City of Culture

Bradford is the UK City of Culture for 2025, with many events and exhibitions planned. I tend not to go into the city centre very much these days but, if there are some interesting things to see, I will take the opportunity. I went along recently, with a friend, to see a couple of exhibitions. It was a day of sunshine and showers. Luckily we managed to miss the showers! 

The wet flagstones made for a good reflection of the hot pink 'Ramadan Pavilion'. This structure, conceived by Zarah Hussain and Fatima Mejbil, celebrates the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It marries together the architecture of Bradford's Victorian heritage (all those gothic arches) with the colonnaded courtyards and sacred geometry of Islamic design. Why pink? No idea... it did give it a touch of Barbie/Disney as far as I was concerned, but it was kind of pleasing anyway. 

My friend persuaded me to allow a rare photo of myself under the arches. Three score and ten plus... but not a bad vintage! 

Looking in the opposite direction, the shallow mirror pool in City Park was just beginning to be filled by the fountains. (It's drained overnight and then refills during the day, unless the dry space is needed for an event.) In the background, the former Odeon cinema, an iconic Bradford landmark with its twin towers, was proudly proclaiming its news... After a shaky period when the original developers pulled out, it has just been taken over by Trafalgar Entertainments. Much of the revamp has been finished, with substantial investment from Bradford Council. The new managers will complete the internal refit to create a live music and entertainment venue, seating 3000+. It's promised to be ready by the autumn, hopefully starting the next chapter for the historic building, which has been languishing unused and deteriorating for many years. I used to go and watch films there when I was at university in the 1970s. 

We took the opportunity for a coffee and chat in the café in the former Wool Exchange, where Bradford's great and good (Sir Titus Salt among them) used to meet to trade wool and textiles. It's a magnificent Victorian building, designed by Saltaire's architects Lockwood and Mawson. It's now a large branch of Waterstones Bookshop, possibly one of the finest locations for a bookshop in the entire UK.