Chichester Then and Now

Look at it now, stranded on the Northgate roundabout, neglected and forlorn, cut off from the city it served so well.

It's a sad comparison but it's also a fascinating one '“ a comparison captured in a new book I have researched and written, entitled Chichester: Then And Now.

Published by Breedon Books in association with the West Sussex Gazette's sister publication the Chichester Observer, it tells the story of how Chichester's past has become its present.

The book will hit the shops at the beginning of April, bringing together more than 60 archive images with photographs I have taken, standing as close as possible to the spot where the original photographer stood.

Sometimes I took my life in my hands diving out into the traffic to take a picture that would once have been taken with unhurried ease; or else I had to wait for crowds to disperse and the clutter of parked cars to disappear.

For full details and more about the work that went into Phil Hewitt's book, see West Sussex Gazette February 11