Tower of Now: Eye-catching piece of public art to remain in city centre for another year
An eye-catching piece of public art can remain in Bradford city centre for another year – planners have decided.
The Tower of Now was unveiled in Spring 2025 and was part of Bradford’s City of Culture celebrations.
The 15-metre-tall sculpture by Saad Qureshi reflects different styles of architecture found in the city, and was commissioned by Bradford Culture Company – the organisation set up to run the yearlong event.
When Bradford Council granted planning permission for the sculpture to be installed on the Hall Ings “pocket park” one condition was that it could only remain in place until the end of May 2026.
Earlier this year the Bradford Culture Company applied to change this condition so the sculpture could remain in place until May 2027.
That request has now been approved by planning officers, despite one objector claiming the sculpture has “divided communities.”
The sculpture is inspired by architecture from around the world, including Bradford’s gothic-style City Hall, mosques, temples, pagodas and synagogues.
The original reason for the temporary permission was that the Hall Ings pocket park was initially only meant to be a short term feature. The long term plan was for that area to become a new gateway to Bradford Interchange.
But with the future of the Interchange far from certain, the area will remain a green space for the foreseeable future.
There had been a single objection to the application to retain the sculpture and extra year. The un-named objector said: “The installation divide’s (sic) opinion and only serves to divide the community. It adds nothing to the cityscape.”
But planning officers argue that art, by its nature, will always divide opinion.
Approving the extension, planning officers said: “As stated in the previous officer report as the sculpture is a piece of public artwork its design and appearance, like any form of art, is subjective with taste in art being a subjective matter.
“On balance it is considered that allowing the sculpture to be in place for an additional 12 months is not considered to result in any greater harm over and above the current situation and will not result in an unacceptable impact which is contrary to policy or prejudice the long-term development of the site.”
A condition of the approval is that the sculpture will now need to be removed by the end of May 2027.