Now and Then

The Press and Journal today had a photograph from 1980 of the junction of Union Street and Market Street. It so happened I was going to Jessop's in Market Street to get some photos printed today, so I took the opportunity to take the roughly similar photograph from approximately the same spot.

In the lower photograph the main feature is Frasers department store. I think it closed some time in the 1990s. It deserved to close as it was quite run down. Probably the building would have needed to be totally gutted internally to have made a significant improvement. The most recent occupant of part of the building (Sports Direct) seems to have failed also.

Although the scenes in the two photographs are more similar than different, there have been changes. In particular a new floor has been added to the building on the corner, and the row of chimneys has been removed. Surprisingly the wall mounted clock towards the left of both pictures has survived through the years (although maybe it was working in 1980, unlike now). I was fairly early this morning when I took the photograph, in 1980 there were more people waiting to cross the road so it may have been later in the day.