THREE images of Davygate, all from roughly the same point of view, show how the street has changed over the last 120 years.

The first two images date from the 1890s. One is a watercolour by the artist William J Boddy. It shows the half-timbered house that once stood on the corner of Davygate and St Sampson's Square - and, looking beyond that, the regular market that was once held in the square.

The street in Boddy's painting appears muddy and rutted, but otherwise it is quite a busy, even cheerful scene. The historic photograph, taken at about the same time, and showing many of the same details - including that half-timbered house and the street market in the distance - somehow manages to look far more gloomy, however.

The bustling street of today is quite a contrast. For a start, the house on the corner is long gone, to be replaced by Brown's department store. The market, too, has gone: and there is now a row of mature trees in Parliament Street. But perhaps the main difference is the sheer number of people in Davygate today: a reminder of the impact of pedestrianisation and the continuing popularity (despite the problems faced by many high streets) of York as a shopping destination.

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Above: Davygate in 1890, watercolour by William J Boddy

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Above: Davygate, i890s. Photo Explore York Libraries and Archives

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Davygate today. Photo: Chris Shepherd

All three images, plus the others on these pages, come from a new book, The Streets of York: Four Centuries of Change, which is published today.

We previewed the book, put together by Sir Ron Cooke, Darrell Buttery, Stephen Lewis (yes, that's yours truly) and photographer Chris Shepherd in Yesterday Once More a few weeks ago. But the book is now available to buy - with all proceeds going to three local charities: York Against Cancer, the York Minster Fund and York Civic Trust. An accompanying exhibition will open at the Maclagan Hall in St Williams College on October 31.

Apart from raising money for charity, the aim of both book and exhibition is to take a journey through time along York's streets, showing how they have changed (or in some cases not changed) down the years.

As the blurb on the back cover puts it: "Walk the streets of York and you're walking through history. It's all around you, in the medieval masonry, ancient weathered timbers and fragments of borrowed Roman stone that crop up in the buildings you walk past.

"Many of the street patterns are little changed from medieval or Viking times. But that is not to say that time has stood still in York. The city's streets have changed over the years - sometimes dramatically so."

Down the years, those streets have attracted a succession of conservationists, artists, photographers and writers, many of whom left a record of the city they loved in the form of paintings, sketches and photographs.

The Streets of York brings together 200 or so of those original paintings, sketches and old photographs, many never seen in public before, and pairs them with contemporary photographs to show, street-by-street, just how the city has changed and evolved down the years.

"The results can be very surprising!" says Sir Ron Cooke, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of York, whose idea the book and exhibition were.

Sometimes, the changes seem at first to be quite subtle. The Fossgate pictured in artist Tom Dudley's 1886 watercolour is both shabbier and somehow more lived in than the street of today: it was very much a working street, with an almost Dickensian feel to it. Today, it is paved, and the buildings have sprouted new signs and television aerials. But the fabric of the street itself is little altered: the imposing bulk of the Minster still looms large in the background.

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Fossgate in 1896, watercolour by Tom Dudley

There is one big difference, however. To the left of the Minster in the Tom Dudley painting you can see the last bay of the beautiful fifteenth century St Crux's Church, while to the right of that and literally overshadowed by the Minster is the tower of Christ Church in King's Square (look carefully and you'll see it). Both of these churches have long since been demolished.

Another pair of images also shows the way York's streets have sometimes changed only subtly. The butcher's shop (at least it looks like a butcher's shop) in JW Knowles' c1900 watercolour of the entrance to Morrell Yard on Fossgate has an elegant window with an awning above. This has been replaced by a much larger shop front today. Another change is that what looked like houses in Knowles's day (for example the property to the left of the entrance to Morrell Yard) are now commercial premises.

In almost 300 lavishly-illustrated pages, The Streets of York takes you on a similar journey through many of York's best-known and most-loved streets, from Coney Street to Pavement, Stonegate to the Water Lanes. "You might never look at York in quite the same way again!" says Sir Ron.

HOW TO BUY THE BOOK

York Press:

The Streets of York: Four Centuries of Change by Darrell Buttery, Ron Cooke, Stephen Lewis and Chris Shepherd is published today in hardback by York Publishing Services, priced £30.

The book is available from Fairfax House, the Minster bookshop, York Against Cancer shops and The Press offices in Walmgate. Please note: if planning to buy from The Press, only cash or cheques can be accepted. Cheques should be payable to: York Publishing Services Ltd. I

The book is also available direct from York Publishing Services on 01904 431213 or from YPDbooks.com. There will be a postage and package of £3.60 on telephone and online orders.

The Streets of York exhibition will open on October 31 at the Maclagan Hall in St Williams College. Public admission will be every weekday afternoon from 2.30pm to 4.30pm, with entry £12 on the door. The book will be available at the special discount price of £20 to anyone visiting the exhibition.

All proceeds from both the book and exhibition will be shared between York Against Cancer, York Civic Trust and the York Minster Fund.