Our journey through The Streets of York (both the book and the exhibition of the same name, which is now open to the public) takes us to Petergate this week: although it is not perhaps Petergate quite as you know it.

Our first image is a wonderful lithograph by a Mrs Heming which shows High Petergate looking south towards the Minster in the early 1800s.

At first glance it doesn't look that different to the same view captured in Chris Shepherd's modern photograph taken 200 years later. Look closer, however, and you can begin to see the changes.

The houses in the forefront of Mrs Heming's print have a wavering, higgledy-piggledy outline (look at the line where roof meets walls) which makes the buildings look somehow alive. They're bowed and bent by age, but still defiantly standing. In the early twentieth century, the houses were substantially rebuilt, re-using some of the original timbers. These timbers are now clearly visible. But the houses have lost the lovely, wavering outline they had in Mrs Heming's day - the roofline is completely straight.

Further in the distance, some of the houses which can be seen in Mrs Heming's lithograph have been completely rebuilt - though the Minster, of course, looms unchanged over everything.

The Minster is also a looming presence in the background of another pair of images, this time showing the view north from Low Petergate. Noel Harry Leaver's c1900 watercolour is all warm browns and earthy tones, which gives his street an oddly agricultural look. But, apart from minor changes to shop fronts, and the addition of double yellow lines and new-paved surfaces, the view is very much the same today.

A view that has changed a great deal over the last 200 years is that of St Michael-le-Belfrey Church seen from what is today Duncombe Place.

When Henry Barlow Carter and George Nicholson painted their versions of this view in 1830 and 1837 respectively, the church was largely hidden behind a substantial, half-timbered building. This building has long since gone - possibly it disappeared at the same time that Narrow Lop Lane (or Little Blake Street) was demolished in about 1860 to create Duncombe Place and open up the view of the Minster's west front.

Eagle-eyed readers (you don't actually have to be that eagle-eyed) will notice that in the foreground of Henry Barlow Carter's watercolour, workmen are busily removing what looks very much like collapsed stonework, some of which has Roman numerals carved on it. We'd very much like to hear from anyone who can tell us what this stonework is...

Stephen Lewis

All proceeds from The Streets of York: Four Centuries of Change will be shared between York Against Cancer, York Civic Trust and the York Minster Fund.

The book, by Darrell Buttery, Ron Cooke, Stephen Lewis and Chris Shepherd, is published in hardback by York Publishing Services, priced £30.

An exhibition based on the book is now open at the Maclagan Hall in St Williams College. Public admission is every weekday afternoon from 2.30pm to 4.30pm, entry £12 on the door.

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 (payable to York Publishing Services Ltd) can be accepted. The book is also available direct from York Publishing Services on 01904 431213 or from YPDbooks.com for £30 plus £3.60 p&p, or can be bought at the special discount price of £20 by anyone visiting the exhibition.

Stephen Lewis, one of the authors of the book, also writes the Yesterday Once More column for The Press.