IT IS A BEAMING face which has kept a watchful eye on Southamp-ton's sprawling development for decades. And it is a face which shone like a beacon of hope during Southampton's darkest days too.

When the 156ft clock tower rose majestically from the new Civic Centre complex during the early 1930s pictured right the ominous storm clouds of war were already gathering in Europe. And when Hitler's bombers brought fire and death to Britain in 1940, the town surveyed by the towering white landmark received a dreadful pounding.

Yet while the historic and commercial heart of Southampton was erased by the Luftwaffe, the clock tower stood as defiant as the townsfolk.

All four dials of the clock were smashed though, and the south face mechanism was wrecked.

Ordinary glass, specially treated with an oil transparent solution, enabled the north, east and west faces to be put right temporarily but the south dial wore a blank look throughout the conflict.

Then, two years after the war, the clock was plunged into darkness as a fuel crisis forced electricity cuts, prompting predictable anger from residents.

Moon-like faces It was left to the Daily Echo to comment: "There are many who would like to see the clock face glow gain. There was a certain friendliness about their moon-like faces, and it is suggested that it should be simple enough to cut out a few street lamps and restore the beacon that can be seen from all over the town and from many miles beyond its bounds."

By the end of 1947, the 54 lamps that illuminated the dials were switched on and Southampton was bathed again in the tower's light.

At this time, the local council asked Daily Echo readers to come up with a suitable name for the clock, and suggestions came flooding in. Nominations included naming the tower after General Daniel Beak or Seaman Jack Mantle, two Southampton men who had been awarded the VC.

Other names put forward included Big Tim, Long Echo and Tall Tester. However, the council came up with its own name instead the somewhat unimaginative Civic Centre Clock.

Major repairs During the decades which followed, a succession of workmen have clambered the 215 internal stairs to attend the clock and its 11ft dials, as these archive photographs from the 1970s and 80s show.

One shot far right shows the tower half-encased in scaffolding in 1982, which provoked "eyesore" complaints from many residents, while another right shows a stunning silhouette of a workman undertaking major repairs two years earlier.

A further picture above right shows George Mountjoy, who clambered up the staircase for many years to ensure that the mechanism was in pristine working order.

Mr Mountjoy, who toiled up the staircase with his oil can at least twice a week, told the Daily Echo in 1976: "It keeps pretty good time at the moment it is about six seconds fast. The weather has a lot to do with it in fact it has stopped twice because of strong winds."