Arthur William Hobart photographed several well-known landmarks in London, including this view of Tower Bridge, with traffic featuring cars and horse-drawn carriages(Image: The Historic England Archive, Historic England)

Stunning aerial photo comparisons show how Britain has changed since the 1930s

Arthur William Hobart’s black and white photographs of towns and suburbs show how Britain's landscape has dramatically changed. Hobart was commissioned to take aerial images, which span England and extend to sites in Scotland and Wales.

by · The Mirror

Stunning aerial images of 1930s Britain showing towns and suburbs before decades of modernisation took hold have been digitised for the public to see.

Arthur William Hobart’s photographs of sports grounds, seaside parades, industrial sites and cathedrals were taken by biplane from the skies before the Luftwaffe bombings and technological advances altered the landscape irrevocably. The archive of 242 black and white images has been organised and released by Historic England and reveals pastoral scenes with horse-drawn vehicles and river boats teeming with deliveries.

Other shots include Battersea Power Station still under construction in south London. The selection, including the cone-shaped kilns of Staffordshire’s Trent and New Wharf Potteries, surrounded by terrace houses and Burslem Branch Canal offer an architectural contrast to the gleaming tower blocks of recent industrialisation.

Tower Bridge, Greater London, in the 1930s( Image: The Historic England Archive, Historic England)
The area around Tower Bridge in London looks very different almost 100 years on( Image: Getty Images/RooM RF)

Twickenham Bridge, Salisbury Cathedral and Tower Bridge feature in the archive called the Air Pictures Portleven Collection. Meanwhile, once spectacular sites now consigned to history include the magnificent old Crystal Palace in south London and the Dell, the former ground of Southampton F.C.

Similarly, the Formby power station position along the Liverpool to Southport railway line shows an industry in action with fumes emitting skywards. It was shut in 1946 and today the towers are gone while the central building stands derelict.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “Flicking through these photos lets you take flight over 1930s England, to see the changing face of the country in the interwar period.”

The Royal Albert Hall pictured in 1930. The concert hall survived destruction in the war, as the Germans used it as a guiding landmark rather than a target( Image: The Historic England Archive, Historic England)
The Royal Albert Hall and its immediate surroundings as they look now( Image: Alamy Stock Photo)

Hobart was commissioned by businesses, municipal authorities and the media to take his images, which span England and extend to sites in Scotland and Wales.

Born in Lambeth, London, in 1882, he worked as a journeyman baker, commercial traveller and draper’s clerk before taking up photography during the interwar period. He is believed to have started taking his images around 1920, leaning out of his plane as he took them.

Bournemouth town centre, circa 1930s( Image: The Historic England Archive, Historic England)
Bournemouth beach, pier and city on a sunny day in modern times( Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

His connections to London and Cornwall, where he ended his life, are why the collection is predominantly concerned with London and south-east England.

Gary Winter of Historic England, said he particularly admired the shots of football grounds that Hobart took. “There’s a really good one of the Dell. Streets, houses and a church surround the stadium. The football ground is part of the community,” he said.

Battersea Power Station under construction in 1930( Image: The Historic England Archive, Historic England)
The same area in modern times when it was lit up for an art project( Image: Alamy Stock Photo)

Although the Blitz bombings of the Second World War drastically altered many of London’s landmarks, some grandiose buildings were spared including the Royal Albert Hall, which was used by German pilots as a landmark rather than a target, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Elsewhere, the cityscape has altered through modernisation. Tower Bridge, which is pictured sky-high above low buildings, now sits alongside glass skyscrapers rivalling it as the only standout architectural gem in that area of central London.