AS the tourist season gets into full swing in York, King's Square becomes a magnet for the crowds, as visitors stop a while to watch street entertainers and munch chips and ice creams.

Today's selection of archive pictures show how the square used to look and show that, while the tourists are relative newcomers, the square has long been a destination for some other regular visitors - the pigeons.

In the first 'aerial' picture, taken in 1960, pigeon feeding is in progress as a handful of pedestrians make their way across town. In the second picture, also taken in 1960, a man sits on a shady bench feeding a mass of the greedy birds.

From a distance he could be Alfred Hitchcock contemplating his next thriller, The Birds.

The third picture, taken in the 1930s, from the junction of Petergate with Goodramgate and Church Street, shows the old Holy Trinity Church, which once dominated the square, and which was demolished in 1937, after years of disuse.

Updated: 12:23 Friday, May 17, 2002