London, summer 1940.

This is an authored 3D reconstruction of part of central London, covering Westminster, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, St James’s Park, Buckingham Palace and the Waterloo riverside. It is an architectural interpretation, not a survey-grade digital twin or a complete model of London.

Historical landmarks

Distinctive buildings use individual models guided by historical photographs and architectural descriptions. These include Horse Guards’ pavilions and clock cupola, the War Office’s corner towers, the National Gallery’s portico, Admiralty Arch’s three carriageways, Buckingham Palace’s 1913 east front and County Hall’s concave riverside elevation.

Period decisions

Parliament Square retains two gardens divided by a road. The 1991 Sainsbury Wing, London Eye, Portcullis House and post-war Parliament Square statues are absent. Vehicles are inspired by interwar saloons and AEC Regent buses. The sandbag post refers to photographic records of government-building defences in May 1940. People, traffic and movable street furniture are interpreted.

Night and the blackout

Night mode shows warm lanterns, selected occupied windows and period motor headlamps against a cool moonlit sky. Their brightness is deliberately increased to make the city easy to explore. This is an illustrative lighting view, not an accurate simulation of the 1940 blackout: actual street and vehicle lights were restricted, and windows were covered. Monuments are not floodlit.

The National Archives: the blackout ↗

Limits of the evidence

Street alignment, secondary building footprints, dimensions, colour and small ornament are approximate. Generic terraces are labelled as contextual reconstructions; they are not verified individual buildings. Interiors are not modelled. No claim is made that every facade, carving or street object matches a particular date.

Bomb-damage maps record cumulative destruction over 1940–45 and were not treated as a snapshot of summer 1940.

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