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Funded and Managed by
City of London Corporation
The London Archives

The London Picture Archive

Photograph, print and map collections
st-pauls-by-moonlight

The London Picture Archive (LPA) is our online images platform, providing free online access to over 250,000 images our collections, and those at Guildhall Art Gallery. The material on The London Picture Archive ranges from prints, drawings and paintings to maps, films and photographs and dates from 1450 to the present day. All parts of London (not just the City) are represented, as are the adjoining counties, and over 150,000 historical pictures of London streets are included.

Galleries provide a good introduction to some of the subject areas covered by the London Picture Archive and the Advanced Search function allows you to created a refined search by choosing various criteria. As well as searching the website for images of a street, you can also use the London Picture Map, which provides a unique way to access images of buildings and places which no longer exist, presenting a vision of lost London which allows visitors to view pictures of their neighbourhood from bygone days.

From photographs of the construction of Tower Bridge to images of the Great Fire of 1666, images of a buildings which were never built to promotional posters for the London County Council tramways, the London Picture Archive website presents a fascinating glimpse of nearly 600 years of life in the capital.

Explore the London Picture Archive

Our Favourites from the Picture Archive

Staff Spotlight

I chose this particular tramways poster as I love how vibrant the colours are on it. I love how they chose contrasting colour inks with the greens, blues and oranges. It looks exciting and I think it captures the essence of what a zoo should be by using those fun colours. I also chose it as it's a key part of history, without these tramways posters we probably wouldn't have the advertisements we see today in the tube stations, as theses posters were the original "tube advertisement".
Skye Clarke, Digital Marketing Apprentice
pink flamingos on a poster
London Picture Archive - 36961"The Zoo, Camden Town 1 Shilling Return Fare From Anywhere". An LCC Tramways poster showing five flamingos and their reflections standing in water at London Zoo, 1932.

The LCC Posters

The London County Council Tramways posters first appeared in February 1922. There were originally a set of 12 black and white posters designed by students from the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1923 coloured posters were produced, still designed by the students of the Central School. In 1927 other artists were employed. The posters depicted a range of subjects and messages, some suggesting day trips in London, others advertising sporting venues or even cheap late night travel and Christmas shopping! The final posters were produced in 1933.