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Bradford is a
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and the administrative centre of the
City of Bradford The City of Bradford () is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a large area which includes the towns and v ...
district in
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, England. The city is in the
Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...
' eastern foothills on the banks of the
Bradford Beck Bradford Beck is a river that flows through Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, (then Bradford Dale) and on to the River Aire at Shipley. As it reaches Bradford city centre it runs underground after being built over in the 19th century. It is ...
. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 census; the second-largest population centre in the county after
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
, which is to the east of the city. It shares a continuous built-up area with the towns of Shipley,
Silsden Silsden is a town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and Leeds and Liverpool Canal between Keighley and Skipton, which had a population of 8,268 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the haml ...
,
Bingley Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census. Bingley ra ...
and
Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west o ...
in the district as well as with the
metropolitan county The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...
's other districts. Its name is also given to
Bradford Beck Bradford Beck is a river that flows through Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, (then Bradford Dale) and on to the River Aire at Shipley. As it reaches Bradford city centre it runs underground after being built over in the 19th century. It is ...
. It became a
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
municipal borough in 1847 and received its city charter in 1897. Since local government reform in 1974, the city is the administrative centre of a wider metropolitan district, city hall is the meeting place of
Bradford City Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England ...
. The district has
civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...
and
unparished areas In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...
and had a population of , making it the most populous district in England. In the century leading up its city status, the 19th century, it was
boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, althou ...
in international textile manufacture. It was one of the earliest
industrialised Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
settlements, rapidly becoming the "
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
capital of the world"; this in turn gave rise to the nicknames "Woolopolis" and "Wool City". The area's access to supplies of coal, iron ore and soft water set off the growth of manufacturing which led to an explosion in population. From the mid-20th century, deindustrialisation lead to the textile sector and industrial base to decline (including poverty, unemployment and social unrest). The city's economy is the third largest in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, at around £10 billion, based on finance and manufacturing. Tourism and media is also a part of the economy: it was the first
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
City of Film with attractions such as the
National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
,
Bradford City Park Bradford City Park is a public space in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It is centred on the Grade I listed Bradford City Hall. The city park comprises three main areas (each side of the triangular City Hall site.) To the east of the City ...
, the
Alhambra theatre The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End theatre, West End of London. It was built originally as the Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was clo ...
and
Cartwright Hall Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel ...
. It is the
UK City of Culture UK City of Culture is a designation given to a city (or a local area from 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bidder hosts cultural festivities through culture-led regeneration for the ye ...
for 2025 having won the designation on 31 May 2022.


History


Toponymy

The name Bradford is derived from the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
''brad'' and ''ford'' the broad
ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
which referred to a crossing of the
Bradford Beck Bradford Beck is a river that flows through Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, (then Bradford Dale) and on to the River Aire at Shipley. As it reaches Bradford city centre it runs underground after being built over in the 19th century. It is ...
at Church Bank below the site of
Bradford Cathedral Bradford Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, one of three co-equal cathedrals in the Diocese of Leeds alongside Ripon and Wakefield. Its site has been used for Chr ...
, around which a settlement grew in Anglo-Saxon times. It was recorded as "Bradeford" in 1086.


Early history

After an
uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
in 1070, during
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
's
Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged Anglo- Danish re ...
, the manor of Bradford was laid waste, and is described as such in the ''
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
'' of 1086. It then became part of the ''Honour of Pontefract'' given to
Ilbert de Lacy de Lacy (Laci, Lacie, Lascy, Lacey, Lassey) is the surname of an old Norman family which originated from Lassy, Calvados. The family took part in the Norman Conquest of England and the later Norman invasion of Ireland. The name is first recorde ...
for service to the Conqueror, in whose family the manor remained until 1311. There is evidence of a castle in the time of the Lacys. The manor then passed to the
Earl of Lincoln Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England, most recently in 1572. The title was borne by the Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne from 1768 to 1988, until the dukedom became extinct. Earls of Lincoln, first ...
,
John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
,
The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...
and, ultimately, private ownership in 1620. By the
middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
Bradford, had become a small town centred on Kirkgate, Westgate and Ivegate. In 1316 there is mention of a
fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to eli ...
mill, a soke mill where all the manor corn was milled and a market. During the
Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...
the inhabitants sided with
House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancasterfrom which the house was namedfor his second son Edmund Crouchback in 126 ...
.
Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...
granted the right to hold two annual fairs and from this time the town began to prosper. In the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
Bradford exceeded Leeds as a manufacturing centre. Bradford grew slowly over the next two-hundred years as the
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
len trade gained in prominence. During the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
the town was garrisoned for the Parliamentarians and in 1642 was unsuccessfully attacked by
Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gov ...
forces from Leeds.
Sir Thomas Fairfax Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron (17 January 161212 November 1671), also known as Sir Thomas Fairfax, was an English politician, general and Parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War. An adept and talented comman ...
took the command of the garrison and marched to meet the
Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle ...
but was defeated. The Parliamentarians retreated to Bradford and the Royalists set up headquarters at Bolling Hall from where the town was besieged leading to its surrender. The Civil War caused a decline in industry but after the accession of William III and
Mary II Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife A ...
in 1689 prosperity began to return. The launch of manufacturing in the early 18th century marked the start of the town's development while new
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...
and turnpike road links encouraged trade.


Industrial Revolution

In 1801, Bradford was a rural
market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
of 6,393 people, where wool spinning and cloth weaving was carried out in local cottages and farms. Bradford was thus not much bigger than nearby
Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west o ...
(5,745) and was significantly smaller than Halifax (8,866) and
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...
(7,268). This small town acted as a hub for three nearby townships – Manningham,
Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
and
Great Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...
and
Little Horton Little Horton (population 17,368 - 2001 UK census) is a ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the de Horton family, who were once Lords of the Manor. The population ...
, which were separated from the town by countryside.
Blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...
s were established in about 1788 by Hird, Dawson Hardy at Low Moor and iron was worked by the
Bowling Iron Company The Bowling Iron Works was an iron working complex established around 1780 in the district of East Bowling part of the township and manor of Bowling, Yorkshire, Bowling, now in the southeast of Bradford in Yorkshire, England. The operation includ ...
until about 1900. Yorkshire iron was used for shackles, hooks and piston rods for locomotives, colliery cages and other mining appliances where toughness was required. The
Low Moor Company The Low Moor Ironworks was a wrought iron foundry established in 1791 in the village of Low Moor about south of Bradford in Yorkshire, England. The works were built to exploit the high-quality iron ore and low-sulphur coal found in the area. Lo ...
also made
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with ...
and the company employed 1,500 men in 1929. when the municipal borough of Bradford was created in 1847 there were 46 coal mines within its boundaries. Coal output continued to expand, reaching a peak in 1868 when Bradford contributed a quarter of all the coal and iron produced in Yorkshire. The population of the township in 1841 was 34,560. In 1825 the wool-combers union called a strike that lasted five-months but workers were forced to return to work through hardship leading to the introduction of machine-combing. This
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
led to rapid growth, with wool imported in vast quantities for the manufacture of
worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham ...
cloth in which Bradford specialised, and the town soon became known as the wool capital of the world. A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Bradford Moor Barracks in 1844. Bradford had ample supplies of locally mined coal to provide the power that the industry needed. Local
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
was an excellent resource for building the mills, and with a population of 182,000 by 1850, the town grew rapidly as workers were attracted by jobs in the
textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...
s. A desperate shortage of water in
Bradford Dale The River Bradford is a river in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. Its source is on Gratton Moor and after passing below Youlgreave it joins the River Lathkill at Alport. Less than in length, its waters are very clear due to the ...
was a serious limitation on industrial expansion and improvement in urban sanitary conditions. In 1854 Bradford Corporation bought the Bradford Water Company and embarked on a huge engineering programme to bring supplies of soft water from Airedale, Wharfedale and Nidderdale. By 1882 water supply had radically improved. Meanwhile, urban expansion took place along the routes out of the city towards the Hortons and Bowling and the townships had become part of a continuous urban area by the late 19th century. A major employer was
Titus Salt Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet (20 September 1803 in Morley – 29 December 1876 in Lightcliffe), was a manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a ...
who in 1833 took over the running of his father's woollen business specialising in fabrics combining
alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. It is similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are often noticeably smaller than llamas. The two animals are closely related and can success ...
, mohair, cotton and silk. By 1850 he had five mills. However, because of the polluted environment and squalid conditions for his workers Salt left Bradford and transferred his business to Salts Mill in
Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian model village in Shipley, part of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, in West Yorkshire, England. The Victorian era Salt's Mill and associated residential district located by the River Aire and Leeds and ...
in 1850, where in 1853 he began to build the workers' village which has become a
UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
.
Henry Ripley Sir Henry William Ripley, 1st Baronet (23 April 1813 – 9 November 1882), was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician who switched to the Conservative Party. Ripley became a principal partner in Edward Ripley and So ...
was a younger contemporary of Titus Salt. He was managing partner of Edward Ripley & Son Ltd, which owned the Bowling Dye Works. In 1880 the dye works employed over 1000 people and was said to be the biggest dye works in Europe. Like Salt he was a councillor, JP and Bradford MP who was deeply concerned to improve working class housing conditions. He built the industrial
Model village A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...
of
Ripley Ville Ripley Ville or Ripleyville was an estate of model houses for the working classes in Broomfields in the West Bowling ward of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Started in 1866 the development was built for the industrialist ...
on a site in
Broomfields Broomfields is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is located north of Montford Bridge and near to the hamlets of Forton Heath and Grafton. It is in the parish of Montford. It used to have its own 7 1/4 gauge garden railway at Broomfields Vi ...
,
East Bowling East Bowling is an area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England located to the south of Bradford city centre. It forms the eastern half of the historic township and manor of Bowling. Bowling became a ward of the newly created Borough of Bradfor ...
close to the dye works. Other major employers were
Samuel Lister Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 1st Baron Masham (1 January 1815 – 2 February 1906), was an English inventor and industrialist, notable for inventing the Lister nip comb. Early life He was born in Calverley Hall (now Calverley House Farm- not to be ...
and his brother who were worsted spinners and manufacturers at
Lister's Mill Lister's Mill (otherwise known as Manningham Mills) was the largest silk factory in the world. It is located in the Manningham district of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and was built by Samuel Cunliffe Lister to replace the original Ma ...
(Manningham Mills). Lister epitomised Victorian enterprise but it has been suggested that his
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
attitude made
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
s necessary. Unprecedented growth created problems with over 200 factory chimneys continually churning out black, sulphurous smoke, Bradford gained the reputation of being the most polluted town in England. There were frequent outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, and only 30% of children born to textile workers reached the age of fifteen. This extreme level of
infant An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used t ...
and youth mortality contributed to a life expectancy for Bradford residents of just over eighteen years, which was one of the lowest in the country. Like many major cities Bradford has been a destination for immigrants. In the 1840s Bradford's population was significantly increased by migrants from Ireland, particularly rural Mayo and
Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the largest urban ce ...
, and by 1851 about 10% of the population were born in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, the largest proportion in
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
. Around the middle decades of the 19th century the Irish were concentrated in eight densely settled areas situated near the town centre. One of these was the Bedford Street area of
Broomfields Broomfields is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is located north of Montford Bridge and near to the hamlets of Forton Heath and Grafton. It is in the parish of Montford. It used to have its own 7 1/4 gauge garden railway at Broomfields Vi ...
which in 1861 contained 1,162 persons of Irish birth—19% of all Irish born persons in the Borough. During the 1820s and 1830s, there was immigration from
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
. Many were
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
merchants A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...
and they became active in the life of the town. The Jewish community mostly living in the Manningham area of the town, numbered about 100 families but was influential in the development of Bradford as a major exporter of woollen goods from their textile export houses predominately based in Little Germany and the civic life of Bradford.
Charles Semon Charles Joseph Semon (1812–1877), was born in Danzig, Free City in 1812 of German Jewish descent. He came to Bradford, England in the middle of the 19th century and soon built up one of the most important textile export houses in the town. His ...
(1814–1877) was a textile merchant and philanthropist who developed a productive textile export house in the town, he became the first foreign and Jewish mayor of Bradford in 1864. Jacob Behrens (1806–1889) was the first foreign textile merchant to export woollen goods from the town, his company developed into an international multimillion-pound business. Behrens was a philanthropist, he also helped to establish the Bradford chamber of commerce in 1851.
Jacob Moser Jacob Moser (28 November 1839 – 1922) was a businessman, philanthropist and, later, councillor, who made his home in Bradford and became a leading participant in the civic life of the city. Life Moser was of German Jewish descent and wa ...
(1839 – 1922) was a textile merchant who was a partner in the firm Edelstein, Moser and Co, which developed into a successful Bradford textile export house. Moser was a philanthropist, he founded the Bradford Charity Organisation Society and the City Guild of Help. In 1910 Moser became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Bradford. To support the textile mills, a large manufacturing base grew up in the town providing textile machinery, and this led to diversification with different industries thriving side by side. The
Jowett Jowett was a manufacturer of light cars and light commercial vehicles in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England from 1906 to 1954. Early history Jowett was founded in 1901 by brothers Benjamin (1877–1963) and William (1880–1965) Jowet ...
Motor Company founded in the early 20th century by Benjamin and William Jowett and Arthur V Lamb, manufactured cars and vans in Bradford for 50 years.
The Scott Motorcycle Company The Scott Motorcycle Company was owned by Scott Motors (Saltaire) Limited, Shipley, West Yorkshire, England and was a well-known producer of motorcycles and light engines for industry. Founded by Alfred Angas Scott in 1908 as the ''Scott Eng ...
was a well known producer of motorcycles and light engines for industry. Founded by
Alfred Angas Scott Alfred Angas Scott (1875–1923) was a British motorcycle designer, inventor and founder of the Scott Motorcycle Company. A prolific inventor, he took out over 50 patents between 1897 and 1920, mostly concerning two-stroke engines and road vehic ...
in 1908 as the Scott Engineering Company in Bradford, Scott motorcycles were produced until 1978.


Independent Labour Party

The city played an important part in the early history of the Labour Party. A mural on the back of the Bradford Playhouse in Little Germany commemorates the centenary of the founding of the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
in Bradford in 1893.


The Bradford Pals

The Bradford Pals were three First World War
Pals battalion The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbour ...
s of
Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...
raised in the city. When the three battalions were taken over by the British Army they were officially named the 16th (1st Bradford), 18th (2nd Bradford), and 20th (Reserve) Battalions, The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). On the morning of 1 July 1916, the 16th and 18th Battalions left their trenches in Northern France to advance across no man's land. It was the first hour of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Of the estimated 1,394 men from Bradford and District in the two battalions, 1,060 were either killed or injured during the ill-fated attack on the village of Serre-lès-Puisieux. Other Bradford Battalions of The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) involved in the
Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...
were the 1st/6th Battalion (the former Bradford Rifle Volunteers), part of the
Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...
, based at Belle Vue Barracks in Manningham, and the 10th Battalion (another Kitchener battalion). The 1/6th Battalion first saw action in 1915 at the
Battle of Aubers Ridge The Battle of Aubers (Battle of Aubers Ridge) was a British offensive on the Western Front on 9 May 1915 during the First World War. The battle was part of the British contribution to the Second Battle of Artois, a Franco-British offensive in ...
before moving north to the
Yser Canal The Ieperlee (or ''Ypres-Ijzer Canal'') is a canalized river that rises in Heuvelland in the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows via the city of Ypres (Ieper) into the Yser at Fort Knokke. The river is long. Its name is derived from ''i ...
near
Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality ...
. On the first day of the Somme they took heavy casualties while trying to support the
36th (Ulster) Division The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the ''Ulster Division'', it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, ...
. The 10th Battalion was involved in the attack on Capture of Fricourt, Fricourt, where it suffered the highest casualty rate of any battalion on the Somme on 1 July and perhaps the highest battalion casualty list for a single day during the entire war. Nearly 60% of the battalion's casualties were deaths. The 1/2nd and 2/2nd West Riding Artillery, West Riding Brigades, Royal Field Artillery (TF), had their headquarters at Valley Parade in Manningham, with batteries at Bradford, Halifax and Heckmondwike. The 1/2nd Brigade crossed to France with the 1/6th Battalion West Yorks in April 1915. These Territorial Force units were to remain close to each other throughout the war, serving in the 49th (West Riding) Division. They were joined in 1917 by the Bradford Rifles, 2/6th Battalion, West Yorks, and West Riding Artillery, 2/2nd West Riding Brigade, RFA, serving in the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division.


Recent history

Bradford's ''Telegraph and Argus'' newspaper was involved in spearheading the news of the 1936 Abdication Crisis, after the Bishop of Bradford publicly expressed doubts about Edward VIII's religious beliefs (see: Telegraph & Argus#1936 Abdication Crisis). After the Second World War migrants came from Poland and Ukraine and since the 1950s from Bangladesh, India and particularly Pakistan. The textile industry has been in decline throughout the latter part of the 20th century. A culture of innovation had been fundamental to Bradford's dominance, with new textile technologies being invented in the city; a prime example being the work of
Samuel Lister Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 1st Baron Masham (1 January 1815 – 2 February 1906), was an English inventor and industrialist, notable for inventing the Lister nip comb. Early life He was born in Calverley Hall (now Calverley House Farm- not to be ...
. This innovation culture continues today throughout Bradford's economy, from automotive (Kahn Design) to electronics (Pace Micro Technology). Morrisons, Wm Morrison Supermarkets was founded by William Morrison (businessman), William Morrison in 1899, initially as an egg and butter merchant in Rawson Market, operating under the name of ''Wm Morrison (Provisions) Limited''. The grandest of the mills no longer used for textile production is Lister's Mill, the chimney of which can be seen from most places in Bradford. It has become a beacon of regeneration after a £100 million conversion to apartment blocks by property developer Urban Splash. In 1989, copies of Salman Rushdie's ''The Satanic Verses'' were burnt in the city, and a section of the Islam, Muslim community led a campaign against the book. In July 2001, ethnic tensions led to Bradford Riots, rioting, and a report described Bradford as fragmented and a city of segregated ethnic communities. The Yorkshire Building Society opened its new headquarters in the city in 1992. In 2006 Wm Morrison Supermarkets opened its new headquarters in the city, the firm employs more than 5,000 people in Bradford. In June 2009 Bradford became the world's first
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
City of Film and became part of the Creative Cities Network since then. The city has a long history of producing both films and the technology that produces moving film which includes the invention of the Cieroscope, which took place in Manningham in 1896. In 2010 Provident Financial opened its new headquarters in the city. The company has been based in the city since 1880. In 2012 the British Wool Marketing Board opened its new headquarters in the city. Also in 2012
Bradford City Park Bradford City Park is a public space in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It is centred on the Grade I listed Bradford City Hall. The city park comprises three main areas (each side of the triangular City Hall site.) To the east of the City ...
opened, the park which cost £24.5 million to construct is a public space in the city centre which features numerous fountains and a mirror pool surrounded by benches and a walk way. In 2015 The Broadway, Bradford, The Broadway opened, the shopping and leisure complex in the centre of Bradford cost £260 million to build and is owned by Meyer Bergman.


Governance

Bradford is represented by three MPs: for the constituencies of Bradford East (UK Parliament constituency), Bradford East (Imran Hussain (British politician), Imran Hussain, Labour Party), Bradford South (UK Parliament constituency), Bradford South (Judith Cummins, Labour), and Bradford West (UK Parliament constituency), Bradford West (Naz Shah, Labour Party). Bradford was part of the Yorkshire and the Humber (European Parliament constituency), Yorkshire and the Humber European constituency, which elected six Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation, until the Brexit, UK exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020. In the final 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, European Parliament election, in 2019, 29.9% of voters in Bradford chose the Brexit Party, with 28.8% voting Labour and 14.1% voting Liberal Democrat. The Conservatives only polled 6.7% and UKIP 3.7%. The city played an important part in the early history of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. A mural on the back of the Bradford Playhouse (visible from Leeds Road) commemorates the centenary of the founding of the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
in 1893, and quotes its motto "There is no weal save commonweal". The original Bradford Coat of Arms had the Latin words Labor omnia vincit below it, meaning "Work conquers all". A new coat of arms was emblazoned in 1976, after local government reorganisation in 1974, with the English motto "Progress, Industry, Humanity".


Geography

Bradford is located at (53.7500, -1.8333)World gazetteer, 1. Topographically, it is located in the eastern moorland region of the South Pennines. Bradford is not built on any substantial body of water but is situated at the junction of three valleys, one of them, that of the
Bradford Beck Bradford Beck is a river that flows through Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, (then Bradford Dale) and on to the River Aire at Shipley. As it reaches Bradford city centre it runs underground after being built over in the 19th century. It is ...
which rises in moorland to the west, and is swelled by its tributaries, the Horton Beck, Westbrook, Bowling Beck and Eastbrook. At the site of the original ford, the beck turns north, and flows towards the River Aire at Shipley. Bradfordale (or Bradforddale) is a name given to this valley (see for example Firth 1997). It can be regarded as one of the Yorkshire Dales, though as it passes through the city, it is often not recognised as such. The beck's course through the city centre is culverted and has been since the mid 19th century. On the 1852 Ordnance Survey map it is visible as far as Sun Bridge, at the end of Tyrrell Street, and then from beside Bradford Forster Square railway station on Kirkgate. On the 1906 Ordnance Survey, it disappears at Tumbling Hill Street, off Thornton Road, and appears north of Cape Street, off Valley Road, though there are culverts as far as Queens Road. The Bradford Canal, built in 1774, linking the city to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal took its water from Bradford Beck and its tributaries. The 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.


Geology

The underlying geology of the city is primarily carboniferous
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
s. These vary in quality from rough rock to fine, honey-coloured stone of building quality. Access to this material has had a pronounced effect on the architecture of the city. The city also lies within the north western parts of the South Yorkshire Coalfield, Yorkshire Coalfield which is mostly composed of carboniferous coal measures.


Climate

As with the vast majority of the United Kingdom, UK, Bradford experiences a Oceanic climate, maritime climate (Köppen climate classification, Köppen: ''Cfb''), with limited seasonal temperature ranges, and generally moderate rainfall throughout the year. Records have been collected since 1908 from the Met Office, Met Office's weather station at Lister Park, a short distance north of the city centre. This constitutes one of the nation's longest unbroken records of daily data. The full record can be found on the council's website. The absolute maximum temperature recorded was in 2022 European heat wave, July 2022. In an 'average' year, the warmest day should attain a temperature of , with a total of 6 days rising to a maximum of or above. The absolute minimum temperature recorded was during January 1940. The weather station's elevated suburban location means exceptionally low temperatures are unknown. Typically, 41.4 nights of the year will record an air frost. Rainfall averages around per year with over 1 mm falling on 139 days. Sunshine, at little in excess of 1,250 hours per year is low, as one would expect of an inland location in Northern England located amongst upland areas. All averages refer to the 1981–2010 observation period.


Green belt

Bradford is within a Green belt (United Kingdom), green belt region that extends into the borough and wider surrounding counties. It is in place to reduce urban sprawl, prevent the towns in the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation from further convergence, protect the identity of outlying communities, encourage brownfield reuse, and preserve nearby countryside. This is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas, and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building. The green belt surrounds the Bradford built-up area, separating towns and villages throughout the borough. Larger outlying communities such as
Bingley Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census. Bingley ra ...
, Wilsden, Cottingley, Bradford, Cottingley, and Thornton, Bradford, Thornton are also exempt from the green belt area. However, nearby smaller villages, hamlets and rural areas such as Brunthwaite, Bradford, Brunthwaite, Keelham, Denholme Gate, Laycock, West Yorkshire, Laycock Esholt, Micklethwaite, West Yorkshire, Micklethwaite, Goose Eye, Stanbury, Hainworth, Tong, West Yorkshire, Tong, and Harecroft are 'washed over' by the designation. Much semi-rural land on the fringes is also included. The area in 2017 amounted to some . A subsidiary aim of the green belt is to encourage recreation and leisure interests, with rural landscape features, greenfield areas and facilities including Park Wood; Northcliffe Park, Northcliffe park and woods; Heaton Woods; Chellow Dene woods and reservoirs; Horton Bank country park; Norr Hill; Gilstead recreation park; Stone Circle remains by Shipley Glen; Bracken Hall; River Aire valley; Leeds and Liverpool canal; and the Leeds Country Way.


Demography

At the 2011 UK census, Bradford had a population of 522,452. There were 106,680 households in Bradford, and the population density was 4,560 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,820/sq mi). For every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. Bradford has the youngest, fastest growing population outside London. The census showed that of Bradford's total population, 67.44% (352,317) was White British, White, 26.83% (140,149) Asian, 2.48% (12,979) Mixed Race, 1.77% (9,267) Black British, Black and 1.48% (7,740) from other races. 22.1% of the population are British South Asian (included in the 26.83% Asian people, Asian figure above) the second-highest percentage of South Asians in a single settlement in England and Wales (behind the city of Leicester at 29.9%). Nearly half of all Asians living in Yorkshire and the Humber live in Bradford, with the central wards of Bradford Moor, City (ward), City,
Little Horton Little Horton (population 17,368 - 2001 UK census) is a ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the de Horton family, who were once Lords of the Manor. The population ...
, Manningham and Toller having large majority Asian populations, whereas outlying wards of Bradford such as Thornton, West Yorkshire, Thornton and Allerton, West Yorkshire, Allerton, Idle, Bradford, Idle and Thackley, Eccleshill, West Yorkshire, Eccleshill, Wibsey, Wyke, Bradford, Wyke, Clayton, West Yorkshire, Clayton, Wrose, Tong (ward), Tong and Royds, Bradford, Royds have predominantly White people, white populations. The Office for National Statistics Regional Trends report, published in June 2009, showed that some parts of Bradford suffer from the highest levels of deprivation in the country, while other areas of Bradford are some of the least deprived in the country. Infant mortality is double the national average, and life expectancy is slightly lower than in other parts of the City of Bradford, district. The long-term health study ''Born in Bradford'' studied more than 11,300 births in the city between 2007-2011 and found that the rate of birth defects was 3%, nearly twice the national average of 1.7%. The study found the leading cause was the rate of consanguineous marriage among British Pakistanis, which had become more common than a generation earlier. In total, of 5,127 children of Pakistani origin, 37% had been born to married first cousins. The study also identified an increased risk for babies born to older women. Among the white British group 19% of birth defects were associated with women over the age of 34.


Economy

Bradford's textile industry has been in decline for many years and the city has suffered from de-industrialisation. Some areas of Bradford are among the worst levels of social deprivation in the UK, with widespread pockets of exclusion, and rates of unemployment in some wards exceeding 25%, though other areas of Bradford are among the least deprived in the UK. The economy is worth around £List of UK cities by GVA, 9.5 billion, making Bradford's economy a major powerhouse in the region and is forecast to grow to more than £10 billion by 2018, contributing around 8.4% of the region's output, and making the district the third largest (after Leeds and Sheffield) in Yorkshire & Humber. The economy has diversified and the city is home to several major companies, notably in finance (Yorkshire Building Society, Provident Financial, Santander UK), textiles (British Wool Marketing Board, Bulmer and Lumb Group), chemicals (BASF, Nufarm UK), electronics (Arris International, Filtronic), engineering (NG Bailey, Powell Switchgear), and manufacturing, (Denso Marston, Bailey Offsite, Hallmark Cards UK and Seabrook Potato Crisps). Supermarket chain Morrisons has its head office in Bradford as does water utility company Yorkshire Water. One of the city's biggest employers is Provident Financial plc, a financial services group that specialises in moneylender, Home Collected Credit (HCC) and owns Vanquis Bank which offers credit cards. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The company was established in 1880 by Joshua Kelley Waddilove to provide affordable credit to families in
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
. It has moved into a , £45 million, flagship headquarters building in the city centre creating hundreds of jobs for the city. The building also houses a 200-bed Jurys Inn hotel. In October 2011 Plans to regenerate Bradford city centre, including the long-delayed Broadway shopping centre, was given a boost as Bradford Council secured £17.6 million of regional growth funding from the government, which it will match to create a £35 million "growth zone" in which companies would get business rate relief in exchange for helping people get training and jobs. In April 2012 retail giant Otto GmbH, Freeman Grattan Holdings secured a deal to open a new head office and house around 300 staff in the centre of Bradford. The mail order and online retailer will transfer office staff from its Lidget Green base, where Grattan has had a presence since 1934, to a Grade II-listed former wool warehouse on the edge of Little Germany.


Shopping

The Broadway, Bradford, The Broadway is the main retail shopping facility in Bradford. It includes Marks and Spencer, Next plc, Next, Superdry, Schuh, H&M, Khaadi, Kiko (brand), Menkind among its over 70 units. Kirkgate Shopping Centre is located in Bradford city centre. It includes Primark, New Look (clothing retailer), New Look, Bank, W H Smith, Boots UK, Boots, Boyes (retailer), Boyes, SportsDirect.com, Heinrich Deichmann-Schuhe GmbH, Deichmann and F. Hinds in its 65 shops, as well as an indoor market and 550 car parking spaces. The centre has undergone a multimillion-pound refurbishment recently, and plans to upgrade the facade of the 1960s building have been submitted as it anticipates competition from the long-awaited £260 million Westfield Bradford, Westfield development which opened on 5 November 2015. In 2022 it was announced that the centre would eventually be demolished for the "City Village" development and that Primark would move to The Broadway replacing the old Debenhams unit. Forster Square Shopping Park opened in 1995 and is adjacent to the Bradford Forster Square railway station, Forster Square Railway Station. It includes over 20 large retail and food units including Next (clothing), Next, TK Maxx, Harveys Furniture, Harveys, Asda Living, Outfit (retailer), Outfit, Peacocks (clothing), Peacocks, C. & J. Clark, Clarks, JD Sports, Currys, DFS (British retailer), DFS, Subway (restaurant), Subway, McDonald's and Costa Coffee. Sunbridge Wells is an underground retail complex, it incorporates restaurants, bars and retail units. The complex is built in a series of Victorian tunnels situated in the centre of Bradford.


Landmarks

Bradford's oldest building is the Bradford Cathedral, cathedral, which for most of its life was a parish church. Few other Medieval era, Medieval buildings have survived apart from Bolling Hall, which has been preserved as a museum. There are some fine Victorian architecture, Victorian buildings: apart from the abundance of mills, there is the Bradford City Hall, City Hall (with statues of rulers of England unusually including Oliver Cromwell), the former Wool Exchange, Bradford, Wool Exchange, and a large Victorian Undercliffe Cemetery, cemetery at Undercliffe. Little Germany is a splendid Victorian commercial district just east of the city centre which takes its name from 19th-century German Jewish 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. Paper Hall was saved from demolition and renovated in the 1990s and in mid-2005 renovation began on the prominent Eastbrook Hall in Little Germany. This was opened as luxury apartments by Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Charles in Autumn 2008. Bradford also 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, Bradford, Midland Hotel were built to accommodate business travellers to the city during the height of the woollen trade. In addition to Undercliffe Cemetery, there are seven other cemeteries in Bradford, located in Bowling, Clayton, North Bierley Thornton, Queensbury, Scholemoor, Thornton and Tong, as well as a number of Council-operated cemeteries in Keighley, Wharfedale and other parts of the district. Like many cities, Bradford lost a number of notable buildings to Real estate developer, developers in the 1960s and 1970s: particularly mourned at the time were the Swan Arcade, Bradford, 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, and Forster House was pulled down in 2005 as part of the Broadway, Bradford, Broadway development. The high rise High Point, Bradford, High Point was built as the headquarters of the Yorkshire Building Society and completed in 1972. It is a prominent example of Brutalist architecture. It has been empty for several decades and various schemes have been proposed to bring it back into use. Bradford's main art gallery is housed in the grand Edwardian
Cartwright Hall Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel ...
in Lister Park. The
National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
celebrates cinema and movies, and is the most visited museum outside London. It contains an Imax cinema, the Cubby Broccoli Cinema, and the ''Pictureville'' Cinema — described by David Puttnam as the best cinema in Britain. Also in the city is The St George's Hall, Bradford, St George's Hall—a grand concert hall dating from 1853 making it the oldest concert hall in Britain and the third oldest in the whole of Europe. The Bradford Alhambra, Alhambra theatre, built in 1914 for theatre impresario Frank Laidler, and later owned by the Moss Empire group (Oswald Stoll and Edward Moss (impresario), Edward Moss). The theatre was refurbished in 1986. 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. Bowling Park in
East Bowling East Bowling is an area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England located to the south of Bradford city centre. It forms the eastern half of the historic township and manor of Bowling. Bowling became a ward of the newly created Borough of Bradfor ...
is the site of the annual Bradford Carnival celebrating local African and Caribbean culture.
Bradford City Park Bradford City Park is a public space in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It is centred on the Grade I listed Bradford City Hall. The city park comprises three main areas (each side of the triangular City Hall site.) To the east of the City ...
, now home to the Bradford Festival which includes the Mela, is a public space in the heart of Bradford which contains the largest man-made water feature in any UK city—a mirror pool featuring more than 100 fountains, including the tallest in any UK city at 30 m (100 ft). When the mirror pool is drained City Park is capable of holding events such as carnivals, markets, theatre productions, screenings and community festivals. Work started on the £24 million project in February 2010 and City Park officially opened in March 2012, with thousands of people turning out for the grand opening event. The Bradford Odeon, formerly the Gaumont and New Victoria Theatre, was built in 1930 as a music venue and cinema with a capacity of over 3,000, and was the largest UK cinema outside London at the time. (Another Odeon, always part of the Odeon Cinemas chain, was built in the city in 1938 and demolished in 1969.) Standing in a conservation area adjacent to the listed Alhambra Theatre, it closed in 2000 and was sold to developer Langtree with the intention it would be demolished and replaced with an apartment and office block. The Odeon was the subject of much controversy over these proposals, with public support in the form of a 10,000-signature petition and campaigns for its renovation. In his successful by-election campaign for Bradford West in March 2012, George Galloway cited the restoration of the Odeon as his number one priority, later asking Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene. The architectural historian Jonathan Foyle, actresses Imelda Staunton and Jenny Agutter, and director Michael Winner all lent their support to the campaign.


Memorials


Transport

In past centuries Bradford's location in Bradfordale made transport difficult, except from the north; this is no longer a problem.


Road

Bradford was first connected to the developing Turnpike trust, turnpike network in 1734, when the first
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
turnpike was built between Manchester and Leeds via Halifax and the city. It is now accessed by trunk roads; the A647 road, A647 between Leeds and Halifax via Queensbury, West Yorkshire, Queensbury, the A650 road, A650 between Wakefield and
Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west o ...
, the A658 road, A658 to Harrogate and the A6036 road, A6036 to Halifax via Shelf, West Yorkshire, Shelf. The M606 motorway, M606, a spur of the M62 motorway, connects Bradford with the national motorway network. Although originally planned to go directly into the city centre it ends at the city's ring road.


Buses

On 20 June 1911, Britain's first trolleybus systems opened simultaneously Trolleybuses in Bradford, in Bradford, between Laisterdyke and Dudley Hill, and Trolleybuses in Leeds, in Leeds.Joyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems''. London: Ian Allan Publishing. . The last service in Bradford—and Britain—ceased operation on 26 March 1972.Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia''. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . Ten Bradford trolleybuses are preserved at the The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum. In 1974 Bradford's municipal buses were taken over by West Yorkshire Metro. First Bradford and Arriva Yorkshire are the chief operators of buses in Bradford, with some routes using guided buses.


Water

The Bradford Canal was a spur from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Shipley. It was built to connect Bradford with the North Riding of Yorkshire, North Riding's limestone quarry, quarries, the industrial towns on both sides of the
Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...
and the ports of Liverpool and Goole. The canal opened from 1774 until 1866 and 1871 until 1922, plans to rebuild it have existed.


Rail

The Leeds and Bradford Railway opened Bradford Forster Square railway station, Forster Square railway station on 1 July 1846 with a service via Shipley to Leeds. The station was rebuilt in the early 1850s and again, in 1890 and 1990. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened a station at Drake Street on 9 May 1850, between Manchester and
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
. The Great Northern Railway (Great Britain), Great Northern Railway opened a third terminus at Bradford Adolphus Street railway station, Adolphus Street in 1854, but the station was too far from the centre, and the two companies built a joint station, Bradford Interchange, Bradford Exchange which opened in 1867. Adolphus Street remained as a goods terminal. In 1973, Exchange station was rebuilt on a different site and in 1983 renamed Bradford Interchange and a bus station built alongside. Forster Square and Bradford Interchange stations are part of the West Yorkshire Metro. There have been many schemes to link between Bradford's railway terminals. The major redevelopment of the city centre in the 1960s provided an opportunity to connect the termini, this did not happen with large buildings constructed in the 1990s along the proposed line of route. There is the great difference in elevation: Bradford Interchange is at the end of a long steep slope and is much higher than Forster Square. This gradient is not unprecedented in railway construction and the relocation of Forster Square further from the city centre provided additional space in which the transition could be accomplished. A tram system was inaugurated by Bradford Corporation in 1882. At first the vehicles were horsecar, horse-drawn but were replaced by steam engine#steam powered vehicles, steam-driven trams in 1883, and by electric vehicle, electric vehicles in 1898. The system ran until 1950.


Air

Leeds Bradford Airport is to the north east of the city. Bradford and Leeds councils jointly opened the airport in 1931. It is the home base of Jet2.com airlines. In May 2007 the joint councils sold the airport to Bridgepoint Capital for £145.5 million, £70 million would be invested in airport improvements by the company and expected to increase passenger usage to over 7 million by 2015.


Education

Bradford Grammar School was in existence near the parish church in the mid-16th century and re-established by Royal Charter as the Free Grammar School of Charles II of England, Charles II in 1662. The University of Bradford, which has over 10,000 students, received its Royal Charter in 1966, but traces its history to the 1860s when it was founded as the ''Bradford Schools of Weaving, Design and Building''. The university now covers a wide range of subjects including technology and management science, optometry, pharmacy, medical sciences, nursing studies, archaeology and modern languages. Its Peace Studies department, founded with Quaker support in 1973, was for a long time the only such institution in the UK. In terms of nationally recognised leading areas of research there are various departments such as Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Bradford School of Pharmacy, Peace Studies, Archaeology, Engineering, Management, Centre for Skin Sciences amongst others. The university balances academic research and teaching quality with a strong tradition of social inclusion. The University of Bradford was ranked second in the UK for graduate employment by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2005. In December 2010 the university was named as the greenest in the UK for the second year running. The University of Bradford School of Management was in 2011 rated the 14th best business school in the UK by the ''Financial Times''. Bradford College (England), Bradford College developed from the 19th-century technical college whose buildings it inherited. It offers further and higher educational courses and is an Associate College of Leeds Metropolitan University and is the UK's largest provider of higher-education courses outside the university sector, with 23,000 students and 1,800 staff. It absorbed the Art School whose most famous alumnus is David Hockney. Whilst in Bradford after 1892, Margaret McMillan joined the Fabian Society and the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
. Working with her sister, Rachel, she set about improving the welfare of children living in the slums, and campaigned for free school meals. A memorial college to Margaret McMillan was opened in 1952. Recent Ofsted reports rank many Bradford schools as amongst the UK's finest.


Religion

Two carved stones, probably parts of a Anglo-Saxons, Saxon preaching cross, were found on the site of
Bradford Cathedral Bradford Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, one of three co-equal cathedrals in the Diocese of Leeds alongside Ripon and Wakefield. Its site has been used for Chr ...
. They indicate that Christians may have worshipped here since Paulinus of York came to the north of England in AD 627 on a mission (Christian), 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. The most prominent Christian church in Bradford is
Bradford Cathedral Bradford Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, one of three co-equal cathedrals in the Diocese of Leeds alongside Ripon and Wakefield. Its site has been used for Chr ...
, originally the Parish Church of St Peter. The parish was in existence by 1283, and there was a stone church on the rock 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. Bradford has over 150 churches and chapels. Many of the Roman Catholic churches that are found within the city are a legacy of the large Irish people, Irish population that migrated to Bradford in the 19th century. The patron saint of Bradford is Saint Blaise because of his patronage of wool combing, and his statue features on the Wool Exchange in the centre of the city. There is also a statue of the saint in St Cuthbert's Catholic Church, Wilmer Road, also noted as the location of the famous Stations of the Cross by Eric Gill. The district has a tradition of Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformity which is reflected in the number of chapels erected by Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists. The city was a centre of the House Church movement in the 1980s, and the Christian charity Christians Against Poverty was founded in the city. Other house churches in the city include El Shaddai International Christian Centre and the World Outreach Church. Bradford is also home to the LIFE Church UK, a large nonconforming Church, that has around 3,000 members. The
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community was strong in the middle to late 19th century and built Bradford Reform Synagogue in Manningham. This, "The oldest reform synagogue outside London", issued by the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage was established by German Jews who had moved to Bradford for the wool trade. According to historian Sharman Kadish, "The city of Bradford was unique in that it boasted a reform synagogue before it acquired an orthodox one". In 1881 Russian Jews made their home in Bradford, having fled their homeland, and founded an orthodox synagogue. In 2011 the Jewish population was 299. The city has a sizeable South Asian community and the Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple, Lakshmi Narayan mandir which opened in April 2008 is the largest Hindu temple in northern England. There is a Hindu temple and community centre on Thornton Lane and smaller house-based mandirs. The city has about 100 mosques, among which are the Bradford Grand Mosque and the Al Mahdi Mosque, Bradford, Al Mahdi Mosque. The Sikh community has six gurudwaras in the city. The Sikh festival of Vaisakhi is celebrated on 14 April. Sikhs travel to each of the gurudwaras in the city in a procession called a ''nagar kirtan''.


Culture

The
National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
hosts the Bradford International Film Festival annually in March. In June 2009 Bradford was designated the world's first
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
City of Film for its links to the Film production, production and distribution of films, its media and film museum and its "cinematographic legacy". "Becoming the world's first City of Film is the ultimate celebration of Bradford's established and dynamic history in film and media," said Colin Philpott, director of Bradford's National Media Museum. "With the City of Film, UNESCO City of Film designation, Bradford will now go on to achieve inspirational projects in film." Simon Beaufoy from Bradford, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of ''Slumdog Millionaire'', said the city had played a crucial role in the story of Filmmaking, cinema and deserved to be recognised. Bradford has developed a relationship with Bollywood, hosting the International Film Festival of India, International Indian Film Festival awards in 2007. The Bradford Animation Festival is the UK's longest-running animation festival. Held each November, the festival hosts an array of screentalks, workshops and special events. The festival culminates in the annual BAF Awards which celebrate new animation from around the world. The Cottingley, Bradford, Cottingley Fairy photographs taken by Elsie Wright and two of the cameras used are on display in the Kodak Gallery in the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. There are four theatres in Bradford. The Bradford Alhambra, Alhambra also has a smaller studio theatre in the same complex. These are operated by
City of Bradford The City of Bradford () is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a large area which includes the towns and v ...
Metropolitan District Council. The Theatre in the Mill is a small studio theatre at the University of Bradford, which presents student and community shows and small-scale touring professional work. The Bradford Playhouse 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) and ''Mind the Gap'', one of the longest established, who have always worked with a mixture of disability, disabled and able-bodied performers. Groups and organisations teaching theatre include The ''Asian Theatre School'', Bradford Stage and Theatre School and ''Stage 84''. There are also a number of amateur theatre groups. St George's Hall, Bradford, St George's Hall is a concert hall dating from 1853 making it the oldest concert hall in Britain and the third oldest in Europe. Bradford Festival Choral Society was founded to perform at the inaugural ''Bradford Musical Festival'' that took place in August of that year, and the choir is still a part of the musical life of the city. The Hallé Orchestra have been regular visitors over the years, as have a wide range of popular musicians, bands, entertainers, comedians and theatrical productions. In 2017 an £8.2 million renovation scheme of St George's Hall was started, after completion it is planned for the concert venue to re-open in late 2018. Cinemas have been replaced by vast entertainment complexes with multi-screen cinemas. The ''Leisure Exchange'' in the city centre has a 16 screen Cineworld. At Thornbury, West Yorkshire, Thornbury, on the outskirts is the Odeon Leeds-Bradford with 13 screens which replaced the old Odeon next to the Alhambra which is the continuing focus of protests by Bradfordians who do not wish to see the old building demolished. The University of Bradford also has a cinema run by the Students' Union, operating from the university's Great Hall. Nightlife in Bradford has traditionally centred on Manor Row and Manningham Lane. More recently, several clubs and pubs have opened in the West End of Bradford, around the Bradford Alhambra, Alhambra Theatre, turning what was a previously fairly quiet area into one that is often crowded and vibrant at night. North Parade has also seen several new themed bars open and is at the heart of the Independent Quarter of the city. Sunbridge Wells is an underground leisure and retail complex which opened in Bradford city centre in 2016. Bradford was one of the first areas of the UK to get a local commercial radio station Pennine Radio (radio station), Pennine Radio in September 1975. Today, this is Pulse 1 and Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire. , Bradford Community Broadcasting based in the city centre has broadcast on full-time Community Radio licence around Bradford and the Aire Valley, whilst the university radio station Ramair broadcasts to the student population. Bradford's only television station AAP TV caters for Bradford's large Asian community. The ''Telegraph and Argus'' is Bradford's daily newspaper, published six days each week from Monday to Saturday. The Bradford Mela is now part of the bigger Bradford Festival which takes place in June. The word mela is Sanskrit for 'a gathering' or 'to meet'. In the UK, melas provide an opportunity for communities to come together to celebrate and share their cultures. Mela festivals include a combination of market (place), markets, funfairs, food and drink, arts and workshops, children's activities, strolling entertainment and a variety of music and dance performances on a number of stages. Bradford held the first mela in Europe in September 1988 and it is presently held in Bradford City Park.
Bradford City Park Bradford City Park is a public space in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It is centred on the Grade I listed Bradford City Hall. The city park comprises three main areas (each side of the triangular City Hall site.) To the east of the City ...
has the largest city centre water feature in the UK.


Museums and art galleries

Bradford is home to the acclaimed
National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
(previously the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television) which celebrates cinema and movies, and is the most visited museum outside London. It contains the UK's first IMAX theatre, the Cubby Broccoli Cinema, and the Pictureville Cinema — described by David Puttnam as the best cinema in Britain. Bradford Industrial Museum was established in 1974 at Moorside Mills, a spinning mill in Eccleshill, West Yorkshire, Eccleshill. The Museum celebrates and explains the significant achievements in Bradford's industrial past, from textiles and printing to the manufacture of motor cars. A mile from the city centre is Bolling Hall Museum, a part medieval building which offers visitors a journey through the lives and times of the families for which it provided a home for over five hundred years. Rooms are furnished and decorated to give a taste of life at different periods of the house's history. Bradford's main art gallery is housed in
Cartwright Hall Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel ...
in Lister Park. Bradford 1 Gallery is a city centre art gallery opened in October 2007 in a new building in Centenary Square. The gallery shows four temporary exhibitions a year. The ''Bradford Museums & Galleries'' has a collection items relating to Herbert Morley (explorer) and ''Mitch the printmaker''. Impressions Gallery is an independent contemporary photography gallery with a temporary exhibitions programme showing on average six exhibitions each year. The gallery moved from York to Centenary Square, Bradford, in 2007.


Music

Bradford is the home town of rock bands New Model Army (band), New Model Army, Anti System, Smokie (band), Smokie, Southern Death Cult, The Cult, The Scene, Redwire, Chantel McGregor, One Minute Silence, Scars on 45, Terrorvision, My Dying Bride and hip hop music, hip hop group Fun-Da-Mental. Singer-songwriters Tasmin Archer, Teddy Sinclair and Kiki Dee—the first white British artist to be signed by Motown—also hail from the city. Since the 1980s, Bradford has proved influential within the UK's punk rock scene, primarily because of the 1 in 12 Club, a music venue and anarchist workers' cooperative and members' club. 1980s groups such as Sore Throat (grindcore band), Sore Throat, Anti System and late-era Doom (British band), Doom all based themselves around the club, as did 1990s groups such as Voorhees (band), Voorhees and Ironside. In 2002 Gareth Gates came second in the first series of ''Pop Idol'' and went on to achieve four UK number one singles before enjoying success in musical theatre. Kimberly Walsh achieved major success after winning a place in the girl band Girls Aloud in ''Popstars: The Rivals'' later in the same year, and in 2010 Zayn Malik came third in ''The X Factor (UK), The X Factor'' with his boy band One Direction, who in March 2012 became the first British group to go straight to the top of the US music charts with their debut album. The guitar player and composer Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford in 1946.


Curry

In 2013 Bradford was again crowned "Curry Capital of Britain" after seeing off other strong contenders such as Glasgow and Wolverhampton. Bradford scored highly not just for the quality of food and service offered by each of the restaurants, but also for food hygiene, a deep understanding of the curry restaurant sector and its success in collectively raising funds for food charity The Curry Tree, which seeks to alleviate the plight of the poor in South East Asia. The judges were also particularly impressed by Bradford's International Food Academy and Jamie's Ministry of Food, which teaches the districts residents how to cook quick, simple, healthy and cost-effective meals.


Sport

Bradford has a long sporting tradition, and Bradford Bulls, formerly Bradford Northern, is one of the most successful rugby league clubs in the world, winning the World Club Championship three times since 2002 and seven times winners of the Rugby Football League Championship. Bradford Bulls play at the Grattan Stadium, Odsal, formerly Odsal Stadium. The city is also home to a number of rugby union clubs—Bradford Salem are based in the Heaton area and Wibsey RFC can be found to the south of the city centre. The Richard Dunn (boxer), Richard Dunn Sports Centre is located close to the Odsal and the sports facilities at the university are also open to the public at certain times. Bradford City A.F.C., Bradford City Football Club was formed in 1903. James Whyte, a sub-editor of the ''Bradford Observer'' met with Football Association representative, John Brunt, in January to discuss plans, and in May, Manningham F.C., Manningham RFC, a rugby league team decided to change codes to association football. The Football League subsequently elected Bradford City to the league, with a total of 30 votes to replace Doncaster Rovers F.C., Doncaster Rovers, because it saw the invitation as a chance to introduce football to the rugby-dominated county. Eight years after the club was elected to the league, City won the 1911 FA Cup Final, FA Cup and recorded the highest league position in its history. They currently compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The ground suffered one of the List of accidents and disasters by death toll#Sporting events, worst all-time sporting disasters after Bradford City stadium fire, 56 people died at Valley Parade on 11 May 1985. A second club from the city, Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C., Bradford Park Avenue played in the Football League until it dropped out in 1970, then went into liquidation in 1974. The club now plays in the National League North, which means the Bradford derby has not been played in years. Bradford Park Avenue hosted county cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire as well as football. The defunct Bradford Dukes Motorcycle speedway, speedway team raced at Odsal. Speedway was staged at Greenfields Stadium in the pioneer days, when it was known as the Autodrome in the early 1960s. Odsal opened its doors in 1945 and continued in the late 1950s. It entered a team in the 1960 Provincial League then fell dormant until the 1970s when it re-opened. The track staged a Speedway World Final. The speedway team rode under a number of names—probably the longest running was Bradford Northern—in common with the Rugby League team. This was changed to Bradford Barons—emulating the more successful Halifax Dukes. Eventually the Halifax team was brought to Bradford under the name Bradford Dukes. Joe Johnson (snooker player), Joe Johnson is a retired professional snooker player from Bradford who won the 1986 World Snooker Championship. Jasmin Atker is a Bradford student who captained the first England team in the international Street Child World Cup, Street Child Cricket World Cup, and was named one of the 100 Women (BBC), BBC 100 top inspiring women in 2019. The Bradford Dragons are the city's basketball team, competing in the second tier English Basketball League Division 1. The team play their home games at Bradford College. The city also has a history of skateboarding culture; in Ian Glasper's 2012 book ''Armed with Anger'', the city was described as "West Yorkshire's de facto skate capital".


City of Sanctuary

After a campaign in 2008, Bradford was recognised as a 'City of Sanctuary' on 18 November 2010. Bradford is "a place where a broad range of local organisations, community groups and faith communities, as well as local government are publicly committed to welcoming and including people seeking sanctuary." The city has a history of welcoming newcomers from throughout the world. An example of this was Bradford's purchase of the Carlton Hostel building in 1939 as part of a ''Kindertransport'' scheme, made possible through donations from both Bradford's Jewish community and non–Jews, to house German Jewish refugee children during the Second World War.


Public services

There are two major hospitals in Bradford: Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, St Luke's Hospital. Both are teaching hospitals and are operated by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS trust. Over the years the Trust has subsumed a number of smaller hospitals; these include Woodlands Orthopaedic Hospital, Northern View and Bierley Hall. Bradford is the focus of 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 National Health Service (England), 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 aims to provide a wealth of data, allowing health researchers the opportunity to investigate many different aspects of health and wellbeing.


Crime

Bradford has been the scene of some high-profile crimes such as the shooting of Bradford PC Sharon Beshenivsky while responding to a burglary in the city. In May 2010, Stephen Griffiths was charged with the Bradford murders. The Manningham Riot occurred between 10 and 12 June 1995, in Manningham and the 2001 Bradford race riots began on 7 July 2001 as a result of tension between ethnic minority communities and the city's white majority, stoked by the Anti-Nazi League and the British National Front, National Front. There were 297 arrests; 187 people charged with riot, 45 with violent disorder leading to 200 jail sentences totalling 604 years.


Bradfordians

''Only a few particularly notable names are listed here.'' Among Bradford born people who made significant contributions to the arts were David Hockney, painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who was born in the city and educated at Bradford Grammar School. Frederick Delius (1862–1934) was a composer born to a family of German descent in the city and J.B. Priestley (1894–1984) was a novelist and playwright. William Rothenstein, Sir William Rothenstein was a painter, draughtsman and writer on art who was principal of the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935. In the genre of classical music Rodney Friend is an English violinist, born (1940), in 1964 he became the youngest ever leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the field of science and medicine, Friederich Wilhelm Eurich (1867–1945), professor of forensic medicine and bacteriologist, did much to conquer anthrax in the wool trade. Edward Victor Appleton, Sir Edward Appleton (1892–1965), discoverer of the ionosphere was a Nobel Prize winner. Robert Lowry Turner, Robert Turner (1923–1990) was a pathologist who came to Bradford from Belfast, and pioneered the use of chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer at the Bradford Royal Infirmary. In the field of industry, Sir Jacob Behrens (1806–1889) was an Anglo–German textile merchant who was instrumental in Bradford becoming a major exporter of woollen goods. A social reformer who campaigned against child labour, Richard Oastler (1789–1861), is commemorated by a statue in Northgate and the Oastler Shopping Centre located close to the Kirkgate Shopping Centre William Edward Forster, W.E. Forster (1818–1886), was MP for Bradford and, commemorated by statue, is the namesake of Forster Square. In recent pop culture the former participant of ''The X Factor (UK), The X Factor'', Zayn Malik, former member of successful boy band One Direction, was born and raised in Bradford. American film star Aasif Mandvi grew up in Bradford.


In popular culture

The city has a rich heritage in film production and many films and TV productions have been filmed in the city. Films using Bradford as a location include ''Room at the Top (1959 film), Room at the Top'' (1959); ''Billy Liar (film), Billy Liar'' (1963); ''The Railway Children (1970 film), The Railway Children'' (1970), a children's film shot around Haworth including the Bronte Parsonage; ''Yanks'' (1979), starring Richard Gere; ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' (1983), with footage filmed in Lister Park; ''FairyTale: A True Story'' (1997) starring Harvey Keitel, based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies; and ''East Is East (1999 film), East is East'' (1997), in which Oak Lane is shown when the family visit the city. The Buttershaw area of the city featured in the film ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1987), 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 local Andrea Dunbar, and 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. The award-winning 2013 film The Selfish Giant (2013 film), ''The Selfish Giant'' takes place in and around Bradford. In the BBC political satire ''The Amazing Mrs Pritchard'' (2006), 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 2008 ''Spooks (TV series), Spooks'' spin-off for BBC Three, ''Spooks: Code 9'', was filmed in the city, as were the television adaptation of the ''Red Riding'' works by David Peace first broadcast in 2009. Bradford was the focus of a 2012 Channel 4 documentary, ''Make Bradford British'', which examined the level of integration between the city's Christian and Muslim communities. Series 2 of The Syndicate (TV series), ''The Syndicate'', which aired in 2013 on BBC One, featured a syndicate involving workers at a public hospital in Bradford. Scenes for the second season of ''All Creatures Great and Small (2020 TV series), All Creatures Great and Small'' were filmed in Little Germany in April 2021, featuring child and adult actors from the theatre school Articulate. Bradford features under the name of "Broadbeck" in the best-selling 1912 novel ''Windyridge'' by Bradford novelist Willie Riley. Link, the main character of the 1993 novel Stone Cold (Swindells novel), ''Stone Cold'', is from Bradford.


International relations

Bradford is twinned with a number of places around the world: * Skopje, North Macedonia (since 1963) * Roubaix, France (since 1969) * Verviers, Belgium (since 1970) * Mönchengladbach,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
(since 1971) * Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland (since 1987) * Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan (friendship agreement in 1998) * Varna, Bulgaria


See also

* Bradford City stadium fire * List of Pals battalions * Listed buildings in Bradford * BD1 Gallery


References


Bibliography

* * * Bradford Corporation (1856) The Acts relating to the Transfer of the Bradford Waterworks to the Corporation of Bradford. * Cudworth, William (1882) Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation. Republished Old Bradfordian Press * Cudworth, William (1888) Worstedopolis. Republished Old General Books Memphis * Cudworth, William (1891) Histories of Bolton and Bowling. Thomas Brear & Co Bradford * Cudworth, William (1891) Condition of the Industrial Classes. Collected articles from the Bradford Observer. Republished by Mountain Press 1977


Further reading

* * * 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. * * 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. *


External links

* * {{Authority control Bradford, Cities in Yorkshire and the Humber History of the textile industry Towns in West Yorkshire Unparished areas in West Yorkshire Massacres during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Geography of the City of Bradford