now - and then

Best viewed large.

While in the health centre the other day, I noticed a rather fine print on one of the walls (see extra).  It dates from the 1800s.  It took me a while to realise that it’s a view of the High Street.  

The large building on the left hand side - the Newport Brewery - was where the Health Centre is now.  The brewery advertises Rodgers’s Ale Porter.  A little digging around shows that a Dr John Rodgers bought the brewery in 1817.  So this image is later than that.

I decided today to try and re-create the view.  Not entirely successful - the perspective is all wrong - but enough to get a rough idea of where the artist might have stood.

In the centre of both images is the pub (cream building behind the bus).  Much the same, apart from the lack of dormer windows.   The building immediately to the left of the pub, is still there - the chimneys are just visible behind the lamp post near the bus stop.  

Some of the buildings on the far right have changed.  Only two now have sloping roofs.   But the view up the High Street is recognisably the same.

The aeroplane (top right in main blip) was not in the original.