Overlaid images include a photo of a building taken as it was collapsing after a World War II air raid. There's also, in front of Buckingham Palace, the arrest of a suffragette agitating for women's right to vote in 1914. And in Hyde Park, longhaired students at a music festival during the 1970s.
Paintings of the Great Fire of 1666 are also superimposed on present day scenes.
"We tried to pick really beautiful, interesting images that were a bit unexpected from all over London so visitors could see what the city was like through the ages," said museum marketing manager Vicky Lee.
Aside from smartphones and tablets, AR applications are finding their way into stores, gaming consoles and autos.
Lego worked with Intel to install bright yellow AR kiosks in its 74 stores worldwide. Shoppers can see 3-D virtual renderings of what a completed model looks like by holding and rotating a box in front of the machine.
Last year, Macy's tested an AR dressing room at its flagship store in New York. Instead of trying on clothes, shoppers stood in front of a digital mirror that fit clothes — virtually — onto their body.
