A magical picture of 1949 London.

wiqi1 · 2012-09-02T14:33:00+00:00

Present & Past

MasterNyx · 2012-09-02T14:10:54+00:00

SMOKE.

i-need-space · 2012-09-02T13:09:23+00:00

Piccadilly Circus. Everything has changed except that lamp post

jokkeje · 2012-09-02T14:31:06+00:00

Here it is in higher resolution

shpongledsummer · 2012-09-02T13:08:08+00:00

whenever i see pictures of london I am reminded that it was the center of the world for over a century. I dunno it just seems so powerful.

Arctorius · 2012-09-02T14:12:47+00:00

Back when individuality meant wearing a brown trench coat instead of a black one.

diecastjohnson · 2012-09-02T09:37:32+00:00

Nice! Was it color film or colorized?

usedtowork · 2012-09-02T13:27:28+00:00

I can practically taste the soot

bctTamu · 2012-09-02T14:08:07+00:00

I want a Goldflake Cigarette

hdskjahdkjsa · 2012-09-02T13:52:57+00:00

Actually refreshing to see a big cigarette ad.

whoduhhelru · 2012-09-02T14:27:47+00:00

It's amazing to realize that this was only four years after WW2. Wasn't London bombed like crazy then?

PhazonZim · 2012-09-02T14:23:23+00:00

It's very beautiful. I thought for a second to say "I wish I could time travel and visit" but then I realised I'm not white, male or even straight so it'd be a pretty shitty place for me to be.

Stachow · 2012-09-02T14:22:03+00:00

This picture is older than the internet. Zing!

justanearthling · 2012-09-02T15:26:22+00:00

And here's the view now: http://i45.tinypic.com/2pzbv2w.png

Alpharmonic · 2012-09-02T10:02:25+00:00

God, everything is so British

Okrean · 2012-09-02T12:21:36+00:00

Imagine what it will be like in another 60 years...

SimilarImage · 2012-09-02T11:30:24+00:00

Age	User	Title	Reddit	Cmnt	Points
3 months	andystrummer	London, 1949	here	566	1902
9 months	RonaldReagansPenis	London in 1949	here	167	922
1 year	atomicspace	West End London, 1949, Piccadilly Circus looking up Shaftsbury Avenue	here	111	559

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machinedog · 2012-09-02T14:06:11+00:00

The most amazing thing about this photograph is the amount of advertisement on everything. Look at London today, much classier and cleaner city.

Deathalicious · 2012-09-02T13:48:09+00:00

It's actually not that magical. The nature of photography is well understood, and is based on solid science.

Billionaire_Bot · 2012-09-02T14:11:11+00:00

I wonder which shop sells wonka bars

2012-09-02T14:18:31+00:00

[deleted]

ARCHA1C · 2012-09-02T14:27:55+00:00

Looks pretty good for having been bombed heavily just a few years prior.

v4xN0s · 2012-09-02T15:06:09+00:00

I see your 1949 London and raise you my 1948 London

sonofthewear · 2012-09-02T13:22:51+00:00

Wish it still looked like that

ms1987 · 2012-09-02T13:51:18+00:00

I kinda want a smoke

wisoka · 2012-09-02T14:31:48+00:00

How many times do i have to see this picture posted in a month?

raheelp · 2012-09-02T13:57:32+00:00

Anyone have a picture of area today ?

bungopony · 2012-09-02T14:19:15+00:00

Tuppence for a bootblack, guv'ner?

simpo690 · 2012-09-02T14:20:01+00:00

Wow, that's a great photograph!

Error2k · 2012-09-02T14:20:07+00:00

Looks just like Belfast today..

PoopManMcGee · 2012-09-02T14:25:25+00:00

Fixed_That_For_You must have been here

harvus1 · 2012-09-02T14:25:49+00:00

Everyone is so dapper. I can hear Cole Porter playing in the background.

Dietrik · 2012-09-02T14:26:08+00:00

for a second i thought this was juno, alaska.

Redh_ · 2012-09-02T14:27:21+00:00

This is tobacco companies advertising.

sleepyhead12 · 2012-09-02T14:28:28+00:00

Damn it looks fun though.

StickyGreens · 2012-09-02T14:29:25+00:00

Look at all dem rims! (I mean seriously, they look slick)

echelon5 · 2012-09-02T14:29:56+00:00

Would anyone know how to make this into a poster or something. I showed my mum and she want to hang it up some where in the house

verboks · 2012-09-02T14:30:58+00:00

Look at the rims, FRESH TO DEATH.

DeerOnTheRocks · 2012-09-02T14:31:05+00:00

Cool

eire1228 · 2012-09-02T14:35:15+00:00

Still have the same buses

Meowkit · 2012-09-02T14:35:20+00:00

It's so nice and different... and brown.

teh_killer · 2012-09-02T14:35:54+00:00

give me a cigarette, good sir

LoneWave · 2012-09-02T14:36:21+00:00

Magical , how romantic.

SkidmarkInMyUndies · 2012-09-02T14:36:34+00:00

Am I crazy or are those steering wheels on the left side? Did it use to be that way in England?

Danielhibbs · 2012-09-02T14:37:38+00:00

Stereotype dictates it still looks like this.

NCRider · 2012-09-02T14:38:36+00:00

...and pretty soon that shop will close and they'll turn it into something really depressing, like a Baby Gap.

[looks at Google Street View]

It IS a Baby Gap.

aakaakaak · 2012-09-02T14:39:10+00:00

How long has it been since this was reposted? I haven't seen it in a few months.

ThisAverageGuy · 2012-09-02T14:40:08+00:00

For all you fellow Londoners.

/r/London

Lonehangman · 2012-09-02T14:40:24+00:00

Wait...when did colour photos and videos first pop up, I unfortunately never got taught about the history of technology. Too busy learning about religion :/

Big_Lex · 2012-09-02T14:40:47+00:00

first thing I noticed was the lack of women

BigG123 · 2012-09-02T14:41:16+00:00

Looks soo...bland..

TheEdgemerian · 2012-09-02T14:41:53+00:00

I usually associate the symbol on the back of those cars with a funeral procession.

IArgueWithAtheists · 2012-09-02T14:42:20+00:00

I assumed a lot more men would be wearing fedoras. Where are all the fedoras?

StupidButSerious · 2012-09-02T14:45:01+00:00

Anyone has a "now" picture so we can compare?

HeresToTheCrazyOnes · 2012-09-02T14:45:30+00:00

I stood in that very spot and looked at that photo. I think it has just as much personality now as it did then, but because we're used to giant digital screens and modern shops, we appreciate the version from back then more.

Flash_Mob_Fisting · 2012-09-02T14:45:45+00:00

Smashing!

lizardwizardboy97 · 2012-09-02T14:45:47+00:00

wooooow is so life amazxing :)

klurff · 2012-09-02T14:46:09+00:00

now i want a cigarette

bkills1986 · 2012-09-02T14:47:02+00:00

I love old pictures like this. A simple street scene. Does anyone else know where to (SMOKE) find pictures similar to this?

SMB73 · 2012-09-02T14:47:33+00:00

Anyone else think an Austin Powers song and dance here seems strangely appropriate?

CarriedBy6 · 2012-09-02T14:49:11+00:00

Goodbye Kodachrome. Your nice bright colors will be missed.

CerebralFX · 2012-09-02T14:50:34+00:00

Bullshit. London was in Black and White back then. Everyone knows that.

whazmyname · 2012-09-02T14:54:38+00:00

Wills Goldflake Cigarettes, still one of the best selling cigarettes in India

iTakebigpoops · 2012-09-02T14:54:50+00:00

love it when re-re-re-reposts make it to the front page

Twoll · 2012-09-02T14:55:00+00:00

fucking reposts.

xeonrage · 2012-09-02T14:55:03+00:00

Oh, this again.

playdohplaydate · 2012-09-02T14:56:30+00:00

i was hoping for a wizard or something to make this magical :(

SuuperSal · 2012-09-02T14:56:55+00:00

Imagine forgeting where you parked your car...in 1949.

Mr_Trofl · 2012-09-02T14:57:04+00:00

May I ask you, is this a recolour of a black and white photo?

A_British_Gentleman · 2012-09-02T15:01:53+00:00

What I love about London is while the cars and shop fronts look completely different, when you look up a the buildings, they all still look like this. Many cities in the UK keep so many signs of their past, you just have to look for it.

bumblingmumbling · 2012-09-02T15:02:25+00:00

Are you sure that is London? Everyone is white.

choof3199 · 2012-09-02T15:02:29+00:00

Smoking was awesome back in the day

Poedditor · 2012-09-02T15:02:54+00:00

A somewhat less magical picture of 1949 Berlin.

http://imgur.com/L4ddh

lawschoollorax · 2012-09-02T15:03:20+00:00

It looks like an "I Spy" picture...

iismatt · 2012-09-02T15:03:35+00:00

This is one of the eras I would have loved to have been alive in. People just got on with it.

roygdavis · 2012-09-02T15:06:19+00:00

Where's all the parking restricting signposts, weight limit signs, urban freeway, no stopping signs?

wilber2k · 2012-09-02T15:06:28+00:00

just LOOK at all that beige! love it.

Lamalas · 2012-09-02T15:07:51+00:00

This ressembles very much Brussels downtown nowadays, except for the cars.

ScorpRex · 2012-09-02T15:11:19+00:00

Whoa everyone drives jeeps and wears funny hats in that town

uckyourmother · 2012-09-02T15:11:34+00:00

Too cool. Thanks man.

Kni7es · 2012-09-02T15:13:00+00:00

Oh hey, it's this thread again.

mechanate · 2012-09-02T15:13:27+00:00

Fun game: Where's The Woman?

DunderStorm · 2012-09-02T15:14:40+00:00

Architecture - what the fuck happened?

welcomedungeon · 2012-09-02T15:14:52+00:00

Fake. 1949 London was black and white .

oderi · 2012-09-02T15:15:19+00:00

Wills's. See that second "s"? I hate those goddamn people who tell me to spell it like there were multiple Wills who owned something.

bpoag · 2012-09-02T15:16:29+00:00

A magical picture we've all seen 53 times.

spInrAt42 · 2012-09-02T15:19:16+00:00

Again

mr_k_pilkington · 2012-09-02T15:19:33+00:00

Mmmm.....quite

Stabone130 · 2012-09-02T15:20:05+00:00

Hello, 1949 London photo. Its been at least a few weeks since we saw you last.

DMTryp · 2012-09-02T15:21:12+00:00

not enough people are wearin hats

Uhrzeitlich · 2012-09-02T15:21:21+00:00

This thread is full of Britons using semantics to make England look better than America.

Hobo-With-A-Shotgun · 2012-09-02T15:21:31+00:00

I often wonder what would happen if I woke up to find myself a number of decades in the past. My best answer is that I would have to find some simply manual labour to do, just in order to survive the era.

I've also thought if I could ever acclimatize to the entertainment of the times. No Internet, no video-games, no real movies to speak of, no real music either... I might actually go mad, unless I strike it lucky and find a great clique of people to be friends with.

tmonz · 2012-09-02T15:22:03+00:00

love this

AffenKopf · 2012-09-02T15:22:17+00:00

They had colors back then?

bevans052 · 2012-09-02T15:23:29+00:00

They had the 4 door Jeep Wrangler's back then?

BenNCM · 2012-09-02T15:23:52+00:00

Looks like London a few years from now.

abnerjames · 2012-09-02T15:27:15+00:00

I don't see any magicians, here.

doomscythe · 2012-09-02T15:28:22+00:00

TIL about News Theatres http://bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen/davidlean/news-theatres

Nicombobula · 2012-09-02T15:28:36+00:00

Cigarrettes!! Cigarrettes for everyone!

BuefordSmith · 2012-09-02T15:34:14+00:00

Every time I see old pictures like this, in decent resolution and in color... I'm always startled at how similar they are to modern pictures. Strip away our iPhones and hybrid cars... and we're exactly the same. It's so easy for us to look at pictures from a few decades past and think, "How far we've come!" It's also so easy to look at pictures from a few decades past and think, "How little we've changed!"

IgorsEpiskais · 2012-09-02T15:38:36+00:00

Oh, those hard working London men already repaired bombed buildings from WW2

ContentEnt · 2012-09-02T15:45:34+00:00

Wills's

Can't stop cringing.

gyfkoy · 2012-09-02T15:50:41+00:00

Back then London was still an English city.

frMort · 2012-09-02T15:59:53+00:00

They thought they won the war.

Miltomix · 2012-09-02T16:01:21+00:00

I don't know why, but i leaned in closer to my screen to see everything..awesome picture

tomtermite · 2012-09-02T16:04:34+00:00

Harsh winter ass-kicked an economy already straining under the privations of the post-war “austerity” -- 1949 and the decade after WWII was not a happy one for many Britts.

RzK · 2012-09-02T16:06:07+00:00

Very magical...Pause... not!

agats · 2012-09-02T16:10:46+00:00

I wish there was a some way to view all these old photos through Google Street View or Microsoft's Photosynth.

whatitslike · 2012-09-02T16:11:12+00:00

I asked my grandpa, and he says he hasn't seen London look this way since the last time this photo was on the front page.

Connor6 · 2012-09-02T16:16:46+00:00

Repost?

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