Anonymous images open door to the city's past

In addition to the many documents held in the London Metropolitan Archives, chronicling the changing face of the city and its communities through the generations, there is also a significant photographic collection, comprised of pictures gathered or donated from a wide range of sources.

Among these are archive photos of London's two Chinatown communities — the original settlement in Limehouse, near the old London docks, and the rebuilt postwar community in Soho, the formerly disregarded inner city area that has since grown into one of London's most vibrant, colorful and popular destinations.

Most of the photos were taken for purely practical purposes, rather than as any sort of social record, and in many cases the agonizing absence of detail about who took them leaves their origins unclear, but archivist Sharon Tuff told China Daily they still shine light on times and communities that might otherwise be forgotten, and take on new meaning when viewed through 21st-century eyes.

"Particularly in the case of the older photos, there are very few people — it's just topography and geography, as that's generally the purpose of what the photos were being asked to capture," she explains.