Most of the pictures here come from the triple volume Wonderful London, with many of them by photographer Donald McLeish. Published in the 1920s and long out of print, this huge work is an astonishing feat and a valuable addition to the history of the capital.

 The Thames & Tower BridgeSheep in the Strand

Cricket on Parliament Hill Fields

Young boy with policewomen

Football in the east end

Serpentine, Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Portable bells and pram

Site of Millenium Bridge & Tate Modern

Hyde Park

Hampstead Heath donkey rides

Lincoln’s Inn Fields

Whitestone Pond, Hampstead Heath

Trafalgar Square

Charlie Chaplin tribute act!

Children at play

Street toy sellers, Holborn

Hampstead ponds

Fog in Charing Cross

Lunch break by the Tower Of London

Water cart, Poplar

London in the 1920’s

Sheep by the Serpentine

Whip Woman

Ice-cream seller

Islington window cleaner

All night coffee stall, Hyde Park Corner

Breton onion seller

Billingsgate & Monument

Chimney sweep

Shepherd

Pavement artist, Victoria Embankment

The cats-meat man

Caledonian Market

Caledonian Market

Farringdon, in the precincts of old Alsatia

Westminster Bridge

Telephone engineer, Mayfair

pea shellers

ladies rifle club, rooftop, Strand House

Street brass band

Street musicians

Street escapologist

Borough of Stepney

Street hawkers, King’s Cross

Street gramophone player

Street organ grinder

Street entertainers

Golf on Adelaide House

Street knife grinder

Selling programmes and favours outside Chelsea Football Club

The fortune telling parrakeet

Street hawker

Street flower seller, Victoria

 Street shoeblack