"St Martins in the Fields (1888) William Logsdail"

I stumbled across a historic mash-up of sorts while perusing Reddit the other day. Anytime there's a visually enticing chance to learn a bit about history without opening a musty book or sleeping through a monotoned narration, I'm sold. This series of photographs featuring modern-day London superimposed with old paintings depicting the same scene caught my eye, to say the least.

"Blackman Street London (1885) John Atkinson Grimshaw"

"The 9th of November, 1888 (1890) William Logsdail"

"Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath (1749) Canaletto"

"View of The Grand Walk (1751) Canaletto"

"The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746) Canaletto"

While you can still some of the original architecture lines and street paths in most of the mash-ups, some show just how far we've come in terms of completely throwing our environment for a loop. Like this one:

"Covent Garden Market (1737) Balthazar Nebot"

Here's what the original Reddit poster had to say about the massive transformation the Garden Market has very obviously undergone:

When this square was originally built in the 1660's it was the first open plaza of its type in London. [It was] pretty famous as a red light district by the time this was painted. Today, this view toward St. Paul's Church is taken up by the Market Hall that was build in 1830. There's a nice pub in the basement corner full of little cozy nooks. Gets pretty crowded. Not seen any hookers there yet.

Check out the original post for more insight into the areas featured in the photographs and their uses of times past.

"Northumberland House (1752) Canaletto"

"The Strand Looking East from Exeter Exchange (1822) Artist Unknown"

"A View of Greenwich from the River (1750-2) Canaletto"

Via Lost at E Minor