THE Ditches is a name that now survives only in Southampton's heritage but at one time Canal Walk, to give the area its proper name, was a lively, cosmopolitan area full of characters and specialist shops.

At the height of its popularity the Ditches was a foreign corner of a very English port. To be honest it was rather dingy but the place had a wonderful atmosphere.

The area in what is now East Street, teamed with life. Traders did not wait for customers. Instead they strolled up and down looking for them. To pause outside one of the many clothes shop for instance was a severe test of your sales resistance.

Canal Walk's method of breaking it down was a smiling approach, a finger pointed at a bargain in the window and a warm invitation to "Come in and pop it on.''

Competition between the rather grandly called gown shops was intense, prices were kept down but the tempers of the shopkeepers were often high.

In the 1920s and 1930s there were boot repairers, ice cream parlours, grocers, rope manufacturers, the colourful Horse and Groom pub, a horse meat butchers, Mrs Harman's stewed eel and pie shop and the discreet business of Stanley and Co described as "purveyors of surgical appliances, gentlemen's requisites and rubber goods".

The Ditches was so-called because ditches were dug in this area in medieval times.

The street was badly damaged by Luftwaffe bombs and after the redevelopment it never really recaptured its unique character.