How many good buildings has Bradford got that it can allow this great 1930’s edifice to fall down around the politicians ears?
Well there was Swan Arcade, Busbys, two Victorian Railway Stations, Kirkgate and Rawson Markets but emphasis is on the ‘was’. I guess the ‘Penny Bank’ at North Parade / Manor Row is threatened and even the modern Yorkshire Building Society premises up Westgate and the City Centre police station are desolate.
Mills are virtually wiped out with an occasional white elephant housing conversion scheme or arsonists testing ground.
Meanwhile the great vision from out political elite is a moat around City Hall (sorry I mean a Park with a Mirror Pool). Not to mention the hole in the City Centre designed as Forster House by John Paulson. Come back Paulson even you can’t do as badly!
Returning to the Gaumont there is a full and interesting history by Colin Sutton ‘Bradford – New Victoria/Gaumont/Odeon’
It is not too late ‘Save our Heritage Buildings’.
Mill on Thornton Road 2009