The YouTube video colouriser, NASS has turned to an old B&W film of London and added their magic to give it colour makeover letting us see London as it (might) have been at the time.

The footage includes Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and Waterloo Station.

Apart from adding colour to the original source video, the YouTuber also boosted the frame rate so that the video is smoother, and also raised the image resolution to high-definition.

Colourising a video is a bit hit and miss, partly due to the technology applied, but also the source material itself can mislead the lighting and shading on objects. There’s also the issue that most authentic colour photos we have from the 1930s were themselves not realistic due to the limitations of early colour film.

That said, the video does give a good look at what a dirty polluted London would have looked like in the 1930s.

What’s needed now is smell-o-vision — maybe a jar of smells you can breathe in while watching the film and get that choking smell of coal smoke, horse shit, and heavy manufacturing that polluted London’s airs.