If you love London's history, take a look at our free weekly newsletter, Londonist: Time Machine.
A chance to step into the lost London of Victorian times.
The 17th century Oxford Arms coaching inn, the Crystal Palace settling into its Sydenham home, and a group of 'public disinfectors' are among the photographs that'll be on display at Lost Victorian City: A London Disappeared — a free exhibition coming to the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) this May.
Philip Henry Delamotte was commissioned to record the move of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park to south London, creating 160 images, two of which will be displayed in LMA's exhibition. Meanwhile, the shot of the Oxford Arms — featuring children peering at the camera from the inn's galleries — was taken in 1875 by the Society for Photographing Relics of Old London, just two years before the pub was reduced to rubble.
A cornucopia of other watercolours, prints and documents dug out from the LMA's incredible archives will also revive the capital's now-vanished buildings, horse-drawn transport, and bustling docks — in beautiful, often eerie detail.
In the meantime, LMA's current exhibition Unforgotten Lives — which recounts stories of people like Ellen Craft, who disguised herself as a disabled white plantation owner, in a bid to escape from slavery — continues until 27 March. If you've not visited yet, we highly recommend you do.
Lost Victorian City: A London Disappeared, London Metropolitan Archives, 13 May 2024-5 February 2025, free
All images © London Metropolitan Archives
