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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National

Historic black and white images show Christmas in London

Historic black and white photos show Londoners preparing for Christmas through the years.

Photos of Trafalgar Square from more than 60 years ago show the landmark with an enormous tree as the country was preparing to celebrate.

There are also striking photos of the capital being decorated with festive lights.

As well as preparing London with decorations, historic photos show families tucking into Christmas dinners and shoppers getting the last-minute products.

A family having tea (Getty Images)

One photo shows a postman on his route through Chelsea delivering Christmas goods.

A postman on his rounds (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

There are also photos of footballers taking part in a Christmas Eve match in Nunhead in 1920.

A Christmas Eve football match in progress in the mud between Topical Press and Photo Press at Nunhead

100 years ago, London would have been facing a very different Christmas after the end of the First World War.

Britain would have still been under the constraints of food rationing for a couple of years after the war, as well as coal shortages.

Two little boys dragging home their Christmas tree after choosing it at London's Covent Garden Market (Keystone/Getty Images)

All of which would have affected the festive diet and the anticipated Christmas Dinner.

To combat this, the King gave a “hundredweight and a half of coal to all the poorer residents of Windsor and Cleaver over 60 years of age”, according to a Times article from 1918.

US President Woodrow Wilson was also in London on the day after Boxing Day, in 1918, and was greeted by crowds of enthusiastic well-wishers.

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