for central heat, indoor plumbing, electricity, draft free, rat free living. But that’s just me.
Sad to see some of those pictures and the ugly changes. There was one where in the old picture there was a view of a beautiful round building in the distance that was completely hidden by modern buildings in the second picture.
Where I live, we have a main street historical society and they allow all the modern amenities on the inside but the outside has to be left as it was originally or if repaired it has to look like the original.
I agree. The only time Prince Charles has said anything I agree with was the speech about ugly modern architecture.
One thing I can’t help but notice in many of the contrasted pair of pictures is how many more people there were interacting on the streets in the past. Entrepreneurial vendors with their carts full of wares, shopfronts that were geared towards attracting and serving pedestrian traffic, wider sidewalks, people interacting with each other - all the little things that lend a big city a sense of community... Seems we are so much more detached from one another now, it’s like we took all the human elements out of our society and have become more like a giant machine with each of us reduced to a mechanical component in the machinery of the economy. A handshake and a chat is just not as ‘efficient’ as email or text messaging, but maybe we’ve missed the point...
...that’s just my impression, what do I know?
Very romantically cool.
Thanks for posting.It got my mind off of Obama/Pelosi socialist take over for a few minutes.
WRT that last item: It used to be from horses’ bums. Now it’s just from bums.
Ping
It took us two months 100 towns and 13 states. Had a helluva time and was amazed at how some places, especially small towns, looked almost the same after 110 years.
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Thanks C19fan. |
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