Village life uncovered in London

It's often said that London is a sprawling collection of villages when compared to planned metropolises such as New York or even Paris.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when looking at photos of London suburbs from a century ago. Bucolic scenes in areas now considered irredeemably urban - the village post office in Greenford in 1915, for example - bear witness to how incredibly and irrevocably the lives of Londoners have changed throughout the 20th century.

Among the most fascinating pictures are those of the outlying areas of London - Ealing, Richmond, Merton, Walthamstow and so on - that were largely farmland until the end of the nineteenth century. Then, the onward industrialisation of society brought more and more workers to the city and created massive demand for new housing, resulting in the rows and rows of neatly ordered terraced housing that seem so ubiquitous today.

And at the same time, in many other ways, little has changed. Looking at a horse drawn tram making its way down Hackney's Mare Street before the First World War, it's easier to see the likenesses to today's view than the differences.

Sutton Publishing has drawn thousands of these images together to create some truly absorbing series of books. The paperback series Britain In Old Photographs generally retails at £9.99 or less per title while the beautifully bound hardback series The Twentieth Century is normally priced at £14.99. Discounts are available by ordering online at the publishers' site, listed below.

Most areas of London are covered; we've given you a sneak preview of a few of them. To find out whether your area is covered, visit www.suttonpublishing.co.uk or call 01963 442 080 for details of your nearest stockist.

Gallery: North London - Barnet and Mill Hill
West London: Ealing and Greenford
South London: Southwark to Richmond
East London: Walthamstow and Leyton