Member Article

30th Anniversary for the Leeds St Johns Centre

Leeds popular St Johns Centre is celebrating its 30th birthday this week. To mark the event the centre has turned back the clock to 1984 in a special commemorative film looking at how Leeds has changed in the last 30 years and what people think about this vibrant and dynamic city. The free “We love Leeds” movie will play in centre, on the hour every hour, from Monday-Saturday, until 5th October.

We’ll be taking shoppers back to the time when perms were big and shoulder pads were bigger. Ghostbusters, Footloose and Indiana Jones were riding high at the cinema, while on the small screen we were all tuning in to American hits The Cosby Show, Dallas and Dynasty. “Girls just want to have fun” sang Cyndi Lauper, Madonna was “Just a Material Girl” and Frankie said “Relax”.

Rebecca Bilclough, of the St Johns Centre, comments: “It’s been great fun working on this film: looking at all the old footage and interviewing people for their reminiscences about how the city has changed and what they love about Leeds.

“Over the last thirty years the retail landscape of Leeds has changed dramatically and that includes St Johns itself. Many of the stores who were in the centre when we opened are no longer, such as Spoils and Cavendish Travel. However, happily, some of the St Johns original line-up remains, including Jumbo Records, the Post Office and McDonalds.

“So please come down to St Johns over the next two weeks and see for yourself how Leeds looked back in 1984. It will hopefully bring back some fond memories for those old enough to remember and create some new ones for those who don’t. The film will be shown on the hour every hour, from 9am – 4pm, near Jumbo Records (on the first floor).”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Georgina Thompson .