St Martins in the Fields (1888) by William Logsdail (shystone)

A View of Greenwich from the River (1750-2) by Canaletto (shystone)

Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath (1749) by Canaletto (shystone)

Blackman Street London (1885) by John Atkinson Grimshaw (shystone)

Northumberland House (1752) Canaletto (shystone)

Covent Garden Market (1737) by Balthazar Nebot (shystone)

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

These pictures of modern London streets mashed up with old artwork are a sight to see

By Mary Beth Griggs

smithsonian.com
February 26, 2014

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?