A few months ago, we were lucky enough to discover a postcard album filled with postcards written between 1904 and 1914, when the picture postcard was a new invention and became something of a craze in England. They were collected by a teenage girl called Ethel Bailey, who lived with her large family in the fast-growing North London suburb of Stoke Newington.

We think of postcards as being sent home from holidays, but at the beginning of the 20th century they were used in the same we send texts and emails - for everyday chat. In London, there were numerous deliveries a day. So a clerk working in a London office might send a few words home to say he was working a bit late and could his dinner be kept warm, knowing that the card would arrive before he would. It was a handy way to make a date with a friend or send a last-minute birthday greeting. And some of the postcards below show that London life hasn’t changed very much at all - we still have the same passion for cycling and cake!