Bradford's Darley Street Market celebrates one year anniversary

After months of delays, the £32.3 million market finally opened its doors on July 10 2025 ahead of the official opening weekend on July 12 and 13.

Since then, the Bradford Council run market has been named Britain’s best food market, hosted wrestling events and concerts and become a key part of the city’s regeneration.

One of Bradford’s new Reform Executive said the three-storey market has become a “space where people can come together to shop, eat, socialise and celebrate Bradford’s rich culture and diversity.”

In the pipeline for over a decade before it opened, the market replaced Bradford’s two existing city centre markets – Oastler and Kirkgate.

Both of those buildings are to be demolished in the coming year to make way for the new City Village development of over 1,000 homes, public spaces and new business units.

Darley Street Market has non-food stalls on its ground floor, fresh food stalls on its first floor and Darley Kitchen, a food court featuring multiple different cuisines, on the top floor, along with a stage and balcony.

The market also has two ground floor cafes and a courtyard that has been used to host numerous events.

In February it was Awarded Britain’s Best Food Market Award by the National Market Traders’ Federation.

The market was built on the site of the former Marks & Spencer building on Darley Street – a road that was once Bradford’s premier shopping street, but which had been in decline since the opening of the Broadway Shopping Centre.

Originally budgeted at £23.5m, the cost spiralled to over £32m by the time of opening.

In the 12 months since it opened its doors, the market and its courtyard has hosted over 70 different events, including children’s craft events to celebrate occasions like Easter and Father’s Day, wrestling events by Kingdom Wrestling, live music, “Singo Bingo,” screenings of major sports events and numerous festivals.

The market is also a regular venue for city wide events, and next weekend will host a number of Bradford Festival performances.

It also complements Loading Bay, an arts venue just yards from the market, based in the old M&S warehouse building. Loading Bay was originally due to be a pop up venue for Bradford’s year as City of Culture, but it has since re-opened with plans to make it a permanent venue.

Darley Street Market has welcomed many new businesses, along with businesses that relocated from the previous two markets, including Taplins Butchers, Priestley Fishmongers, Roswitha’s Deli, Solly’s greengrocers, Ikhlas Halal Butchers, Spice World and Dale Farm Foods.

To mark its first anniversary, Darley Street Market will host a day of family-friendly workshops and live entertainment and there will be offers from traders to celebrate the market’s success over the past year.

Councillor Andrew Judson (Reform, Keighley West), Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Economy, Regeneration and Planning, said:“Over the last year, the market has welcomed residents and visitors from across the district and beyond, supported and enabled local businesses to thrive and expand.

“It has also created a space where people can come together to shop, eat, socialise and celebrate Bradford’s rich culture and diversity, with the live music performances particularly bringing vitality and excitement to the market and complementing the live music offer in the surrounding area.

“This first anniversary is an opportunity to thank the traders, customers, partners and staff who have made the market such a success, which we look forward to building on in the years ahead.”

David Shepherd Strategic Director of Bradford Council’s Department of Growth said: “Darley Street Market has helped restore pride to the city and has brought a feel-good factor back to the city. It is one of the first key moves in developing a vibrant city centre neighbourhood, supporting our ambition to deliver large-scale residential development in the city.”

Jonny Taplin from Taplins Butchers said: “The move to Darley Street has been a huge success story for Taplins. Bringing with us our loyal customer base, it gave us the platform to appeal to a new demographic. It’s been a huge boost to our business, creating three new full-time jobs and enabling us to upgrade our machinery. We now have a hugely successful business that doesn’t just rely on over-the-counter sales, our wholesale, social media and community pop up sales are growing week by week.”

Russell Bisset, Founder of Northern Monk, which opened a bar in Darley Kitchen said: “It’s been a privilege to bring Northern Monk back to my home city of Bradford, work alongside so many brilliant local businesses, and be part of a space that’s celebrating the city’s creativity, hospitality and independent spirit.”

The market was one of the main city centre regeneration schemes developed by the Council’s former Labour leadership before they were ousted in May’s elections.

Former Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, Executive for Regeneration at the time of the market’s development, said: “It’s incredible to think Darley Street Market has already been part of the fabric of the city for a whole year. “It was a labour of love for so many people and an absolute privilege to be part of the team that delivered it. It has so many brilliant businesses trading there and has hosted some amazing events already, the inaugural Great Northern Day by Northern Monk was a particular highlight, as was screening a live Bradford Bulls match – even though we lost!

“A key aspiration for the project was to deliver something Bradford could be proud of and show the best of Bradford can stand shoulder to shoulder with anywhere in the country, and I’d like to think we delivered on that. So many people deserve credit but particularly Colin (Wolstenholme) and the markets team, who did such a wonderful job over so many years. I can’t wait to watch its journey as the market goes from strength to strength in the years ahead!”