1-192-132 - © London Museum/Heritage-Images

Bow Lane looking south, City of London, c1930. A horse is eating from its nosebag in the narrow lane. The 'Olde Watling' tavern, visible on the corner of of the junction of Bow Lane and Watling Street, was one of the first buildings to be erected after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Behind it rises the tower of St Mary Aldermary, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Reid, an amateur photographer of independent means, began an ambitious project to record, in photographs and prose, an extended walk through the historic Cities of Westminster and London. By the time of his death in 1933 he had taken over 700 photographs, organised geographically into a series of albums, and had compiled two manuscript books, entitled The Route Ornate, which served to annotate the photographic journey. The photographs are remarkable for their pictorial and technical quality.