A Journey Back in Time

In February 2013, six students from DeMontfort University, Leicester, embarked on an ambitious project to re-create a 3D image of how London may have looked around the Pudding Lane area, just before the Great Fire in 1666. Using historic maps from the British Library, together with cutting edge CGI software, this was to be their winning entry in the Crytek and British Library's 'Off the Map' contest.

The result of nine months work by the students, is this remarkable video, where they have faithfully captured the atmosphere of the time. So much so, you can almost smell the place! In fact, the more times you watch it, the more detail you pick up. 

Can you spot the flies?

The introduction consists of a series of still shots, so the actual 'fly-through' follows shortly afterwards.

For more information about how the guys went about putting this all together, which is fascinating in its own right, please see their Pudding Lane blog (opens in a new window).