Super video. So many happy memories of the Ridings at this time. We used to go most Thursdays for late night opening and free parking as a kid. Garden food court looked so good - even does now to modern eyes. Wakefield has lost its destination shopping crown to Leeds and Barnsley these days sadly.
This was the first American style Mall in Yorkshire, maybe actually the UK at the time. It was fecking amazing. There were coach tours coming to Wakefield everyday from all over the UK just to marvel at the Ridings, let that sink in!
wow this brings back memories we used to come to shop as kids with my mum and grandma, i would always lok forward to eating yorkshire pudding and onion gravy in the restaurant at the bottom and then go to play with the toys in the early learning center before going home
Just like I remember it in the 90s, it was a place where you would meet mates as a group on a Saturday, they have ruined Wakefield now, all that atmosphere has gone and there is nothing left, looking at it today, I’m glad I left just over 20 years ago before it started going downhill.
Fantastic, I went here about a year ago, thinking it was going to be the same when I where younger. I asked a shop keeper, "where's lift gone, what's happened, where's the pond". "All gone", she said. What, why when. Lift and pond and toy shop where best bits. Should bring lift back and pond. Why do councils have to demolish and ruin everything.
How I wish that The Ridings was like that now. Most people only go into The Ridings these days simply to get to Morrisons or M&S, the rest of this once thriving mall is like a ghost town. The water feature and the decorated elevator are no longer there, they scrapped them to make more shops, and more profit but today more than half of the shops in this mall are shut down and boarded up, so it has become a "White Elephant", and it must be costing the Council (or whoever owns it) a small fortune in lost rents
Removing the market and market house killed my hometown.....when i go there now(and not that often)......its a ghost town......the people there now are not the people i knew.......
Sad , our human experinces are being shut down , now we try to avoid each other while our stores are abandoned , hell mend us, I used to go the gym on the ground floor until 1992.
@@Larry Went there today and unfortunately not. It is totally unrecognisable. This place had a soul and is now soulless. Couldn't believe this is the same shopping centre.
That is when the ridings was a good shopping centre. It has gone to rats now. It's piss poor and dirty looking with only boots and marks and Spencer keeping it going
alex tilson its like the galleries in bristol. That was great when it first opened and like the ridings it got shoved out when they built Cabot circus which is more modern like the ridings got shoved out by trinity walk and meadow hall.
They did. I remember buses on Westgate full of people who just came for the Ridings as a sight seeing experience. Wow, how times have changed! Sad, very sad.
Notice how nobody cared that you were filming back then either. If you did that now, you'd probably get assaulted. Everyone's got a chip on their shoulder nowadays.
Can't imagine a crowd like that there anymore. Felt like a magical place as a kid
Super video. So many happy memories of the Ridings at this time. We used to go most Thursdays for late night opening and free parking as a kid. Garden food court looked so good - even does now to modern eyes. Wakefield has lost its destination shopping crown to Leeds and Barnsley these days sadly.
This was the first American style Mall in Yorkshire, maybe actually the UK at the time. It was fecking amazing. There were coach tours coming to Wakefield everyday from all over the UK just to marvel at the Ridings, let that sink in!
I wasn’t sure if it was in America
wow this brings back memories we used to come to shop as kids with my mum and grandma, i would always lok forward to eating yorkshire pudding and onion gravy in the restaurant at the bottom and then go to play with the toys in the early learning center before going home
Just like I remember it in the 90s, it was a place where you would meet mates as a group on a Saturday, they have ruined Wakefield now, all that atmosphere has gone and there is nothing left, looking at it today, I’m glad I left just over 20 years ago before it started going downhill.
Fantastic, I went here about a year ago, thinking it was going to be the same when I where younger. I asked a shop keeper, "where's lift gone, what's happened, where's the pond". "All gone", she said. What, why when. Lift and pond and toy shop where best bits. Should bring lift back and pond. Why do councils have to demolish and ruin everything.
Amazing video, nice to know that these images of the old ridings is still around!
That is great to watch. That is how I remember The Ridings from when I was a kid
Good Times back then. Wakefield now is horrific, too many deadbeats hanging around. Rarely hear English being spoken too. It's very sad.
It was the best shopping centre coach trips came from all over it was amazing not like that now sad really
I loved those lifts, I felt weightless in them, I was a child at the time though!
.point your clarifying for Thanks
My town now destroyed by Labour and extortionate rates....Such a shame.
When you wrote that Torys had been in charge two years. I live in Wakey too.
How I wish that The Ridings was like that now. Most people only go into The Ridings these days simply to get to Morrisons or M&S, the rest of this once thriving mall is like a ghost town. The water feature and the decorated elevator are no longer there, they scrapped them to make more shops, and more profit but today more than half of the shops in this mall are shut down and boarded up, so it has become a "White Elephant", and it must be costing the Council (or whoever owns it) a small fortune in lost rents
Removing the market and market house killed my hometown.....when i go there now(and not that often)......its a ghost town......the people there now are not the people i knew.......
It's sad but it's not just our home town. The UK retail landscape is dead and all there is to blame is online shopping
0:38 That lift in the Ridings always reminded me of Willy Wonka's great glass elevator!
Sad , our human experinces are being shut down , now we try to avoid each other while our stores are abandoned , hell mend us, I used to go the gym on the ground floor until 1992.
Great footage
31 YEARS AGO, Where does the time go, AAAAA
These were great times for the Ridings. They've ruined it now by removing the glass lift and garden food court. Alot of empty units too now.
They didn't replace them with anything???
@@Larry Went there today and unfortunately not. It is totally unrecognisable. This place had a soul and is now soulless. Couldn't believe this is the same shopping centre.
@@MatthewAnnissMusicTrue. It ll be 40 in October and its sad how it has become. Its awful now.
Hah, that's my dad (white coat), mum and sister at 0:11 and 0:12!! Not sure where I was though, lol.
Thriving, since destroyed by Wakefield council and those voted in year after year with no vision.
40!!! 40 years old !!!! Wow!
Pizzaland!, I loved that restaurant, never realised there was a branch in Wakefield.
man the Ridings was good until Trinity Walk got here lol
The Ridings was dead way before Trinity Walk tipped up!
That is when the ridings was a good shopping centre. It has gone to rats now. It's piss poor and dirty looking with only boots and marks and Spencer keeping it going
alex tilson its like the galleries in bristol. That was great when it first opened and like the ridings it got shoved out when they built Cabot circus which is more modern like the ridings got shoved out by trinity walk and meadow hall.
I wish I was alive to see ridings like this
@@Noxiousbbx i was alive but sadly was not in the area at that time
3.20 Noel Edmunds
ken heffer record shop was it still there in 1990
Wakefield ruled in these times people used to come here on Saturdays even from halifax now its desserted
They did. I remember buses on Westgate full of people who just came for the Ridings as a sight seeing experience. Wow, how times have changed! Sad, very sad.
Notice how nobody cared that you were filming back then either. If you did that now, you'd probably get assaulted. Everyone's got a chip on their shoulder nowadays.
I would probbly get arrested by police or get thrown out by security guys.
It was better then when the food court now it’s just another waste of time now stick your kids in it