Bluesky Rediscover 1949 Aerial Survey of London

09 December 2009, 4:23pm

Aerial survey specialist Bluesky has uncovered a series of 1949 original aerial survey photographs covering the whole of Greater London. Revealing the capital in the post war period, landmarks that we take for granted today are pictured under construction; Battersea Power Station has only three out of it’s four chimneys while the Royal Festival Hall, whose foundation stone was laid that year, is a 1940’s building site. The photographs were rediscovered following an agreement between Bluesky and Blom Aerofilms which will see these images, part of the UK’s largest collection of commercial aerial survey images, available online at www.oldaerialphotos.com.

The original survey was taken by Hunting Aero Surveys in June and July 1949 and comprises two sets of photographs; a low scale survey of the whole of Greater London and coverage of the old administrative County of London at a higher scale. Unfortunately it would appear that the original films are no longer in existence however the original contact prints (prints made directly from the film negatives) will be scanned by Bluesky and georefenced for prosperity and uploaded to the OldAerialPhotos website.

“It would appear that this survey was used to produce an early photo mosaic possibly for the London Authority of that time, “ commented David Drabble Archive Manager at Bluesky. “Photographic contact prints would have been literally cut out and stuck together onto a large board. This in turn would have been mounted on the wall or placed on the floor and a final photograph would have been taken thus producing a seamless mosaiced image of London. A far cry from online mapping portals such as Google Earth!”

Visitors to www.oldaerialphotos.com can already search through more than a million aerial photos dating back as far as 1917 by simply entering a postcode, address or grid reference. Detailed search results, including the age and ground coverage, of every image that matches the search criteria are displayed and the visitor can choose to purchase either a hard copy print or digital image file.

Photos that are available to purchase from www.oldaerialphotos.com include some of the earliest commercial aerial survey images, military photography from World War II and many national archives, including oblique aerial photographs. Offering a record of most major UK cities and towns, transport and utility infrastructure and commercial property developments, www.oldaerialphotos.com is an invaluable resource for anyone with a personal or professional interest in local studies, genealogy, boundary disputes, environmental land use research or town planning.

Website: www.oldaerialphotos.com, www.bluesky-world.com
Contact Bluesky on +44 (0)1530 518 518

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