'When The Ridings opened, it was like Harrods in Wakefield'

Once a statement of Wakefield's pioneering ambition, The Ridings shopping centre enjoyed decades of success before its fortunes waned.

Now facing demolition, the man who helped bring it to life has reflected on the loss of a landmark tightly woven into the city's identity.

It was in the late 1970s that Wakefield Council decided there would be no half measures. Peter Spawforth was then the authority's chief planner.

"I did a report about how we could set about planning Wakefield, and in it was the suggestion we ought to have a shopping centre," he recalls.

"So the council said: 'If we're going to build one, let's have the best.' "

Developers Capital and Counties secured the contract. Soon after, they floated an idea - would Peter join them on a tour of the US and Canada to gather inspiration?

"They asked if the council would send me, and I said I was sure they would.

"So I asked the leader and he said, 'Ey lad, if you can go on it, you go on it.' And that was that - off we went to America."

Shaped directly by that trip, The Ridings opened in 1983 as a bold statement - the first mall of its kind in Britain, complete with features seen only across the Atlantic.

"We went round centres in Toronto, then flew down to New York and Atlanta. We picked up all sorts of ideas."

Two stood out and were recreated in Wakefield; the expansive ground floor food court and the iconic glass wall‑climber lift, which descended into a fish pond.

"We saw the lift in a hotel in Atlanta and said, 'Oh, we must have one of those.'

"There was just this ability to say, let's try this, let's try that. Nobody in England could build it, so the architects went to France and had it copied."

The Ridings was unlike the "concrete box" malls Britain was used to, and as a result, it brought in the crowds.

Peter remembers its October opening.

"The manager said, 'Peter, you won't believe this, ladies are coming in wearing hats.' It was phenomenal, like they were going to Harrods."

"One weekend there were 40 bus loads of people. I remember going to Scarborough and seeing a sign that said, 'Visit The Ridings, the new shopping centre.' We were absolutely over the moon."

But he reflects that its success was not just about retail. It was designed to be a community space - a place to meet and belong.

For many people, the memories of The Ridings are as vivid as its architecture.

The extravagant Christmas decorations suspended from the roof, the landscaped gardens and towering real trees which surrounded the food court, the queues of people waiting for the glass lift and younger generations milling around the glass railings.

As a teenager, Philip Shelton worked at the food court's Pizza N Pasta - one of several stalls offering up all sorts of different options including Juicy Lucy, Damn Yankee and One Potato More.

He said: "I loved working there. It was such a close‑knit community, you knew everyone - the cleaning staff, the centre manager would stop and chat and the lady who did the tannoy announcements, often when a child had got lost.

"It was clean, bright and always busy, everyone respected it."

Michele Whitehead, whose mother Doreen ran the Scoop ice cream parlour, recalls: "She absolutely loved it and she was so busy, especially in the summer months with all the kids wanting ice creams."

A year after is opening, such was its impact, The Ridings was named European Shopping Centre of the Year - an accolade it went on to win for the next decade.

Peter remembers collecting the prize.

"I was on a table with all these senior councillors and mayors from place like Spain and Germany, and I said to them, they ought to visit Wakefield and The Ridings.

"Everyone of them turned round and said they had already had."

But as retail competition intensified, its dominance began to fade.

When Meadowhall opened in Sheffield in 1990, Peter recalls a significant drop in trade. More competition followed when the White Rose Centre opened in Leeds, covering the Wakefield catchment.

By 2011, Trinity Walk opened within walking distance.

"I had moved jobs by that point, but Capital and Counties rang me and said they had decided they couldn't compete with it and were going to pull out from The Ridings.

"So all the stores linked to their other developments, once their leases were up, left too."

Fast forward to today and that once brave era is coming to an end.

The council says the ageing mall no longer fits modern shopping habits and plans to flatten the site to create a "vibrant new quarter" for living, leisure and events.

With government backing, it describes the scheme as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to transform the city centre.

Vacant possession is pencilled in for September 2028, followed by demolition.

Peter, who was awarded an MBE for his part in designing The Ridings, is pragmatic. Now 90 and long retired, he is familiar with clearing the old to make way for the new.

"I'm used to pulling stuff down. We've pulled a lot down to build the right things, so I can't say I'm against the principle of demolition.

"But you've got to pull down when you've got a really good scheme to put in its place.

"They're talking about it taking 15 years to finish the project. The problem is, if you're going to have a demolition site that lasts 15 years - even if it's being built gradually - it's going to completely ruin the city centre, because no one will want to come."

For Peter, and for many shoppers who grew up with The Ridings, its value was never simply commercial. It was and continues to be the city's anchor - a familiar presence stitched into daily life.

"For me, it's comfortable, it's familiar. It feels like home.

"If it's pulled down it will be tremendously missed."

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