STREETS of York, the book and exhibition about the changing face of York’s city streets, has raised almost £70,000 for local charities.

The total of £66,712 will be split between York Against Cancer, York Minster and the York Civic Trust. “The charities do wonderful work,” said Sir Ron Cooke, the retired vice-chancellor of the University of York whose idea Streets of York was. “We know they’ll make good use of the money.”

The Streets of York book was put together by Sir Ron; Darrell Buttery, Vice-President of York Georgian Society; Stephen Lewis, chief feature writer of The Press; and photographer Chris Shepherd.

It brought together about 200 original paintings, sketches and photographs of York streets and matched these with contemporary photographs by Chris Shepherd of the same locations. A complementary exhibition was held at St Williams College.

The entire 1,500-copy print run of the book sold out, and thousands of people also saw the exhibition. Every penny of the profits will go to the three nominated charities.

All three charities admitted they were delighted with the amount raised. “Our share of the money will make a big difference to cancer patients in York, North and East Yorkshire,” said Julie Russell, York Against Cancer’s general manager. Richard Shephard, lay canon at York Minster, said: “We are extremely grateful for the generous donation. We will make very good use of it!”

York Civic Trust chief executive David Fraser added: “The amount raised shows how popular York’s history and heritage are. We’ll use our share of the proceeds to continue promoting and preserving that heritage.”

Sir Ron said the project was only possible thanks to the generosity of more than 20 sponsors and volunteers who helped with the exhibition. “It couldn’t have happened without them,” he said.

If you couldn’t buy the book, Sir Ron said: “We are hoping we might be able to find a sponsor for a reprint."