Old Photos & Pictures Of The United Kingdom

To navigate the site first choose a country, click on a thumbnail to select a county, and then click on a thumbnail to select a town or village.
These old images give us a glimpse into the recent history of Britain, and how we lived in The Good Old Days! Most of the images are scans of early topographical postcards, or photographs taken by tourists, and most are over fifty years old.
Many of the postcards are from the Edwardian era, a Golden Age when postcards were at the height of their popularity. These Edwardian postcards come from the years between the end of the Victorian era and the First World War. King Edward VII inherited the crown from his mother Queen Victoria at a time when the British empire covered one-fifth of the world’s surface.
Looking at the pictures it’s easy to see why many people look back on the Edwardian era with nostalgia; however it should be remembered that this was a time when a small percentage of the population owned the majority of the nation’s wealth, a time of country houses with servants, and division between the social classes.
Some of the postcards on this site are beautiful, especially the Photocrom postcards which date from the end of the Victorian era; in contrast many of the photos are holiday snaps taken by day trippers and tourists.

Because of the age of the photographs, it’s not possible to guarantee that the titles and descriptions are always correct; sometimes, I have to rely on pencilled notes on the back of the photos or descriptions in old photograph albums. The boundaries of administrative divisions have changed over the years; some locations may be listed under their historical counties.

If you have a photograph taken by you or your family and would like to show it on this site please send it using the contact form, the law governing photographs is complicated so please only send photographs when you have the copyright owners permission; this is usually the person that took the photograph.
Please contact me if you believe you are the Copyright owner of any of the photos, postcards or pictures on this site.

recent collections:

We are very grateful to David Rarity for allowing us to show this large collection of photographs of Patna in Scotland.
Thank you to Alan White for a wonderful collection of photographs of Hastings.
Thank you to Rob for allowing us to use scans of his postcards, this is a big benefit for the site and much appreciated.
Thank you to Phil for sending in a very nice collection of interesting family photographs showing his family hop picking in Kent.