Lofty plans have been announced to overhaul the town centre in St Helens.
St Helens Borough Council's 'masterplan' has been a major talking point for the town in recent weeks and months.
The work will be some of the first major works in the area since the 1970s and 1980s, with the large Church Square shopping centre being built in 1973.
READ MORE: People have high hopes for town's regeneration 'masterplans'
The development was part of a development to overhaul the town centre and old market and turn it into a modern shopping hot spot.
The plans cost around £40m in today's money.
Photographs and newspaper articles from the time show the scale of the project and how the town viewed it.
The ECHO at the time held a more critical view of the plans, not expecting people to be enticed into St Helens by shopping centres.
They wrote: "On a raw January night, with fog blurring the outline of the Parish Church and the shop lights barely able to strike a reflective gleam from the dull, wet pavements.
"I am forced to the reluctant opinion that Church Street, St Helens, is not perhaps the kind of place one would travel long distances to see.
"Like so many of our towns, St Helens is undergoing a somewhat protracted face lift and the transitionary period is excruciatingly painful.
"But one must be forward-looking and contemplate the distant prospect of a modern and attractive town centre, freed from the clutter and debris of the developers."
However other papers at the time were more optimistic of the plans, with the St Helens Reporter describing the plans as 'space-age'.
They also spoke of a 'masterplan' similar to that currently being rolled out by the council.
Borough Engineer Mr. George James said: “This is a very sweeping change indeed. People will be coming into St Helens to shop. It will compare easily with town centres anywhere.”
The Church Street scheme centres around St Helens Parish Church. The shops will be grouped together in arcades heated by warm air.
Some of the shopping streets have already been named – St. Mary's Arcade, Church Square and Chalon Square."
Large parts of the town centre have had little major work done since these 1970s developments, and the new 'masterplan' is expected to completely overhaul the area.
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