Bow Church, then & now
by ShawmK 2021-01-27 11:50
The famous Bow Church in London, as it looked in 1948 (courtesy of a View-Master reel) and today (courtesy of me).
I always loved this View-Master photo. First of all, my daily commute used to take me past this Church every day. Although the Church itself has barely changed, the surrounding neighbourhood is now completely different.
Also, View-Master had a bit of a tendency to "glamourize" everything. Their images often presented a picture-postcard view of the world, with gleaming cities, rolling vistas and happy natives. This image of London, with the war-time bomb damage still very much in evidence, was unusual for them. It shows a city still recovering from The Blitz: not perfect and clean, but "real" and constantly in flux.
Every time I pass this Church I think of the View-Master photo, and I'm grateful to the photographer who snapped this 73 years ago.