Briefly Bradford
When we announced we were going to Bristol, friends and neighbours were envious.
When we announced we were going to Dundee, people admired our sense of adventure and knew about the Tate Gallery.
When we said we were going to Bradford, everyone thought we’d lost the plot completely.
To be honest, we went to Bradford because Grand Central was offering cheap train tickets, but we also wanted to visit Saltaire, and had ‘things to do and places to go’ across Yorkshire from Leeds to Sheffield and a lot of points in between. The more people scoffed at our destination, however, the more determined we became to see something of Bradford itself. We can hardly be said to have made an exhaustive exploration of the city, but we did spend time walking the streets in day light, at dusk and after dark.
So this is a starter blog about Bradford. Were we mad or just ahead of the game?
We have to admit that at first glance, Bradford does not overwhelm. Our brief visit to Halifax, for example, immediately placed the mill town on the ‘need to spend longer here’ list. Bradford doesn’t do that but there is a lot to see. Bradford’s cityscape and architectural heritage comes in all shapes and sizes, from industrial heritage, once-proud commercial and trade edifices, Yorkshire corporate pride, theatres, schools and places of worship. It is also in all states of repair from actually under demolition, to derelict and unloved, used but shabby, in good nick, recently-renovated, or even brand new.
Two things became very clear, however. This is a city where migration has played a major part in its history and development. And this is a city where buildings created by one community have been frequently reconfigured to fulfil the needs of another.
But let’s start at the beginning. According to various sources (eg https://www.visitbradford.com/history-of-bradford.aspx and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford) Broad Ford, later Bradford, was first settled in Saxon times.
Bradford Cathedral (right): worship on this site may go back to Saxon times, although the current buiding dates from the 15th C onwards
Bradford had become a small town by the Middle ages and, over the next couple of hundred years, continued modest growth and started a bit of a speciality in wool trading. Spinning and weaving was a local cottage industry.
The 18th century saw the development of manufacturing using local natural resources such as iron, coal, limestone, and sandstone for construction. The wool industry mechanised, transport improved (water ways and turn pikes) and, hey presto, by 1850, Bradford had become the wool capital of the world. ‘Worsted’ was their speciality, considered stronger, finer, smoother, and harder than ‘woollen’ cloth.
Below: Bradford Wool Exchange - a classic Victorian homage to industry and entrepreneurial activity
Migration was part of this story. The first to arrive in any numbers were from Ireland. The Irish started to arrive from 1800 onwards but the biggest influx occurred in the 1830s and 40s. Discrimination was rife, as were terrible living conditions, illiteracy, and low wages, as the better paid jobs appear to have been reserved for the locals. By 1851, around 10% of Bradford’s population had been born in Ireland.
In 1829, the first textile trader arrived from what is now Germany. This was the start of a very different sort of community – many (although by no means all) were wealthy, successful and influential, adding synogogues to the protestant and catholic churches which were already diversifying Bradford’s religious architecture. By 1841, one in eight people had been born outside Yorkshire and 24 out of 52 ‘stuff merchants’ had German names.
The second half of the 19th Century must have seen a terrific building boom in Bradford. We found evidence of the many substantial Victorian structures which supported and celebrated Bradford’s industrial and trading status.
Below: the magnificent, Italianate City Hall
One particular area, however, provides a substantial architectural memorial to the influence of migration. German owned warehouses started to spring up in an area now known, unsurprisingly, as Little Germany, immediately to the north east of the town centre.
The images below, and the mural of Hockney at the start of this blog, illustrate just a small sample what we saw; some buildings are forlorn and decaying, others converted to appartments or modern commercial uses. All are, or were, ornate, massive and oozing confidence.
At the start of the Great War, some Germans left, some were interned, some served in the British forces and many of Bradford’s Jewish community are thought to have changed their names.
Post World War II saw the start of the next big flow of migrants, this time from India (which then included Pakistan and Bangladesh). During the late 1940s and early 1950s Muslim men came to work in Bradford, although the city’s first mosque didn’t open until 1959. By the ‘60s and ‘70s most Asian men had decided to stay and sent for their families to join them. There are anecdotal reports of whole villages reassembling themselves in Bradford. Some West Indian families also came. By 2011, Bradford`s population was 522,452, of which 26.83% were Asian and 24.7% muslims.
Places of worship seem to have inspired the most creative and flexible attitudes to buildings. Although new churches, mosques and synagogues have been built, many structures which started as a home for one faith have been reworked for the use of others.
Churches, for example, have changed denominations or been transformed into mosques or temples, while secular buildings such as hotels and cinemas have been – well, converted, if you will pardon the pun - for religious use.
Bradford was established as a City of Sanctuary in 2008, and continued to live up to that name in 2016 by taking a large proportion of the Syrian refugees given asylum in the UK as a result of the Syrian civil war.
I doubt that this level of diversity has ever been easy, but it does make Bradford interesting. Our short visit was very worthwhile and leaves us curious to return.
This is also a short blog, and apologies for failing to mention the Italians introducing ice cream, Russian Orthodox Jews, German pork butchers, Belgium refugees, Basque children fleeing the Spanish Civil War, the 1939 Kindertransport arrivals, Indian lascars (seaman), Vietnamese Boat People, the large Bradford Polish community and probably many others unknown to Terroir.
Many thanks to a fascinating Historic England Document, ‘Migratory History of Bradford, which supplied much of the detailed above information: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiLyMG4hOb0AhVQKewKHe8IAEcQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhistoricengland.org.uk%2Fcontent%2Fdocs%2Feducation%2Fexplorer%2Fbradford-timeline-doc%2F&usg=AOvVaw1dQD9Xmw9TJ-C8kQJg4mlg