AN exhibition drawn from the Review’s archive of more than 15,000 photographs showing life in the city in the 1970s and 1980s will open in March.

The pick of the photographs will be displayed in the Museum of in Hatfield Road, while from March 24 to 27, giant montages will be projected on to the Old Town Hall in Market Place.

Museum photographer Kate Warren, who has been poring through the Review's archive, said: "We'd love to find out more about the stories behind these fascinating photos.

"Many of them have very short labels, so it will be great if visitors can provide more information about the people and events recorded in the pictures."

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Review reported all aspects of local life, its photographers capturing the happiest and some of the saddest moments of the community.

They illustrated many changes as prospered with the completion of the M25 motorway and Thameslink railway, causing a house price boom.

But the period's problems included a rise in homelessness, high inflation and business failures.

John Beckerson, curator at the Museum of , said: “The legacy of the Review’s photographers is a unique archive of over 15,000 images. Now stored within Museums, it has become a key part of the city’s visual memory of the ’70s and ’80s.

“The images in this exhibition have not seen the light of day for 30 years. Now we can open this amazing archive for the first time.”

The exhibition will include a “memory wall”, where visitors can add their own local photographs or reminiscences.

The photo-montages projected on to the Old Town Hall will reflect themes within the exhibition: children’s lives, the sporting city and district, local personalities, politics and protests, and the weird and wonderful. There will also be displays of memorabilia from the two decades to raise a smile, while children can try out the space hoppers and Rubik’s cubes that fascinated their parents.

The museum and the Review are running a joint photographic competition to run alongside the exhibition.