This is the seventh in a series of posts comparing photos of London taken by Henry Dixon in the 1870s with the same view today. Use our Google map to see where they were taken.
Austin Friars is a narrow, winding, cobbled cul-de-sac in the City, just behind the Bank of England. It was named after the leading Augustinian monastery in England, founded in 1253 by Humphery de Bohun.
The top picture is Dixon's. A zoomable version of this image is on our Online Gallery. Writing about the building seen in the photograph, Alfred Marks commented: "The house, No. 10, is a good example of the genuine Queen Anne style; its date, 1704, is seen on the rain-pipe... At the dissolution the house was bestowed on William Paulet, the first Marquis of Winchester, and from the residence built by him on the site of the Friars' house, cloister, and gardens, Great Winchester Street took its name."
Below it is the same view as it appeared in August 2009. All the original buildings have gone, and only the tiny alley of Austin Friars Passage off to the left confirms that the two photos were taken from the same spot. The Dutch church behind the photographer and to the right remains, however, and the street - still accessed from Broad St through an old archway and still with at least three 90-degree bends in its short span - retains much of its quirky old charm.
[RA]
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