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Snow In London Looks A Little More Serious In These Historic Images

Sometimes the Thames even froze from bank to bank.
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By 

News Reporter, HuffPost UK

There has been much talk of snow around London after this week’s light dusting.

Snow fell on Thursday evening and Friday morning but very few flakes settled, leaving many Londoners poking fun at the ‘Snowmageddon’.

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Falling snow on Tower Bridge in London on Thursday
Victoria Jones/PA Wire

But the snow wasn’t always so pathetic in the capital.

In the past London has been brought to a standstill by snow - with the Thames even occasionally freezing over.

We’ve rounded up some of the best historic pictures of London and its residents battling against the elements in the winter.

London hasn’t looked like this for a while...

 
Freezing Thames
PA/PA Archive
A view of Tower Bridge on the River Thames in London, when the river actually froze over in December of 1895.
Snowly does it
Print Collector via Getty Images
A busy street scene in Knighstbridge in the 1890s.
Snow balls
Fox Photos via Getty Images
Guards play football in the snow at the Tower of London in 1910.
Snowball fight!
Topical Press Agency via Getty Images
Uniformed men enjoying a snowball fight in London in January 1917.
Snow, ski & smoke
Fox Photos via Getty Images
The Misses Debenham stopping for a smoke before going skiing in Hyde Parkin 1926.
Slush puppies
Topical Press Agency via Getty Images
A tramway point man clearing slush from the points on the Embankment, c.1927.
Sister sledge
Hulton Deutsch via Getty Images
The businessman Sir Samuel Instone, pulls his daughter on her sledge through Regent's Park in the snow, 1929.
Snow dome
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
St Paul's Cathedral rising above the snow covered roofs of the city of London, c.1930.
Snow joke
Douglas Miller via Getty Images
It's slow going for snow-bound traffic in London's Oxford Street in March 1931.
Snow dome II
Barratts/S&G and Barratts
London deep in winter snow as seen from St Pauls Cathedral in 1933.
The cold arm of the law.
Fox Photos via Getty Images
A lone policeman walks along the snow covered Embankment in London in February 1933.
Barely recognisable
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
A group of swimmers having a snowball fight in swimming costumes at Kenwood in London, c1935.
Hampstead heap
Imagno via Getty Images
Two men sitting ride a toboggan in the Hampstead Heath Park in January 1935.
Snow square
Topical Press Agency via Getty Images
The statue of Lord Beaconsfield in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Parliament Square, on Christmas Eve 1938.
Snow-go area
Barratts/S&G and Barratts
Children enjoy a snowball fight in Trafalgar Square in 1938.
Slushy Strand
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
People walking down the Strand in London during a snow fall in February 1938.
Snow sports
Leslie Priest/AP
A heavy fall of snow attracted winter sports lovers to Hampstead Heath on Boxing Day, 1938.
Snow and steady
Keystone-France via Getty Images
Two cyclists take a tumble on a snowy road in London in 1938.
White out
J. A. Hampton via Getty Images
A lone pedestrian walking through the snowfall in a London park in 1939.
Spring snow
Daily Herald Archive via Getty Images
A photograph of a snowstorm on Oxford Street in February, 1941. An atmospheric and almost deserted scene during a bitterly cold winter. The spring of 1941 was the second coldest of the century.
Snow shovelling
Planet News Archive via Getty Images
Women labourers employed by Kensington Borough Council, clearing away snow in Kensington streets in 1942.
Pride in his work
PA/PA Archive
A policeman looks at one of the lions of Nelson's Column covered in a layer of snow, after a heavy snowfall in London in 1947.
Snow-go zone
PA/PA Archive
It looked rather like motoring chaos in Trafalgar Square when heavy snow fell on the city in 1947.
A bridge not far
PA/PA Archive
Cyclist David Joel as he took to the frozen river near Windsor Bridge in 1947. At Windsor the Thames was frozen from bank-to-bank for a considerable distance.
Saddle snow
PA/PA Archive
A column of Household Cavalry crosses the snow-covered Horse Guards Parade to take up guard duties in 1947.
Monumental dump
Heritage Images via Getty Images
Three children are enjoying a snowball fight in near The Victoria Monument in central London in 1957.
Skater boys (and girls)
PA/PA Archive
In the shadow of Buckingham palace, skaters and sliders take to the ice of the frozen St. James' Park lake in 1963.
Frozen in time
PA/PA Archive
Figures on the fountain in Hyde Park are festooned with ice in the early hours of the morning in 1966.
Stamford snow
R. Taylor/S&G and Barratts
A snowman at Stamford Bridge after matches were cancelled following heavy snow across London during snow in 1969.
Snow strike
PA News/PA Archive
Rush-hour at London's Cannon Street station and not a train in sight thanks to a rail strike and Arctic conditions caused by a blizzard throughout southern Britain in 1979.
The white stuff
Peter Kemp/AP
A Londoner strolls past Tower Bridge and the cannons guarding the Tower of London in January 1979.
Snow city
John Stillwell/PA Archive
A snow covered Palace of Westminster in 1991.
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