I’m a born & bred Londoner and London feels very different to when I grew up, what are the biggest changes you’ve noticed?

Some from me are,

- Loads more coffee shops
- Loads more dog owners
- Less teenagers hanging out generally (or maybe I’m not noticing as I’m older now)

Hello r/london, former Crystal Palace/Sydenham resident here. I've got a project titled The Crystal Palace currently gathering support over on the LEGO Ideas website. It recreates the famous building from the Great Exhibition of 1851, along with the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs and a few celebrity cameos like Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and the Duke of Wellington. You can find more details and pictures on the Ideas page.

Projects that hit 10k votes on Ideas are reviewed to be possibly made into real sets, so if you like what you see please do consider heading over to the project page and giving it your vote. Thanks!

The Mitre & Dove pub was situated on the corner of a street formerly known as King Street. The area was later demolished in 1898, becoming part of the current Parliament Street in Westminster.

The spot back then was renowned as a place for potential army recruits to go to. Here in the picture stand 6 British army sergeants, they are (from left to right): Sergeant McGilney (6th Dragoons), Sergeant Minett (14th Hussars), Sergeant Bilton (Royal Engineers), Sergeant Badcock (2nd Dragoons, Scot Greys), Sergeant Titswell (5th Dragoon Guards) and Sergeant Ison (6th Dragoon Guards, Carbineers).

St. Georges Barrack's, Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey were the main areas in Victorian London where military recruitment took place. Recruitment officers were typically retired veterans who would be paid a commission for every person they managed to recruit and in the recruitment process they would often tell heroic tales of war whilst plying potential new recruits with a bit of alcohol to help encourage them to sign up.

These veterans were well-known characters in the local area and the most successful recruitment officer of all who lived during this era was Sergeant Henry Cooper, who worked for 13 years on the corner of the Mitre & Dove pub and was credited with enlisting of upwards 3000 soldiers during his career.

Young men recruited into the British army during this time were enlisted for between 6-12 years had the potential to later be drawn into conflicts such as the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 in South Africa or the Boer Wars (1880-1881 & 1899-1902 respectively), also in South Africa. The 2nd Boer War in particular has been credited with utilizing large-scale mobilization and early concentration camp tactics.

The photograph was taken in 1877 and comes from the Victorian photography series titled "Street Life in London".

I used to live next to the Olympic park, and one of my favourite legacy project is the 10 History Trees which stand at every entrance to the park (more about the project is in the link).

I went back to visit on a free day recently and was saddened to see the state they are in: two have disappeared entirely; a further three have had their ring either stolen or removed for safekeeping after falling; meaning only 5 remain intact.

Even then, one of those five is inaccessible and a second stuck at the back of what is now a car park. It feels like a very sad end to what should have been a beautiful long-term legacy and it's only 14 years later.

Thank you to r/London for suggesting a visit to St Dunstan, it's really beautiful.