London in the 1920s changed its mood. The lifting of war time restrictions in the early 1920s created new sorts of night-life in the West End. Entrepreneurs opened clubs, restaurants and dance halls to cater for the new crazes: jazz and dancing. The capital began to feel less traditional and more modern. ‘Wireless’ radio was the technological marvel of the decade.
As London lightened up at its centre, so it began to spread at its edges. Electric railways opened up new suburbs for commuting. Local councils and private house builders both redoubled their efforts to build new estates on green-field sites in outer London. Those Londoners who could afford it moved out of the unhealthy inner city.
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| Construction workers taking lunch break on the edges of the building they’re working on, London, 1929. |
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| Boys boxing barefoot while their friends look on, London, 1920. |
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| Fog encases workers at Ludgate Circus, London, November 1922. It was reported that Londoners compared the effects of winter fogs to being blind as they could often only see a few yards ahead. |
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| Throgmorton St, c.1920. |
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| Thames and Tower Bridge in London, c.1920s. |
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| Twenties glamour, London, 1925. |
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| In 1921, early suffragettes often donned a bathing suit and ate pizza in large groups to annoy men. |
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| Customer complaint, 1922. |
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| Two women having a right old laugh on a delivery bike in 1927. |
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| London 1925. |
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| The lights of Piccadilly Circus, just around the corner, London, 1928. |
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| British Museum tube station, 1921. |
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| Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd, c.1920. |
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| Wembley, 1923, West Ham fans at the turnstiles. |
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| London heatwave, c.1920s. |
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| An ice cream vendor and his customers on the streets of London, c.1920s. |
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| The gentleman plays the concertina, with the lady perhaps collecting money, or even singing, London, 1920s. |
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| Photographer over Fleet Street, December 1929. |
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| Covent Garden market traders preparing for business in the 1920s outside Theatre Royal Drury Lane. |
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| Petticoat Lane market, c.1920s. |
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| London Underground in the 1920s. |
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| Buses line up to take racegoers to the Epsom Derby near Morden Underground Station, c.1920. |
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| In the 1920s and 1930s, sheep were routinely introduced into London parks to keep the grass under control and reduce mowing costs. |
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| Tram emerging from the Kingsway Tunnel, c.1920. |
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| Ludgate Hill, London, c.1920. |
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| Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd, c.1920. |
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| Clapham South underground Station, 1926. |
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| A commuter roller skates to work during the General Strike, 1926. |
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| The engineer is attaching the main telephone cable to a new support wire, suspended between Maddox Street and Conduit Street in Mayfair, London, c.1920s. |
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| Street traffic on London Bridge, 1927. |
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| Seven Sisters Road, 1922. |
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| Tower Bridge, c.1920s. |
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| An underground train being transported on wheels through the streets of London, 1926. |
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| A worker inside Big Ben, London, 1920. |
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| Bank of England Watchman, London, 1925. |
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| King’s Cross Station, 1927. |
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| Taylor’s Pie House, c.1920s. |
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| Regent Street, c.1920s. |
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| Covent Garden market, 1920. |
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| A young visitor and her toy elephant finds that the elephant house at London Zoo is closed for their winter holidays. |