Soaring above a Thames still scarred by wartime, Big Ben and the Gothic spires of the Houses of Parliament command this sweeping black-and-white aerial view of London, while Westminster Bridge arches across the river below and County Hall anchors the far bank — the sender, writing simply as "Nordt. Bury," confides that "London is fascinating. Sometimes you feel saddened when you see the bomb damage, but they are tearing down and building up very rapidly," offering an irreplaceable eyewitness account of postwar reconstruction. The card was mailed to Mrs. C. J. L— at 7016 Jackson Ave., Kansas City 5, Missouri, carrying a King George VI 2d orange stamp — a quiet artifact of empire sent across the Atlantic in the hopeful years after the Blitz.