PEOPLE living in an ever-changing part of Oxford's city centre are being offered the chance to take a glimpse at what it looked like half a century ago.

The parish of St Ebbe's, which included the area around the soon-to-be-demolished Westgate Centre, is virtually unrecognisable from what it used to be.

With a major redevelopment of the city's West End under way, the area is set to change once more.

The Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, based in the central library in the Westgate Centre, is staging a photographic exhibition of the parish.

Malcolm Graham, head of the centre, said: "St Ebbe's is about to change again so it seemed quite an interesting thing to look at how it was before the last major change half a century ago.

"There is nothing left of how it was then, really.

"I can only think of odd buildings that survived, like the old St Ebbe's Rectory, the Duke of York pub, which is surrounded by railings now, and the Wharfhouse Pub in Thames Street, which closed last year."

St Ebbe's, which Mr Graham described as looking like a bigger version of Jericho before it became gentrified, was largely swept away in the 1950s and 1960s when most residents were rehoused in new council estates on the city's outskirts.

Mr Graham said: "There is an element of nostalgia to anyone who remembers it as it was.

"But for those who did not know it and just see it as a multi-storey car park and the back of the Westgate Centre, I think they will be incredulous about what it used to be like."

In 1901, about 4,500 people lived in the parish and virtually every street corner boasted a shop or pub.

Employment was largely provided by Oxford gasworks.

The area was blighted by the proposed Oxford relief road schemes from 1945 onwards.

Mr Graham said: "The homes were incredibly basic but people got on with it and, surprisingly enough, many of those who lived there have fond memories of how it used to be."

Images, maps and memorabilia will be on display in the library until Thursday, July 31.

The exhibition includes material from the Oxfordshire Studies collections and former St Ebbe's residents, including memories of a childhood in the parish in the 1940s and 1950s.