Page 2 - Meadowhall 25th Anniversary: The Star Special Supplement
P. 2
2 THESTAR
www.thestar.co.uk Saturday,September5,2015
RETRO
By Julia Armstrong
julia.armstrong@thestar.co.uk @juliaaarmstrong
With a dome that’s now one ofSheffield’s most recognis able landmarks, Meadowhall changed the face ofshopping in the region when it opened on September 4,1990.
The out-of-town development helpedtoturnshoppingintoa leisure pursuit, with crowds wandering its glass and mar ble walkways on two levels, with hundreds of stores un der one roof, plus places to eat in the central Oasis and a cinema.
Meadowhall was symbolic ofhowSheffieldwaschanging in other ways. The steel indus try had taken a battering in the 1980s and now Meadow hallwasbeingbuiltonthesite of the former Hadfield steel works.
The company’s founder, Attereliffe-born Robert Had field Jr, discovered manga nese steel in 1882.
His booming business bought 38 acres of cornfield in Tinsley from Earl Fitzwil- liam for £16,000. The East He- cla Works opened in 1897. In World War One, the company took on lucrative munitions work.
By 1984, the steelworks that had once employed more than 2,000 workers was be ginning a phased closure.
Above, the dome starting to take shape dur
That history was repre
sented at Meadowhall by Debenhams) andjuggle mol Robin Bell’s statue, called ten steel and Spud U Like, Teeming. It depicts three rivets and cascading foun
The go-ahead from Shef
field City Council for the de
tailed plans had been given in
July1986. beonemillionsquarefeet.It
tain areas, comradeship and 48-screen Vidiwalls”.
In April 1990, when work
waswellunderway,agroupof dieHealeyandhisHullfirm four steelworkers from Had- Stadium Developments with
The report said that the size of the complex would
steelworkers pouring metal into ingot moulds,
fields toured the site. Columnist Stephen Mc-
Clarence wrote: “We survey the four and five ton electric arc furnaces ofthe past (now
building Meadowhall but in fact he had planned to build Retail World at Parkgate in Rotherham on another old steel site.
Another developer, Barns- ley-born Paul Sykes, came up with the idea ofMeadowhall and the pair agreed to go in to partnership rather than compete with each other to build rival schemes so close together.
In 1999, they sold the cen tre to present owners British Land.
The news that the develop ers had paired up “took the re tail world by storm”, the Star reported in May 1987.
In October 1987 The Star was expected to create 4,500 reported that plans had been permanent jobs, plus 2,000
Many people associate Ed
Magical first day memories for Ken
When Meadowhall opened its doors 25
years ago, it touched the lives of many
thousandsofpeoplefromtheregion.
Hundredsofworkers helped build the
structure,manythousandsmoreap everywhereyoulooked’ plied forjobs in the new shopping centre
day out to the seaside, a real destination. “The only way I can describe it is to compare it to Meadowhall at Christmas with the grotto and the lights, but it was like that every day. It felt very special to be part of it and it still does. Meadowhall has never lost it magic for me.
“I'm a granddad now and we come down with the grandkids. I think the biggest change is that when we first opened people camejust to shop; they decided they needed something and came down. “Nowadays visitors now stay a lot longer with people coming down for more than
just shopping. It’s a place people come meet up, have coffee, something to eat or maybe go to the cinema.
"We see the younger shoppers strolling up and down the malls, wanting to be seen and enjoying it as part oftheir social scene.
“I’m now looking forward to the £50m revamp that's coming. That's the beauty of Meadowhall, it never stays the same and this is a huge investment that will keep Meadowhall right at the top as a retail destination for years to come.” Ken, 59, who lives in Dronfield, is still manager at Burton Menswear.
with the lucky ones trained and ready
to pull up the shutters on the big day- September4,1990.
Burton Menswear manager Ken Bird has shared the past 25 years with Mead owhall as it has grown and evolved both inside on the malls and outside with the communities it shares.
Ken’s memories ofthe lead-up to open ing and the big day itself are vivid: “The only way to describe it was magical.”
“I remember it like it was yesterday," he said. "I was with Topman at the time and Meadowhall was a brand new concept that had never been seen before.
“We got the keys to the store the week beforeitopened,itwasallcompletely
fitted out and we had to bring in the merchandise, graphics and everything else to bring it to life.
“When we first walked in we weren’t allowed to use the main entrance, so we came in the back service entrance and
walked through into our store.
“That's when we got our very first glimpse ofthe inside through the win dows - all we could see was the miles of marble and the columns and palm trees. The only way to describe it was magical. “Wewerealsounderstrictinstructions not to go out into the malls as work was still going on but we couldn’t resist. It was something like out of The Great Escape as me and a colleague snuk down the back stairs and made our way to the Oasis.
“Itwasjust amazing, so luxurious with the columns and water fountains, we werejust staring with our mouths open. There was also the huge video screen
on the wall, I had never seen anything as big as that in my life; Ijust had a Min TV at homebackthen likeeveryoneelse!
“The sun was shining through the dome, it wasjust amazing everywhere you looked. We had never seen so many dif ferent choices offood or restaurants in one place before, it truly was revolution ary at the time.
“It felt like history in the making - and it was.” Ken’smemorieswereevenmorevividof the opening day itself.
“All the staffwanted to be working on that first day and we had to tell some people to go home, I felt a bit cruel. “But that didn’t stop them though, we had staffwho weren’t due in until the afternoon shift coming in the morning andjust staying.
“When 10am came and all the retailers could open their shutters, everyone was so excited, it felt like history in the mak ing-and it was.
“Then we saw this sea of customers coming towards us, they werejust mesmerised by everything. We saw the same people spend hours in the centre and then come backthe next day and the next day.
“We had coach trips coming, it was like a
unveiled for the £200 million shopping and leisure centre, “hailed as the best in the coun try”.
Key retailers were named as Marks and Spencer, Deben hams and SavaCentre, incor porating BHS and Sainsbury’s.
building jobs during a two- year construction period.
Leisure facilities that didn’tgo aheadintheendwere said to include a huge indoor waterparksimulatingatropi calislandwithbeachesplus anAmerican-stylethememu seum, boasting life-size com puterised dinosaurs.
The£200millionrailinter change for Meadowhall was announced a month later.
‘The sun was shining throughthe dome,it wasjust amazing
