Heritage tourism could transform Bradford

Many have visited the Venetian palace that is Bradford Town Hall, writes WSP’s Nick Corbettor Bradford’s art gallery in Baroque Cartwright Hall, or the David Hockney gallery, but what about the empty mills and warehouses that climb Bradford’s hills – what future do they have?

Some of these historic buildings may be the stage for a range of artists as part of UK City of Culture Bradford 2025, but could these buildings also serve as a catalyst for a lasting transformation of Bradford?

From neglected to celebrated – success stories

For years, Faro in Portugal was overlooked. Millions of tourists arrived each year at the city’s airport, but quickly left for the Algarve coast. If tourists ventured to Faro, they probably dismissed its modernist buildings as ugly and neglected, but today, these buildings are seen in a different light. The city is celebrated as having the largest concentration of modernist buildings in southern Europe, and the Modernist Weekend has become an annual festival with visitors arriving from all over the world. The buildings themselves draw people away from the beaches.

A Parisian couple fell in love with what locals have called the ugliest concrete building in Faro. They bought it and repurposed it as a hotel. It’s called the Modernist. Restaurants, bars, art galleries and festivals followed. It took a few visionary pioneers to invest in Faro’s neglected modernist buildings and what has resulted is a virtuous circle of regeneration. Faro demonstrates how a city’s built heritage can be hidden in plain sight: when it is rediscovered and celebrated, transformation follows.

Tallinn, Estonia, a European Capital of Culture in 2011, is full of industrial buildings from the 19th century, just like Bradford. Although it also suffered economic decline in the 20th century, many of Tallinn’s historic industrial buildings have now been restored and turned into cultural destinations. For example, the Estonian Academy of Art moved to the historic Rauaniidi Factory, and the Tallinn Power Station now houses the Museum of Contemporary Estonian Art.

Talented architects were commissioned to extend listed buildings in Tallinn’s Rotermann district to provide the space that makes the scheme viable. In addition to bringing historic buildings to life, exciting new architecture was created. An example is the listed Rotermann Carpentry Workshop, on top of which three towers were built by KOKO architects. The scheme reached the final of the prestigious Mies Van der Rohe architecture award.

Reimagining Bradford’s historic built environment

Bradford has already gone some way in reimagining its historic built environment. Will Alsop’s controversial masterplan for Bradford city centre, produced 20 years ago, was itself considered a work of art and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A successful proposal from the masterplan is the Mirror Pool, a massive water feature in the public square next to the listed Bradford Town Hall. The Mirror Pool brings people together and is often full of children paddling, causing the neighboring Primark to sell out of socks and towels on sunny weekends.

To continue the transformation of Bradford, as in the examples above, the significance of its historic buildings must be recognized and it must be understood that listed buildings can be changed, sometimes in unusual and creative ways.

Sympathetic development can take place within listed buildings. A key requirement is to understand the special significance of a listed building and consider how this can be better revealed through great design.

Investing in the heritage of our cities

When a compelling vision has local support, investment often follows. Following the publication of Alsop’s master plan, Bradford became the first UNESCO City of Film in 2009, followed by Sydney in 2010 and Cannes in 2021. This designation was testament to Bradford’s ambition in culture and design and the fact that its heritage built is full. full of character. Listed warehouses can be turned into stunning film studios.

Investment in Bradford is still happening. The new Grade A office buildings next to Bradford Town Hall have brought jobs and prosperity, all while creating a better cityscape and setting for the Town Hall.

Heritage should not be a constraint on Bradford’s growth, but rather should be a catalyst for positive change. Heritage tourism brings jobs and prosperity and can contribute to local identity, cohesion and Net Zero by preserving the massive amount of carbon invested in the city’s historic buildings.

It takes imagination and vision to see beyond the peeling paint and broken windows of redundant historic buildings. As a work of art, Bradford must be curated. Its public spaces must be programmed. Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture provides a major opportunity to do this. If it celebrates the city’s outstanding built heritage, it could establish Bradford as the next international destination for heritage tourism.

• Nick Corbett is Director of Heritage Planning and Placemaking at WSP UK
• Find out more about WSP UK’s heritage work