Today it’s a very different picture, as this recent shot from Waterloo Bridge demonstrates. St Paul’s is now the grande dame of the skyline and provides a stark contrast to skyscrapers including One Blackfriars on the South Bank (right) and, across the river, the city’s new tallest building: 22 Bishopsgate or Twentytwo. The gleaming towers of Canary Wharf, which has been a business district since the 1990s, can be spied in the distance.

Now discover what the world's landmarks could have looked like

What the world's famous cities used to look like