NEWS that the Kirkgate Shopping Centre in Bradford is to be demolished has prompted memories of the landmark city centre site.

The centre was built in 1976 where the old Kirkgate Market had traded for a century. Now it has been bought by Bradford Council which plans to demolish it as part of a huge plan to transform the city centre.

The story of the shopping centre began in 1954 when entrepreneurs Arnold Hagenbach and Sam Chippindale bought the old Swan Arcade. They planned to demolish it and replace it with a purpose-built shopping mall of the style popular in post-war America.

Their company, the Arndale Property Trust, had a mission to build shopping malls in cities across the UK. Work on Bradford’s Arndale Centre began in 1972, a decade after the country’s first mall opened in Jarrow. The Bradford complex included an indoor market, 50 shops, three department stores and two pubs. It cost more than £6 million to construct - a huge vote of confidence in the city - and when it opened people queued up to be first in.

All that remained of the old Kirkgate Market was a stone market cross at an entrance to the new building.

The Kirkgate Shopping Centre is still remembered by many as ‘the Arndale’, and anyone who grew up in Bradford will remember its fountains, escalators, the wooden hippo slide and Santa’s grotto.

It has been a backdrop to many people’s lives - people went on first dates there, got engaged there, had their first Saturday jobs there, and spent happy times wandering round the shops and taking a breather in cafes there.

Our recent photo gallery of Kirkgate Shopping Centre over the years prompted memories on the T&A We Grew Up in Bradford Facebook page. Here are some of them:

Tony Sutcliffe recalls a special moment: “We were the first couple to get engaged in the Arndale. I worked in SMC and Susan across in Barratts shoes. We celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary this month. Centre manager Wally Troth gave us an engagement card!”

Alyson Boote: “I used to go shopping there with my mum and nana every Saturday. I remember us getting evacuated due to a bomb scare.”

Angus Stewart: “I remember when it had Littlewoods, Hagenbachs and the wooden hippo slide. It did for long time have a good atmosphere, especially at Christmas.”

Fiona Taylor: “I worked on a Saturday in a shop called Galls on the top floor in 1981/82.”

Barry Slaven: “I remember being in there with my grandad as a child, I must have only been a few years old. We went went through the main hall, before they had the escalator installed there, and went for something to eat in the old market section out the back. I remember it being a smoke filled place, heaving with people, and it fascinated me as a kid. I’m sure I remember some plastic animals in there, but can’t be certain. It’s a 38-year-old memory.”

Nadeem Darr: “I loved Littlewoods cafe - a chip butty and cup of tea for 50p back in 1984.”

Gill Walsworth: “ I bought my first wedding ring from Ratners there.”

Pat Dunne: “Remember getting a pair of jeans for about 10 shillings. I got a pair of jeans yesterday - they cost £125.”

Roger Bateman: “On Saturdays in the early 1980s I worked in Jeanery just across the road, it was the time of snow-blasted jeans and distressed leather jackets Town was busy and I didn’t have a care in the world. Wish I could pop back to then just for the day.”

Emma Clayton