In pictures: London Now and then

In the 1870s, Henry Dixon documented parts of London, and in 2009 Rob Ainsley photographed the few that still remain, including George Inn Yard, Southwark, the only surviving example of a pre-1870s London galleried coaching inn.

Staple Inn was attached to one of the four Inns of Court. The original building dates from 1585, but following heavy damage from a German bomb in 1944, it was extensively restored, giving it a more splendid front than that seen by 19th Century shoppers.

Ashburnham House stands in Little Dean's Yard, a secluded private square off picturesque Dean's Yard behind Westminster Abbey. It is part of Westminster School.

Macclesfield Street is a short thoroughfare in Soho, part of today's Chinatown district. It is impossible to locate the No 10 of Dixon's photo today. Rob Ainsley's modern image shows how different the street has become.

'Golden Axe', Bevis Marks/St Mary Axe, 1880 and 2009

Writing about this building in 1880, Alfred Marks noted: "This overhanging gabled house, of a kind fast becoming very rare in London, was destroyed in the course of last year." The rather grim-looking corner housed a pub, the Golden Axe.

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.

Inner Temple, on Fleet Street, is one of the four Inns of Court in central London, which since the 14th Century have played a central role in recruiting and training barristers.

Shop at corner of Brewer St and L St James St, Soho

The 18th-Century front at the corner of Brewer St and Lower St James St, Soho, is long gone. The shop, which apparently used to sell technical equipment, is now, like so many London locations with a heavy footfall, a coffee shop.

These photographs show just how much the area surrounding the church of St Giles, Cripplegate, Barbican, has changed. The church was reduced to ruins during an air raid in World War II and rebuilt by Godfrey Allen as the parish church of the 1980s.

Luftwaffe bombs and unsympathetic redevelopment has made Cheapside an avenue of office blocks and retail brands. The thoroughfare, while still noisy, could not claim to be "the busiest in the world" as its Victorian forerunner did.

As with many of Dixon's photographs, a tree now blocks Rob Ainsley's 2009 view of the Old Square of Lincoln's Inn.

Canonbury Tower, Islington, an early-1500s building, which on the dissolution of the monasteries was occupied by Thomas Cromwell. It is now a Masonic research centre. Photos courtesy The British Library: Henry Dixon 1880s, and Rob Ainsley 2009.