How London Changed in 100 Years, Told Through 10 Photos

London has never been a city that changes all at once. It changes in layers: a new railway beneath an old street, a glass tower beside a Victorian station, a market becoming a global food destination, or a dockyard turning into a financial district. A photo from 100 years ago may still look recognisably London, but the rhythm of the city has been completely transformed.

If we told that transformation through ten imagined photos, each frame would capture a different kind of change. Some would show transport, others architecture, culture, money, migration, war, recovery, and technology. Together, they reveal how London moved from an imperial capital of buses, fog, and docks into one of the world’s most complex modern cities. London Museum Docklands traces 400 years of the river, port, people, and redevelopment history that shaped this transformation.