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Open Image ModalThe black and white shows "Father Christmas" arriving at the Arding and Hobbs store on November 2, 1926 in Clapham Junction. The colour shows shoppers walking past Debenhams on December 15, 2014.
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Open Image ModalChristmas turkeys hang outside a poulterers in Watling Street in December 1923, as shoppers walk by on December 11, 2014.
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Open Image ModalThree months after Britain went to war with Germany, shoppers look at a shop window at Selfridges on December 16, 1939, with sandbags to protect the shop.
Next to them, a man walks past the department store's Christmas window display on December 11, 2014.
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Open Image ModalA camel is among the stable companions appearing in 'Song of the Drum' at the Drury Lane Theatre at Endell Street, photographed on December 30, 1933. The modern photo shows the same location on December 9, 2014.
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Open Image ModalBefore Santa Fun Runs became a thing, groups Father Christmases used the bus to get around. The black and white shows them waiting for a bus in Holburn in December, 1960, while the colour shows December 9, 2014.
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Open Image ModalStudents of King's College sing Christmas carols outside the Old Curiosity Shop, as immortalised by Charles Dickens, on Portsmouth Street on December 12, 1956. The colour photo shows 58 years later shows the shop is largely the same, while the environment has changed all around it.
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Open Image ModalSelfridges, again, this time on December 6, 1935 with Oxford Street lit up by Christmas decorations. The colour shows the store on December 16, 2014.
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Open Image ModalThe statue of Lord Beaconsfield in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big ben on Christmas Eve, 1938 and, in colour, traffic drives round Parliament Square on December 12, 2014.
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Open Image ModalTwo policemen look London's 64ft Christmas tree, a gift from Norway, illuminated in Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Gallery on December 1, 1948. You can just see the edge of the Navity scene on December 11, 2014.
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Open Image ModalThe Christmas tree in St Paul's Cathedral, which was brought from the royal estates at Windsor on December 19, 1950. The coour shows the same area of the cathedral on December 9, 2014.
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Open Image ModalDecorations consisting mainly of snow crystal stars made of aluminium to give the effect of a snowstorm are displayed on Regent Street on November 30, 1955 Christmas shoppers walk along the same road on December 16, 2014. (credit:Peter Macdiarmid via Getty Images)