In Yesterday Once More last week we carried a sequence of photographs from the 1890s showing the tower of the old St Lawrence’s Church in Lawrence Street, with the much bigger spire of the new church being built beside it.

As luck would have it, while browsing Explore York's Imagine York website we have stumbled across an even older photograph, taken in the 1870s, which shows the older church before it was demolished. The Tower, which is all that remains of the church today, is instantly recognisable to anyone who has visited the churchyard recently.

Tower apart, the church was a squat, chunky building, parts of which may have dated from the 12th century. It was badly damaged in the Siege of York in 1644, but was extensively rebuilt during the Restoration. It was eventually demolished in 1881-83 to allow the much bigger Victorian church to be built - the second biggest religious building in York after the Minster.

All today's photographs come from Explore York's wonderful Imagine York website. They include two more pairs of photographs - and one odd one out which we've included just because it caught our eye and we thought it was great...

They are:

- Young's Commercial Hotel in Rougier Street, photographed in 1909. Th two photographs show different sides of the hotel. We particularly like the one showing the hotel plastered with advertising hoardings. They include adverts for Quaker Oats, Shine boot polish, Gossages soap and John Pedley's sale of winter goods at the Merchant's Hall.

- Castle Mills. One photo, taken in the 1890s, shows the castle walls looming as viewed from the Castle Mills Lock. In the second, taken in 1954 and looking in the opposite direction (possibly from the top of the castle wall seen in the earlier photo) the old Castle Mills Bridge can be seen before it was rebuilt. The glassworks behind the bridge have since been demolished, as has Melbourne Terrace Methodist Church, which can just be seen in the top left hand corner of the image and can be identified by its bell tower. When this photograph was taken the top of Fishergate (the road to the left) was still two-way and the gyratory had not yet been introduced. The Festival flats - built in 1951 to commemorate the Festival of Britain - can be seen on the left.

- The south door of York Minster seen in the 1860s. The clock which is so prominent in this photograph was taken down during 'remodelling' in the 1870s. What we particularly love abut this photograph, however, is the way the two men pictured - one sitting at the base of a column beside the Minster door, the other in the foreground leaning on a lamppost - appear to be engaged in a kind of long distance conversation. What could they possibly have been saying to each other? And how loudly were they shouting?

Stephen Lewis