An engraving of the Tower of London, 1647. Photograph: Philip de Bay/Historical Picture Archive/Corbis The Great Fire of London as seen from Southwark, 1666. Hulton Getty A panoramic view of London, c.1670 by Wenceslaus Hollar. Photograph: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy St Paul's Cathedral viewed from Southwark, across the River Thames, in 1859. Photograph: William England/Getty Images Traffic on London Bridge over the river Thames in 1904. The bridge is full of pedestrians, horse drawn omnibuses and horse drawn carriages. Various wharfs and warehouses are visible on the left of the shot across the river. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis Four women have lunch in the roof garden on Adelaide House, overlooking the River Thames and Tower Bridge, c. 1934. Hulton Getty Men unload esparto grass from barges at a wharf near Lambeth on the River Thames. The grass is used for making bank notes and stockings. Westminster Bridge, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in the background, 1938. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis Cannon Street, looking toward St Paul's Cathedral, virtually unscathed, after ceaseless German air raids, in 1942. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis The Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, during the Festival of Britain, 1951. Photograph: Jane Bown Trafalgar Square in 1961, from left: National Gallery, St Martins-in-the-Fields, South Africa House, and The Strand . Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis Canary Wharf tower in London's Docklands in 2001 as seen from one of the new towers under construction. Photograph: Martin Godwin

An aerial view of London at sunrise, in June 2012, looking east towards the City with Canary Wharf in the distance. Photograph: High Level Photography/Rex Fea