Kirkgate Shopping Centre

Kirkgate Shopping Centre, known locally and historically as Kirkgate Market, was a shopping centre located in the city centre of Bradford, United Kingdom. The former market closed its doors on June 28, 2025. Originally opening in 1872 as a market, the original market operated for just over a century. The site of the original marketplace was demolished in 1973 and reopened the same year as a shopping centre on the 22nd November 1973 with a notable brutalist architecture designed by John Brunton & Partners who also designed other brutalist buildings in the city, such as High Point. The shopping centre contained multiple floors with 350,000sq ft of retail space, including an indoor market, 60 retail units, 10 kiosks, a 650 space secured car park. The shopping centre, along with the former John Street Market, is planned to be demolished in 2026 as part of a city centre regeneration scheme for Bradford in line with a UK City of Culture 2025 bid. The former shopping centre will be replaced by public garden areas, residential plots composed of new build housing and a new Darley Street Market.

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1858 Bradford sweets poisoning

In 1858 a batch of sweets in Bradford, England, was accidentally adulterated with poisonous arsenic trioxide. About five pounds (two kilograms) of sweets were sold to the public, leading to around 20 deaths and over 200 people suffering the effects of arsenic poisoning. The adulteration of food had been practised in Britain since before the Middle Ages, but from 1800, with increasing urbanisation and the rise in shop-purchased food, adulterants became a growing problem. With the cost of sugar high, replacing it with substitutes was common. For the sweets produced in Bradford, the confectioner was supposed to purchase powdered gypsum, but a mistake at the wholesale chemist meant arsenic was purchased instead. Three men were arrested—the chemist who sold the arsenic, his assistant and the sweet maker—but all three were acquitted after the judge decided it was all accidental and there was no case for any of them to answer. The deaths led to the Adulteration of Food or Drink Act 1860, although the legislation was criticised for being too ambiguous and the penalties for breaching it too low to act as a deterrent. The deaths were also a factor in the passage of the Pharmacy Act 1868.

Bradford Mechanics' Institute Library

The Bradford Mechanics' Institute Library was established in Bradford, England, in 1832 as part of a national initiative to provide adult education especially in technical subjects for working men. The institute in Bradford was supported by numerous local worthies, including James Hanson after whom is named one of Bradford's largest high schools.

BD1 Gallery

BD1 Gallery is an art gallery in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, that opened in 2017 with an exhibition of the work of music photographer Lawrence Watson, showcasing portraits from Watson's 30-plus year career, including images of Oasis, David Bowie, Morrissey, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, Snoop Dogg, Issac Hayes, Run DMC and George Clinton.

Sunbridge Wells

Sunbridge Wells is a leisure and shopping facility and tourist attraction built in tunnels in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The centre was opened in 2016. It is named after the Kent town Royal Tunbridge Wells due to the former's stereotype of being traditional.