Bradford

We used to walk up to lapage street for our swimming lessons. Bloody freezing walking back. Wanted to go to Carlton but didn't live in area.

 

I worked in Leeds centre as the regeneration started to gather pace, it's hard to believe now that Greenswoods Menswear had a big unit in the Victorian Quarter! Bradford is still doing "cheap", it just doesn't learn.

My only hope is Leeds......that maybe young professional people on low Leeds salaries, sub £25k, start to look at cheaper places to live, Leeds centre is very expensive to rent in, if you can find anywhere, Headingly is expensive. Little Germany provides a great place, it's beautiful, atmospheric, I'd love to see people move (in numbers) there, bars and delis would spring up. Doubt it will happen because Bradford would have to pitch for Leeds professionals and it'd rather just be Bradford, backward looking.

 

The people you describe move to Saltaire and hop on the train to work.

Bradford is fading away. The council have some brilliant attributes that they've built to make Bradford unique but there simply isn't enough people in town. BT are selling their London offices to reduce costs. They should be inviting them and companies like them with cheap rates for offices.

 

If you are female as your name suggests you could not have gone to Carlton. When I went it was the boys only school at the top of Manor Row.

 

Trouble is, how many fit for purpose offices are left in Bradford? The buildings would need so much work to make them viable.

 

They have nothing but time.

 

Thank you Confucious

 

I agree but Saltaire is such a success there is practically nothing to buy or rent there, and it's getting ever more expensive. That happens and other places open up......with the right people. I've always thought it'd be Little Germany or nothing...it'll probably be nothing seeing as it is quieter than when it was "regenerating" in the 1980's!

A 2 bed apartment in Leeds proper centre requires serious money, move a mile or so away into maybe the dock area and it'd still be around £300k, less than a 4 bed "executive" house in better areas of Bradford and there is not much available either.

If I was in my 20's and earning in Leeds centre then I'd want to live there, but I could be pursuaded to commute from a stunning place like Little Germany if the figures made it attractive enough. You could walk to the station never having to venture foot in manky Bradford and with the right amenities you could pretend you were not in Bradford but in the republic of Little Germany.

 

My forum name is a reference to the ex leed s player that played for leed s and city in the seventies. But I,m beginning to wonder if it was a nickname I made up myself.

 

David 'Daisy' McNiven did indeed exist......

 

Not sure of the logistics of it all, but it my mind the centre is now actually too big for the footfall it gets...perhaps a way of condensing it into a smaller area is the way to go.
All the outlets above kirkGate or even those in kirkgate/arndale if we were to be radical could be closed down and offered premises in the lower half of the city at equivalent rent. The then vacant units at the top could be then pulled down for cheap parking areas, until the time has come for it to be redeveloped again when it is seen fit or when there is a need.. It may seem like this would isolate North parade, but i for one wouldn't access it through the city centre for a night out anyway, i simply wouldnt feel safe. It would still be fully accessible from Manor Row, manningham, etc.

 

Day out in town yesterday.

Brick Box on Ivegate: arty, like it.
Sunbridge: needs someone to take it forward. Eye-catching place but sticking a 'gin bar' in doesn't make it forward-thinking.
Record Cafe: picked up later in the aft. Mate bought some vinyl.
Lord Clyde: did karaoke. Good times.
Fighting *@?$: busy - can't recall what we supped.

Our Leeds contingent - not short of a bob or 2 - are making a plan to do it again with a bunch of their Leeds pals.

 

It’s happening

Picture won’t load ....

 

Think there's a prob uploading pics at the mo, eh @Nottsy ?

Anyway - great news if it's on.

 

That's a very good point.

When I was at school in the late 70s there were more blacks than Asians. Great people too. It is where I got my love of reggae from.

Surely they can't of all just upped and left.

 

Marko from t'Sparra & Bundobust's taking a couple of clued-up folk around Bradford today for 'architecture, beer & curry'.

I'll be interested in their post-visit opinions.

 

Lapage Boys that rings a bell, second only to Spooner House and that was approved, some naughty lads up there, could get quite tasty if them and the Teds from Bradford Moor estate meet in Bradford Moor Park, as they were making their way down to "Annett's Coffee Bar" on the corner of Killinghall Road and Barkerend Road.

 

Me too, Wayne Smith hooked me for life.

Nice to physically reminisce sometimes, tbh I don't know anybody that I could pursuade to do that tour with me. It's Leeds or nothing when we go out, which is sad. I'll try the brick Box with Mrs Abbo this weekend. We go the fighting *@?$ occasionally, I am always surprised to find it still trading and even more surprised to find it always busy, it's gone from being in a very busy area (late 80's early 90's) to being in a post-industrial wasteland but is still hanging in there.

 

We are like first world refugees who have lost their homeland. I know it isn't in the same league as Syrians, or the countless other refugees, but it is still sad that our history (pubs, night clubs, neighbourhoods, schools, shops, etc) has been wiped off the map in just a few years.

I'm already amazed how many City fans are no longer living in Bradford and it looks like a trend destined to continue.