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See London in Double Vision—How It Looks Today And How Artists Saw It Years Ago

View of The Grand Walk (1751) by Canaletto shystone
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The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746) by Canaletto shystone
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St Martins in the Fields (1888) by William Logsdail shystone
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A View of Greenwich from the River (1750-2) by Canaletto shystone
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Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath (1749) by Canaletto shystone
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The Strand Looking East from Exeter Exchange (1822) Artist Unknown shystone
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Blackman Street London (1885) by John Atkinson Grimshaw shystone
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Northumberland House (1752) Canaletto shystone
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Covent Garden Market (1737) by Balthazar Nebot shystone
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The 9th of November, 1888 (1890) by William Logsdail shystone
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Londoner and Reddit user shystone superimposed classic paintings of London onto modern images of the city taken from Google Streetview. The result is fascinating, and you can see it here, in an Imgur album compiling the whole set, along with bits of historical information and insights into the area. 

This isn't the first effort to mash up historical images with modern ones. The project History Pin uses the same kinds of methods that shystone, but with photographs. You can browse the map, search by place and by time, and add old pictures and the stories behind them. Ever wanted to know what the Willamsburg Bridge in New York looked like in 1909? Or what Cincinnati’s Music Hall looked like in 1888?

A Short Introduction To Historypin

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