Sentence:  He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him [...] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous <WSD>century</WSD> and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A period of 100 consecutive years; "often specifically" a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the "twentieth century", which stretches from ("strictly") 1901 through 2000, or ("informally") 1900 through 1999. The "first century AD" was from 1 to 100.