Sheffield retro: How huge leisure complex planned for city centre's historic Castlegate quarter bit the dust

Many proposed developments have come and gone in Sheffield city centre over the years but this massive new market and leisure complex once planned for Castlegate, including a multi-screen cinema, is surely one of the most ambitious to have been abandoned.

Ultimately, its failure would result in the demise of Castle Market and the end of hundreds of years of market trading in the area, with operations being shifted to the new Moor Market.

The computer-generated images here date back to 2000, when a run-down Castle Market needed major work simply to meet European health and safety standards.

Sheffield leisure complex would have included multi-screen cinema, health and fitness centre, restaurants, bars and a nightclub

The solution drawn up was for an entirely new market complex, along with a multi-screen cinema, a Virgin health and fitness centre, restaurants, bars and a nightclub. There were also proposals to open up the ruins of Sheffield Castle, which had long been buried under Castle Market, and make them a visitor attraction.

That all hit the buffers when first Warner Village pulled out, after it was determined that Sheffield had reached 'saturation point' for movie screens, and then the American banking giant Capital One withdrew plans for a financial headquarters with 1,800 jobs, following a downturn in the economy.

Even after this twin setback, in 2001 it was still hoped that a new market site could be created there, along with shops, apartments, offices and various leisure attractions.

What has happened in two decades since Castle Market plans were abandoned?

But in 2003, two years after Sheaf Market had been demolished, a deal was agreed to move the markets complex from Castlegate to The Moor, with then council leader Jan Wilson admitting defeat after 12 years of work to redevelop the Castle Market site. She said at the time that moving the market to The Moor was an opportunity to revive an area that was 'beginning to look a little bit weary'.

The Moor Market would eventually open in 2013, with Castle Market closing that year and the bulldozers moving in two years later.

Offices, a hotel and a 400-space car park were built on what was Sheaf Market and the surrounding land, overlooking the Park Square roundabout.

Today, the old Castle Market site remains empty and surrounded by hoardings, but plans for a new riverside park there, with the remains of Sheffield Castle on display, were approved this year.

There has been some progress in the area, with the Kommune food hall in the old Co-op department store at Castle House proving a big hit and the National Videogame Museum also drawing visitors.

But the Co-op supermarket recently closed, plans to restore the crumbling Old Town Hall appear to have stalled and the collapse of wilko has dealt the area another blow.