Rebirth of Bradford city centre

IT’S a cold, blustery afternoon and the leaden skies look about as inviting as the puddles of rainwater dotted around the building site.

But despite the inclement weather, the fact there is a building site, with teams of men beavering away and giant cranes at full tilt, is cause for excitement here.

I’m standing on the concrete floor looking out across the Victorian rooftops of Bradford city centre. It might not look much now but by December next year this will be home to a sparkling new Marks & Spencer, one of the flagship stores in Westfield’s long-awaited £275m Broadway development.

It’s a visible sign of Bradford’s dramatic transformation, but it’s been a long time coming. I remember walking around the fenced-off perimeter of the site four years ago. Back then work had been put on hold as the recession continued to bite leaving an unsightly 10-acre “hole” in the heart of the city centre.

In many respects it left the city in a state of limbo, but it wasn’t the only high-profile project that stalled. Plans drawn up by world-renowned architect Will Alsop for a giant lake opposite City Hall were scaled back, while the old Odeon cinema, a stunning Grade II Listed building next to the Alhambra theatre, has remained closed for the past 14 years.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but during the past decade Bradford has had to watch as Leeds continued to prosper and even Hull, similarly derided in the past, has enjoyed a cultural and economic renaissance, culminating in it being chosen as the UK City of Culture in 2017.

For years Bradford has been guilty of producing eye-catching slogans that for one reason or another haven’t delivered, but now the city, once an industrial powerhouse, appears to be back on the rise.

The £24.5m City Park, a watered-down version of the giant lake, has proved a huge success since it opened two years ago. Critics said it was a waste of money but it has transformed the city centre. In June last year it was chosen by the BBC as the venue for an outdoor performance of Georges Bizet’s Carmen broadcast live to TV viewers, but perhaps most importantly it has become a popular public meeting place – one that has been embraced by the locals.

If City Park is a symbol of the city’s regeneration then so, too, is the Broadway shopping centre which is expected to attract an additional nine million shoppers into Bradford when it opens next year. Not only that but next week the city council is expected to give the green light to Bradford Live’s proposal to convert the Odeon building into a 3,500-seater live music venue.

Local businessman Lee Craven, the man behind the bid, admits that Bradford has suffered more than its share of false dawns over the years. “Until recently walking around the city centre was a fairly dismal experience. I used to joke that even the tumbleweed had abandoned Bradford,” he says.

But such pessimism has given way to cautious optimism and even, dare I say, excitement. “There’s definitely a different feeling now,” he says. If you go up the hill to the Northgate area there are new bars and restaurants that have opened and Bradford now has a very attractive city centre.”

He believes there’s been a change of attitude. “In the past it’s been the view that investment would come to Bradford once Leeds prices became too high, but the economic cycle has always seemed to work against Bradford. But there’s been a realisation within the council and political leadership that the city needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps.”

Craven says council bosses deserve praise for persevering with the City Park project. “It’s been one of the catalysts and it was brave of the council to invest in City Park despite all the criticism because it has been a huge success.”

When taken in isolation the Westfield scheme, City Park and the redevelopment of the Odeon don’t constitute a city centre renaissance, but together they have become a catalyst that’s created real momentum.

“People talk about regeneration but for me regeneration only happens when people invest their own money and they only do this if they have confidence. It has to come from the ground up and if you walk around the city now the sense of confidence is contagious.”

The city council, criticised in the past, deserves plaudits for the role it has played. In 2011 when Bradford lost out to Leeds in becoming one of the government’s new “enterprise zones” there was a feeling that the city had yet again been overlooked. But since then there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to encourage investment and support new businesses.

Coun David Green, leader of Bradford City Council, says this work is now coming to fruition. “It demonstrates to the people of Bradford that we weren’t simply sitting on our hands waiting for things to happen, we were making things happen.”

But it’s not all about high-profile projects. In a speech yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg outlined his plans for artists, start-up businesses and other entrepreneurs to breathe new life into empty buildings in our cities. In Bradford this is already happening. The Bradford Brewery and Brewfactory pub, due to open in February, is restoring the historic Shaw’s Moisture Metres factory 
on Rawson Road, while work has started on a £1m scheme to transform a little-known warren of tunnels dating back to the 1700s beneath the city centre into nine Victorian-style shops, two bars, a restaurant and 23 market stalls.

The City Centre Growth Zone initiative, jointly funded by the council and the Regional Growth Fund, has played a big part supporting more than 100 companies and helping to create over 400 new jobs which has brought an estimated £15m of capital investment in the city.

David Robertson-Brown is director of Gumption Centres, which works with the council to provide what he calls “sleeves rolled up” support to local businesses – this can be anything from helping existing retailers trade on the internet to enabling dozens of new businesses to set up shops right across the city. The creation of these clusters of businesses has turned places like North Parade and Little Germany into thriving areas that support one another. “The city centre is becoming a credible destination again and within that there are a series of mini destinations. We are remodelling the city centre because it’s not just about retail it’s also about community hubs,” he says.

“If people come shopping during the day there’s the artisan coffee bars and if they come on an evening there are some fantastic restaurants. There is a lot going on right now and we’d love the people of Yorkshire to come back and have another look.”

The ‘Independent Quarter’

Bradford’s renaissance hasn’t just been built on the foundations of its flagship projects, there is a growing independent scene loosely based around the North Parade area.

Bell-A-Pizza Cafe – This new restaurant is restoring an old school uniform shop in a Victorian building that was badly damaged in a fire four years ago.

The Beerhouse – This new pub plans to transform an old Victorian building and will create around 30 jobs.

The Working Title Cinema – Plans for an independent microcinema with a lounge bar are awaiting a planning decision, which is expected early next month.

The Record Cafe – A bar with a shop selling both vinyl records and ham.