Step into the past: Ghostly hybrid images that reveal the sights of London then and now

New app allows users to compare historic pictures around the capital to the present day

A street scene in London’s Covent Garden with the underground station and a horse and cart in the background in c.1930 and the same street in 2014

For most Londoners, the most common view they enjoy as they trudge to work is the back of another commuter's head

But now, thanks to the Streetmuseum app, anyone traipsing through the capital's streets can step back in time to see what London looked like in the 19th and 20th century compared with today - all in the same image.

The pictures below are part of a series in which historic and contemporary images are blended together, allowing users to see just how much London's streets have been transformed.

Whether it's a view of Covent Garden packed with traders and horse-drawn carriages or crowds gathering in Piccadilly Circus on the day of the Queen's Coronation procession, the app allows users to select a building or location while on the go, meaning the historic view will be overlaid with the contemporary image.

With the time frame spanning from 1868 to 2003, more than 200 pictures from the Museum of London's archive - selected from the work of famous photographers such as Henry Grant and Wolfgang Suschitsky - are available to view.

Anna Sparham, Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London, said: "Our collection provides a fabulous visual history of London, across all aspects of London life. Streetmuseum allows these photographs to be seen by a new audience, and in a thrilling context."

A vast amount of different locations are available to view, ranging from Blackfriars station in 1930 to Oxford Street at the turn of the 20th century. Popular spots such as Covent Garden, Tower Bridge and Hyde Park are also included.

Unsurprisingly, Streetmusem has been popular with both residents and tourists, and its rise to prominence has seen it accumulate 125,000 downloads so far on iTunes and Android, surpassing their original target of just 5,000.