Bradford
Bradford, the UK’s City of Culture in 2025, was the location for the Place Collective UK’s latest excursion.
As we stood in the baking Bradford sun, outside the Florence inspired City Hall, we lapped up Jamie Saunders’ overview of the transformation taking place in the city. Jamie was the perfect host. A loyal Bradfordian, he’s been there ever since leaving university in the early 1990s. In other words, long enough to remember a time (not that long ago) when he would have struggled to eke out a 30 minute regeneration tour, now in 2025 he’s struggling to pack this into three hours.
He’s bombarding us with facts and stats, plans and actions at such a dizzying rate, that when he asks for questions it’s impossible to digest, never mind ask. As a senior policy officer, he’s making things happen, and part of that is leading on these tours - often three a week. He’s a Bradford regeneration encyclopaedia.
It was the perfect starting point, by the City Park Mirror Pool and Fountain - a new public realm where kids play in the water, surrounded by character buildings of a bygone era, ranging from art deco New Victoria Cinema (now Bradford Live) - a beautiful but unlisted landmark, saved from demolition and benefiting from a £50m refit. This 4,000 seater venue will lead Bradford’s bid to become a destination - taking their inspiration from Piece Hall, and what it has done to put Halifax on the map. Next door is the century old Grade 2 listed Alhambra Theatre - another sign of its past wealth.
And yet it was his colleague, Saira Ali, who dropped the bombshell towards the end of this introduction to Bradford, “At one point Bradford was the richest city in the world,” “Whoa!” The richest? In the world? Most of us wouldn’t have thought it was even the richest city in West Yorkshire. A quick google search will confer Saira’s claim that it was one of the richest in the world, which is not only surprising, but good enough for us.
“It had the three key ingredients to drive trade; rail, wool and water,” we are told. The tour then took us on a journey of what that meant to Bradford and what the future holds.
Water has been a constant factor throughout its history, moving goods in and out of Bradford - the Beck is hidden below the buildings where we stand in the ‘danger zone’.
“As students we were told not to walk across this road,” says Jamie. This is an ongoing feature throughout the story, dual carriageways ripping through the heart, making the centre unwalkable, unpleasant and unattractive. 1970s tower blocks overshadowing, thankfully now demolished.
The stories continue as we circumnavigate the City Hall. We’re warned to avoid being a victim of death by digger as the work continues around us - the rush is on to complete the green spaces around the back of the City Hall in time for the main 2025 cultural celebrations.
And in contrast we hear the longer term plan, to have one large train station that’s more reflective of the city’s position and where it wants to be.
It’s that combination of attracting the new while working hard to celebrate the old that works - a key factor in any changing of perceptions; history + destiny.
We make our way past St George’s Hall - another stand out 19th century gem, that may well have been overlooked during the old days (two years ago) when a dual carriageway ran past, polluting the centre and taking the focus away from the landscape around.
Today is a different world, with a group of us afforded the space and time to gaze up and appreciate what’s around us.
Next journey takes us up Little Germany, learning about the surprising story of the German merchants that ploughed cash into Bradford in the mid 1800s, creating some of the finest buildings in the city. How they leverage this location and bring life to what has been an under appreciated quarter will be fundamental. There have been some early stages of branding the neighbourhood - an appreciation of an attention to detail that’s arguably been missing.
The tour continues, a stop off at Bradford Cathedral, followed by the old Wool Exchange, now the finest Waterstones you’ll ever visit, it was voted ‘world’s best bookshop’ we are told - sandwiched between the old banks, the grade 1 building oozes opulence.
And yet perhaps the most important change is the approved plan to build 1,000 homes as part of the Bradford City Village scheme. The English Cities Fund and involving regeneration specialists Muse will involve demolishing the Kirkgate Shopping Centre and Oastler market, to ‘bring the buzz back to the city’- only made possible by a £30m Homes England grant, this is where placemaking will really take shape, bring life and a city centre economy back to Bradford.
We ended with a pint in the underground Sunbridge Wells, which has just been renovated and reopened after decades boarded up. A little glance at Bradford’s past and a sign of the appetite to invest in its future.
