I don't often go into Bradford at night so it was interesting to see how the recent pedestrianisation has improved the environment, making safe walkways and all attractively lit. Last year's City of Culture award provided the impetus for many improvements. I don't know if the clock tower on City Hall is always so colourful but it gave a nice effect in the distance.
It's perhaps a pity that the Wool Exchange, a magnificent Victorian building, is not better illuminated. You can see its shadowy presence in the centre of the photo below.
On the route down to Forster Square rail station, the dark arches under the viaduct have been fenced off. This was somewhat controversial, as they used to be home to quite a gathering of rough sleepers. People complained that they were being 'sanitised' because of the City of Culture initiative. I guess they were and I'm not sure whether alternative provision was made. There seem now to be a lot of folk bedded down in shop doorways, all over the place. Now the arches are lit at night and looked quite intriguing... better than they look during the day!
Nobody sleeps rough entirely by choice, and especially in winter I feel very sorry for anyone who does not have a safe and warm home to return to at night. What you say about the arches being blocked off so that people can't sleep there anymore ties in with the book I have just finished reading, where a lot is said about homelessness and the perils for those who are part of this very precarious community.
ReplyDeleteStrikes me that I haven't been out in the dark at all this winter. Usually pretty much avoid it anyway but even more so this winter because of my knee injury in the autumn and feeling even more need than usual to "see where I'm going"...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Librarian - rough sleeping isnt necessarily by choice and those arches would have been a safe (ish) warmer (ish) place to stay overnight. We are all one door away from being homeless ourselves, it is a precarious life we all live.
ReplyDeleteI like the streamers of lights all along the sides of the roads. The issue of not having a place to sleep at night (being un-housed is I think the current term) is one that is spread everywhere, but has no good answers, to my mind. When I lived in FL it was especially prevalent.
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