Blackfriars Bridge, London 1973

A dramatic 1973 panorama looking across Blackfriars Bridge towards the City of London, dominated by the unmistakable dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece towers over a skyline that was then still relatively low-rise, punctuated only by a handful of modern office blocks such as the newly built City of London Polytechnic tower and the ITT/MEPC building at 20 Fenchurch Street.

Two classic red Routemasters cross Blackfriars Bridge, emphasising the strong north–south artery that has linked the South Bank to the City since the bridge opened in 1869. In the foreground, construction scaffolding and a Laing tower crane reflect the intense redevelopment transforming this part of London in the early 1970s—much of it tied to office expansion and post-war urban renewal.

The mixture of Victorian brickwork, mid-century concrete and emerging corporate towers captures a city in transition. Long before today’s cluster of glass skyscrapers reshaped the skyline, this was the London of the early ’70s: soot-stained, ever-changing, and still visually anchored by the great dome of St Paul’s.