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Early Days Of Crystal Peaks


Guest Otto_Man

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Guest Otto_Man

Long shot, but I wondered if anyone had any pictures of the centre when it first opened back in the late 80's (IIRC)?

The reason I ask, we were discussing it today at work and one of my colleagues described a food court on the lower level where the escalators are, he vividly described a model train and various independent food outlets, none of which anyone else could remember (we all remembered the cinema and the Indian Restaurant that relocated up the road)?!

I first thought he may have been describing the original food court in Orchard Square (bottom level of what now is TK Maxx), but he's adamant it was Crystal Peaks?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

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I remember it, I often used to eat there with the grandchildren. I think it was called the Junction Express. It doesn't seem that many years since it closed. They served a variety of "proper" dinners not fast food and also jacket potatos.

When the centre was built in 1988 the internal areas included features such as a waterfall, a river, clock tower elevator and a model railway

Angela

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There was definitely an LGB model railway layout at the bottom of the escalators, I could never get past it when my two boys were young (I used to make them stand and watch it for ages :rolleyes: ).

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Guest Otto_Man

Thanks for the help, I visited the centre sporadically when I was younger, but as I now live at that end of town I've been a very frequent visitor there for the last 6 or 7 years and thought I remembered it quite well.

I remember the cinema entrance being where the Sainsbury's now is and the McDonald's being in the same site, I even remember the encased pyrite (fools gold) they had in the entrances, but can't for the life of me remember the train or the food court, which is why I was hoping someone might have some pictures?!

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Whoever was the developer they were very crafty with the Council's planning department. When I was involved with the setting up of Manor Development Company (MDC) at the back of the shops on Prince of Wales Road, on the site called the "Oppertunity Area" by the council, where it is now built, it was fully earmarked for a large Supermarket. However eventually it became split into two - one half for industrial (hence MDC) and the other for a Supermarket. There was also a condition that the industrial had to be in place before the supermarket was built. So we at MDC worked with a developer called David Rhodes. The plan was to build a Netto on the other half. However David did some digging around and discovered that the Developer of Crystal Peak had got the planning department to agree to a clause to stop any development of a supermarket over a certain size being built within a certain area for a good number of years. This included the Manor area. The size of the proposed Netto supermarket, however was not a problem as it was smaller than that allowed. Though if the land had not been split and covered the full area that would have been a problem!

Eventually the Council put the land out for bids, so Aldi put in a higher bid for the half of land than what Netto did. David told the Council that they would do this to stop Netto and Aldi had no intention of building there. But the Council never tends to listen to good advice and accepted the higher bid. Netto pulled out, took over the branch at Manor Top and of course Aldi pulled out. Leaving the Council with egg on their faces. :P Eventually another supermarket got the site which is the one still there today. By the way the agreement over what's built will have run out by now.

Talking to David revealed why there are loads of Supermarkets in Sheffield. It's all to with money that the Council can get for derilct land. For example if you want to put housing on it very little money, often done by grant aid. Business max about £40K per acre. Supermarkets £100K + per arce. :o

Here's the plan that shows how small the site was. Remember if the two halves had been for a supermarket the developer of Peaks could have sued the Council ;-)

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There was definitely an LGB model railway layout at the bottom of the escalators, I could never get past it when my two boys were young (I used to make them stand and watch it for ages :rolleyes: ).

As I remember it the model railway was larger than the usual oo gauge and was based on a Swiss style alpine railway with log cabins and electric overhead pantograph trains, - the sort of thing that Stuart will know about.

In the winter and around Christmas they even used to whiten it to make it look like snow and give it a winter seasonal look.

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Yes it's big stuff, ideal for garden railways http://en.wikipedia....ki/LGB_(trains)

Yes it was that sort of size.

If I remember correctly there were 2 sections of rail on the layout.

One went round in a continuous track which wasn't round or oval and it had 2 station stops and a tunnel on it.

The other was a straight run up an incline with a ski resort at the top. The train repeatedly went up and down the same piece of track

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The train that ran up and down the incline also had a working rack system. The one that ran on the loop was often a Krokodil, but as I recall both pantographs were in the folded position and there was no catenary system.

Guess what one of my hobbies was for many years?

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The train that ran up and down the incline also had a working rack system. The one that ran on the loop was often a Krokodil, but as I recall both pantographs were in the folded position and there was no catenary system.

Guess what one of my hobbies was for many years?

Yes it was a rack system, just as many real railways with steep gradients (eg Snowdon railway) are.

Your hobby wouldn't happen to have been model railways by any chance would it?

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Speaking of Snowdon, anyone see this ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ountain_railway

Yes, someone keeps abandoning their car up there.

Snowdon nearly got me into a fight with a Welshman once.

He asked me what I thought (as one of those hated English tourists) of their "beautiful Welsh mountains"

Now I had noted that these mountains were mainly slate and shale and appeared black, while the Peak District local to Sheffield was mainly limestone and appeared white.

So he was not too impressed with my response, -

"Well, it looks a bit like the Peak District, - but not as clean!"

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Guest manxbiker

Also when it opened it had a cable car in the roof and a climber (static) abseiling down i think Cris Bonninton was there at opening

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Also when it opened it had a cable car in the roof and a climber (static) abseiling down i think Cris Bonninton was there at opening

Was this display some sort of reference to its name?

CRYSTAL PEAKS?

The name implies a rocky or ice covered mountain.

Why did they call it that?

This area of Sheffield / North Derbyshire is relatively flat and certainly not mountainous "peaks"

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Was this display some sort of reference to its name?

CRYSTAL PEAKS?

The name implies a rocky or ice covered mountain.

Why did they call it that?

This area of Sheffield / North Derbyshire is relatively flat and certainly not mountainous "peaks"

I can tell you where the name came from. There was a meeting of councillors at which the question of a name came up. At the centre of the complex is a sort of tower with a glass top, and someone suggested calling it Crystal Peaks. Presumably no-one could come up with anything better, so the name was adopted.

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I can tell you where the name came from. There was a meeting of councillors at which the question of a name came up. At the centre of the complex is a sort of tower with a glass top, and someone suggested calling it Crystal Peaks. Presumably no-one could come up with anything better, so the name was adopted.

So the original display that manxbiker describes in post #13 could well be related to the name given to the glass tower.

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Guest LouLou1970

My first job from leaving school was in the food court at Crystal Peaks, I worked there from the first day the centre opened, the unit I worked in was called Potato Junction it sold jacket spuds next to us was a patisserie. A few months after the food court opened a fish and chip shop arrived and there was also a pizza restaurant, we had some right old good times working there. I remember many shifts being seriously hung over having to serve the jacket spuds Yuk !!

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My first job from leaving school was in the food court at Crystal Peaks, I worked there from the first day the centre opened, the unit I worked in was called Potato Junction it sold jacket spuds next to us was a patisserie. A few months after the food court opened a fish and chip shop arrived and there was also a pizza restaurant, we had some right old good times working there. I remember many shifts being seriously hung over having to serve the jacket spuds Yuk !!

Welcome to Sheffield History LouLou1970 and thank you for posting.

Was the food court on the lower floor near to the cinema complex which is where Sainsburys is now?

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Guest LouLou1970

Yes the food court was on the lower level where sainsburys now is, the food court was to the left hand side as you came down the elscalator directly behind the model train. Does anyone remember Eddie the Eagle Edwards coming to Crystal Peaks, it was either for the opening of the complex or it might have been the first anniversary ? unsure now, anyway he did a simulated sky jump from the top of the dome, think he may have been on a zip line.

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Guest topcat70

Long shot, but I wondered if anyone had any pictures of the centre when it first opened back in the late 80's (IIRC)?

The reason I ask, we were discussing it today at work and one of my colleagues described a food court on the lower level where the escalators are, he vividly described a model train and various independent food outlets, none of which anyone else could remember (we all remembered the cinema and the Indian Restaurant that relocated up the road)?!

I first thought he may have been describing the original food court in Orchard Square (bottom level of what now is TK Maxx), but he's adamant it was Crystal Peaks?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I remember the food court at crystal peaks but it wasnt there for longbut i cant remember any of the nmaes of the food outlets though,and remember the cinema too,ucI I went to see a fish called wanda there with my mum yrs ago it was a funny film!

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Does anyone remember the Indian Restaurant that was in Crystal Peaks? We used to go there and then see a film. The cinema closed in 2003 and I don't know what happened to the restaurant or what it was called?

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Does anyone remember the waterfall feature as installed when the Mall was first opened...also the two lifts...replaced by what someone described as the "ugliest lifts this side of the Urals"...They smartened them up when they received too many complaints.

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I seem to remember the railway was called "The Glacier Express". The cinema used to give out car stickers "Did ICU at UCI?" 

Nigel L

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For a time at least the entire development was owned by the Post Office Pension Fund and, maybe, the Cinema was replaced at the expiry of its lease by a tenant willing to pay an increased rent? 

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