IN PICTURES: Looking back at the arrival of Serpentine Green in Peterborough

Many people have their own reasons for considering 1999 a special year.

For many, it was the last year of the greatest decade the world had known since the Swinging Sixties.

For music fans, it was an ever-present reminder of pint-sized funkster Prince’s fave time to party.

For Peterborians however, 1999 remains a notable time in the city’s consumer history as it was then that one of Peterborough’s most iconic shopping outlets finally opened to the public – Serpentine Green. With the opening of the flagship Tesco Extra store in February 1999, ‘Serpy Green’ immediately became a destination shopping venue for consumers looking to take their ‘big shop’ to a whole new level.

The subsequent opening of various other retail shops and dining options within the vast complex helped draw in consumers from far and wide.

While Serpentine Green is as popular today as it was when it opened more than a quarter-of-a-century ago, it has become so familiar to us that we perhaps no longer admire it with the same awe as shoppers did back in 1999. So let us remind us ourselves then – courtesy of our good friends at Peterborough Images Archive – at what all the fuss was about, back in the day!