Looking back: Classic images show how Peterborough looked a hundred years ago

Nostalgia, they say, is not what it used to be.Well, try telling that to our friends over at Peterborough Images. With a superb collection of vintage photos and archive video footage of the local area dating back centuries, their brand of nostalgia is never likely to go out of fashion.

As a good number of these early photos were originally produced and/or archived by the Peterborough Telegraph, we thought it would be only right to share some of the most memorable images with our readers.

In this article, we’ve focused on the city centre and how it looked way back in the first two decades of the 20th century, a time when hat-wear was universal, children were seen and not heard, and trams and horse-drawn carriages ruled the streets.

Moreover, it was also a period when many of the city’s most established landmarks – such as the Crescent Bridge – first came into being.

Of course, this was also a time before the concept of a ‘World War’ had been conceived.

None of the people in the subsequent images had any idea that the advent of a new and unimaginably horrific type of mechanised conflict was on the horizon.

While it’s tempting to think so, these images do not reveal an idealised, bygone world. They simply show how our city lived and worked in an era when everything we take for granted today was almost entirely absent.

So grab yourself a drink, put your feet up and take some time out to enjoy a little armchair time travel.