Bradford, UNESCO City of Film

Monday, 25 April 2011 - 12:58 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Architecture, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  6 minutes

University of Bradford - School of Management © Tim Green

University of Bradford – School of Management © Tim Green

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, 8.6 miles (13.8 km) west of Leeds, and 16 miles (25.7 km) northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. Following local government reform in 1974, city status was bestowed upon the wider metropolitan borough.

Bradford has a population of 293,717, making it the thirteenth-most populous settlement in the UK. Bradford forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2001 had a population of 1.5 million and is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), the third largest in the UK after London and Manchester, with an estimated population in the 2004 Urban Audit of 2.4 million.

Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bradford rose to prominence during the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture, particularly wool. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the earliest industrialised settlements, rapidly becoming the “wool capital of the world”. The area’s access to a supply of coal, iron ore and soft water facilitated the growth of Bradford’s manufacturing base, which, as textile manufacture grew, led to an explosion in population and was a stimulus to civic investment; Bradford has fine Victorian architecture including the grand Italianate City Hall.

National Media Museum © Mark Morton Lister Mills © Jon Farman Industrial Museum © Jon Farman Cartwright Hall - Lister Park © Tim Green City Hall © geograph.org.uk Town Hall © Jon Farman Royal Infirmary © geograph.org.uk Odeon © Mtaylor848 Barges in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal © Tim Green Alhambra Theatre © Kaly99 St Georges Hall © Jon Farman University of Bradford - School of Management © Tim Green
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University of Bradford - School of Management © Tim Green
The textile sector in Bradford fell into a terminal decline from the mid-20th century. Since this time, Bradford has emerged as a tourist destination with attractions such as the National Media Museum and Cartwright Hall. However, Bradford has faced similar challenges to the rest of the post-industrial area of Northern England, including deindustrialisation, housing problems, social unrest and economic deprivation.

The textile industry began to fall into terminal decline in the 20th century. A culture of innovation had been fundamental to Bradford’s dominance, with new textile technologies being invented in the city; a prime example being the work of Samuel Lister. This innovation culture continues today throughout Bradford’s economy, from automotive (Kahn Design) to electronics (Pace Micro Technology). Wm Morrison Supermarkets was founded by William Morrison in 1899, initially as an egg and butter merchant in Rawson Market, operating under the name of Wm Morrison (Provisions) Limited.

The grandest of the mills (no longer used for textile production) is Lister’s Mill, the chimney of which can be seen from most places in Bradford. It has recently become a beacon of regeneration in the city after a £100 million conversion to apartment blocks by property developers Urban Splash. Because of the many industrial monuments Bradford ist part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage

Bradford’s oldest building is the cathedral, which for most of its life was a parish church. Few other Medieval buildings have survived apart from Bolling Hall, which has been preserved as a museum.

The Brontë sisters were born in Thornton which is within the old Bradford City boundary incorporated in 1899, but wrote most of their novels while living at the Haworth Parsonage, when their father was the parson at the adjacent Church of St. Michael and All Angels. The house in which the Brontë sisters were born in is situated on Market Street Thornton and is a grade11 listed building,one of 5,800 in Bradford and can be visited on the way to Haworth parsonage around 5 miles away.

There are some fine Victorian buildings: apart from the abundance of mills, there is the City Hall, the former Wool Exchange, and a large Victorian cemetery at Undercliffe. Little Germany is a splendid Victorian commercial district just east of the city centre which takes its name from 19th century immigrants who ran businesses from some of the many listed buildings. Following decades of decay there have been successful conversions to office and residential use. In mid-2005 renovation began on the prominent Eastbrook Hall in Little Germany. Bradford also has a number of architecturally historic hotels that date back to the establishment of the two railway lines into the city centre, back in Victorian times. The Victoria Hotel and the Midland Hotel were built to accommodate business travellers to the city during the height of the woollen trade.

Bradford is the first city holding the title UNESCO City of Film.

To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facepage pages/Twitter accounts. Read more on Bradford.gov.uk, VisitBradford.com and Wikipeda Bradford. Learn more about the use of photos.




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