Merrion Centre: How opening of Leeds shopping centre was the biggest birthday bash the city had ever seen
Part of the Merrion Centre was built on the old sites of the Albion Brewery, Woodhouse Lane and the Old Hall Hotel (Wade Hall), Wade Lane.
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Hide AdThe Albion Brewery was functioning from at least 1851 when run by Benjamin Hallewell. It stood on the site of an old Infantry Barracks. By 1860, the Albion Brewery was in the hands of John Young & Co.
The company was registered in April 1897 becoming Albion Brewery (Leeds) Ltd. A prospectus stated J. Gordon and his son J.T. Gordon were the sole proprietors.
The business boasted 23 fully licensed houses, and 16 beerhouses, several of which occupied important positions in Leeds, York, Whitby, and in the Cleveland district.’ The Yorkshire Evening Post, November 1, 1933 said the Albion Brewery was closing.
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Hide AdWade Hall took its name from Thomas Wade and was erected by Thomas Jackson 1630-40. It has been described as a large, rambling square-ish stone house with many gables and mullioned windows.
Partial demolition occurred in 1863 for the construction of Kelsall Street. This extended from Wade Lane to Woodhouse Lane but was later absorbed into Merrion Street.
The remainder of Wade Hall became the Old Hall Hotel at the junction of Kelsall Street and Wade Lane. It was demolished in the late 1930s.
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Hide AdAn article from September 9, 1937 set the scene for future development. It mentioned that negotiations were completed for the sale to Odeon Theatres Ltd, at £54,590, of the Albion Brewery. This covered 5,459 square yards.
There was a 200 ft frontage to Woodhouse Lane; 260 ft to Merrion Street and 90 ft to Wade Lane.
The article added: ‘…some months ago [the site] was purchased by the Town Planning and Improvements Committee for a similar figure to the amount now being paid by Odeon.’
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Hide AdBy August 1938, a contract for the clearance of the site had been let and it was anticipated work was soon to start on the cinema.
This did not occur, and a photograph from July 1941 shows a static water tank being constructed on the vacant area. After the Second World War the site became a car park.
Work to build the Merrion Centre on the area was started around the early 1960s by Town Centre Securities (TCS). The chairman was Arnold Ziff, born in Leeds in 1927.
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Hide AdHis family came from Russia to Yorkshire during the early 20th century. He was educated at Roundhay Grammar School and Leeds University, attaining the rank of staff sergeant during wartime service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
In 1952, he married Marjorie Esther Morrison. TCS was founded by Arnold Ziff in 1959 and floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 1960.
On March 24, 1964, a new speedwalk, an escalator designed to take the fatigue out of shopping, opened at the Merrion Centre.
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Hide AdOne report said: ‘It runs at a seven degree incline, …and can carry more than 7,000 passengers an hour up the eleven feet to the line of shops at the centre. The unit is jam-proof, even against stiletto heels, and has been designed for operation in all weathers.’
The Leeds-based firm of Gillinson Barnett produced the designs for the Merrion Centre. Its construction was carried out by Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Company and the structural engineers were William V. Zinn & Associates.
During two terrible winters while building work was taking place, the freezing cold meant the concrete was not setting. So, always resourceful, Arnold Ziff purchased surplus army blankets to cover the cement at night to help it set.
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Hide AdMarjorie Ziff celebrated her 35th birthday in one of the biggest birthday bashes Leeds had ever seen. On May 26, 1964, husband Arnold, asked her to mark the event by opening the new £6,000,000 Merrion Centre in front of 1,000 guests.
The Yorkshire Post reported: ‘Today is M-Day in Leeds “M” for Multi-Million Merrion Centre, and very much “M” for Marjorie.’
The new Lord Mayor of Leeds, Ald. Mrs Lizzie Naylor, who had only taken office the previous day, fulfilled her first official engagement by presiding at the opening and presented Mrs Ziff with a specially cut golden key.
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Hide AdWith it, Mrs Ziff opened a gilded cage housing a huge cake in the shape of a replica of the Merrion Centre. She was watched by her three children. Mrs Ziff was also presented with a commemorative gold medal.
About 1,000 similar medals in gilt were struck for friends, business associates, and others connected with the project.
Arnold Ziff described the complex as ‘the first centre in the country where shopping and entertainment have been truly integrated with ample car-parking, a fair amount of offices, and a hotel. We are well ahead of our time with this development. It segregates pedestrians from traffic.’
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Hide AdThe Yorkshire Evening Post said the Merrion Centre was ‘built to a specification based on imaginative, far-seeing thinking and the study of developments in other parts of the world,’ and concluded ‘the centre is impressive not only as an outstanding landmark, but also because it is remarkable self-contained on what was, only several years ago, a seven-acre derelict site.’
The design was robustly modern, very much of its time, a mass of glass and concrete.
Publicity announced the Centre: ‘enabled shoppers whether arriving by bus, or car, to cash a cheque at an on-the-spot bank, shop for almost the complete range of domestic and social requirements, pay their electricity bill, have a meal, a snack, a game of bingo, a game of ten pin bowls, go dancing, sip coffee or tea, then round off their spending spree with a session in a cosy nightclub.
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Hide AdThus, the Merrion Centre was pronounced a day-and-night-out centre, a place that did not close, where life begins, when the shops open and ends in the early hours of the following morning.
A remarkable single feature was the new Mecca ballroom – a £500,000 project – built to accommodate about 2,000 people.
Mrs Ziff opened the initial stages of a rolling programme of construction at the Merrion Centre.
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Hide AdFurther work would include a 120-bedroom hotel, a public house, more shops in Merrion Street and Wade Lane with offices above.
The Rank Organisation opened an Odeon cinema in the Merrion Centre on August 17, 1964. According to Ian Cundy on the Cinema Treasures website, the entrance was inside the Merrion Centre at 1st floor level.
Closure between May 17, 1969 and August 1969, was to enable Cinerama to be installed. The cinema closed its doors for the last time on October 1, 1977.
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Hide AdPhotographs in the Yorkshire Post archives show a wide variety of traders and businesses which have occupied sites in the Merion Centre.
These include: Ainsleys, Cameo Cameras, General Wade Bar, Central Park Wine Bar & Diner, the Skanda Grill, Blackstone Opticians, Stylo, and Woolworths.
Marjorie and Arnold Ziff continued to play an import role in Leeds for the rest of their lives. Arnold was a major sponsor of Tropical World Roundhay Park.
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Hide AdHe donated to Jewish welfare bodies, and is commemorated in the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre in Moortown Leeds. He received am OBE in 1981. From 1991 to 1992 he was High Sheriff of West Yorkshire and in July, 2004.
On the 55th anniversary of the Merrion Centre opening, Marjorie Ziff returned there to open a month-long exhibition about the complex.
She was also a life patron of the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board and received an MBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for her services to the community of Leeds. She died in April, 2023 at the age of 93.
Thanks to Leeds Libraries, Leeds Museums Service, K.S. Wheelan, and the West Yorkshire Archive Service, for help with this piece.
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