The Idle Lord Brings his Blog to ‘Trumpit’ Readers,
(With no apologies to sensitive ears)
I am a Bradfordian, born and bred, still living
in this tired old place although long since able to admit to being proud to do
so.
It’s my home and yet admitting to this
has, for many years now, opened me and countless others up to much lampooning
and the occasional dose of pity.
The city is like a fallen beauty
queen, it’s best features ravaged by time, neglect and sometimes sheer bad
fortune. The belle of the ball stands fallen cowering under pitiful glances
from cocky nearby upstarts.
And yet, whisper it quietly, the old
girl may be stirring back to life with a facelift and an injection of fresh
confidence; could she swagger again?
Bulldozers and
Concrete
For as long as I have been alive the city
has been in some state of decline.
From the madness of the Sixties, when
much of it’s heritage was bulldozed and replaced with an ugly concrete
Legoland, through to the slow death of it’s once world famous textile industry.
Wool generated much of the wealth that
built Bradford and many surrounding
areas for that matter, but we gave away our skills in exchange for cheap
tat from the Far East.
When M&S finally gave up the ghost
of supporting UK textiles in
the early 1990s the end was in sight for most major producers in Bradford.
The mills had also been a major factor
behind mass immigration post World War Two, although this was not a new concept
to Bradford. With those jobs now disappearing,
Bradford had its very own issues to confront.
Politicians, choked on political
correctness, ran for cover and any sensible debate on multi-culturalism was
impossible.
Nadir– Racial
Tensions
The pot simmered…and simmered.
The nadir surely had to be the riots
of 2001 when anyone who still refused to acknowledge that there were
racial tensions in the city had to
face reality, however unpalatable.
And yet these strains have existed
since the beginning of mankind; this is not
Bradford’s dilemma to solve nor is the
city unique but burying the issue simply stoked up the fires.
As the city burned, confidence
vanished, investors fled and we hung our heads like a pariah in the shadow of
our brassy neighbour Leeds, gleefully sucking in new cash, desperate to become
the London of
the North.
Bradford, with it’s begging bowl, looked down
and out.
False Promises
Years of false promises and some
plainly daft schemes followed; the city seemed doomed to remain a laughing
stock, an image perpetuated by a hopeless Council seemingly in awe of anything
offered, however appalling.
We had numerous agencies foisted on us
and plans from a deranged Southern architect to turn the city centre into a Thunderbirds set.
The city lumbered from one bad news
day to another culminating with the farce of the hole in the ground when plans
for a new shopping centre simply came
to a stop, sadly after the demolishing of what was to be replaced.
At last though, the Westfield shopping centre has started to rise
from the ground, albeit some eight years late and with it will surely come some
renewed sense of place.
Bradford may be ugly in places but, luckily,
it is big and ugly and retailers cannot ignore size. However, what becomes of
the rest of the city centre post Westfield
is anybody’s guess at present.
The only plan the think tank in City
Hall appear to have with regard to the current shopping core is to put down new
paving flags. With the vision of a canary in a coal mine they stick their heads
in thick, wet sand again.
Bradford needs bold and achievable
vision and whilst Westfield
is a start, there is a long way to go.
Odeon Plans
The iconic, dare I say it,
indestructible Odeon building lives on following news last week that two
organisations remain to battle it out to win the right to redevelop this almost
fifteen years since the doors shut.
Plans, led by people not councillors
or MPs, to save the Odeon have
seemingly overcome the Council’s bungled attempts to bulldoze it so they
could build Toy Town, clearly designed by an three year
old on acid.
Bradford One and Bradford Live’s separate
bids broadly centre around creating a live music venue; One offers a multi-purpose, cultural venue
whilst Live’s offer is that of a commercially-run, live performance venue.
As both applicants know though, these
are very early days and Bradford has a recent history littered with grand plans that came to
nothing leaving a population somewhat cynical.
Those that remain sceptical may
require a leap of faith but, should this come off, Bradford
will have an entertainments corner to be proud of and with architecture of
stand out quality.
It really is worth clinging to this
dream and this time Leeds – snazzy new Arena
et al – will have little to match this. Hell, we may even get a sushi bar!
The single biggest threat here could
well be that both groups fail to see that a combined bid,harnessing the best of both ideas,
would have the best chance of becoming
a reality.
This is, after all, about Bradford and not the singular dreams of individuals,
however noble their efforts so far. That two groups have achieved so much more
than our elected lame brains says it all.
Collaboration and co-operation would
ensure this wonderful building can
finally come back to life at the heart of the city and without doubt, quality retail and entertainments suck in people and spending
power.
Bradford has a chance…at long last.
Cash Strapped
Meanwhile, the Council that has no
cash, is rumoured to be planning to build a brand new swimming pool in the city
centre on a scale to get Lord Coe and his Olympic minions slavering.
However, in these cash-strapped times
surely we already have one in front of City Hall?
Not only is Bradford at last in danger
of getting some shops above ground, there is an incredible scheme being
considered to create an underground market
featuring a Victorian-style complex of shops, bars and restaurants.
A £1m price tag is being privately
funded with the aim of attracting young entrepreneurs.
The Tunnel is the working name for the
development and received a visit from Cllr Green, Leader of the Overground
recently, doubtless keen to see why there was more activity under than above ground.
Inspecting the access he declared that
Bradford would develop this link with the Channel Tunnel to make the onward
journeys from Eastern Europe and beyond that
much quicker.
He also declined to comment on plans
for an escape hatch with access for local councillors should the Westfield shopping
complex go tits up again.
New Idle &
District
The Central Office of Command –
T’Council – have also announced that further to their plans to concrete the
remaining green fields of North Bradford they are now to build even more
houses…on the roads.
Cars will become a thing of the past
and the air will be sweet and pure, like the space between the ears of most
councillors on the planning committee.
Furthermore, Idle, Thackley and Wrose
will be merged into a new Utopia named
after the spiritual leader of T’Council and renamed Greenland.
There will be no more need for the
Green Party and all their votes will automatically count towards the re-election of the spiritual leader in
the spirit of fairness.
And finally, all middle aged men in Greenland will be forced to wear silly earrings as a mark
of devotion to the great Leader.
Taken in the age of free love, the
Swinging Sixties, this is a great picture; note that for £12 you could also have a “Quickie”. It’s never
been that cheap at my local.
Take a look at the marvellous All
About Bradford Facebook page for more pictures of a once great city.
Anybody unfamiliar with Bradford’s recent troubled history may get some sense of
where it all started to go wrong from pictures like the above.
Contrast the ugly concrete block –
long since gone – that dominates all around. One can only conclude that the
architects drew this one up blindfold.
If Bradford
has anything worth crowing about still it has to be some of the finest
Victorian architecture around and, whilst you cannot save everything, what went
on in the Sixties was unforgivable.
What we don’t need is London
based “modernism” (Yorkshire interpretation =
overpriced, poncy s***) dreamt up by architects up their own fat
a****…there…that feels much better!
The Idle Lord
Sorry you can’t read the boards in the background, lack of space will just not allow us to make the pics any larger. Still it is as well, it’s just possible you could be one of the contestants, now that would be embarrassing. Ed
