Changing city captured; Pictures of Newcastle up for auction.

Byline: Tony Henderson

THE ever-changing face of Newcastle captivated photographer Monty Rosen.

For many years he owned Fenham's photography shop in the city centre and built up a large personal collection of images of Newcastle from the 19th and early 20th Century.

Then the rapid rate of development in the city in the 1960s and 1970s sparked the late Mr Rosen, who lived in Gosforth, to take to the streets with his camera to record buildings and sights before they vanished forever.

In many cases he took shots of locations which matched those taken years before and which showed how scenes had altered.

Now the archive of around 1,000 images is to be sold at Anderson & Garland's Newcastle auction on September 10.

Mr Rosen's shop was in Clayton Street as the Eldon Square shopping centre was being built nearby, and later moved to Grainger Street. It was last run by Mr Rosen's son-in-law Peter Gatoff, who now lives in retirement in Gosforth.

He said: "Monty was a very keen photographer and he went around the city in the 60s and 70s to update his historic photographic collection.

" He was fascinated by the changes taking place in Newcastle, and the city changed so much during the 1960s and 70s.

"It is remarkable to compare his pictures with what we can see today, and so many places don't exist now.

"It is a real trip down memory lane. We didn't want the photographs to stay in a cupboard and we hope they end up somewhere were they can be made good use of."

Anderson & Garland's John Anderson said Mr Rosen's collection echoed that of Jimmy Forsyth, who died in July aged 95 after decades of wandering the streets of Newcastle taking photographs.

"Mr Rosen's collection is terrific and the sheer comprehensiveness of it is impressive. It is a visual feast which shows the evolution of the city."

Among the changes documented by Mr Rosen was the demolition of Richard Grainger and John Dobson's 1830s Royal Arcade in the 1960s to make way for the building of Swan House and its roundabout.

TREASURES Left, Jackie Eltringham from Anderson and Garland holds one of the collection of photographs taken by the late Monty Rosen which are on sale at the auction house. Above, some of the pictures showing a changing Newcastle in the 19th and 20th Century.