Waterstones Bradford: How 'the best bookshop in the world' has transformed the city's Wool Exchange into a literary hub

It's said to be the world's best bookshop - and it's in Bradford and part of a large chain.

Yet after stepping inside the Waterstones branch on the old trading floor of the city's magnificent Wool Exchange, it's easy to see why many Bradfordians and visitors have bestowed the title on it.

After this month's announcement that Bradford will be 2025 UK City of Culture, its unique bookshop cropped up numerous times as an asset and a hidden gem. It opened in 1996, a good 30 years after wool trading ended in the 1960s, after a period in which the Venetian gothic building dating back to Bradford's Victorian golden age had been used sporadically as a market and music venue.

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Its appearance was a surprise to Ian Oldfield, now the store manager but 26 years ago a trainee sales assistant from Halifax who got the job by chance after someone else dropped out. An engineer who was looking to leave heavy industry behind, he was awed by his new surroundings.

Waterstones Bradford store manager Ian Oldfield was an engineer before becoming a booksellerWaterstones Bradford store manager Ian Oldfield was an engineer before becoming a bookseller
Waterstones Bradford store manager Ian Oldfield was an engineer before becoming a bookseller

Gathering in the Midland Hotel with his new colleagues, he was told of Waterstones' policy of occupying unique buildings and converting them into bookshops.

"I didn't really know the Wool Exchange, so when I walked it I thought 'my Lord!' It didn't have any books in at that point. Our architects put the massive glass windows in - at the time it caused a bit of a ruckus, but they let in so much light and before there were just walls."

Staff had to get to grips with the constraints of a Grade II-listed building - nothing can be stuck to the pillars and alterations are tightly controlled. Yet optimism was high - as Ian points out, back in 1996, pre-Amazon, Waterstones 'had the market to ourselves'.

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"There was no internet shopping and the supermarkets didn't stock books in the way they do now. But we've gone through some huge changes, and survived the 2008 recession, the race riots in 2001 and the pandemic. Between 2008 and 2014, footfall and retail were virtually extinct in Bradford after the shopping area was flattened. We clung on and it's slowly built back up again. Bradfordians love their books."

The Wool Exchange is one of Bradford's Victorian jewelsThe Wool Exchange is one of Bradford's Victorian jewels
The Wool Exchange is one of Bradford's Victorian jewels

In the noughties, Waterstones was owned by music chain HMV, who insisted on 'mass market' stock in all stores with a focus on celebrities. In 2011, when bookseller James Daunt was hired as managing director, one of the company's jewels was finally given autonomy over sales.

"The mass market approach didn't work and we had fewer people visit. Since 2014, it's been locally driven and stock reflects the community. In Bradford it's absolutely everything - from weighty tomes on serious history to biographies of local sports stars."

The Bradford store now has an expanded music section to serve a musical city, and the proximity to the countryside sees high demand for nature titles. The children's section is hugely popular with schools and pupils nickname it 'the Hogwarts bookshop' for its gothic interiors.

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"We always say to them, we're not a library, get stuck in! We carry the classics that grandparents might buy as well as newer authors like David Walliams."

Statues of leading Victorian Bradfordians still adorn the interiorStatues of leading Victorian Bradfordians still adorn the interior
Statues of leading Victorian Bradfordians still adorn the interior

Local authors are well-supported, and there are still healthy sales of the works of Bradford's famous literary sons and daughters, the Bronte sisters and playwright J B Priestley. Contemporary writers work with the shop to hold launch events and signings.

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"We have A A Dhand's crime books set in Bradford, the DI Harry Virdee series - the third one, City of Sinners, actually includes a murder in our store! Then there's Saima Mir's The Khan, which has been called a once-in-a-generation novel. Sarish Hussain launched The Family Tree here and we've done events with her.

"We've had a few famous customers - Rob Brydon was in the other day, and Derren Brown comes in for a daily coffee in Cafe W. We hope David Hockney might have popped in at some point! We've had Alison Steadman too. Performers playing in the city often come in, but it can be a bit blink-and-you-miss-'em."

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Ian has noticed that the shop has become an attraction in itself in the Instagram age and now attracts visitors from far and wide.

"A lot of Bradfordians have long brought family in to show off the shop - even in York there's nothing like it and it's one of the city's best-kept secrets. Then Instagram happened, and we are very Instagrammable. They come all over now - from London, Norwich, Liverpool. We also get a lot of German tourists who have been to look around the Little Germany merchant district.

"Our community is anyone and everyone. We have a lot of young people aged 14-20 with parents who have come over here from south Asia, and they absoutely devour their books and study guides. We have the older, traditional Bradfordian customer too. If you pop in you will see every facet of Bradford life.

"I will never leave the shop in any shape or form - it's a special, magical place. People here really value us and when we re-opened after lockdown, they all said how glad they were that we'd survived."

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