Since discovering Yorkshire in the 1970s and studying at Bradford University, I’ve always had a soft spot for the place. It’s not like Leeds; the stone is cut differently; the Telegraph and Argus does its best not to mention its rival town; ditto Yorkshire Evening Post, and although only eight miles apart, it could be hundreds because you’d never think of venturing for any reason. It was very strange for a Londoner, but Bradford has been overshadowed for many years, I guess a victim of its geography. It missed out on four revolutions. It was a branch off the Leeds Liverpool canal; ditto railway; ditto motorway and more recently, digital super highway.
But its fortunes are changing. Political, economic and social circumstances have all aligned at long last to put Bradford on an exciting trajectory of development that’s attracting a great deal of attention. As a result of both Leeds Civic Trust and Leeds Buildings Preservation Trust having fairly recently joined the Heritage Network Trust, a number of us attended the annual conference in Bradford late last summer and enjoyed the sight of the city basking in glorious sunshine. It soon became clear from several days of exploring and hearing of developments that something extraordinary is happening in this city, and we heard investors are beating a path to its door.
In extensive preparations for celebrating the City of Culture, a small fortune has been spent transforming the public realm and removing through traffic from Hall Ings, along with the former multi-storey car park in order to link up with Norfolk Gardens, Centenary Square and the hugely successful Mirror Pool. At long last the former Odeon cinema has emerged from an impressive £50 million renovation as a major concert venue, thus significantly adding to the city’s cultural offer. The threat that once hung over the Media Museum is no more, new galleries have recently opened and the museum has acquired extra space in Wardley House. This is extremely reassuring and of course helps confirm the city’s status as the first UNESCO City of Film.
Both St George’s Hall and the Midland Hotel have benefited from refurbishment and the former General Post Office in Little Germany has been transformed into Bradford Arts Centre. The Interchange will be significantly reconfigured, railway connections will be improved and the first West Yorkshire tram link will be connecting the city. We learned that funding and a central site for a performing arts school has been agreed. It’s worth noting that a third of Bradford’s population is under 25 making it one of the youngest of English cities and with significant cultural diversity. However, in stark contrast to Leeds, it has only one university and a central core that is almost completely devoid of student accommodation.
In consideration of an alternative development route, planning officers were keen to explain how the city is attempting to encourage the creation of a mixed residential economy, both by conversion of Victorian building stock and selective clearance of structures such as the brutalist Kirkgate Market and other multi-storey car parks. Somewhat worryingly, there was no word regarding the relocation of any of the extensive internal artwork, confirming that as a nation we are in danger of losing much work of great artistic merit from this period, not to mention turning a blind eye to the loss of staggering amounts of embedded energy. I was not alone in voicing the view that imaginative repurposing would be far more preferable. It’s interesting to note that High Point, the former brutalist building society head office, survived demolition threats and is now converted to housing. It’s to be hoped that prominent but empty Art Deco buildings such as Sunwin House can find sustainable futures.
It was good to see the impressive new Darley Street market has opened to full occupancy, but it’s clear from experience elsewhere such as Wakefield, sustainable success is not necessarily assured, partly due to changing shopping habits, but also loss of parking provision and Bradford is making a bold social engineering decision by demolishing four central multi-storey car parks in the hope of switching the public to public transport. Time will no doubt tell. Despite the extensive public realm improvements and city aspirations, as yet there is little evidence of a willingness to develop a street cafe culture and it could be that the city will need to evolve its own distinctive offer.
Of course, Bradford is much more than the city core and it was wonderful to spend time in Saltaire’s grand Victoria Hall and learn of latest techniques in retro-fitting listed Victorian housing stock to bring them up to modern environmental standards. In many ways, this conference was exemplary in demonstrating the vital role our built heritage has in making our towns and cities better places to live, work and play. Care, investment and love for our past is as important as quality new builds and serves to reaffirm why civic societies are so important as champions for heritage investment, sustainable economic growth and promoters of general wellbeing. I look forward to the Belfast conference later this year.
