LAST week’s Now and Then picture was of the Civic Centre in Newport.

● I remember the Civic Centre before it was the Civic Centre.

It was owned by Lydia Beynon and as a boy I used to pinch pears out of the garden, as I knew the caretaker.

If you look at the picture, at the roundabout, I knew the fellow working on there, as I went to St John’s Church three times a day back then.

Faulkner Road is on there and on the corner there used to be a nursing home and if you went to the right there was a small lane.

At the end were Taylor’s and I remember there were lots of conkers to play with.

Mr Watt, Newport.

● The Now and Then picture is of the Civic Centre.

You have to go up Bridge Street pass Clytha Clinic, where all the children use to go to the dentist department and all other ailments, etc.

On the right side of the Centre is Godfrey Road where there’s a building for probation officers and a big church nearby which also was the register office for births, deaths and marriages, which they called the Gold Tops, and has now moved to Mansion House, way past St Woolos Hospital.

Also at the top of the Civic Centre there were offices to pay your rent, etc, which has all changed.

Mrs Malbina Reardon, Newport.

● Many years ago I watched the King on the top of Confrey Road looking over Gold Tops.

There was great controversy about building the big tower and inside was the magistrates’ court.

The cost of building the tower was more then the entire building but it was in the original plans so had to be built.

Graham Strong, Newport.