LOST COLOURS OF THE CAPITAL

A stunning collection of newly-colourised images brings London’s 19th and 20th century social history thrillingly to life

THEY GIVE us a glimpse into a previously monochrome world. Iconic black and white original images have been stunningly colourised and beautifully described by biographer and critic Peter Ackroyd to explore how London’s “many hues have come to shape its history and identity”.

An upturned London bus in the aftermath of a Second World War air raid, children paddling on the sandy banks of the Thames in the lee of Tower Bridge, resplendent in its original chocolate brown, and horse-drawn carts delivering fruit and goods to Covent Garden Market are among the striking images.

Other shots show the London floods of January 1928, when the Thames’ tide “peaked at its highest recorded level of 18ft” and “parts of central London resembled Venice”, and a bustling Fleet Street on a rainy October day in 1915 as uniformed soldiers mingle outside a recruiting office with civilians and a open-top motor bus rattles by.

The Crystal Palace, built in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, is reimagined in all its glory. “It was in some respects a multi-coloured extravaganza, dispelling notions that the mid-Victorian era was somehow a dim or subdued phase of London’s history,” writes Ackroyd. “There was colour everywhere, just as there has always been. The exterior of the iron structure was painted in blue and white, while the interior was decorated with strips of yellow and white as well as red and blue.” After six months in situ, it was taken down and reconstructed in the area of Sydenham Hill, south London, now known as Crystal Palace. But in November 1936, it was destroyed by fire and is now little more than a memory.

Jordan Lloyd, who colourised many of the images, says: “What I found extraordinary was how little has changed; the view would be as familiar to a Londoner in Victoria’s reign as it would be today.”

Experts were consulted to create “authentic colour interpretations of the black-and-white originals”. He adds: “I stress the word authenticity (rather than accuracy) because, like any period drama, we take clues from the real thing in order to inform a version which is not intended to be a substitute for a historically accurate original.”

SOLEMN DUTY A newly-colourised photograph showing Queen Victoria’s funeral procession on February 2, 1901. Having died in bed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the Queen’s body was conveyed by boat and train to London, before processing through the streets in front of vast crowds and taken to Windsor for burial.

BOMB DAMAGE The aftermath of a German bombing raid on September 9, 1940. A bus lies against the side of a terrace in Harrington Square, Mornington Crescent. “Many commentators wondered how London could survive such an assault,” writes Peter Ackroyd. But survive it did.

THE GREAT EXHIBITION At the time of its completion in 1851, the Crystal Palace was the marvel of London. From planning to opening was an enterprise of only nine months. It included 200 cast-iron girders, 3,000 columns and 900,000 square feet of glass. A staggering achievement.

SHOPPING HAVEN Regent Street in the late 19th century, left, in one of Jordan Lloyd’s brilliantlycolourised images that help us reimagine the capital as it once was.

ICONIC ARRIVAL Caribbean migrants on board the Empire Windrush, right, a former troopship. She docked at Tilbury on June 22, 1948, bringing 500 arrivals from Kingston, Jamaica, for a new life.

HOLIDAY AT HOME Children paddling in the Thames at low tide in the Pool of London on a balmy June 2, 1955. Tower Bridge, in whose shadow they play, was painted chocolate brown until the Silver Jubilee of 1977 when it was reimagined in the red, white and blue it remains to this day.

DREARY DAYS Commuters making their way to work near the Bank of England on the eighth day of the General Strike, May 11, 1926. The horses and carts may be gone but, even post-pandemic, the capital’s streets still throng with countless workers making their way to offices and shops.

YOUTH CULTURE ARRIVES Teddy Boys at Elephant & Castle, south London, on July 13, 1955. “The Teds were heirs to the apprentices, in spirit if not in diligence, and a fear of supposedly feral youth was again coaxed from its cave,” writes Peter Ackroyd in Colours of London.

JOY AT LAST VE Day in Parliament Square on May 8, 1945. “The crowds massed in Whitehall to greet Winston Churchill who appeared on a balcony of the Ministry of Health,” writes Ackroyd. “He then drove on to Buckingham Palace where on a larger balcony he joined the King and Queen.”