City

A much blipped spot when I walked through Bradford City Park twice a day, but my trips into town are far less frequent since I changed jobs six years ago. 

The rest of the city centre (not in shot) has been having a once-a-decade facelift in preparation for the start of City of Culture events next year. For the past year it’s felt like a building site and it’s been very difficult to get around, which means I only usually come in when I have to change bus/train and go out again the other side. It looks like these works are nearing resolution now, and you can begin to get an idea of what’s been going on, particularly with more widespread pedestrianisation and an attempt to shrink the footprint of the retail core (given half the premises at any one time are vacant). It remains to be seen what impact this will all have, but I shall try to retain optimism for the City of Culture part at least. Nominally priced tickets for the opening event (January 10-11), which will happen in this space, go on sale this week. 

While in town I popped into Impressions Gallery, unfortunately just missing a photographer’s talk. The current exhibition is devoted to Café Royal Books, who create affordable publications celebrating post-war British photography. There are a selection of large images from the publications, but also a full set of the hundreds of little books that have been produced, and the freedom to browse them. There is a lot here for blippers to enjoy, the exhibition continues until the end of the month.

Then back on a bus over to Horsfall Stadium, where Bradford (Park Avenue) were hosting Dunston in a Northern Premier League D1E fixture. It’s a year since I’ve been to the ground and they are clearly scaling back some of the facilities following two consecutive relegations, however there were still over 400 there. A 1-1 draw was a fair result, and the teams remain locked together just outside the play-off places in the table.