The Descriptive Album of London
I happened to be at an auction in 2011 at which five bound volumes of photographs were for sale, dating from the 1890s. I bought them.
One of them was—
The author was George H. Birch (1842 to 1904). It was originally published in monthly parts, and then as a bound volume in perhaps 1894. It has two pictures of Tower Bridge which was opened in July 1894, so cannot be earlier than that. Neither the date nor the author are mentioned. George Birch was the director of the Soane Museum from 1894 until his death in 1904.
The book is 336mm wide and 270mm high which is quite large (a bit under A3). Mine is in green board covers, but a variety of designs were used. You can read Birch's Introduction here.
The important thing about this book is that on each page there is a large, clear black and white photograph of somewhere in London, together with a short textual description. The photos are reproduced using the usual halftoning technique but, because of their size, considerable detail can still be seen.
You can see the order in which the photos occur in the book here, but it seems more useful to list them below alphabetically. I am gradually digitising them, and those that have links you can click on to see the relevant page.
- Admiralty Office
- Albert Memorial
- Albert Pall
- Army and Navy Club
- Athenæum Club
- Bank of England
- Battersea Park
- Blackfriars Bridge
- British Museum
- Brompton Oratory
- Buckingham Palace
- Burlington House
- Carlton Club
- Chapel Royal, Savoy
- Charing Cross Gardens
- Cheapside
- Chelsea Hospital
- Cheyne Walk
- Christ's Hospital
- City of London School
- City Temple
- Coaching Meet
- Colonial Office
- Conservative Club
- Covent Garden Market
- Crystal Palace
- Custom House
- Drapers' Hall
- Duke of Wellington's Statue
- Finsbury Park
- Fleet Street
- Foreign Office
- Fountain Court, Temple
- Goldsmiths' Hall
- Greenwich Hospital
- Guy's Hospital
- Hampstead Heath
- Holborn Circus and Viaduct
- Hon. Artillery Company's Barracks
- Horse Guards
- Houses of Parliament
- Hyde Park Corner
- Imperial Institute
- Kensington Gardens
- Kensington Palace
- Lambeth Palace
- Leicester Square
- Liverpool Street Station
- London Bridge
- London Hospital
- Mansion House
- Marble Arch
- Metropolitan Meat Market
- National Gallery
- National Liberal Club
- Natural History Museum
- Newgate Prison
- Northumberland Avenue
- Old Roman Wall
- Oxford Circus
- People's Palace
- Piccadilly Circus
- Post Office
- Queen's Hall
- Record Office
- Reform Club
- Regent Street
- Regent's Park
- Rotten Row
- Royal Courts of Justice
- Royal Exchange
- Royal Observatory, Greenwich
- Serpentine
- Soane Museum
- Somerset House
- South Kensington Museum
- St. Bartholomew's Hospital
- St. James's Palace
- St. James's Park
- St. John's Gate
- St. Paul's Cathedral
- St. Thomas's Hospital
- Staple Inn
- Statue of Lord Beaconsfield
- Statue of Queen, Kensington Gdns
- Strand
- Temple Church
- The Cattle Market
- The Guildhall
- The Mint
- The Monument
- Tower Bridge
- Tower Bridge, looking East
- Tower of London
- Trafalgar Square
- Trinity House
- United Service Club
- United Service Institute
- University College
- Victoria Embankment
- War Office
- Waterloo Bridge
- Waterloo Place
- West India Docks
- Westminster Abbey
- Westminster Bridge
- Wine Vaults, London Docks
- Zoological Gardens
You can contact me using the email address below (which you won't see unless you have Javascript enabled)
Peter Facey, Winchester, England
20170113 updated
20110130 originated
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