The Ridings Centre

Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield, which had a 2021 population of 353,802, the 25th most populous district in England. It is part of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area and the Yorkshire and The Humber region. In 1888, it gained city status due to its cathedral. The city has a town hall and is home to the county hall, which was the former administrative centre of the city's county borough and metropolitan borough as well as county town for the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Battle of Wakefield took place in the Wars of the Roses, and the city was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War. Wakefield became an important market town and centre for wool, exploiting its position on the navigable River Calder to become an inland port. In the 18th century, Wakefield traded in corn, coal and textiles.

The capture of Wakefield occurred during the First English Civil War when a Parliamentarian force attacked the Royalist garrison of Wakefield, Yorkshire. The Parliamentarians were outnumbered, having around 1,500 men under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, compared to the 3,000 led by George Goring in Wakefield. Despite being outnumbered, Parliamentarians successfully stormed the town, taking roughly 1,400 prisoners. Around 800 Parliamentarians had been taken prisoner after being defeated at Seacroft Moor, and Fairfax plotted the capture of Wakefield to take prisoners of his own to exchange for his men. He marched his force from Leeds and split it in two to attack from different directions. After around two hours of fighting early in the morning of 21 May, 1643, Fairfax broke through into Wakefield. Goring, who had been in bed suffering from either illness or a hangover, rose and led a counterattack in his nightshirt, but to no avail and the town was captured. Fairfax gained the prisoners he needed and much ammunition. According to his own account, the Parliamentarians lost no more than seven men.

Wakefield Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, is a co-equal Anglican cathedral with Bradford and Ripon Cathedrals, in the Diocese of Leeds and a seat of the Bishop of Leeds. Originally the parish church, it has Anglo Saxon origins and, after enlargement and rebuilding, has the tallest spire in Yorkshire. Its 247-foot (75 m) spire is the tallest structure in the City of Wakefield. The cathedral was designated a Grade I listed building on 14 July 1953.

Wakefield, commonly known as the City of Wakefield, is a local government district with the status of a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Wakefield, the largest settlement, is the administrative centre of the district. The population of the City of Wakefield at the 2011 Census was 325,837. The district includes the Five Towns of Castleford, Featherstone, Knottingley, Normanton and Pontefract. Other towns include Hemsworth, Horbury, Ossett, South Elmsall and South Kirkby (also forms the civil parish of South Kirkby and Moorthorpe). The city and district are governed by Wakefield Council from the County Hall. In 2010, Wakefield was named as the UK's third most musical city by PRS for Music.

Wakefield is a constituency created in 1832, represented by Simon Lightwood of the Labour Party since 2022. The seat is due to be abolished for the next general election.

The Elizabethan Gallery is a Grade II* listed historic building in the city centre of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. The building was constructed in 1598, as the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, funded by the Savile family. It was soon extended to the north, and in 1895 was also extended to the south. The school moved in 1855 to a site on Northgate, and the building became the Wakefield Cathedral School. Wakefield Council purchased the building in 1979, and in 1981, the building began being used as an exhibition space for the city art gallery. More recently, it has been hired out as an event space. The original part of the school is one storey high and six bays long. It is built of sandstone and has windows with mullions and transoms, and a stone slate roof with an original frame. In the south bay are carved the names of members of the Savile family, along with its coat of arms and an owl crest. The north extension is in a similar style, while the south wing features a Tudor arch doorway.The building is now next to the Trinity Walk shopping centre, but is distinguished from it by its lawns and stone paving.

The Old Vicarage in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England is a building dating from c. 1349. Located on Zetland Street, the building and surrounding car park are linked to a network of tunnels, believed to be used by non-conformists after the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662.The Old Vicarage is owned by the Wakefield County Conservative Association and is currently occupied by independent shops.

Wakefield Exchange is a public building in the city centre of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, in England. The building was designed to serve as Wakefield Market Hall, replacing an older market hall on the site. It was designed by David Adjaye and completed in May 2008. It is supported by glulam columns and beams, clad in cedar wood which has been stained grey, with many walls being of glass. Inside, there were three halls, housing about 50 stalls.The new market did not prove successful, and in 2014, Wakefield Council made plans to demolish much of the structure. In 2018, the market closed, and the council proposed to retain only the canopy, and replace it with restaurants and a cinema. However, in 2023, it decided instead to retain the building and convert it into the Wakefield Exchange, an events venue with restaurants, a brewery, and space for creative businesses.

Trinity Walk is a shopping centre in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. England. Opened on 6 May 2011, Wakefield Council describe it as "the most important City Centre development for more than 20 years." The centre was built to supplement the larger Ridings Centre.

The ABC Cinema was a cinema in Wakefield, West Yorkshire that fell into derelition after its closure. Located in Kirkgate on the corner of Sun Lane, it was designed and built in the Art Deco style for Associated British Cinemas by in-house architect William R. Glen and opened as the Regal Cinema on 9 December 1935.Smaller than many later ABC houses, the Regal seated 1,594 people and had a full stage 26 feet (7.9 m) deep behind the 43 feet (13 m) wide proscenium. The interior was rather plainer than many of Glen's cinemas with concealed lighting under the balcony and at the rear of the ceiling and pendant fittings casting light upwards towards the front of the cinema. Although provision was made for an organ with chambers to the side and above the proscenium, one was never installed. It was renamed ABC in 1962. In 1976 it was divided into three screens with Screen 1 seating 532 in the balcony using the original screen and projection suite and Screen 2 (236 seats) and Screen 3 (170 seats) in the rear stalls area. In this form it reopened on 11 November 1976. In 1986 ABC's cinemas were sold to The Cannon Group. In December 1996 Cineworld opened a multiplex in Wakefield and in 1997 the ABC closed. In 2007 Blockbuster Entertainment sought planning permission to convert the building into 119 one- and two-bedroom flats, eight shops and a rooftop garden. In 2009 the City of Wakefield granted planning permission, but the project did not go ahead. In December 2013 a property company, PS & S Ltd, applied for planning permission to demolish the building and replace it with a modern apartment block. Plans to demolish the building and replace it with a car park were withdrawn in 2019. In 2020 the site was bought by Wakefield Council which announced plans in June 2021 to demolish the cinema and turn the site into a temporary green space until a new building is designed. Demolition began internally in March 2022, and exterior demolition was completed in May 2023. The Beatles played at the Cinema on Thursday 7 February 1963 as part of the Helen Shapiro Winter Tour, just a few days before they recorded on 11 February, the majority of their first album, Please Please Me. The Beatles had only released one single at this stage – Love Me Do, which had reached number 17 in the charts. The Cinema played host to many such shows in the 1950's and 60's.

Wakefield Bus Station serves the city of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The bus station is owned and operated by Arriva Yorkshire. It is situated at next to Marsh Way A61 and the city's new market and can be accessed from both Marsh Way and Union Street. It reopened on 25 September 2001 after being rebuilt with a main passenger concourse and 24 bus stands.

The Diocese of Wakefield is a former Church of England diocese based in Wakefield in West Yorkshire, covering Wakefield, Barnsley, Kirklees and Calderdale. The cathedral was Wakefield Cathedral and the bishop was the diocesan Bishop of Wakefield. The Diocese of Wakefield was created out of the Diocese of Ripon in 1888 in response to the rapid expansion in population due to the Industrial Revolution. Immediately prior to its dissolution it extended north to south from the suburbs of Leeds to Barnsley and east to west from Kellington to Todmorden. The diocese was dissolved on 20 April 2014 by the creation of the new Diocese of Leeds.