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
25. Seacroft
Do you remember Debra Rhodes? She was landlady of the Staging Post pub. | YPN Photo: YPN
26. Lineham Farm
Loaded-up and ready to go. Members of the Leeds branch of the Motorcycle Action Group, organised a 'Toy Run' to Lineham Farm in December 1996. | YPN Photo: YPN
27. Middleton
Full steam ahead as the Middleton Railway steams into the station at Moor Road in Hunslet. | Jim Moran Photo: Jim Moran
28. Crossgates
John Lince and his bride Janet Roberts pictured after their wedding at Crossgates Methodist Church with a street cleaner bearing good luck messages. | Mel Hulme Photo: Mel Hulme
29. Belle Isle
TV prankster Jeremy Beadle hands a surprise package to junior rugby league coach Colin Cooper at South Leeds Stadium in November 1996. | Mark Bickerdike Photo: Mark Bickerdike
30. Enjoyed this gallery?
Share your memories of Leeds in 1996 with Andrew Hutchinson via email at: andrew.hutchinson via email at: [email protected] or tweet him - @AndyHutchYPN | Peter Thacker Photo: Peter Thacker