£2 Million Awarded to Bradford City Council for Heritage Regeneration Project
Bradford City Council has been awarded £2 million from Historic England to fund a transformative Heritage Action Zone in the city’s historic core.
This major investment is set to revitalise a key part of Bradford, creating a legacy as the city prepares to celebrate its status as the UK City of Culture 2025.
The 3-year Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) project will cover the historic heart of the city centre bordered by Bridge Street, Kirkgate and Sunbridge Road, extending to the Grade I listed City Hall.
The HAZ will focus on preserving and repurposing important buildings to boost economic growth in the area. Regeneration plans include improving shopfronts in historic Ivegate and giving repair grants for prominent sites like the ‘Carters Block’ facing Centenary Square. The project will also inform future plans for the conservation and reuse of the City Hall.
Community engagement and cultural programming
A significant element of the Heritage Action Zone will be a community engagement and cultural programme, encouraging local people to discover and celebrate the city’s rich heritage. These activities will be aligned with the UK City of Culture 2025 events, further boosting the city’s profile and fostering a deeper connection between Bradford’s residents and its proud past.
As the UK City of Culture 2025, Bradford has an opportunity to showcase its rich heritage while creating a vibrant, modern city centre. Our £2 million investment will not only rejuvenate important historic buildings but also make the area more attractive for future investment, benefiting both residents and visitors.
A key piece of the regeneration puzzle
The Heritage Action Zone comes at a pivotal moment in Bradford’s regeneration efforts, with other projects already set to attract investment and footfall to the city. These include the Bradford City Village development, Darley Street Market, and a new pedestrianisation scheme as part of the £40 million Transforming Cities Fund, which aims to enhance public spaces and improve connectivity within the city.
The Heritage Action Zone will complement these broader efforts and create a more cohesive and vibrant city centre.
Historic England has enjoyed significant success, helping to breathe new life into town and city centres through Heritage Action Zones. We recently delivered a £95 million regeneration programme across 67 high streets across England, bringing more than 700 buildings back into productive use in left-behind places and engaging nearly 3 million people through a cultural programme that connected communities with their local high streets.
We're thrilled to receive this significant investment from Historic England, which will play a crucial role in bringing Bradford's rich heritage back to life. This Heritage Action Zone will not only preserve our historic buildings but also drive regeneration in the heart of the city, helping us create a vibrant and thriving city centre as we head towards 2025 and our year as the UK City of Culture. By connecting our heritage with our future, we’re building a legacy that will benefit generations to come, boosting both local pride and economic growth.
Bradford is a city with an abundance of remarkable architecture. From the iconic City Hall and the newly transformed Bradford Live building to the historically significant Little Germany, the city's heritage is visible at every turn. Preserving this heritage is essential—not just for today, but for future generations—to foster civic pride and strengthen community bonds.
While preservation can be expensive, it should be seen as an investment. A Heritage Action Zone will provide the necessary focus, acting as a catalyst for restoration, sustainability, and economic growth, attracting visitors from both Bradford and beyond.
Bringing a Heritage Action Zone to Bradford is a fantastic achievement for the city, and will have a noticeable positive impact on some of our oldest and most historic streets.
The city centre's remarkable 19th-century buildings are a tremendous source of civic pride for the people of Bradford, and we now have a great opportunity to restore many of them to their former glory.
Aside from architectural improvements, our new Heritage Action Zone will help bring some of the area's fascinating history and stories to life too. Judging by the success of similar initiatives in other cities, I think people will be very pleased with future results in Bradford.
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