IF you’re sometimes tempted to think that nothing much ever changes in York ... well, think again.
Admittedly, Ouse Bridge hasn’t altered much since 1892: at least not if you photograph it from the right angle.
But as our paired pictures today show, other parts of the city are quite different to the way they looked many years ago.
Sometimes the changes are quite subtle - Micklegate Bar itself hasn’t changed much since 1910, for example: but the tramlines in the foreground of the old photograph mean this part of York looked very different then to how it does now.
Micklegate Bar in about 1910
Micklegate Bar today
At other times, the changes are much more obvious: Holy Trinity Church in King’s Square has vanished completely, while St Martin’s in Coney Street has never been the same since one night in 1942 when the bombs fell.
Holy Trinity Church in King’s Square in 1910
King’s Square today
We have father-and-son team Berny and Devon McCluskey to thanks for today’s photographs.
When Devon, a nine-year-old pupil at St Barnabas’ School, was given a history project to do, he and his dad - an archaeologist - decided to put together a photographic project showing how much (or how little) York has changed down the years.
They hunted out old photographs of the city - then Berny photographed the same scenes again, from as near as he could judge the same viewpoint that the original photographs had been taken from.
Devon, meanwhile, appears in all the modern photographs, in his coat. In one - the photograph of the Leeman Road Bridge - his younger brother Edan stands with him.
The McCluskeys live in the Leeman Road area: so no prizes for guessing which pair of photographs they like most.
“Our favourite is the railway bridge at the end of Leeman Road at the junction with Garfield Terrace,” says Berny. “The old photo shows a lonely horse and cart passing below the bridge: the recreated photo is somewhat different with a park and ride bus passing below!”
And how did Devon’s school project go down? Very well, says Berny. “Quite a lot of people commented on it, so we thought it would be nice to share it with more people - which is why we got in touch with The Press.”
We’re very glad they did...
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