WHEN Bradford’s Kirkgate Shopping Centre is demolished it will bring to an end an era of retail spanning nearly half a century. It's the latest chapter on a city centre site that has been home to retail since the early 1700s.
The Victorian Kirkgate Market was built in 1872, designed by Lockwood and Mawson. The beautiful, much-loved building was demolished in 1973 to make way for a new era of retail - the shopping mall.
There were protests when the century-old market was knocked down. On Monday November 5, 1973 the T&A reported that 33 people had been arrested after an afternoon of demonstrations. Protestors were bundled into waiting vans as crowds jeered at police near the market entrance.
Pictured here is a particularly poignant image of the rubble that was left behind. A grubby sheet of music fluttering in the wind - perhaps once used by a string quartet in one of the elegant market cafes?
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