‘Keen prices, quality goods, friendly service’. Words on the caption of a photo from the Yorkshire Evening Post archive describing what shoppers could expect at Kirkgate Market in the 1970s. It was a decade which proved to be turbulent and traumatic for traders at Europe’s largest covered market. Fire devastated the retail gem in the middle of the decade while a strike at the end of the 1970s meant locked gates. These photos showcase the ups and downs of life at Kirkgate Market during the decade and bring into focus the news stories making the news and how traders bounced back from the brink of despair. Many of the images featured have never been seen before having being digitised from the archive for the first time. READ MORE: Lost city centre landmarks - The Leeds Skywalk LOVE LEEDS? LOVE NOSTALGIA? Join Leeds Retro on facebook YEP RETRO NEWSLETTER: Sign up for our free monthly email digest of Leeds nostalgia
7. Kirkgate Market in the 1970s
Coun Irwin Bellow, leader of Leeds City Council, and Coun William Hudson, chairman of the Trading Standards Committee, address traders at an emergency meeting held in the Corn Exchange the morning after the fire. | YPN Photo: YPN
8. Kirkgate Market in the 1970s
December 1975 and marquees are put up around the Kirkgate Market - pictured in George Street - as temporary accomodation for traders affected by the blaze. | YPN Photo: YPN
9. KIrkgate Market in the 1970s
A design for the Leeds Market hall in January 1976. | YPN Photo: YPN
10. Kirkgate Market in the 1970s
March 1976 and Leeds Public Works Department employee Harry Blackburn updates a novel sign in Harper Street. The sign - a pictorial progress report - gives the cheering news that the rebuilding of the fire ravaged Leeds market hall was on schedule. | YPN Photo: YPN
11. Kirkgate Market in the 1970s
July 1976 and Billy Hamshaw, who was working on the new Leeds Market site, completes the finishing date of the 'Market Progress Report Board'. | YPN Photo: YPN
12. Kirkgate Market in the 1970s
Rising from the ashes... in August 1976. | YPN Photo: YPN