A blog – with photographs comparing places, monuments, locations, transport, and people across the years.
A photograph of an entrance to St. James’s Palace, taken from St. James’s Street. Two guards are posted outside and the street appears to be unmade. I don’t know the date of the photograph but would assume it to be the 1910s.
Image: Photographer unknown
The same view in February 2022.
Image: ©TimeViews Steven Miell
Opened in March 1958 by The Duke of Edinburgh, the London Planetarium occupied the site of a cinema which had been destroyed in WW2. It had an audience capacity of over 320. The dome was 18 meters in diameter and the venue showed the audience a show based on a view of the night sky as seen from earth. Various updates to the equipment were introduced until it was announced (in January 2006) that it was to be renamed ‘the Auditorium’ and would have entertainment shows, rather than astronomical presentations.
Image: Photographer unknown (1660s)
This view from the same spot was taken in January 2022.
Image: © TimeViews Steven Miell
St Mary le Strand in Strand, London. I assume that this photograph was taken in the 1930s, or possibly earlier. The church is situated at the eastern end of Strand in the City of Westminster. It stands on what was (until August 2022) a traffic island, north of Somerset House.
The church is the second to have been called St Mary le Strand, the first was a short distance to the south. The date of its foundation is unclear but it was mentioned in a judgment in 1222. The site occupied by this church (construction began in 1714) was formerly occupied by a maypole – the centre of May Day festivities during the 16th and 17th centuries. The pole had severely decayed by the early 18th century. The church was finally consecrated on January 1st 1724.
The church had been threatened with demolition at the beginning of the 20th century, and avoided destruction during the London Blitz in WW2 – although there was some damage from a nearby bomb.
The church in January 2023. The traffic island has been replaced by a pedestrian zone.
Image:© TimeViews Steven Miell
Looking south from Kingsway, this view of Bush House in Aldwych shows an entrance to the old underground tram station which emerged at the other end of Kingsway.
Image: Photographer unknown (1930s)
A view from the same position in January 2023.
Image: © TimeViews Steven Miell
This photograph was taken around 1866 and Bayswater station was opened on October 1st., 1868. It was initially used by steam trains operated by Metropolitan Railway – which became the Metropolitan lines. Construction of the railway line required the excavation of a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel. In Leinster Gardens, the frontages of two houses which were demolished to make way for the line were reconstructed to restore the appearance of a terrace of houses. The station has had a number on names over the years – Bayswater (Queen’s Road & Westbourne Grove (1926), Bayswater (Queen’s Road) (1933), Bayswater (Queensway) (1946) and finally Bayswater, when the suffix was gradually dropped.
The same view in November 2022.
Image: © TimeViews Steven Miell
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