Stunning Atmospheric Photographs of London Streets at Night in the 1930s

There was another London, before clean air, before the Blitz, before post-war reconstruction. It was a night time London.

These atmospheric images of London streets in the 1930s, before the Blitz, before the clean air act, before sodium lighting. It was a city of gloomy back streets lit by dim lamps, with forbidding alleys and the occasional welcoming light. The photographs are from a book called London Night, by John Morrison and Harold Burdekin, which was published in 1934.

Grange Street, the Strand. The original Charing Cross Hospital in the background.

The Gateway to the General Post Office

Middle Temple Hall

The Sanctuary, All Hallows, Lombard Street

Path outside St Paul’s Cathedral

The Royal Exchange

A street in the City

Villiers Street, Charing Cross

Cul-de-sac, Brompton Road

Black Raven Alley

Cottage Place, Brompton

55 Broadway, London Transport Headquarters

Essex Stairs Temple

Adelphi Arches, the Strand

St Bartholomew’s Hospital

(via The Library Time Machine)