The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Bradford, West Yorkshire*

Bradford, West Yorkshire Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• ODSAL STADIUM! Valley Parade is a cracking ground to but for football NOT RL
• Most of the ones left to fall into rack and ruin by our beloved council, the same buildings that would be nationally renowned if they were in London or Harrogate. Or terribly expensive if they were in leeds.
• Waterstone's - the smell of coffee from Starbuck's up above, the leather seats, the books full of photography of naked males (OK, maybe that's just me). Trust me, this is one of the best places in B/ford.
• Listers Mill
• Town Hall.
• The Kirkgate centre looks pretty nice now they've done it up........not quite my fave building but a big improvement on what it used 2 b like.
• Salts Mill (Salts Village in general). Valley Parade - a symbol of hope. The City Hall. The Wool Exchange - well done to the architects who did Waterstones too. Those mills and chimneys.
• Wool Exchange
• Got to be City Hall
• The Wool Exchange - Revitalised by Waterstones
• The Wool Exchange...City Hall...Pearl Assurance House...Talbot Hotel...Register Office...theres loads!!!
• John Sherlocks House (HOWARTH GROVE), St Bedes, St Joesph's
• The Cathedral - it's 'the least visited cathedral in Britain' but well worth a visit - go see it!
• Salts Mill
• The Wool Exchange, now occupied by Waterstones is superb. The new mosque in town that they've been building all the time I've lived here.
• NATIONAL MUSEUM
• Salts Mill, much of little germany
• Valley Parade.
• Little Germany and all the victorian buildings maybe the pub painted in Bradford City colours
• The Town Hall and Salts Mill
• Alhambra Wool Exchange. Beautifully ornate and well-preserved ceilings in many of the banks.

Demolish It Now Building

• richmond building
• That VILE office building above HMV, Magistrates courts, The 'Fortress' Law Courts, Police Station and that monstrocity of an 'Entertainment complex' at the bottom of Leeds road.
• Abbey National opposite town hall.
• The old Odeon
• Milk Bar night club and associated buildings-fucking horrendous!
• The buildings down the bottom of town where the roundabout is that goes onto Leeds Rd......they're the first bit of the city centre you see when coming into Bradford from that direction and they're hideous!
• the old abbey national building opposite the town hall must die SOON
• Valley Parade - the football ground
• The 1960's efforts which hide the Cathedral and Little Germany. The shopping street which HMV is on (I forget it's name).
• Kirkgate Arndale Centre, no contest.
• Why would anyone want to demolish anything in Bradford? Anything in Bradfod looks great because of the great place its in!
• ALL of Petergate/Foster Sq. monstrosity. WHEN, PLEASE!!??
• Petergate.
• bradford and bingley HQ in bingley!
• Provincial House, Bradford College, (Westbrook Building)
• Richmond Building up Great Horton Road - ugly and grey and the absolutely windiest spot on earth is just in front of the main entrance.
• Odeon cinema
• University Richmond Building
• St Bedes upper school and St josephs upper school.
• The Yorkshire Building Society HQ, all those horrible buildings at the back of town, Providential House (it is!), West Yorkshire Police HQ (they want to!)
• Jocob's Well, worked there for three months, just as ugly inside.
• Kirkgate Centre - definitely! Put some grass & trees there, anything, just get rid!
• TOWN HALL!!!
• Interchange and terrible sixties buildings on Foster square/ Petergate
• John Sherlock's house on Haworth Grove. Odsal. St Bede's Grammar School.
• TOLLER LANE POLICE station ! Cant even be explained by the riots as it was already being built. See it and be afraid....very afraid.(tossers)
• Hey, it's a Bradford building - it has merit just because of its situation.
• All glass multi-storeys.

The Best Things

• The Asian culture is probably the best thing, but not Asian culture from the Manchester Road end of Bradford. The curry houses, nice housing (again in the Asian areas), Bradford University, all of the BD7-8-9 areas, this is where the good Asian shopping/food is like Bombay stores, Mumtaz's, Al-Halal, Cafe Punjab, Tariqs, etc..
• lots of fit women wearing very little. the female doorperson in the goose is well fit
• Being able to leave it.
• The mix of people and musical tastes.
• NMPFT, FOOTBALL GROUND, ALSO BRADFORD BULLS.
• Bradford is a cultural void but I have to say we have a health service to be proud of. We are leaps and bounds in front of Leeds and many other major cities.
• Usually the majority of people out at night in town are Bradfordians (unlike Leeds which has loads of outsiders coming in) so you always see people you know when you're out!
• As someone so rightly pointed out - the m606 - wherever it takes you , it'll be better!
• The varied landscape - green belt surrounding a skyline of chimneys and valleys. The mix of culture - Bradfordians have in many ways come to accept the fact that it is multi-cultural, and rather than reject it, it has learnt to embrace the other cultures and in many ways it has turned this to its advangtage. Bradford City FC - Bantam Progressivism continues. Currys - cheap ones or top-class eateries, they're all here. Great place for walking and cycling.
• The 'real' pubs, the curry houses.
• Everything
• It's a handy Park And Ride for Leeds, The Sweet Centre on Lumb Lane, The Fighting Cock on Preston Street, TeRRoRViSioN, the NMPFAT
• ST. JOHN AMBULANCE- they're so cool.
• I know it has a bad reputation for this, but the town centres brilliant in the middle of it...its the outskirts of the town centre what need a seeing to. Theres everything except a Gap and a Harvey Nicks, Harrods, Hamleys....
• DAN THE MAN, NICKY AND CRAIG.
• On an night out everywhere you turn there will be someone you know.
• The Peel pub - down the road from the Richmond Building. Don't miss the karaoke on a Thursday and Friday.
• NMPFT Salts Mill Yorkshire Dales in Close proximity Surrounding areas, i.e., Baildon, Bingley, Harden, Wilsden, Thornton are what make Bradford more bearable
• its so close to leeds!!!!!
• centenary square in the summertime
• The Manningham prostitutes are cheap and great value for money(anything for a tenner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
• Cheap
• FIT SKATERS
• Its cheaper then London
• Bradford City F.C., Cheap curries, The M606 out
• The Wool Exchange-Piece Hall Yard-but I expect they've both gone by now. The Cathedral.
• Football Team. Curry Houses. Pubs. The Bouncers at Tumblers.
• Having travelled most of the world, the best thing about bradford is it's reputation. Nobody knows anything about the place except the prejudiced views they have heard. I have never taken anybody to Bradford who didn't come away from the place raving about it.
• The people.

The Worst Things

• Manningham,Trouble makers and to close to L**ds
• "Rivers of Blood....." Oh How True..........
• smallmindeness unfortunately prevails
• The cheap creole-earing-wearing nesbit girls who shout through the cell ventiliation grills at their locked up toothless tastlessly tatooed 'wide boys' who call each other c*&t as a term of endearment. The endless pound shops and time-warped opressive markets full of jet-black bouffanted prune faced ladies with their Elvis style husbands. It smells bad, the transports crap, the photography museum is dire, the council are clueless facists. There is no where to go except away from if you have more than one neuron occupying your skull. 2008-Capital of Culture...Just ask Gareth.... says it all really...
• bradford's image - let's face it, the image is fairly crap, and I don't really see us getting "Capital of Culture" status, do you? Then the riots, of course, which are really exaggerated, but still a pain in the arse. The whole place looks fairly seedy, too.
• Unpolite big issue people
• Full of white trailer trash, scruffy ethnics and pounds shops. Where do they ship all these people from?
• The Scratters that take over the benches at the bottom of Ivegate by the phone boxes.....and that annoying guy who's always '69 pence short for a ticket to Leeds'! He tells me the same story every time....Why doesn't he just stay in Leeds?!
• the horrendous smell around the city
• Dull 1960's developments Poor quality roads Litter City centre needs attention
• The 'trendy' pubs, the litter, the smell, some of the people, the riots, the violence, the lack of investment, pretending to be like Leeds and being about 10 zillion miles off the mark, the council, the waste of money on hairbrained schemes, entertainment events and so forth, the council
• Nothing - except the Old Rawson Market wants something doing to it!
• Bradford is Skag Central. A filthy rat infested, heroin ridden, shit hole. Forget it unless your into Islam or heroin!
• The Council, the lack of Investment, the crowings about what a great city Bradford is when it has clearly been left MILES behind Leeds in terms of re-generation, the litter and filth, the racial drive by's, the constant building of 'luxury' office accomodation which stands empty for years whilst the rest of Bradfords superb archiectural heritage is left to rot and fall into disrepair and disuse
• No red-light area. No greasy spoon Cafes No interest in the rest of culture.
• The outskirts of the town centre...What happened to VIPs and Zeus? They appear to have closed down rather quickly
• The lack of clothes shops.
• People getting attacked by axes outside college. Stabbings / shootings etc.
• Crime, people, landscape of the City, dark, satanic mills, weather(always grey and dull), dirty starlings everywhere nestling amongst the roofing, litter, too many people lurking about the City Centre with absolutely nothing better to do!
• Abusive Big Issue Sellers
• its not leeds!!!!!
• Looks like it's falling down the hill!!! - "Bradford is here to make everwhere else look better" - Bill Bryson
• Eternally in the shadow of Leeds. Everything good goes there.
• WHEN THERE IN NO SKATERS
• Its cheap
• Bradfordian Leeds Utd fans, nightlife or "nightdeath" as it should be known
• Clubs. Manningham. The Bradford Bulls. The Price of Drinks in the Queens Hall.
• The reputatation it has It is A great place most variety where can you be in the city one minute and not see any houses at all 20 minutes from the city centre.
• Unemployment and lack of pride

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Credits

Last updated: 2008-05-15