Westminster City Council project's 'A Date With History' - Online images reveal wartime West End

Published: 14 January 2011
by JOSH LOEB

AN air raid warden stands in front of a pile of sandbags outside a Pimlico school. 

Churchill and the King and Queen survey bomb damage to the swimming pool at Buckingham Palace during the Blitz. Queues seven-people wide wait on Vauxhall Bridge Road to pay their final respects to King George V.

These black and white photographs are among the images depicting important events in London’s history that have been serialised online as part of a Westminster City Council project A Date With History. 

One image from the collection will be published each day on the council’s website and will relate to that date in history.

Council archive manager Adrian Autton said City Hall had acquired a huge cache of images over the decades. 

“They come from a variety of sources,” he said. “Some were donated, some were purchased from dealers or auctions and some, of course, were taken by council workers.”

The series is made up of images chosen by staff at the archive, and Mr Autton said the project was part of a process of digitising the council’s historical files.

“We have over 50,000 images in our possession, and almost 4,000 of are available in an online catalogue,” he said. “Some of the images in the series are from the online catalogue, but some have been uploaded to the internet especially. We think this series will resonate with a lot of people, who will hopefully be interested in seeing more of the collection.”