In the 1920s and early 1930s, George Davison Reid photographed the streets and buildings of London. Here, we look at his pictures of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Reid moved from his native Sunderland in north-east England to London and began an ambitious project to record his walk through the Cities of London and Westminster.
Between 1920 and his death in 1933, Reid created over 700 photographs of life in the capital city. He organised his work into a series of albums and wrote rhyming descriptions to accompany his photographic journey, which he called The Route Ornate.
Reid moved his equipment around London in a handcart. Inside was a heavy whole-plate stand camera and three-metre tall stepladder with an attachment for his wooden whole-plate camera, letting him take photos from a raised viewpoint.
The Wellington monument commemorates Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He died in 1852 and is buried in the church’s crypt.
Discover more of London through our archive of pictures, here.
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