Welcome to Bradford

Bradford born modernist artist David Hockney called one of his works “One Landscape, many views”, a phrase which captures the variety of experience, historical and modern, eastern and western, urban and rural that can be enjoyed in our area.

Our city offers plenty of choice for shoppers with a host of major High Street stores and quality independent retailers. The main pedestrian areas of Broadway, Darley Street and Kirkgate provide hassle-free shopping, whilst the Kirkgate Centre offers sixty-six shops and stores all under one roof.

Centenary Square, overlooked by our architecturally impressive City Hall, is a vibrant meeting place that offers a range of eating and drinking options, and boasts a huge Plasma screen broadcasting international and local news. Our tourist information centre can be found at the City Hall and provides a wide range of information including the Bradford Little Book Map and Guide that utilises the same map used on this site.

In addition a series of City Centre Trails produced by Bradford City Centre Management offer a revealing insight into our city’s rich heritage. PDF versions of Bradford’s Heritage Trail and Bradford’s Sculpture Trail publications can be downloaded from ‘Bradford Information’ accessed from the home page of this site.

The council runs five museums in the district, which feature displays covering historical artefacts and fine art to industrial heritage and natural history. For those interest sites and attractions in our city centre follow the link to ‘Places of Interest’ on this sites Home Page

A Brief History The name Bradford derives from “Broad Ford”, the early settlement being situated on a crossing point of a large stream (now lost from view).

Bradford is recorded in the Domesday Survey and possibly dates back to Roman times when iron was extracted from the area. Its growth and prosperity though dates from the Victorian era and the rapid expansion of the woollen industry.

Rich local resources of water, coal and wool meant that by 1831 an estimated two-thirds of the country’s wool production was processed in Bradford. By 1900 five-sixths of all Britain’s Wool passed through Bradford’s warehouses and Exchange. The city’s population grew from 6,400 in 1801 to 104,000 in 1851, and today stands at approximately 300,000.

Declining markets have meant the contraction of the textile trade, and the Bradford District has diversified into other industries notably electronics and microtechnology. The legacy of the Victorians remains however with grand architecture such as City Hall and in the former Merchants’ Quarter known as Little Germany.

Bradford is also famous for its diversity of cultures and celebrated Asian cuisine; less well known is that the district is two-thirds rural, and the city is surrounded by scenic countryside. Famous Bradfordians include the writers J.B. Priestley and the Brontés, the composer Frederick Delius (son of a wool merchant), and the modernist painter David Hockney.