Last week, we featured a picture of The Custom House on Dock Street.

AN ELEGANT building is the Custom House at no.74 (previously 36) which was built in 1858 by William Hunt and designed by A.O. Watkins. The previous Customs House was in Skinner Street.

Mary Walker, Newport

THE photo is of the Old Custom House. My mum and her business partner used to own it from 1984 and was sold in 2000. There was a bonded warehouse underneath the custom house where they kept goods such as cigarettes. A crane, which was kept next door, used to lift the goods out of the warehouse. The house is now a shipping house.

Jackie Lewis, Newport More comments from June 30: THE Now and Then picture is of Chepstow Road. The houses on the right walls were knocked down to wider the pavements. Also you can see the tram lines. Opposite is The Kesington Court Clinic.

There was once a children’s home nearby which has closed. Also there was a Mosec building and Eveswell School opposite Eveswell Street. This was bombed in the Second World War. I think a family was killed.

Mrs M Reardon, Newport.

THE street scene on Chepstow Road is very different from former times when I recall a vibrant atmosphere with a diverse range of shops; Prusts, general grocer, Holthams (wonderful ham!); North, seed merchant and pets; Uzzell’s, greengrocer, Hughes; electrical; the Cooperative Stores, with sawdust strewn over the slippery floor, a hand-operated bacon slicer, and a centrally situated cashier taking the money via a overhead wire system; Harry Stevens cycles to name just a few.

Then, of-course, presiding over Maindee Square, was the grand Maindee cinema with its three different shows per week playing to packed audiences; and a little further up the road in Victoria Avenue was Maindee baths where generations of school kids, including myself, learned to swim.

I remember a diving demonstration there from the high board by Ralph Diaper who was physical education officer for the council.

Clive Wood, Newport.