Bradford

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The larger City of Bradford Metropolitan District includes other settlements in the surrounding area.
Bradford
Bradford (West Yorkshire)
Bradford

Bradford shown within West Yorkshire
Population 293,717
OS grid reference SE165325
Metropolitan borough City of Bradford
Metropolitan county West Yorkshire
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town BRADFORD
Postcode district BD
Dialling code 01274
Police West Yorkshire
Fire West Yorkshire
Ambulance Yorkshire
UK Parliament Bradford North
Bradford South
Bradford West
European Parliament Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°47′19″N 1°44′55″W / 53.7887, -1.7487

Bradford (pronunciation (help·info)) is a large city in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District of West Yorkshire, England.

A historic Yorkshire city, Bradford became a municipal borough of the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. The city status was transferred to the metropolitan district when it was formed in 1974.[1] It has a population of 293,717 with the district as a whole having 485,000 inhabitants. By urban sub-area, it is the 11th largest settlement in England.

Contents

Panorama over Bradford.
Panorama over Bradford.

The name Bradford is derived from the "broad ford" at Church Bank (below the site of Bradford Cathedral) around which a settlement had begun to appear before the time of the Norman Conquest. The ford crossed the stream called Bradford Beck [2].

Bradford has long been a centre of the West Riding wool industry. Bradford was one of the many English towns which became prosperous during the Industrial Revolution. Bradford's textile industry dates back as far as the 13th century, but it was not until the 19th century that it became world-famous. Wool was imported in vast quantities for the worsted cloth in which Bradford specialised. Other fibres were also processed, e.g., alpaca. Yorkshire boasted plentiful supplies of iron ore, coal and soft water which were used in cleaning raw wool, and a huge coal seam provided the power that the industry needed. Sandstone, Bradford's local stone, was an excellent resource for the building of the mills, and the large population of West Yorkshire meant there was a readily available workforce.

A culture of innovation was fundamental to Bradford's dominance in the 19th and 20th centuries. New textile technologies were invented in the city. A prime example being the work of Samuel Lister. This innovation culture continues today throughout Bradford's economy: from automotive Kahn Design [3] to electronics Pace Micro Technology.

To support the textile mills, a large manufacturing base grew up in the city, providing textile machinery, and this led to diversification with different industries thriving side-by-side. For example, Bradford's proud manufacturing history includes the Jowett Motor Company, which had many great achievements during its 50 years existence. The textile industry started to decline in the 1920s, and Bradford has been cited as an example of deindustrialization. However, today a spirit of rebirth has taken hold and Bradford is one of the north's important cities, with modern technology, chemicals, engineering, academic and financial sectors replacing the "dark satanic mills" image of the Industrial Revolution.

The grandest of the mills (no longer used for textile production) is Lister Mills, the chimney of which can be seen from most places in Bradford. It has recently become a beacon of regeneration in the city after a £100 million conversion to apartment blocks by property developers Urban Splash [4].

Salts Mill is another large mill that has an exciting new life in the modern era. The mill is occupied by high technology companies, contemporary design shops and gallery spaces. It is the hub of the world heritage site of Saltaire, three miles north of Bradford city centre. The Bradford district also contains the villages of Thornton and Haworth, the birthplace and home of the world famous Brontë sisters. Clayton was home to Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's last hangman.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution there have been waves of immigration into the city and today there is a very diverse population (Figures for ethnic origin of inhabitants are given in the entry for the Metropolitan District). This is reflected in the different types of places of worship built over the years. Nonconformist chapels were frequently built in the 19th century, and mosques started appearing in the 20th century. The city has been praised for its cultural diversity but on occasion conflict has arisen. In January 1989, copies of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses were publicly burnt in Bradford, and the city's Muslim community took the lead in the campaign against the book in the UK. In July 2001, ethnic tensions and troubles in other northern towns led to serious rioting in Bradford "Bradford Riot".

Bradford was one of the contenders for 2008 European Capital Of Culture. Although in the end it lost out to Liverpool, the bid created confidence in the city and has led to new initiatives.

In 2004, the Bradford Urban Regeneration Company commissioned architect Will Alsop to create a vision for the city's future and the role of a "City Centre" in the 21st century. The audacious (yet controversial) Alsop plan [5] envisions four regenerated quarters within the heart of the city — The Bowl, The Channel, The Market and The Valley — each creating new public spaces for commerce, education, leisure and showcasing Bradford's setting within the Pennine region.

During the English Civil War the town was Parliamentarian in sympathy, but changed hands several times as it was difficult to defend. A life-size statue of Oliver Cromwell decorates the façade of the 19th century City Hall, suggesting a continuing commitment to parliamentary values. However, Bradford did not gain its own MPs until the Reform Act 1832 gave it two. Other prominent statues of political figures include Robert Peel and Richard Cobden (campaigners for free trade which Bradford at one time saw as key to its commercial success) and W.E. Forster (perhaps Bradford's most famous MP). Bradford's politicians tended to identify with industrialists in the 19th century, but the city played an important part in the early history of the Labour Party. A mural on the back of the Priestley Centre For The Arts (visible from Leeds Road) commemorates the centenary of the founding of the Independent Labour Party in 1893.

Bradford was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1847, covering the parishes of Bradford, Horton and Manningham. It became a county borough with the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. The county borough was granted city status by Letters Patent in 1897. Bradford was expanded in 1882 to include Allerton, Bolton, Bowling, Heaton, Thornbury and Tyersall. In 1899 it was further expanded by adding North Bierley, Eccleshill, Idle, Thornton, Tong and Wyke. Clayton was added in 1930.

The county borough was merged with the Borough of Keighley, the Urban Districts of Baildon, Bingley, Denholme,Cullingworth, Ilkley, Shipley and Silsden, along with part of Queensbury and Shelf Urban District and part of Skipton Rural District by the Local Government Act 1972. One result of the boundaries of Bradford being widened in this way is that the district is marginal in terms of party political loyalty — at present no group is in overall control of the council.

In 1858 a case of poisoning occurring as a result of sweets sold from Bradford's Green Market being adulterated with arsenic led to legislation such as the Pharmacies Act 1868 and W.E. Gladstone's regulating of the adulteration of foodstuffs. See The Bradford Sweet Poisoning.

Bradford's historical dominance in the textile industry has now waned, however the prevailing low wages and the support of a thriving educational sector continue to create economic success in many areas, notably: Finance (Yorkshire Building Society, Bradford & Bingley plc, Abbey/Grupo Santander, Provident Financial plc), Retail (Morrison's supermarkets, Grattan Mail Order), Electronics (Pace Micro, Filtronic, NG Bailey), Manufacturing (Denso Marston, CIBA Chemicals).

The University of Bradford has over 10,000 students. It received its Royal Charter in 1966, but traces its history back to the 1860s. It has always been a technical and technological institution, and has no true arts faculties; but it still covers a wide range of subjects including technology & management science, optometry, pharmacy, medical sciences, nursing studies, archaeology and modern languages. Its Peace Studies Department, founded with Quaker support in 1973, was for long the only such institution in the UK. In terms of nationally recognised leading areas of research there are various departments such as Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Bradford School of Pharmacy, Peace Studies, Archaeology, Engineering, Management, Biochemistry, amongst others. It balances academic research, teaching quality with a strong tradition of social inclusion.

University of Bradford School of Management located near Lister Park, is currently rated the 3rd best business school by the Financial Times [6] and 21rd best by the Economist [7] in the UK.

Bradford College has around 26,000 students. It developed from the 19th century technical college whose buildings it has inherited. It now offers a wide range of further and higher educational courses, and is an Associate College of Leeds Metropolitan University. It has absorbed the Art School whose most famous alumnus is David Hockney.

Bradford Grammar School, in Frizinghall, dates back to 1548: it has been co-educational since 1999. The Girls' Grammar School, Bradford is a quite separate establishment dating from 1875: it continues to take only girls except for its Infants' Department. Woodhouse Grove School is another major private education establishment, located in the Aire Valley at Apperley Bridge.

Barkerend Primary School[8] is situated close to Bradford city centre and occupies its original Victorian building, dating from 1875, as well as another, more modern, building.

There are two major hospitals in Bradford: Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital. Plus significant local health centres and cottage hospitals. Private health care is also available at the Yorkshire Clinic, Shipley and the Yorkshire Eye Hospital, Greengates.

Bradford is home to one of the UK's largest ever birth cohort studies, known as Born in Bradford. Partly supported by European funding, it is the result of close collaboration between the University of Bradford, the NHS and other institutions in West Yorkshire. It will track the lives of all the babies born in the city from 2006 to 2008 and aim to find solutions to some of Bradford's public health problems, such as obesity and a higher than average infant mortality rate.

Recently many significant developments have been completed in the Bradford district (last 10 years). In addition further large schemes are under construction and proposed.

Complete:

  • Centenary Square, city centre, public piazza and retail
  • Connecting the City, [9] £20m clearance of 1960s structures over several acres of the city centre, preparation for Broadway project
  • Lister Mills Silk Warehouse, Manningham, 131 apartments first phase of £100m project
  • Victoria Mill, Shipley, £70m conversion and new build, 300 apartments [10] (part complete)
  • City termination of M606
  • Leisure Exchange, city centre, multiplex cinemas, bowling, restaurants
  • New Class 333 electric trains (similar to Heathrow Express) from Forster Square railway station to Leeds/Ilkley/Skipton/Shipley/Bingley/Keighley
  • Abbey offices, Yorkshire Building Society offices, city centre
  • Valley Parade, Manningham, completion of 25,000 seat covered stands at Bradford City football stadium
  • Manchester Road corridor, 2 mile guided bus route with innovative art installation/bus stops
  • Bingley Relief Road, £49m project creating 9 mile high-speed route through Airedale
  • Rawson Quarter, redevelopment of the former Rawson Market.

Under construction and (proposed):

  • Lister Mills Velvet Mill, 170 apartments
  • Broadway Project, £300m city centre shops, offices and apartments (proposed, clearance complete)
  • The Gatehaus, Little Germany, [11] £22m 11 floor apartment building [12] [13] (completion 2007)
  • Eastbrook Hall, Little Germany, £12m rebuilding significant structure to create commercial and living space (completion summer 2007)
  • Listerhills urban village, £90m mixed use project, student and key-worker housing, in city centre Thornton Road/Valley area (commences 2007)
  • New Victoria Place, £55m hotel, public square, offices, retail, Bradford College, 205 apartments, adjacent Alhambra Theatre and Centenary Square (commences summer 2007, completion 2009)
  • Channel neighbourhood, £350m waterside project in city centre Canal Road area, shops, offices, apartments, includes reopening Bradford Canal (in planning)
  • University campus refurbishment, £75m project as part of 'Ecoversity' vision (part complete) [14]
  • Lister Mills further phases of £100m project, Chimney Square, Boiler House, link to Victor Road and Lister Park (proposed)
  • Drummonds, Manningham, conversion of mills to apartments and offices (proposed)
  • The Bowl, centrepiece of the Alsop Masterplan large pool backed by City Hall, the future gathering place for Bradfordians (purchase of land in progress)
  • Citygate project, Manchester Road (City Centre end) hotel, residential and commercial buildings including a recently announced 38 storey tower, making it Bradford's tallest (completion 2012)
  • Beehive Mills, Thornton Road, residential apartments and commercial uses on the ground floors including a 22 storey tower (commences October 2007, completion 2010)

Bradford's current twin towns and cities are listed at http://www.bradford.gov.uk/life_in_the_community/twin_towns_and_villages:

Bradford is located at 53°45′00″N, 01°50′00″W (53.7500, -1.8333)1. Topographically, it is located in the eastern part of the moorland region called the South Pennines.

The Bradford Metropolitan District has an estimated population (2003) of 477,775. About 300,000 of these live within the main city area itself, the rest living in the surrounding towns, villages and countryside.

Unusually for a major city, Bradford is not built on any substantial body of water. The ford from which it takes its name (Broad-Ford) was a crossing of the stream called Bradford Beck. The beck rises in the Pennine hills to the west of the city, and is swelled by tributaries such as Horton Beck, Westbrook, Bowling Beck and Eastbrook. At the site of the original ford, just below the present Bradford Cathedral, it turns north, and flows more or less straight towards the River Aire at Shipley.

Bradford Beck's course through the city centre is entirely underground, and was mostly so by the middle of the 19th century. On the 1852 Ordnance Survey map of Bradford[15] it is visible as far as Sun Bridge, at the end of Tyrrell Street, and then again from beside the Railway Station at the bottom of Kirkgate. On the 1906 Ordnance Survey,[16] it disappears at Tumbling Hill Street, off Thornton Road, and first appears again north of Cape Street, off Valley Road, though there are further culverts as far as Queens Road. This is substantially the position today.

Bradford Beck is now a central element of the Alsop plan to regenerate the city centre. 'The Bowl' is an ambitious project to open up the beck and create a huge pool to act as the pivotal point of the new city centre.

The Bradford Canal, built in 1774, took its water from Bradford Beck and its tributaries. This supply was often inadequate to feed the locks, and the polluted state of the canal led to its temporary closure in 1866: the canal was closed in the early 20th century as uneconomic. Like the beck, the canal is about to be rejuvenated in the Alsop plan. 'The Channel' envisages the reopening of the canal and the creation of a new canal-side community.

Bradfordale (or Bradforddale) is a name given by geographers to the valley of Bradford Beck (see for example Firth 1997[17]). It can reasonably be regarded as one of the Yorkshire Dales, though as the site of a big city, it is often not recognised as such.

The city is the location of the most visited museum outside London - the National Media Museum, previously called the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, which has 3 cinemas including a gigantic Imax screen. Bradford's main art gallery is housed in the grand Edwardian Cartwright Hall in Lister Park. Salt's Mill has the world's largest collection of David Hockney artworks. Bradford Industrial Museum [18] celebrates and explains the significant achievements in Bradford's industrial past, from textiles to the manufacture of motor cars. Colour was important in the development of the textile industry and the educational Bradford Colour Museum [19] is unique in the UK. It is run by the Society of Dyers and Colourists.

Each year the city hosts several successful festivals. In June the Bradford Festival [20] includes a Book Festival and the massive Bradford Mela [21], the biggest of its kind outside Asia. The Ilkley Literature Festival [22] in September/October is the largest and most prestigious in the north attracting big names from the arts and entertainment. There are several Continental Markets and Food Fairs throughout the city and district including the Bradford International Market, a four day spectacular in August. The city has an annual series of important film and cinema events: the Bradford Film Festival in March, Bite The Mango (World Cinema) in September, plus the Bradford Animation Festival held each November.

Bradford's oldest building is the cathedral, which for most of its life was a parish church. Few other Medieval buildings have survived apart from Bolling Hall, which has been preserved as a museum.

Bradford boasts some fine Victorian buildings: apart from the mills mentioned elsewhere in this article, there is the City Hall (with statues of rulers of England unusually including Oliver Cromwell), the Wool Exchange (now used as a bookshop), and a large Victorian cemetery at Undercliffe.

Little Germany is a splendid Victorian commercial district just east of the city centre which takes its name from 19th century immigrants who ran businesses from some of the many listed buildings. Following decades of decay there have been successful conversions to office and residential use. In mid-2005 renovation began on the prominent Eastbrook Hall in Little Germany.

Like many cities, Bradford lost a number of notable buildings to developers in the 1960s and 1970s: particularly mourned at the time were the Swan Arcade and the old Kirkgate Market. In recent years some buildings from that era have themselves been demolished and replaced: Provincial House, next to Centenary Square, was demolished by controlled explosion in 2002 [23], and Forster House was pulled down in 2005 as part of the Broadway development [24].

There are four theatres in Bradford: The Alhambra was built in 1914 for theatre impresario Frank Laidler, and later owned by the Moss Empire group (Oswald Stoll and Edward Moss) and refurbished in 1986; The Studio is a smaller studio theatre in the same complex. Both of these are operated by Bradford Council. The Theatre in the Mill is a small studio theatre in the University of Bradford which presents both student and community shows and small-scale touring professional work. The Priestley Theatre is a privately run venue with a medium-sized proscenium theatre and a small studio.

Among the professional theatre companies based in Bradford, are

  • Kala Sangam
  • the satirical madcap comedy troop, Komedy Kollective.
  • Lost Dog (based at Theatre In The Mill)
  • Mind the Gap, one of the longest established, who have always worked with a mixture of disabled and able-bodied performers.

Groups and organisations teaching theatre include

  • The Asian Theatre School
  • Bradford Stage and Theatre School
  • Stage 84

Amateur theatre groups include:

  • Actors' Community Theatre (ACT)
  • Bingley Little Theatre
  • The Bradford Players
  • Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals (BUSOM)
  • Bradford University Theatre Group (BUTG),
  • Bradford Youth Players
  • Buttershaw (St Paul's) Church Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society
  • Drama Unlimited
  • Great Horton Amateur Operatic Society

St George's Hall is a grand concert hall, designed by Lockwood and Mawson, dating from 1853. The Hallé Orchestra have been regular visitors over the years, as have a wide range of popular entertainers including Ken Dodd. It is sometimes used for theatrical productions.

Though the university does not have an academic music department, it has a Fellow in Music who organises a range of playing and performing groups, and regular concerts around the university, in venues such as the Tasmin Little Music Centre, and the Yorkshire Craft Centre at Bradford College; there are also occasional concerts further afield, in venues such as Bradford Cathedral.

Although Bradford was home to composer Frederick Delius, there are no prominent professional music ensembles based in Bradford at present. There are some prominent amateur groups, such as the Bradford Festival Chorus.

The Topic Folk Club has been in existence since 1956, though it has changed the pub it meets in every few years. It currently meets in the Cock and Bottle on Barkerend Road, on Thursday nights.

Jazz at The Priestley is a long-running series of jazz evenings in the Cellar Bar of The Priestley on Friday nights.

Boar's Head Morris Men were a (mainly Cotswold) morris side in Bradford from the early 1970s until 2006. Persephone Ladies Morris are still active, as are Rainbow Morris in Shipley, and clog side Clogaire.

Mono is a monthly rock fanzine published in Bradford, covering the local alternative/independent rock music scene.

Fabric is the arts development organisation for Bradford representing artists and creative organisations in all art forms, promoting and developing their work and lobbying on their behalf.

http://www.fabric-artsforum.org.uk

The National Media Museum celebrates cinema and movies. It contains an Imax cinema, the Cubby Broccoli Cinema, and the Pictureville Cinema - described by David Puttnam as the best cinema in Britain [25]. The museum has a rich and varied programme of films from around the world.

Traditional cinemas have been replaced by new entertainment complexes with multi-screen cinemas: Cineworld at the Leisure Exchange in the city centre, and another (a new Odeon) at Thornbury, on the outskirts of Bradford, to replace the old Odeon next to the Alhambra, which was the recent focus of protests by Bradfordians who didn't wish to see this building close.

The University of Bradford also has a cinema run by the Student's Union. The Bradford Student Cinema operates from the University's Great Hall.

Bradford is bidding to become a UNESCO City of Film.

Since around 2000, several clubs and theme pubs have opened in the West End of Bradford, around the Alhambra Theatre, turning what was previously a fairly quiet area into one that is often crowded and vibrant at night.

Bradford has a number of architecturally historic hotels that date back to the establishment of the two railway lines into the city centre, back in Victorian times. The Victoria Hotel and the Midland Hotel were built to accommodate business travellers to the city from Scotland, the Midlands, and London, arriving at Forster Square and Bradford Victoria station (later to become Bradford Interchange, during the height of the woollen trade.

Within the city district there are 37 parks and gardens. Lister Park with its boating lake and Mughal Water Gardens, was voted Britain's Best Park for 2006[26]. Peel Park is the venue for the annual Mela — a celebration of eastern culture. And Bowling Park is the site where the annual Bradford Carnival takes place, celebrating local African and Caribbean culture.

Beauty spot Chellow Dene has two Victorian reservoirs set in pleasant woodland. To the west and north of Bradford are picturesque and atmospheric moorlands: the famous Ilkley Moor and moors above Haworth known internationally for its connection with the Brontë sisters.

Bradford has a long and proud history in sport, especially rugby league, football and cricket.

The city has a long rugby tradition, and Bradford Bulls (formerly Bradford Northern) are one of the most successful rugby league clubs in the world, winning the World Club Championship 3 times since 2002 and also 7 times winners of the Rugby League Championship. The home of the Bulls is Grattan Stadium, Odsal (formerly Odsal Stadium) in the south of the city. The city is also home to a number of Rugby Union clubs - Bradford and Bingley RFC (The Bees) are based to the north of the city in Bingley; Bradford Salem are based in the Heaton area and Wibsey RFC can be found in that district to the south of the city centre.

Football also has a rich heritage in Bradford. Bradford (Park Avenue) and Bradford City are the two football teams within the city and are both passionately supported. The two teams regularly competed in league football until Park Avenue left the league in 1974. On May 11, 1985, 56 people were killed at a fire at Valley Parade, home of Bradford City. Centenary Square now contains a monument to the Bradford City disaster. The fire led to new legislation to increase safety in all the UK's sports grounds. The Valley Parade name has recently been officially changed to the Intersonic Stadium, following a £1million pound sponsorship investment.

Bradford was also home to the now-defunct Bradford Dukes speedway team, which played at Odsal.

The Richard Dunn Sports Centre is just across the road from Grattan Stadium, Odsal. The sports facilities at the university are also open to the public at certain times.

Bradford's former importance as a centre of international trade led to the creation of the Bradford Circle for Foreign Languages [27], which still survives today and is possibly unique among similar clubs in that it owns its own premises.

Also following the closure of the Bradford trolleybus system, The Bradford Trolleybus Association was founded to preserve Bradford's trolleybuses.

The Telegraph and Argus is Bradford's daily evening newspaper, published six days each week from Monday to Saturday. It is known locally as the "T&A".

Bradford was one of the first areas of the UK to get a local commercial radio station Pennine Radio in September 1975. Today this is The Pulse of West Yorkshire and Pulse Classic Gold. As of 2006 Bradford Community Broadcasting based in the city centre has broadcast on full-time Community Radio license around Bradford and the Aire Valley.

The city of Bradford and surrounding districts are home to a wealth of places of worship that contribute to the region's cultural heritage. These include Sikh and Hindu temples, synagogues but mostly Christian churches and Muslim mosques. Due to there being significant Pakistani (and to a lesser extent, Bangladeshi populations) throughout the city, Islam is a prominent religion, particularly in inner city areas such as Manningham and Girlington. As well as there being a significant Muslim population in the city, there are also many immigrants from India which contribute to both the Sikh and Hindu populations in Bradford. The area of Leeds Road probably boasts the largest Sikh population in the city, which can be seen from the several Gurdwaras in the area. Furthermore there is also a small Jewish population, despite the fact that over the years many of them have tended to leave Bradford, preferring various parts of Leeds instead, particularly the area of Alwoodley and Moortown. However several synagogues can still be found in the city, such as the one in Manningham.

The district has a tradition of nonconformity which is reflected in the number of chapels erected by Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists etc. The city was a major centre of the House Church movement in the 1980s, and the Christian charity Christians Against Poverty was founded in the city. Two carved stones, probably parts of a Saxon preaching cross, were found on the site of Bradford Cathedral. They indicate that Christians may have worshipped here since Paulinus of York came to the north of England in AD 627 on a mission to convert Northumbria. He preached in Dewsbury and it was from there that Bradford was first evangelised. The vicars of Bradford later paid dues to that parish.

Main article: Bradford Cathedral


The most prominent Christian church in Bradford, is Bradford Cathedral, originally the Parish Church of St Peter. The parish of Bradford was in existence by 1283, and there was a stone church on the shelf above Bradford Beck by 1327.

The Diocese of Bradford was created from part of the Diocese of Ripon in 1919, and the church became a cathedral at that time.

Since the 1960s Bradford has had a significant Muslim population, and accordingly there are many mosques throughout the city. Some were converted from churches or other buildings, but there are several purpose-built mosques as well. The largest of these mosques is probably Hanfia Masjid in the majority Muslim area of Manningham.

There are two Hindu temples, the Hindu Cultural Society of Bradford on Leeds Road and the Hindu Temple & Community Centre on Thornton Lane [28].

There is a prominent Sikh community in Bradford, with 6 Gurdwara's (sikh place of worship) around the city. The sikh festival of Vaisakhi is also celebrated on the 14th of April of every year, this sees sikhs from Bradford and the surrounding area travel to each of the Gurdwaras in the city in a procession called a nagar kirtan. There are 3 gurdwara's in the Leeds Road area of Bradford alone, Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara being the biggest of these and it is located just off Leeds Rd on Gobind Marg. There is a Ramgharia Gurdwara on Bolton Road and Guru Nanak Gurdwara is on Wakefield Road at the corner of Usher Street.

The Jewish community in Bradford was strong in the middle to late 19th century, but is smaller today and many families have moved to the near-by city of Leeds[citation needed]. There is a 19th century Reform synagogue in Bowland Street in the Manningham area. This, "The oldest Reform synagogue outside London",[1] was established by German Jews who had moved to Bradford for the wool trade. According to historian Shatman Kadish, "The city of Bradford was unique in that it boasted a Reform synagogue before it acquired an Orthodox one".[2]

Wm Morrison Supermarkets

The birthplace of rock bands New Model Army, Anti System, Smokie, Dead Eye Decline, Southern Death Cult/The Cult, The Scene, One Minute Silence, Terrorvision, Morbid Humour, Violation, and Asian hip hop group Fun-Da-Mental.

The people in this list were either born or brought up in Bradford (not necessarily both), or had a significant connection with the city later in life. Those marked with an asterisk ('*') are described in Lister, 2004.[29]

See also Category:People from Bradford

In past centuries Bradford's location in Bradfordale made communications difficult, except from the north. Nonetheless, Bradford is now well-served by transport systems.

Bradford was first connected to the developing turnpike network in 1734, when the first Yorkshire turnpike was built between Manchester and Leeds via Halifax and Bradford. In 1740, the Selby to Halifax road was constructed through Leeds and Bradford. Several more local and long-distance roads were built through the rest of the century.

Today Bradford lies on several trunk roads:

The M606, a spur off the M62 motorway, connects Bradford with the national motorway network. Although it was originally planned to go directly into the city centre, this has never been built and is unlikely now ever to be, as a hotel has been built across the proposed route.

Bradford's tram system was begun by Bradford Corporation in 1882: at first the vehicles were horse-drawn. They were replaced by steam-driven trams in 1883, and by electric ones in 1898.

On 20 June, 1911, Britain's first trolleybus service opened in Bradford, between Laisterdyke and Dudley Hill. It was often known as the trackless, in contradistinction to trams. The last trolleybus service in Bradford - and indeed in Britain - ceased operation on 26 March, 1972. The Bradford Trolleybus Association bought some of Bradford's trolleybuses but later sold them off to private owners most can now be found at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft.

First Bus are now the main operator of most routes in Bradford, and are part of the First Group. Some routes that include Manchester Road use guided buses.

The Bradford Canal was a four-mile long spur off the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Shipley. It was planned and built as part of the original Leeds and Liverpool project, to connect Bradford with the limestone quarries of north Yorkshire, the industrial towns on both sides of the Pennines and the ports on each coast. It opened in 1774, closed in 1866, reopened in 1871, and finally closed in 1922. There are plans to rebuild the canal as a key part of regenerating the city centre (see the main article).

The Leeds and Bradford Railway opened Bradford's first railway station at the bottom of Kirkgate on 1 July 1846. It offered a service via Shipley to Leeds and through Leeds to other centres, including London. The line was soon absorbed by the Midland Railway, and the station was rebuilt in the early 1850s and again, much larger, in 1890. Today it is a smaller railway station dating from 1990, called Forster Square railway station though it is somewhat distant from the site of its predecessors, and from Forster Square itself. Modern electric trains connect directly to Leeds, Ilkley and Skipton. There is currently a 4 times daily GNER service linking Bradford with London King's Cross. A new company Grand Central Railway is proposing to significantly increase this London connection, with additional fast trains via Doncaster/East Coast Mainline and via Manchester/West Coast Mainline.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened its station at Drake Street on 9 May 1850, on its line between Manchester and Leeds. The Great Northern Railway opened a third terminus at Adolphus Street in 1854, serving Leeds and other places on its network, but the station was too far from the centre, and the two companies eventually agreed to build a joint station to replace the L&Y's station at Drake Street. This was Bradford Exchange railway station, opened in 1867: Adolphus Street remained as a goods terminal. The Exchange Station was completely rebuilt in 1880, with ten platforms; but by 1973 it was too large and again was rebuilt on a different site. In 1983 that station was renamed Bradford Interchange when a large bus station was built alongside. Bradford Interchange railway station connects directly to Leeds, to Manchester Victoria and to Blackpool. See this site

Both stations are under the control of the West Yorkshire Metro as part of the Leeds-Bradford Line routes.

From the 1870s, the Great Northern built several suburban railway lines around Bradford:

These all closed at various times between the 1930s and the 1960s.

There have been many schemes to build a link between Bradford's main railway terminals, but none has ever come near fruition, and indeed the recent Bradford Masterplan for the city centre regeneration has not addressed this (when asked, the writer of the masterplan admitted to not even considering it)[citation needed]. The main practical difficulty is the great difference in elevation: the Exchange/Interchange station is already at the bottom of a long slope, steep by railway standards, but it is many feet higher than Forster Square Station.

  • The city is served by Leeds Bradford International Airport, 6 miles to the north east of the city. Bradford and Leeds councils jointly opened the airport in 1931 as Yeadon Aerodrome. There has been rapid expansion in recent years and direct flights are now available to over 70 destinations (October 2006). Around 3 million passengers used the airport in 2006. It is the home base of economy Airline Jet2.com, voted Best European Short Haul Airline 2006. In May 2007 the joint councils sold the airport to Bridgepoint Capital for £145.5m. Bridgepoint announced that a further £70m would be invested in airport improvements, to boost passenger figures to over 7 million by 2015. [30]

In the BBC political satire The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, the Prime Minister considers a proposal to move Parliament to Bradford, as it is closer to the geographic centre of the country than London.

The Buttershaw area of the city featured in the 1986 film Rita, Sue and Bob Too, in which two 16-year-old girls were involved in a love triangle with a wealthy married man (played by George Costigan). The film was created by Andrea Dunbar, who died four years after it was made. It was initially unpopular with local residents due to its negative image of the area, but has since earned itself a good reputation in the local community as Buttershaw's claim to fame.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

  • ^  Allen, C (2003). Fair justice: the Bradford disturbances, the sentencing and the impact. London: Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism. 
  • ^ Lister, Derek A J (2004). Bradford's Own. Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-3826-9. 
  • ^  Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 County Series Map: Yorkshire Sheet 216. Heritage Cartography. ISBN 1-903004-34-9. . This was surveyed 1847-1850, and published in 1852, though it was reprinted at various dates with certain (unidentified) details updated. The modern edition from Heritage Cartography is 'redrawn' from the original, and titled Bradford 1849, but the railways shown indicate that it is from a printing of at least 1854.
  1. ^ European Day of Jewish Culture and Heritage, 5 September 2004, leaflet issued by the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage
  2. ^ Kadish, Sharman (2002). "Constructing Identity: Anglo-Jewry and Synagogue Architecture" (PDF). Architectural History 45: 386-408. SAHGB Publications Limited. ISSN: 0066622X. Retrieved on 22 April 2007. 

  • ^  Firth, Gary (1997). A History of Bradford. Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-057-6. 
  • Wilmott, Elvira (1987). The Ryburn Map of Victorian Bradford. Ryburn. ISBN 1-85331-004-2.  The map itself is a reproduction of the Plan of the Town of Bradford ... revised and corrected to the present time by Dixon & Hindle, 1871.
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