SOUTHAMPTON at the moment is probably undergoing one of its most radical periods of change ever, places and areas that for so long have been familiar scenes are being swept away as the face of the city looks towards the 21st century.

It does not take long to forget how things were, what communities looked like and often memory plays some strange tricks when you think about how Southampton used to be.

Luckily interest in nostalgia has never been stronger than today and as a result many photographs of Southampton in past decades have emerged from archives and personal collections.

Some of the most fascinating to be published recently are contained in a new book by local author Tony Gallaher who has previously written on Southampton's old inns and taverns as well as tracing the development of the city since the end of the Second World War.

"For hundreds of years the focal point of the city has been the Bargate,'' says the author in the introduction to his book.

"Even the bombing of the Second World War could not alter that. All commercial development radiated from that old building from medieval times until the present day.

"I will not say that it is impossible to suddenly change such a focal point, but I wonder if the new development will work.

"I would hate to see the busy area around the Bargate become a ghost town after so many years but I think the WestQuay shopping mall will be a definite asset to the city.''

Each chapter of the book examines an important period in the city's history from Edwardian Southampton, through the First World War and its aftermath, the devastation of the 1939 to 1945 conflict and the dramatic post-war re-development right up to modern times.

Here are images of long forgotten times when horses and carts were an everyday sight, prisoners of war were marched up Shirley Road in 1917, and Nissen huts were commonplace in Blechynden Terrace.

* A Century Of Southampton, by Tony Gallaher, Sutton Publishing Limited in association with WH Smith, costs £14.99