There are many old photographs of Shambles. One of the most striking things, when you look at these, is how comparatively unchanged York's most famous street has remained down the years. That makes it great as a tourist destination - visitors get to walk down the length of a genuinely medieval street, a rare thing these days.

While the street itself may have changed comparatively little, some of those older photos of Shambles are brilliant, because they show butchers posing outside their shops, or carts delivering meat. They show the real working Shambles, in other words, rather than the cleaned-up tourist version of today.

The image of Shambles we begin with today, however, is somewhere in between. Taken by a Press photographer in February 1962, it shows workmen restoring the frontage of one of the old shops. It perhaps represents the beginning of the process of 'prettying up' the ancient street that has resulted, today, in the crowds of tourists and the glut of Harry Potter-themed shops...

All the photos on these pages today come from our own archive, and were taken at one time or another by Press photographers out and about doing their jobs.

One extraordinary picture shows St George's Field in the days when the York public baths were based there. There's no date, sadly, though judging by the two cars visible we'd say probably 1960s. We know many readers have fond (or maybe not so fond?) memories of using the baths. But does anyone know what the building in the background is?

We've also dug out an old photograph of the typesetters hall at the old Yorkshire Evening Press printing offices in Coney Street (roughly where City Screen is now). There's no date, but it looks to be a very old photograph. And yes, The Press really was once produced like this, with each letter individually set by hand.

Ever wondered what St Martin's Church on Coney Street looked like before it was bombed during the war? We have a photo that shows it. It's a little grainy, and again there's no date: but it shows just how substantial and important the church was - and also how plain the mounting for the clock was. These days it is much more elaborate.

And finally, we have a 1959 photograph of the old Castlegate School and playground as it was in 1959: and a 1969 view of the Layerthorpe Bridge and junction, years before the modern redesign which has made traffic flow so much better. Yes, you know it has...

Stephen Lewis