Research revealing historic prices of buildings in the capital will have property solicitors in London looking in amazement at the rapid escalation in valuations in the last few decades.

A website company which specialises in helping people to discover their family history, Ancestry.co.uk, has obtained the England land tax valuations of 1910 which show the contrast between the cost of 44,000 buildings then and now.

A century ago, the average London property was valued at £14,000 compared with £430,500 in 2010.

Historic landmarks, such as the Bank of England, assessed at £110,000 and the Old Bailey at £6,600, appear extremely cheap, although the Lord Mayor of London's base, Mansion House was regarded as far more valuable at £992,000.

The property valuations of the early 20th Century were gathered as part of Prime Minister Lloyd George's 1910 Finance Act, which was intended to assess land value as a preliminary to redistributing wealth.

Other details in the listing which will interest current owners of homes across London are the owners, occupiers and rents for the properties.

Dan Jones, of Ancestry, said, "The collection offers a fascinating insight into our capital at the beginning of the 20th century - a time when Britain was on the verge of major social, political and economic change."

People involved in the legal profession, such as residential conveyancing lawyers, will be amused to see that buildings in the area where the city's top law practices are concentrated, Chancery Lane, were only estimated at £11,000 in 1910 but are now valued at approximately £1.1million today.