City Park

One of the better decisions that Bradford City Council made in recent years was to redevelop the area around City Hall (in the background above) into a water park. It starts off each morning dry and then, as the fountains play, it gradually fills up with shallow water. It can also be drained to allow concerts and events in the arena. I wasn't at all sure about the concept initially but I'm won over now. It is an attractive area, well-used both as a playground, park and event space. They have an innovative programme and people enjoy it. I watched an elderly lady in a wheelchair being pushed through the fountains. She didn't actually get wet at all and clearly relished the fun of it. 

Surrounding the park there are food and drink outlets, the library and the Impressions photographic gallery, as well as the Magistrates' Courts which predate the park. 

On the outer rim there are theatres, the Media Museum and the iconic old Odeon cinema (see below), currently shrouded in plastic, which is being redeveloped as a major music venue. 

 

There is a lot of redevelopment currently going on and planned in the city centre, as I explored in my post yesterday. Where the old Police HQ used to be, they are building a prestigious new office block, One City Park. Again, I'm not entirely sure of the value of that but time will tell. I think the Council are desperate to lift the perceived prestige of the city, after years of it being rubbished and largely ignored at a national level. That's why securing the 'City of Culture 2025' accolade has been so important. We want to be on the map for the right reasons (not poverty, race issues, child abuse, industrial decline and all the other woes that we have often been tarred with, most with some root in reality but usually stereotyped and misunderstood in the national media coverage). As the old slogan used to have it: 'Bradford's Bouncing Back'. Perhaps we really are, this time.