THIS view along East Parade from the bottom of Cavendish Street around the turn of the 19th century shows its right-hand side little changed to the present day, although the sun-blinds protecting the contents of shop windows are no longer commonplace.

The type of traffic, however, has since changed completely, for in 1900 the horse predominated. At least two of the drivers seen here are walking alongside leading their horses, rather than sitting in their carts.

Scarcely anybody in those days went outside with an uncovered head.

The two women in the left foreground can be deduced as working-class who, not aspiring to hats, are wearing shawls. There is another pair on the right-hand pavement.

The Victoria Hotel, under its then manager TW Smith, who had gained experience in Midland Railway hotels, had recently been “completely remodelled and sumptuously refurnished”, advertising “the greatest amount of comfort, generous fare and thoroughly courteous treatment”.

Its Grand Restaurant and Buffet was reckoned “one of the finest in Yorkshire”, to say nothing of its “artistically arranged” electric lights, hydraulic lift, billiard room and two “well-lighted stockrooms, without which no commercial hotel is complete”.

The photograph has been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Bradford Road, Riddlesden.