The opening of the Virgin Megastore was music to the ears of record fans while a Gladiator stopped off in the city centre to open a Boar Lane restaurant. Elsewhere a well known TV prankster handed a surprise package to a junior rugby league coach. This was Leeds in 1996 and Leeds’s reputation as the ‘Knightsbridge of the North’ was further enhanced thanks to the official opening of the Harvey Nichols store on Briggate. These photos, plucked from the YEP archive, also feature memories from the city’s suburbs with Crossgates, Yeadon, Seacroft and Burley in focus. READ MORE: 34 loved and lost Leeds nightclubs you visited back in the day LOVE LEEDS? LOVE NOSTALGIA? Join Leeds Retro on facebook YEP RETRO NEWSLETTER: Sign up for our free monthly email digest of Leeds nostalgia
13. Yeadon
Big Breakfast weather girl Denise van Outen with the orange Big Breakfast helicopter touched down at Leeds Bradford Airport. | Mel Hulme Photo: Mel Hulme
14. Leeds city centre
TV presenter Dale Winton switched on the Christmas lights in Leeds city centre. | Mark Bickerdike Photo: Mark Bickerdike
15. Hunslet
Hunslet Old Boys. Back row, from left, are Graham Andrews, Ian Adams, Jim Nicol, Neil Fox, Chris Mabbott, Dominic Blades and Paul Thorpe. Front row, from left, are Ian Warden, Carl Sharman, Laurie Cromack, Steve Edwards, Simon Tetley, Ian Shevill. | YPN Photo: YPN
16. Crossgates
Postman Ian Kirkley has a cold job delivering mail in December 1996. | Roy Fox Photo: Roy Fox
17. Leeds city centre
Demolition work was in progress on the old Salvation Army building in Wellington Street in December 1996. | Roy Fox Photo: Roy Fox
18. Middleton
December 1996 and pupils at Middleton Park High School staged Ghost In My Dreams, a play about bullying. Pictured are Zoe Smith, Jamie Brown with Shane Platts (left) and Simon Allotey. | Dan Oxtoby Photo: Dan Oxtoby