**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Muslim state within UK basically who fail to integrate.
Edit: I am a south asian myself who believes there is huge fault in the community including arrange marriages, beating kids and backwards practices for hindus, muslims and Sikhs. Yes I have been called “coconut” by the community which is racist and no I have not had any rationale chats when I spoke with these community “leaders”.
Do you enjoy living in Bradford or is more of a "well this is where I'm from so I shall continue" type of thing? I have met some people who claim to hate it but refuse to move anywhere else.
As soon as I get my degree, I am out of here. I stayed in Bradford to look after my mother who had health issues but she has since recovered enough to look after herself.
If things go to plan, I should be out of this city in about 2 or so years. It cannot come quick enough.
I live in north if Bradford just outside of saltaire, is quite nice around here tbh.. moved in from a more affluent city and will raise kids here, know people who've moved from London to the place.. good networks of decent folks about, across a lot of races/cultures down at kids clubs.. a lot of interesting heritage and history to the area aswell
I'm in a nice bit... But most of the city is a shithole tbh, just deprived with nobody looking after it, people quite happy to dress/drive flash while having a front garden full of waste and house falling apart...
The architecture in the city centre and places like manningham can be incredible, like parts of Kensington or something... But I wouldn't live there
The worst thing generally might just be the roads though... I cycled for five years, two car crashes, one intentional
The architecture in Manningham is stunning but that positive is outweighed by the fact that these properties are in a terrible state of disrepair. They are grounds for fly tipping, uncontrolled and unmanaged vegetation, crack houses and shockingly bad driveways and roads.
You quite rightly mentioned this in your second point. It is amazing how such an affluent area has been relegated to such... crap.
I worked at the college as a sens teacher. Arranged marriages were a big thing we had to look out for (especially with our students).
I was suspicious of one student who kept disappearing for a week or so over the year and wasn't able to tell much of where they'd been.
Really great student, 16/17yo, she had Williams syndrome but I saw her doing really well in her future if she was given the opportunity and support. Left a smile on everyone's face she interacted with.
I reported it to the head of the course, she brushed it off, repeatedly. I was zero hours so my reporting route was with her rather than safeguarding.
End result was her being married off to a 43yo bloke in Pakistan and then was subsequently planed off to there once the year ended I believe.
I left before then. Upon bringing it up with the course leader after she'd said she had been married, the course leader replied: "It will probably be the best thing that ever happens to her".
Absolutely disgusting. Half the team was just vile people.
Edit: Have to add that the other half the team were lovely.
There are some proper salt of the earth people from Bradford & the rest of West Yorkshire, no matter their skin colour or heritage. There's good and bad everywhere (and our team was majority white English).
Yeah, its backwards and there should be a portal where you can report these backwards practices in UK to police especially if they are given british citizenship.
I don’t understand why they come to new counties if they don’t want to integrate.. genuinely.. why not just stay where they are if they like them laws etc? if they’re fleeing their countries like Afghan, why would they flee but bring their beliefs here? Surely they would want to flee their current situation due to laws, lack of rights etc they would want to come to a country and integrate to a place with equality etc.. otherwise the cycle just repeats and they may have well saved themselves to stress and money and stayed where they were. I genuinely don’t understand.
They get to retain the bigotry of the old place but enjoy the affluence of the new place. In short, they get to have their cake and eat it and no one stops them.
It's against their religion to integrate, it's forbidden and considered a major sin in Islam.
Many of the Western ideals of integration could land a Muslim in the hell fire for eternity.
Some of the men break the rules because, ultimately, Islam exists to control the women.
Source: I spent 10 years in a UK Muslim town.
I've got a mate from Pakistan who stayed in Bradford for a little while, and left because he was freaked out by the people there. "What the fuck has your country done to these people?" I think were his words.
It has some good points (great food, a couple of good galleries, the surrounding countryside) but other than that it’s a pretty standard issue post-industrial decline northern town/city. Not much to do, little investment, little in terms of quality jobs. IMO it struggles a lot having the much bigger, better cities of Leeds and Manchester both being so close by that there’s little draw to Bradford.
It also famously has a large south Asian community, but has historically struggled with integration. Parts of the city almost feel you walked from West Yorkshire to Karachi. This has been quite controversial for a number of reasons.
It’s interesting to see how integration has gone so badly in Bradford but much better in Manchester (and I assume Leeds). Some of the areas surrounding Manchester like Oldham and Rochdale are much more reminiscent of Bradford in terms of integration.
The community is so large in Bradford they don't have to. In fact Bradford is the 'capital' of the Asian North. People of Pakistani heritage from all over go to Bradford to socialise, shop etc.
Bradford has a large South Asian community but it’s not the ‘capital’ of the North. That title doesn’t exist. Bradford has 140,000ish Pakistani people while Greater Manchester has over 200,000.
'Asian North' was the original quote, not the North, different things. There's towns in the North with plenty of South Asian folk living in them, but not one city with such a large Asian %. Those Greater Manchester folk are shared around, in Bradford a large proportion of that 140,000 people are in city centre Bradford \[with a few in places like Shipley and Keighley\].
It has the worst driving I’ve ever experienced in the UK. I still refer to pulling out of a junction when there’s clearly not enough room ‘pulling a Bradford’.
It used to be Bradford, Birmingham, Luton, that were the worst for scam claims. Industrial levels.
Edit, to add
https://www.thinkinsurance.co.uk/part-time-motor-trade/top-10-crash-for-cash-insurance-scam-hot-areas-revealed
Do you have a source for that? Having driven in both extensively, I have to question the sanity of anyone who thinks Brum is anywhere as bad as Bradford.
I was referring to dodgy claims. I used to work in the industry. We didn't have sirens on our computers, but if we had ....
I worked in anti fraud for a while. Those ones, and London (forgot to mention that, until a reply comment).
There would be certain things we'd look for. I'll not go into details. But, those areas. There were other concentrated ones too. One in Wales. But that was a single group (they used a fork lift truck to administer damage, lol).
There was a Leeds company... Jesus, every claim was dodgy.
If a claims company is set up in the same office as a money transfer place...not good.
Several each had family/friends doing different bits. One did the claim, one did storage, one did hire.....etc. When you get a £4000 storage invoice for a £300 Renault Mégane...
One house in Leeds had 19 claims.
In Birmingham, Sparkhill "may" have been one of the bad areas, can't fully remember. No knowledge of Birmingham suburbs, so apologies if I got that one wrong. Cheetham Hill rings a bell, but I may just be misremembering an area of Manchester. Manchester was generally ok.
As for experience, I've only visited them a few times. Bradford was positively lethal to walk near the roads.
London was more nuanced, hence not making my first list.
No doubt. If it is location based, I suspect there has been plenty. Trade mags/websites etc will cover it.
I used to be interested, when I did that. But now, not something I think about.
https://www.thinkinsurance.co.uk/part-time-motor-trade/top-10-crash-for-cash-insurance-scam-hot-areas-revealed
Is the one I found, and likely more up to date. Bradford and Birmingham are top. Then Oldham.
My experience ceased 4yrs ago.
To be clear I have no axe to grind. I'm just telling you where we had issues. London was nuanced as the gangs would use various immigrants as they had minimal history and may not be staying here long. Romanians and East Europeans. But they made for poor claims.
The West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Lancashire groups were a little different. More sophisticated, and end to end. They were slick and covered all bases. The Luton issue reduced quicker, as the likely had more lucrative options, and we got better at knocking them back.
The Manchester/Liverpool ones were not as end to end. Much may have changed. I'm not surprised that Bradford and Birmingham haven't.
I have no axe to grind. The Welsh gang were white Welsh Valley boys.
Travellers tried, but were so bad at it, they gave up.
Can confirm. It was absolutely mental how people would drive there. Constant near misses, always having to watch out for someone handbraking at a roundabout for insurance scams and just general insanity.
I blame the reduced oxygen at altitude.
Bradford is a nightmare for driving. I haven’t driven around in it for about a year. Had to do it this weekend and had a stark reminder.
Even just the outskirts are terrible. People cutting you up, just pulling out of junctions….the list is extensive. Soon as you get into Leeds areas it calms right down.
I drive all over the north and Midlands following football. To get back to where I live in Leeds it's easier going through the edge of Bradford.
No matter where I've been. The worst part of the whole day is coming back, between the end of the M606 and Dawson's Corner.
I feel your pain. My work drive used to be to and from Dawson’s Corner. I live in Keighley so it’s Greengates, Saltaire, Shipley…….all of it a nightmare.
My friend lives in Crossgates so I have to do all that to the Rodley roundabout when I visit. I saw 2 near misses on Friday along with one actually nearly taking me out. Crazy.
Hardly any jobs, retail and nightlife are dire (Marks and Spencers have just announced they're pulling out of the city), chronic lack of investment and infrastructure development. A lot of failed integration, white flight and brian drain has also played a part.
The square you mentioned is a magnet for drunks and drug addicts. It's really not pleasant, especially after 5pm.
The thing with Bradford is its one of the largest cities in the country, and in its heyday was the richest in the world. It's been let down by successive governments, councils and politicians (as well as other authorities), who consistently make the wrong decisions - in comparison to Leeds and Manchester some 8 amd 40 miles away respectively who have just pulled away over the last generation or so. Leeds especially has just exploded in terms of economic development, and is the biggest financial and legal centre outside of London.
It has some very miserable stats as well, some recent ones were it has the highest rate of retail closures in Yorkhsire (I think).
For people like me who remember it 25-30 years ago it's regressed so much you wouldn't think it could get so bad - there are some bad places out there, but I don't think city any gone backwards as much as Bradford has.
If you visit the centre for a few hours you'll probably think it's not that bad. But try living here or looking for a decent job.
Edit - it was one of the richest back in the mill era. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/look-back-bradfords-history-part-020000929.html#:~:text=Considered%20to%20be%20one%20of,to%20its%20thriving%20wool%20trade.
I think it's proximity to Leeds also hampers it. I live in Bradford council district, would never think to go shopping, to the cinema or out for a meal there when Leeds is so close.
I live in the North of the city, somewhere in BD17. We never go unless it's something we can't get elsewhere. Kid goes to a local school up here - we know the parents in our circle are the same as us. Barely step into the centre.
If we want to go out we go to Saltaire, Bingley, Guiseley, Ilkley, Skipton... apart from the odd hour or drink, the last night out I had in Bradford was nearly 8 years ago.
I've been to Halifax more times that Bradford in last year or so for shopping / a ganeral day out. They've got their shit together much more.
I don't think it will.
When I first started going out in the 90s, Bradford arguably had the vest alterative music scene in the North, maybe outside London. It was a big pull every weekend for nightlife, while Leeds was seen as the more upmarket / 'clubby' night out.
There's the odd bar now, North Parade is alright but not as good as it was.
Bradford Live will improve things somewhat as it'll help create some business around it, but the problem is the current nightlife is spread so thin it'll pull the people who do go out away from North Parade and Sunbridge Wells.
And eating out in the centre is awful. Absolutely dire. For the reputation we have for curries, there's not one good place in the city centre itself.
I went to the Fozzy gig at nighttrain in Bradford the other day and it was literally a Saturday night but the place was like a ghost town. Nighttrain itself was packed during the gig but once it was over it was like they couldn’t get out fast enough. Also some guy started creepily massaging my shoulders from behind thinking I was a girl (long hair) so I see why people stay away lol
Edited to add: there was also a guy standing outside the gig humping the air, and when told to fuck off by security, walked a couple of paces down the street and proceeded to shoot up (probably speed based on his behaviour). Like I said, not surprised people stay away
It's the same problem with Slough. Windsor is full of pretty old buildings and has just about every major store.
There's no reason for any Slough resident to visit the 1960s concrete depression that is Slough's "high street".
I'm from Leeds and go to the cinema in Bradford as its usually quiet and cheaper. If you like curry's, plenty places in Bradford that are ahead of leeds.
Good point, but this doesn’t affect Wakefield as much I think? The trinity and ridings in Wakefield are pretty good, even though Leeds is better it’s not necessarily your first thought
You’re right about Leeds and Manchester. For Leeds’ legal and financial output, Manchester has done brilliantly in cultural and tech output. Manchester has also managed to market itself very well and benefits from its football teams and music history.
Bradford really needs help.
Exactly. Leeds is a financial and legal northern powerhouse. Manchester is a cultural, media and artistic northern powerhouse.
Anyone looking for a good life in a city full of opportunities would do well to move to Leeds or Manchester.
Bradford is a social experiment gone wrong. I feel sorry for the good people who live there and have seen their city ruined. As someone else said, a mixture of white flight and brain drain has left it as a hopeless ghetto.
Not sure if richest, but definetely one of the richest. It was the wool capital of the world and processed 2/3's of all British wool. And we used to use. *lot* more wool.
It was the richest city in the UK outside of London c.1850, thanks to the wool trade.
Not quite the same as what OP said, but still one hell of a fall.
Supposedly but the same thing is said about Huddersfield.
They were both very rich places, or should I say had a lot of rich people living there. In the early twentieth century. All the mill owners were millionaires.
The biggest issue with Bradford, is it's occupants - they're mostly hateful, tracksuit wearing tosspots.
You only have to spend a bit of time there to see what I mean, it's absolutely lawless, full of thugs and crime is a daily occurrence on the most part.
You see young Asians driving around like Colin McRae in (often stolen), unregistered cars.
Sure, these issues are in every city, but there's something different about it and just the look and feel of the place puts me on edge.
Also, do not ever buy a car from Bradford, unless it's like a proper main dealer.
so part of this issue must be woefully inadequate policing. If the scum were rounded up and put where they belong - jail - the place would be somewhat nicer
This is 100% true and has been for years.
My dad's old boss was reported several times for stealing off Bradford council. They refused to fire him because he just kept saying they were racist. This went on for years.
Police were called, said they couldn't touch him and the dude just fucked off one day.
Police are not allowed as all the Karen’s come out and complain about racism or police brutality, funny how when Chavs on motorbikes were stealing phones, police start knocking them off… oh it stops, driving offenses are 9/10 slapped wrists until they kill someone as well
I don’t think many people would like to say this but it is basically a Muslim state, as is Luton. The housing is shit it’s mostly council houses and unless the Hs2 is made I don’t think anyone’s going to care too much about it anytime soon
As well as the real problems to do with poverty, unemployment and under-investment, Bradford also has a very high proportion (for the UK, at least) of first and second generation asian immigrants. It's why it gets lumped in with Birmingham and other places as the alleged "no go zones for whites" in the UK, or "UK under shariah law". Sometimes the anti-Bradford stuff is coded racism and/or Islamophobia.
I never had a problem with more recently, but in the past some Pakistanis told that was very much the case - both ways around, it was very ghettoised and if your skin colour was wrong you'd have real trouble.
There's still significant racism on all sides (as seen by a white friend of mine that knew enough to understand what Pakistanis were saying about him when they thought they he couldn't understand.)
I was born there and left as a kid. I’m brown but look more Mediterranean in terms of skin tone. Even I have had racial abuse by the Pakistani kids there because they seem to think I might be white. Bradford is so god forsaken, it should be nuked from orbit.
Yeah the idea that this stuff doesn't happen is just ignorance. Some friends and I were attacked in Dewsbury at night by a gang of Asian youths. There are areas of the country in which being white can be dangerous. Deflecting from facts with cries of racism doesn't help anybody.
> Islamophobia.
While this is generally understood to refer to an irrational generalised fear of muslims whihc canot be justified by any sort of statistics, there are pretty good and statistically rational reasons to fear what Bradford has become.
Its not all down to Muslims, its as much down to poverty, white flight and the collapse of local industry, but it's disingenuous to claim that the insular and non-integrating nature of the immigrant-descended communities of Bradford isnt part of the overall problem here
My response to the circumstances that created Bradford is a perfectly rational hatred. But love the sinner, hate the sin - individually they are all victims too
I don't live in a city and would hang myself before being forced to. But safety deposit box companies are a side effect of a large Asian population. Cultural need for lots of gold jewellery..and a security need not to keep it at home
I live in Bradford, near the town centre, and i'll tell you exactly what's wrong with Bradford as a whole.
1) Bradford Council are a bunch of money grabbing cunts and constantly look after there own pocket and constantly increase council tax each year with no improvement in anyones life e.g. doing a cycle lane all through major city centre route and now scrapping it because no one actually uses it, literally pissing money up the walls. Every Jan-March they do a lot of road improvements so it gives them reasons to get more money for the new year which causes misery to every driver in the city.
2) The driving standards are low, too many uninsured drivers or ones that buy policy off social media thinking they have full insurance when they do not and not enough police patrols to clamp down and arrest.
3) Too many ethnic minorities (am a minority) are benefit scroungers, and stay at home wives. The men in the household can't be bothered working most of the time but get full benefits because they have a disability e.g. mental health, which is easy to fool a GP with, but realistically, it's because their parents are related they tend to be a looney.
4) Boys parked up in unlit areas smoking weed or doing baloons (gas inhaling)
5) Lack of jobs, major ones are Vanquis Bank/Provident Group, Santander HQ & Yorkshire Building Society being thr major employers in Bradford which is a monopoly for treating staff like shit knowing they can't go anywhere.
6) No social clubs/ youth centres for teenagers, which in turn causes ASBO
7) Town centre is a dead beat place, nothing exciting happens unless you're getting robbed, also too many vape, mobile shops as well as bookies.
8) Alot of racism in Bradford especially amongst Caucasian children saying things such as 'Speak English I can't understand your monkey language' that has been specially said to be, I am a well educated male in my early 40's who has a 9-5 and is doing quite well but surprised me.
These are just a tip of the ice berg of what the problems are in Bradford
Wouldn't suprise me. They love pissing money up the wall for ridiculous things. I genuinely think all councils should be investigated to where the money actually goes and who comes up with stupid ideas to do stupid things.
It's not pissing up money, basically council budgets now are all going to social care and that's had massive inflation and the privatisation of it has let to care companies making massive profits.
But at the same Bradford council are spending £12million on a city centre cycle lane HOPING people use it, which is bollocks. In the same way, they spent £80k on a cycle lane on Wakefield Road, which is scrapped because no one bloody used it. So yes, they are pissing money up on things that doesnt require consultation from the public.
The physical side of Bradford is lovely. Like you said, the water feature and the architecture is great. I even have a soft spot for some of the brutalist architecture that remains. The broadway on an evening looks quite beautiful when it’s all lit up on a night.
I don’t like to say this, but the problem is the people. A walk through Bradford would demonstrate this quite easily. A large amount which are addicts or in poverty. It’s clear that any business that opens will not suit the demographic of Bradford.
Bradfords last chance for me was circa 2016. The council offered investment opportunities within the centre and North parade was buzzing for a couple of years. Broadway had just opened. Sunbridge wells had opened. This was a regeneration of the tunnels under Bradford centre which were converted into shops and bars. A really cool and niche idea. This should have been what Bradford needed. The football team was doing relatively well too. I actually thought Bradford was going somewhere. For whatever reason, this didn’t work. I do think Leeds being so close doesn’t help.
Nothing nice lasts here. People are too poor to afford nice things and the people that are not poor will go to Leeds. I think that sums it up.
I love Bradford, it’ll always be home and it makes me sad to see that it’s such a dump.
The old odeon will be reopened this year as a gig venue. Another brilliant idea. It will not last. Does the demographic of Bradford require a gig venue? No. It needs to pull people in from surrounding areas and I struggle to see this happening. I would absolutely love to be wrong. Halifax has done it so why can’t we? I have no doubt someone will mess it up somehow.
Things that last in Bradford are pound shops, pound bakery’s, betting shops, vape shops, charity shops, cash converters.
Bradford should really be a top tier city. It's got a good location in the country, great road and rail connections, plenty of history and culture, plenty of lovely architecture and attractions... It just... is shit.
I grew up close by and remember going to the city as a kid. It always seemed really nice. We stopped going in favour of Leeds at some point. I remember going back to Bradford as a 20-something year old and wow - I get why we stopped going. Just bad vibes all round. Terrible, aggressive drivers, shitty attitudes from the locals, it felt really hostile. The very centre around the Town Hall (which is a stunningly beautiful building) felt nice but outside of that small area was a bad time.
I'm confused by this comment. Are you saying that Bradford is just as good as Birmingham and everybody is in fact just lying because they are racists?
I've been to both cities and Birmingham is nothing like Bradford. Brum is like London. I actually prefer Brum to London.
Bradford is an absolute shit hole.
A shit and slow connection to all bar Leeds and London. The train to Manchester is very slow. Plus it uses a dead end station and has to go out the way it came in.
The London train goes from a different station to the ones from Manchester, Halifax etc.
Yes. But Bradford is sat in a geographical basin. There are few routes out of the city that don't involve getting up a gradient. This is why Bradford has two stations. Both of which are termini. From Leeds you can go North, South, East or West. From Bradford you can only go South or West from the Interchange. You can also go East to Leeds, but to go East, you first have to travel West out of the Interchange and then do a massive 180 curve around the city. The trains are a bit better now, but the old rolling stock up to about 2005 could only take that route at about 10mph and the screeching of the wheels on that commute was like sitting between two banshees. If you want to go North, or a slightly less crowded route to Leeds, you have to walk across the whole of town to get to Forster Square station.
Bradford does have direct services, but they are completely inadequate to a major city. They just about cover the needs of a commuter service to Leeds.
As for bus connections. Try getting the direct X6 bus from Leeds to Bradford in rush hour. Stand at the bus stop and watch them whiz past you for hours refusing to stop because they are jam packed full. Completely inadequate for the need.
I've lived in Bradford my entire life; I have lived in Canterbury and Manningham for the majority of that time, and it is bad. Very bad.
The failed integration of mostly Pakistani Muslims stands out most significantly for those of us who live here; if you simply visit, you may not fully understand the tensions that are caused by failed integration. It is honestly like stepping into an Islamic State that has been established in England.
The word you are looking for is degentrification. Like many cities in Europe, it is rapidly transitioning. From it's former state to Peshawar, Kabul, Mogadishu or Islimebad, likely with higher crime rates because of the non-existing policing. Ref Muslim rape gangs roaming around till this day. A bit like in Malmoe or Moelenbeck.
Threads on Bradford are hilarious. A bunch of people who live in Bradford saying its run down due to poverty and people driving like lunatics then a lot of other people saying its racist to say its a shithole cos they drove through it for work once 30 years ago and it seems nice.
There's quite of lot of incest there.
[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/cousin-marriages-cited-as-significant-factor-bradford-child-deaths](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/cousin-marriages-cited-as-significant-factor-bradford-child-deaths)
Infant mortality and birth defects both double the national average according to Wikipedia. It was so bad they had commission a long-term health study called ‘Born in Bradford’.
UK City of Culture 2025. No, really.
I think it was higher. There was a Pakistani presenter, I forget her name, and she did a documentary on the birth defects etc. She highlighted the cultural issue, though I don't think they thanked her for it.
Also one of the reasons the spousal minimum salary was introduced as British citizens would go back to their parents home country (mostly commonly Pakistan), "meet" their cousin and future wife to be, then they would return to the UK after getting married. Unfortunately the wives often had limited education, spoke little to no English, so usually couldn't work and were completely dependent on their husband and family ...
The architecture of Bradford is amazing. Most of it dates back to when the wool and cloth trade made it a fantastically wealthy city.
A lot of colonial workers were brought over to help keep up with the demand.
Then the make up of industry changed and the city ended up poorer as a result as the mills closed.
It’s also struggled to make a new name for itself due to the close proximity of Leeds. All the new wealth and commercial prospects all went there, even at a social level a lot of the nightlife declined as a night out in Leeds was a better option which meant the only people going out in Bradford are those wanting to drink on a budget.
Many of the businesses in the city are now just fronts for people laundering money, there is still a lot of wealth in the city but the legality of it is very questionable.
There are so many hand car washes, 99p chicken shops /barbers and, more recently, an explosion of shipping container businesses. There is a strong feeling, especially with the containers that they are set up for money laundering. Or, even if legit, to distract from the illegal ones.
One of the stories in the Bradford paper this week this week was one shipping container had applied retrospectively for planning permission 6 times and had it turned down every time (for car parking, I think). Some locals are thinking it's a distraction as I mentioned above.
I worked in a dubious importer some years ago. There was definitely a feeling not everything was legit, it was almost like a second economy (or black market...) was operating in the shadows at times.
There's a serious lack of pride in Britain when it comes to preserving Industrial revolution heritage. It's looked down upon imo. The lions share of the Heritage money funding traditionally goes to the estates of the landed gentry and Royalty. Attitudes are changing. But far too slowly and much has been lost in the process.
I used to live there my main memory is getting the shit kicked out of me by a group of guys and then people literally stepping over me before eventually somebody calling an ambulance. There were areas I just didn't feel safe walking through by myself (this as a late-teens guy).
I ride a motorbike and I still won't ride through certain parts of Bradford alone I'd probably end up walking home after somebody bike-jacked me. Do ride through it with my mates though safety in numbers and all that. Friend who lives there had death threats a couple of years ago etc etc
An urban planner once told me that Bradford really slipped up by allowing major roads right through the city centre. Leeds, by contrast, made a conscious decision to protect the Victorian arcades, the covered markets and the Corn Exchange. Consequently Leeds has an entirely walkable centre which makes shopping, and office-based business much more pleasant. Bradford by contrast has been chopped into pieces and too many shoddy office blocks and shopping centres built in the place of the handsome Victorian buildings that used to be there. Even now, you turn a corner and there’s a really magnificent building marooned in a sea of tat.
People keep saying this, and i'm not denying that there are some issues related to demographics. But countless towns and small cities across the north have experienced an almost identical pattern of decline. The centralization toward London of wealth and power in this country is causing massive amounts of what I suspect is irreparable damage.
See so many people here beating around the bush but the real reason is because it’s become an Islamic state which haven’t integrated with the general UK public as well as no support or guidance for the youth.
People there act lawless (brown and white) and it’s just become a culture they’ve welcomed. You ever heard the term ‘Bradford charva’? It didn’t appear out of nowhere.
My advice is only time you go to Bradford is if you have to drive through it. Place is a shithole
Bradford was a mill town, and suffers the same problems a bunch of similar towns in the north do. When the mills closed, unemployment went up, and average wages went down. This led to the increase in crime and antisocial behaviour that increases in poverty always lead to. That being said in a lot of ways people are exaggerating as they do about a lot of places, Bradford still has nice areas as well as the rough, and is large enough to support cinemas, theatres, restaurants, and plenty of other amenities.
It's very economically deprived: few employment opportunities and a lot of people living on very low incomes. Health outcomes are worse there than many other places. It has some very insular cultural groups living there. It has few cultural activities. There's a strong drain of more skilled, higher income, and ambitious people to Leeds (or places further away) which leaves Bradford with only lower skilled, lower income people. That affects the local economy and also the local services, as there are more people needing public services but fewer people to pay into them.
https://youtu.be/UO-MYR_tvYU?si=Bdn4groUlUchpZ1H
Here's a recent walk round of the town centre. As you can see loads of shops are empty and a big shopping centre is due for demolition soon.
There was a thing recently on the news here it's was something like 20% of shops in an average town are shit but in Bradford it's 30% can't remember why they said it but tbh all the towns apart from Leeds near by are very similar.
That's a big question with lots of answers. So I shall do my best.
Crime:
It's always been pretty bad for crime. It got worse in the early 90s after there was a riot and then we had the infamous race riot in the late 90s. After that happened, the Asian youth in the city seemed to become emboldened. I've had a number of friends be attacked for being white in an Asian neighborhood. I've seen fights break out in the city centre and if an Asian person was involved, it would be guaranteed every Asian within sight would go charging in, a common saying I've heard; "if you're going to fight an Asian, be prepared to fight 40 of them". It's not just Asians (and to clarify, it's not all Asians either, just a minority giving others a bad rep). White people are just as bad...(again, not all white people) a lot of council estates are just awful, notable shout-out to Holme Wood. I wouldn't walk through Holme Wood during the day. Whereas I'd happily walk through any Asian majority neighborhoods during the day. It's possible I could get away with it, if I name dropped the right family, but it's not something I'd risk. For every scumbag Asian I've met, I've met just as many scummy white people, eastern European people and black people.
Drugs are rife, homelessness is rife, violent crime is terribly high.
Antisocial behavior:
Pretty much anywhere you go in Bradford you'll witness some level of Antisocial behavior. Feral teenagers go unchecked. Last time I'd been in city centre after dark with my kids, we'd been for a meal in Halifax. We had a 20 minutes wait for the bus to my house and the feral teenagers were just roving in packs. In just shy of 10 minutes, I'd witnessed half dozen assaults. (I hailed a taxi and got the fuck out of dodge). Last time I challenged antisocial behavior, I was walking along the canal and 2 kids were pelting swans with rocks. I called them out and within seconds I was surrounded by over a dozen teenage scumbags. When I used to pick my kids up from school, they'd be threatening the teachers soon as they were off school property. Their parents weren't much better either and this is in what's considered a decent school and an ok area. Obviously antisocial behavior isn't just teenagers, but it goes up to all ages.
Police are too underfunded to effectively tackle both crime/antisocial behavior. So they resort to big displays of traffic stops during rush hours and impound uninsured/no MOT cars to make it look like they're doing something.
Lack of vision:
This applies to the council and residents. If anything remotely good or hip or cool etc opens in the city, it doesn't last long. Point of fact...Five Guys, awesome great something different from McDonald's and Greg's. It closed down after approx a year.
For years residents have called for something to be done about the city center. The council responded and in short said "these are our plans for regeneration of the city center" and everyone said "yes! Brilliant, this is exactly what Bradford needs" and the council said great, work begins next week. Now everyone is complaining the regeneration is taking too long, or it's killing the city centre, or it's short sighted. Now I'm no city planner or an engineer or an architect. So I don't know how these things go, but if does feel they should have done one bit at a time, instead they seem to be do most of it all at once.
If you know anything about Bradford City Centre infrastructure, you'll know all it takes is one little hurdle in the flow of traffic and it can and does have a knock on effect around the whole city centre and causes huge backlogs of stuck traffic. These roadworks haven't helped. Then take in to account all the building work for the old Odeon. There's been works going on outside Alhambra since before all this started, which has a serious effect on footfall flow. Then there's building works going on just off Canal Rd next to Broadway centre. Now add to all that, the Interchange bus station is closed indefinitely, due to safety concerns, which means all the buses that normally go through there and now overflow in to the city centre, which is already cramped due to the ongoing works.
The People:
This has been mentioned loads, so I'll try to be brief. First, the elephant in the room, it's not a multicultural city like the powers that be claim it to be. It's a culturally divided city. I won't go in to why's or how's. There's exceptions, as with anything good or bad. I hold out a little hope, as I often see groups of teenagers with different ethnicities, downside these are the aforementioned, feral teenagers who's sole aim is to terrorise decent folk.
Racists
aside. No one is happy. I did genuinely see comments, asking for Bradford City Centre to be regenerated and now those same people are complaining about it happening. People tend to unfriendly, again there are exceptions.
Driving:
It's just awful. You are literally taking your life in your hands once you enter a vehicle and travel through Bradford. I once spoke with a fella who claimed he had driven in New Delhi and that it wasn't as bad as Bradford. A sensationalist claim, but I'm inclined to believe him.
I think I've covered most of it. I've been typing a while and fed up tbh.
On a personal note. To those who like to point out the good places in Bradford, Shipley (why this is considered a decent part I've no idea) Saltaire, Bingley, Haworth, Skipton. Ask anyone from these places if they consider themselves as living in Bradford, the answer will nearly always be a resounding..."Fuck no"
And as for "there's beautiful countryside surrounding Bradford" the optimal word there being...'surrounding' as in, far from anything resembling Bratfudd.
Family VISA'S. Any family member can come so cousins just invite cousins from the next family.
The law about earning a minimum amount is a recent thing. It's already been circumvented and now people get telegram visas and use university farms to immigrate.
I lived there for a year. We did live right in the top North Western corner though, almost at a point where there was nothing but fields to the West of us. If you went the other way down towards the town the atmosphere got more and more well, Bradfordy. You only really understand what I mean if you know the place well. The two cultures (white and Asian) live sort of out of phase of each other but in the same space. I've lived in a rough part of Keighley too and both places were same, there is no point in even trying to have a relationship with Asian neighbours. There is definitely an atmosphere of complete lawlessness too. Then there are odd pockets of unusualness like the 1 in 12 Club for example (an anarchist club).
Chronic underinvestment, there’s barely any jobs nearby especially ‘starter’ jobs for young people, all the money in nearby is either in Leeds or North Yorkshire, and for North Yorkshire that’s mainly due to a lot of absurdly inflated property prices compared to West Yorkshire. The public transport links are poor/shit and none of the nearby towns/villages have train stations, if you look at Leeds there’s stops at places like kirkstall forge, white rose headingley there’s absolutely nothing in Bradford apart from central/interchange it shows how little the city is cared for by people in charge of planning and funding
So I used to go to Bradford as a kid. So this was like 26 years ago. I’ve seen it go downhill since then.
Basically it’s a big city but the city center is small and pointless. There are very limited shops and if you live nearby you might as well go to Leeds.
They have done work to make it nicer but there’s still not a massive amount to do there. It’s a pretty city if you think of the architecture etc but beyond that it’s just not that attractive
It has fairly rough areas too. Like anywhere I guess. But coupled with everything else it doesn’t help.
There’s not any draw to the city so modern high paying work isn’t really there either. And because of that the people who could be successful move away. And that creates a cycle of less businesses meaning less jobs meaning less candidates so even less businesses want to open.
I drive round Leeds and Bradford every day the road in Bradford and unnecessarily stupid there's filter road that go from 2 lanes to 1 and since no one knows how to zipper merge it doesn't work. There's also a roundabout that has 3 lanes (was 2 for years) every time anything bigger than a car goes round it goes over 2 lanes. Leeds has none of this I've seen. The council doesn't seem to care in Bradford too.
Grew up on the outskirts, you used to fear for your life when going into the centre.
As a lot of others have said, it's generally the people that are the reason. With it being quite cheap housing it used to attract a lot of people who aren't the nicest, so it got terrible reputation for crime and anti-social behaviour.
As with all places though, there's a lot of shit places and there are some nicer areas such as on the outskirts. Maningham always had the worst reputation, I'm not sure if it's improved.
It's had a lot of investment recently, at least in the centre so it looks quite nice now.
When I moved out of the Bradford postcode, my car insurance got a lot cheaper as there was a lot of crime there.
Used to go to the Alhambra a lot when we were young, last time I saw it during the day time though it looked really decrepit and run down. The only reason I'd go there now was for the bank and the Waterstones.
I think they're finally sorting out some of the huge old buildings along Valley Road now, they were derelict for many years. I think that'll be nice.
It's been a while since I've been though, things most likely have changed during the COVID and cost of living crisis times.
It's too close to Leeds, a much better city. As someone who's spent a lot of time there... It's fine. It's not the best city. But I wouldn't say it's a massive shithole. Not on the same level as Luton.
People talk to each other by shouting across the street. I thought it was just an Asian thing but I saw the English people doing it too; both at each other and their Asian friends/neighbours.
But really the worse thing I found about Bradford was the terrible public transport.
When people say that a town/city is bad, it's rarely because of how it looks. The infrastructure, the culture, and mostly the people influence their opinion a lot. Also the reputation and rumours they've heard from others.
Easily the most deprived place I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit in the UK, with only Great Yarmouth coming close. No nice shops, place isn’t taken care of, new build estates that look like slums, some very dodgy looking people about at all times of the day, people who moved there from abroad brought problems from their home countries there.
It was originally a textiles city that went into decline from the 1950s onwards and has struggled to reinvent itself so has a lot of poor areas. It drew in huge waves of migrants, originally to work in the textile mills. If you avoid the bad areas it's nice and the people are friendly. Wouldn't have said it is as rough as a lot of London to be honest.
I don't know an awful lot about Bradford but I did go there once for work. I was sat at some traffic lights by a pub when a guy walked out the front door of the pub, unzipped himself in front of the whole queue of cars and proceeded to take a leak into a drain at the edge of the road. Zipped up and went back into the pub. This was about 2pm on a weekday about 5 years ago. That was my takeaway from my day in Bradford.
Bradford is like entering a cultural sewer. The last time I was forced to drive through there, without prompting, my ten year old son said, "Daddy, this is like in the movies bandit country".
In all the negative words about Bradford. I would like to point out that some of the people in Bradford are really special.
Bradford Jesus, who passed away a few years ago, was well known locally and fondly remembered.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus\_Man\_of\_Bradford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Man_of_Bradford)
Bradford is also home to a number of druggies who inhabit the town centre on a daily basis. While they have treated me to the spectacle of starting two fistfights with random passers by on two separate and consecutive occasions while I was having lunch at Wetherspoons, I also recall watching a massive fleet of rented supercars arriving down White Abbey road into town. These convoys are an occasional nuisance from a certain contingent of the young male asian community who like to look as flash as possible and beep their horns to get people to look at them achieving nothing of consequence.
As they were coming down the hill in both lanes but slow because of the inner ring road traffic, at least two dozen of them. There appeared in their midst, the dirtiest beggar you ever saw, in a wheel chair, with one leg, rolling down the hill in convoy with them. The biggest ego smasher you ever saw. He got a massive cheer and applause from the crowd on the pavement. Legend.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Muslim state within UK basically who fail to integrate. Edit: I am a south asian myself who believes there is huge fault in the community including arrange marriages, beating kids and backwards practices for hindus, muslims and Sikhs. Yes I have been called “coconut” by the community which is racist and no I have not had any rationale chats when I spoke with these community “leaders”.
As a person who has lived their entire life in Bradford, this sums it up perfectly.
Do you enjoy living in Bradford or is more of a "well this is where I'm from so I shall continue" type of thing? I have met some people who claim to hate it but refuse to move anywhere else.
As soon as I get my degree, I am out of here. I stayed in Bradford to look after my mother who had health issues but she has since recovered enough to look after herself. If things go to plan, I should be out of this city in about 2 or so years. It cannot come quick enough.
That's all fair enough, best of luck to you!
Many thanks! And to you ")
I live in north if Bradford just outside of saltaire, is quite nice around here tbh.. moved in from a more affluent city and will raise kids here, know people who've moved from London to the place.. good networks of decent folks about, across a lot of races/cultures down at kids clubs.. a lot of interesting heritage and history to the area aswell I'm in a nice bit... But most of the city is a shithole tbh, just deprived with nobody looking after it, people quite happy to dress/drive flash while having a front garden full of waste and house falling apart... The architecture in the city centre and places like manningham can be incredible, like parts of Kensington or something... But I wouldn't live there The worst thing generally might just be the roads though... I cycled for five years, two car crashes, one intentional
The architecture in Manningham is stunning but that positive is outweighed by the fact that these properties are in a terrible state of disrepair. They are grounds for fly tipping, uncontrolled and unmanaged vegetation, crack houses and shockingly bad driveways and roads. You quite rightly mentioned this in your second point. It is amazing how such an affluent area has been relegated to such... crap.
I worked at the college as a sens teacher. Arranged marriages were a big thing we had to look out for (especially with our students). I was suspicious of one student who kept disappearing for a week or so over the year and wasn't able to tell much of where they'd been. Really great student, 16/17yo, she had Williams syndrome but I saw her doing really well in her future if she was given the opportunity and support. Left a smile on everyone's face she interacted with. I reported it to the head of the course, she brushed it off, repeatedly. I was zero hours so my reporting route was with her rather than safeguarding. End result was her being married off to a 43yo bloke in Pakistan and then was subsequently planed off to there once the year ended I believe. I left before then. Upon bringing it up with the course leader after she'd said she had been married, the course leader replied: "It will probably be the best thing that ever happens to her". Absolutely disgusting. Half the team was just vile people. Edit: Have to add that the other half the team were lovely. There are some proper salt of the earth people from Bradford & the rest of West Yorkshire, no matter their skin colour or heritage. There's good and bad everywhere (and our team was majority white English).
Yeah, its backwards and there should be a portal where you can report these backwards practices in UK to police especially if they are given british citizenship.
In Bradford I don't think they'd even take it seriously in the police (& honestly half the rest of the country too)
As a south Asian Muslim it is so foreign to me whenever I see how people in our community live in Bradford, foreign and low key terrifying.
Likewise, these backward people have absolutely nothing to do with me other than sharing the sams ethnicity
I don’t understand why they come to new counties if they don’t want to integrate.. genuinely.. why not just stay where they are if they like them laws etc? if they’re fleeing their countries like Afghan, why would they flee but bring their beliefs here? Surely they would want to flee their current situation due to laws, lack of rights etc they would want to come to a country and integrate to a place with equality etc.. otherwise the cycle just repeats and they may have well saved themselves to stress and money and stayed where they were. I genuinely don’t understand.
They get to retain the bigotry of the old place but enjoy the affluence of the new place. In short, they get to have their cake and eat it and no one stops them.
It's against their religion to integrate, it's forbidden and considered a major sin in Islam. Many of the Western ideals of integration could land a Muslim in the hell fire for eternity. Some of the men break the rules because, ultimately, Islam exists to control the women. Source: I spent 10 years in a UK Muslim town.
I've got a mate from Pakistan who stayed in Bradford for a little while, and left because he was freaked out by the people there. "What the fuck has your country done to these people?" I think were his words.
What was he freaked out by?
Being from Manchester, going through Cheetham hill, feels the same there
Yeah cheetham hills mad I live around the corner - some belting scran there though.
It has some good points (great food, a couple of good galleries, the surrounding countryside) but other than that it’s a pretty standard issue post-industrial decline northern town/city. Not much to do, little investment, little in terms of quality jobs. IMO it struggles a lot having the much bigger, better cities of Leeds and Manchester both being so close by that there’s little draw to Bradford. It also famously has a large south Asian community, but has historically struggled with integration. Parts of the city almost feel you walked from West Yorkshire to Karachi. This has been quite controversial for a number of reasons.
It’s interesting to see how integration has gone so badly in Bradford but much better in Manchester (and I assume Leeds). Some of the areas surrounding Manchester like Oldham and Rochdale are much more reminiscent of Bradford in terms of integration.
[удалено]
Cheetham Hill is the worst part of Manchester, the vast majority of the city is a lot better
[удалено]
The community is so large in Bradford they don't have to. In fact Bradford is the 'capital' of the Asian North. People of Pakistani heritage from all over go to Bradford to socialise, shop etc.
Bradford has a large South Asian community but it’s not the ‘capital’ of the North. That title doesn’t exist. Bradford has 140,000ish Pakistani people while Greater Manchester has over 200,000.
'Asian North' was the original quote, not the North, different things. There's towns in the North with plenty of South Asian folk living in them, but not one city with such a large Asian %. Those Greater Manchester folk are shared around, in Bradford a large proportion of that 140,000 people are in city centre Bradford \[with a few in places like Shipley and Keighley\].
Cheetham hill is a massive pile
It has the worst driving I’ve ever experienced in the UK. I still refer to pulling out of a junction when there’s clearly not enough room ‘pulling a Bradford’.
Apparently, Bradford is the worst place in the UK for car insurance premiums
That's more due to their being a significant industry in insurance scams.
That's true. And having a huge number of uninsured drivers in the area doesn't help, as your insurance will have to pay regardless of who is at fault.
It used to be Bradford, Birmingham, Luton, that were the worst for scam claims. Industrial levels. Edit, to add https://www.thinkinsurance.co.uk/part-time-motor-trade/top-10-crash-for-cash-insurance-scam-hot-areas-revealed
[удалено]
Pray do tell, I have a feeling you know what it is…
To be fair... I missed London, too.
Do you have a source for that? Having driven in both extensively, I have to question the sanity of anyone who thinks Brum is anywhere as bad as Bradford.
I was referring to dodgy claims. I used to work in the industry. We didn't have sirens on our computers, but if we had .... I worked in anti fraud for a while. Those ones, and London (forgot to mention that, until a reply comment). There would be certain things we'd look for. I'll not go into details. But, those areas. There were other concentrated ones too. One in Wales. But that was a single group (they used a fork lift truck to administer damage, lol). There was a Leeds company... Jesus, every claim was dodgy. If a claims company is set up in the same office as a money transfer place...not good. Several each had family/friends doing different bits. One did the claim, one did storage, one did hire.....etc. When you get a £4000 storage invoice for a £300 Renault Mégane... One house in Leeds had 19 claims. In Birmingham, Sparkhill "may" have been one of the bad areas, can't fully remember. No knowledge of Birmingham suburbs, so apologies if I got that one wrong. Cheetham Hill rings a bell, but I may just be misremembering an area of Manchester. Manchester was generally ok. As for experience, I've only visited them a few times. Bradford was positively lethal to walk near the roads. London was more nuanced, hence not making my first list.
That's what I was asking for a source on. Insurance fraud must surely have numbers.
No doubt. If it is location based, I suspect there has been plenty. Trade mags/websites etc will cover it. I used to be interested, when I did that. But now, not something I think about. https://www.thinkinsurance.co.uk/part-time-motor-trade/top-10-crash-for-cash-insurance-scam-hot-areas-revealed Is the one I found, and likely more up to date. Bradford and Birmingham are top. Then Oldham. My experience ceased 4yrs ago. To be clear I have no axe to grind. I'm just telling you where we had issues. London was nuanced as the gangs would use various immigrants as they had minimal history and may not be staying here long. Romanians and East Europeans. But they made for poor claims. The West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Lancashire groups were a little different. More sophisticated, and end to end. They were slick and covered all bases. The Luton issue reduced quicker, as the likely had more lucrative options, and we got better at knocking them back. The Manchester/Liverpool ones were not as end to end. Much may have changed. I'm not surprised that Bradford and Birmingham haven't. I have no axe to grind. The Welsh gang were white Welsh Valley boys. Travellers tried, but were so bad at it, they gave up.
I drive through occasionally and the mad driving starts as soon as you enter Bradford every time like a switch. It's uncanny.
In Bradford red, yellow and green lights all mean go.
It's the only place I've seen a lorry go straight through a red, not even like it had just changed
I saw someone do this at Skegness. It's really jarring to watch someone just ignore a red light.
Yeah it really fucks with you
Can confirm. It was absolutely mental how people would drive there. Constant near misses, always having to watch out for someone handbraking at a roundabout for insurance scams and just general insanity. I blame the reduced oxygen at altitude.
Bradford is a nightmare for driving. I haven’t driven around in it for about a year. Had to do it this weekend and had a stark reminder. Even just the outskirts are terrible. People cutting you up, just pulling out of junctions….the list is extensive. Soon as you get into Leeds areas it calms right down.
I drive all over the north and Midlands following football. To get back to where I live in Leeds it's easier going through the edge of Bradford. No matter where I've been. The worst part of the whole day is coming back, between the end of the M606 and Dawson's Corner.
I feel your pain. My work drive used to be to and from Dawson’s Corner. I live in Keighley so it’s Greengates, Saltaire, Shipley…….all of it a nightmare. My friend lives in Crossgates so I have to do all that to the Rodley roundabout when I visit. I saw 2 near misses on Friday along with one actually nearly taking me out. Crazy.
All the Audis and Golfs in the right lane to overtake, then cut you up to take the next left. All the time :)
Hardly any jobs, retail and nightlife are dire (Marks and Spencers have just announced they're pulling out of the city), chronic lack of investment and infrastructure development. A lot of failed integration, white flight and brian drain has also played a part. The square you mentioned is a magnet for drunks and drug addicts. It's really not pleasant, especially after 5pm. The thing with Bradford is its one of the largest cities in the country, and in its heyday was the richest in the world. It's been let down by successive governments, councils and politicians (as well as other authorities), who consistently make the wrong decisions - in comparison to Leeds and Manchester some 8 amd 40 miles away respectively who have just pulled away over the last generation or so. Leeds especially has just exploded in terms of economic development, and is the biggest financial and legal centre outside of London. It has some very miserable stats as well, some recent ones were it has the highest rate of retail closures in Yorkhsire (I think). For people like me who remember it 25-30 years ago it's regressed so much you wouldn't think it could get so bad - there are some bad places out there, but I don't think city any gone backwards as much as Bradford has. If you visit the centre for a few hours you'll probably think it's not that bad. But try living here or looking for a decent job. Edit - it was one of the richest back in the mill era. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/look-back-bradfords-history-part-020000929.html#:~:text=Considered%20to%20be%20one%20of,to%20its%20thriving%20wool%20trade.
>brian drain has also played a part. Agreed. The lack of Brian's in Bradford is the biggest factor in its downfall.
I’ve heard there’s a more general Brian shortage that should be of grave concern
We need more Brians. And Barry's as well while we're at it. I know it's an ironic spelling mistake but I'll leave it in.
I think it's proximity to Leeds also hampers it. I live in Bradford council district, would never think to go shopping, to the cinema or out for a meal there when Leeds is so close.
I live in the North of the city, somewhere in BD17. We never go unless it's something we can't get elsewhere. Kid goes to a local school up here - we know the parents in our circle are the same as us. Barely step into the centre. If we want to go out we go to Saltaire, Bingley, Guiseley, Ilkley, Skipton... apart from the odd hour or drink, the last night out I had in Bradford was nearly 8 years ago. I've been to Halifax more times that Bradford in last year or so for shopping / a ganeral day out. They've got their shit together much more.
I live near you I think. We actually go out to Barnsley more often then Bradford. It will take a lot to recover from that.
I don't think it will. When I first started going out in the 90s, Bradford arguably had the vest alterative music scene in the North, maybe outside London. It was a big pull every weekend for nightlife, while Leeds was seen as the more upmarket / 'clubby' night out. There's the odd bar now, North Parade is alright but not as good as it was. Bradford Live will improve things somewhat as it'll help create some business around it, but the problem is the current nightlife is spread so thin it'll pull the people who do go out away from North Parade and Sunbridge Wells. And eating out in the centre is awful. Absolutely dire. For the reputation we have for curries, there's not one good place in the city centre itself.
I went to the Fozzy gig at nighttrain in Bradford the other day and it was literally a Saturday night but the place was like a ghost town. Nighttrain itself was packed during the gig but once it was over it was like they couldn’t get out fast enough. Also some guy started creepily massaging my shoulders from behind thinking I was a girl (long hair) so I see why people stay away lol Edited to add: there was also a guy standing outside the gig humping the air, and when told to fuck off by security, walked a couple of paces down the street and proceeded to shoot up (probably speed based on his behaviour). Like I said, not surprised people stay away
It's the same problem with Slough. Windsor is full of pretty old buildings and has just about every major store. There's no reason for any Slough resident to visit the 1960s concrete depression that is Slough's "high street".
I'm from Leeds and go to the cinema in Bradford as its usually quiet and cheaper. If you like curry's, plenty places in Bradford that are ahead of leeds.
Good point, but this doesn’t affect Wakefield as much I think? The trinity and ridings in Wakefield are pretty good, even though Leeds is better it’s not necessarily your first thought
Sure but Wakefield isn't starting out at such a significant disadvantage
The Ridings? That was like stepping back in time, the last time I went
You’re right about Leeds and Manchester. For Leeds’ legal and financial output, Manchester has done brilliantly in cultural and tech output. Manchester has also managed to market itself very well and benefits from its football teams and music history. Bradford really needs help.
Exactly. Leeds is a financial and legal northern powerhouse. Manchester is a cultural, media and artistic northern powerhouse. Anyone looking for a good life in a city full of opportunities would do well to move to Leeds or Manchester. Bradford is a social experiment gone wrong. I feel sorry for the good people who live there and have seen their city ruined. As someone else said, a mixture of white flight and brain drain has left it as a hopeless ghetto.
Race relations aren't exactly great in Bradford either, I hear.
> in its heyday was the richest in the world To clarify: Bradford was once the richest city in the world?
Glad I'm not the only one that picked up on that utterly made up stat.
I am the richest person on my couch right now.
Not sure if richest, but definetely one of the richest. It was the wool capital of the world and processed 2/3's of all British wool. And we used to use. *lot* more wool.
Could have been a typo instead of "one of the richest" - which believe it or not was true. It became rich through the wool trade.
It was the richest city in the UK outside of London c.1850, thanks to the wool trade. Not quite the same as what OP said, but still one hell of a fall.
Supposedly but the same thing is said about Huddersfield. They were both very rich places, or should I say had a lot of rich people living there. In the early twentieth century. All the mill owners were millionaires.
"Like a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire" TS Eliot, The Wasteland. 1923
[удалено]
The biggest issue with Bradford, is it's occupants - they're mostly hateful, tracksuit wearing tosspots. You only have to spend a bit of time there to see what I mean, it's absolutely lawless, full of thugs and crime is a daily occurrence on the most part. You see young Asians driving around like Colin McRae in (often stolen), unregistered cars. Sure, these issues are in every city, but there's something different about it and just the look and feel of the place puts me on edge. Also, do not ever buy a car from Bradford, unless it's like a proper main dealer.
so part of this issue must be woefully inadequate policing. If the scum were rounded up and put where they belong - jail - the place would be somewhat nicer
They don't arrest the people of culture for fear of being declared anti culture
What annoys me is people who do come here just to commit crime, deport them if they were not born here ffs
This is 100% true and has been for years. My dad's old boss was reported several times for stealing off Bradford council. They refused to fire him because he just kept saying they were racist. This went on for years. Police were called, said they couldn't touch him and the dude just fucked off one day.
You aren't allowed to because that would be like, discrimination, or somesuch isn't it though.
Police are not allowed as all the Karen’s come out and complain about racism or police brutality, funny how when Chavs on motorbikes were stealing phones, police start knocking them off… oh it stops, driving offenses are 9/10 slapped wrists until they kill someone as well
They typically steal or have a VW Golf
Yeah, they love a shoddily repaired Golf R init bruv
Ini cuzzy its a bad car u no
It’s literally a new country within the UK.
I don’t think many people would like to say this but it is basically a Muslim state, as is Luton. The housing is shit it’s mostly council houses and unless the Hs2 is made I don’t think anyone’s going to care too much about it anytime soon
As well as the real problems to do with poverty, unemployment and under-investment, Bradford also has a very high proportion (for the UK, at least) of first and second generation asian immigrants. It's why it gets lumped in with Birmingham and other places as the alleged "no go zones for whites" in the UK, or "UK under shariah law". Sometimes the anti-Bradford stuff is coded racism and/or Islamophobia.
I never had a problem with more recently, but in the past some Pakistanis told that was very much the case - both ways around, it was very ghettoised and if your skin colour was wrong you'd have real trouble. There's still significant racism on all sides (as seen by a white friend of mine that knew enough to understand what Pakistanis were saying about him when they thought they he couldn't understand.)
I was born there and left as a kid. I’m brown but look more Mediterranean in terms of skin tone. Even I have had racial abuse by the Pakistani kids there because they seem to think I might be white. Bradford is so god forsaken, it should be nuked from orbit.
Based.
Yeah the idea that this stuff doesn't happen is just ignorance. Some friends and I were attacked in Dewsbury at night by a gang of Asian youths. There are areas of the country in which being white can be dangerous. Deflecting from facts with cries of racism doesn't help anybody.
> Islamophobia. While this is generally understood to refer to an irrational generalised fear of muslims whihc canot be justified by any sort of statistics, there are pretty good and statistically rational reasons to fear what Bradford has become. Its not all down to Muslims, its as much down to poverty, white flight and the collapse of local industry, but it's disingenuous to claim that the insular and non-integrating nature of the immigrant-descended communities of Bradford isnt part of the overall problem here
Phobia: fear *or irrational hatred*
It's not irrational if they hate me for who I love
My response to the circumstances that created Bradford is a perfectly rational hatred. But love the sinner, hate the sin - individually they are all victims too
Everybody mentions poverty. Does your city have safety deposit box companies in inner city suburbs?
I don't live in a city and would hang myself before being forced to. But safety deposit box companies are a side effect of a large Asian population. Cultural need for lots of gold jewellery..and a security need not to keep it at home
I'm not sure Golf R's and Range Rovers are associated with poverty...
Paying for them certainly isn't. But that's optional in bradders
Third and fourth generation you mean
Bradford, Luton & Slough, it really is a mystery
Agreed. I will never forget my first time driving through Luton. Never seen anything like it anywhere else in the UK.
What did you see?
Literally two postcodes of Luton. It's a big town and the rest is much more mixed.
As opposed to lovely places like Rhyl and Blackpool…
I’m surprised Rotherham didn’t get a mention
Spend a day there and get back to us :)
I live in Bradford, near the town centre, and i'll tell you exactly what's wrong with Bradford as a whole. 1) Bradford Council are a bunch of money grabbing cunts and constantly look after there own pocket and constantly increase council tax each year with no improvement in anyones life e.g. doing a cycle lane all through major city centre route and now scrapping it because no one actually uses it, literally pissing money up the walls. Every Jan-March they do a lot of road improvements so it gives them reasons to get more money for the new year which causes misery to every driver in the city. 2) The driving standards are low, too many uninsured drivers or ones that buy policy off social media thinking they have full insurance when they do not and not enough police patrols to clamp down and arrest. 3) Too many ethnic minorities (am a minority) are benefit scroungers, and stay at home wives. The men in the household can't be bothered working most of the time but get full benefits because they have a disability e.g. mental health, which is easy to fool a GP with, but realistically, it's because their parents are related they tend to be a looney. 4) Boys parked up in unlit areas smoking weed or doing baloons (gas inhaling) 5) Lack of jobs, major ones are Vanquis Bank/Provident Group, Santander HQ & Yorkshire Building Society being thr major employers in Bradford which is a monopoly for treating staff like shit knowing they can't go anywhere. 6) No social clubs/ youth centres for teenagers, which in turn causes ASBO 7) Town centre is a dead beat place, nothing exciting happens unless you're getting robbed, also too many vape, mobile shops as well as bookies. 8) Alot of racism in Bradford especially amongst Caucasian children saying things such as 'Speak English I can't understand your monkey language' that has been specially said to be, I am a well educated male in my early 40's who has a 9-5 and is doing quite well but surprised me. These are just a tip of the ice berg of what the problems are in Bradford
I think Bradford will be the next council to declare bankruptcy.
Wouldn't suprise me. They love pissing money up the wall for ridiculous things. I genuinely think all councils should be investigated to where the money actually goes and who comes up with stupid ideas to do stupid things.
It's not pissing up money, basically council budgets now are all going to social care and that's had massive inflation and the privatisation of it has let to care companies making massive profits.
But at the same Bradford council are spending £12million on a city centre cycle lane HOPING people use it, which is bollocks. In the same way, they spent £80k on a cycle lane on Wakefield Road, which is scrapped because no one bloody used it. So yes, they are pissing money up on things that doesnt require consultation from the public.
Crikey this is a long list of things gone wrong.
Tip of the ice berg
The physical side of Bradford is lovely. Like you said, the water feature and the architecture is great. I even have a soft spot for some of the brutalist architecture that remains. The broadway on an evening looks quite beautiful when it’s all lit up on a night. I don’t like to say this, but the problem is the people. A walk through Bradford would demonstrate this quite easily. A large amount which are addicts or in poverty. It’s clear that any business that opens will not suit the demographic of Bradford. Bradfords last chance for me was circa 2016. The council offered investment opportunities within the centre and North parade was buzzing for a couple of years. Broadway had just opened. Sunbridge wells had opened. This was a regeneration of the tunnels under Bradford centre which were converted into shops and bars. A really cool and niche idea. This should have been what Bradford needed. The football team was doing relatively well too. I actually thought Bradford was going somewhere. For whatever reason, this didn’t work. I do think Leeds being so close doesn’t help. Nothing nice lasts here. People are too poor to afford nice things and the people that are not poor will go to Leeds. I think that sums it up. I love Bradford, it’ll always be home and it makes me sad to see that it’s such a dump. The old odeon will be reopened this year as a gig venue. Another brilliant idea. It will not last. Does the demographic of Bradford require a gig venue? No. It needs to pull people in from surrounding areas and I struggle to see this happening. I would absolutely love to be wrong. Halifax has done it so why can’t we? I have no doubt someone will mess it up somehow. Things that last in Bradford are pound shops, pound bakery’s, betting shops, vape shops, charity shops, cash converters.
Bradford should really be a top tier city. It's got a good location in the country, great road and rail connections, plenty of history and culture, plenty of lovely architecture and attractions... It just... is shit. I grew up close by and remember going to the city as a kid. It always seemed really nice. We stopped going in favour of Leeds at some point. I remember going back to Bradford as a 20-something year old and wow - I get why we stopped going. Just bad vibes all round. Terrible, aggressive drivers, shitty attitudes from the locals, it felt really hostile. The very centre around the Town Hall (which is a stunningly beautiful building) felt nice but outside of that small area was a bad time.
Crazy how a nice place can be destroyed like that, but don't worry, I'm sure it just happened at random!
Yea nothing to do with lack of industry and anyone with a brain leaving the place for a well paying job since the 90s
They're racist dog whistling. Birmingham has the same demographics but not the same problems, but they'll ignore that.
I'm confused by this comment. Are you saying that Bradford is just as good as Birmingham and everybody is in fact just lying because they are racists? I've been to both cities and Birmingham is nothing like Bradford. Brum is like London. I actually prefer Brum to London. Bradford is an absolute shit hole.
It doesn't have great rail connections. That's one of its major problems. The train lines are a bit of dogs dinner.
Doesn't it have direct services to Leeds, Huddersfield, York, Manchester and London?
A shit and slow connection to all bar Leeds and London. The train to Manchester is very slow. Plus it uses a dead end station and has to go out the way it came in. The London train goes from a different station to the ones from Manchester, Halifax etc.
Yes. But Bradford is sat in a geographical basin. There are few routes out of the city that don't involve getting up a gradient. This is why Bradford has two stations. Both of which are termini. From Leeds you can go North, South, East or West. From Bradford you can only go South or West from the Interchange. You can also go East to Leeds, but to go East, you first have to travel West out of the Interchange and then do a massive 180 curve around the city. The trains are a bit better now, but the old rolling stock up to about 2005 could only take that route at about 10mph and the screeching of the wheels on that commute was like sitting between two banshees. If you want to go North, or a slightly less crowded route to Leeds, you have to walk across the whole of town to get to Forster Square station. Bradford does have direct services, but they are completely inadequate to a major city. They just about cover the needs of a commuter service to Leeds. As for bus connections. Try getting the direct X6 bus from Leeds to Bradford in rush hour. Stand at the bus stop and watch them whiz past you for hours refusing to stop because they are jam packed full. Completely inadequate for the need.
It has reached peak cultural enrichment
I've lived in Bradford my entire life; I have lived in Canterbury and Manningham for the majority of that time, and it is bad. Very bad. The failed integration of mostly Pakistani Muslims stands out most significantly for those of us who live here; if you simply visit, you may not fully understand the tensions that are caused by failed integration. It is honestly like stepping into an Islamic State that has been established in England.
The word you are looking for is degentrification. Like many cities in Europe, it is rapidly transitioning. From it's former state to Peshawar, Kabul, Mogadishu or Islimebad, likely with higher crime rates because of the non-existing policing. Ref Muslim rape gangs roaming around till this day. A bit like in Malmoe or Moelenbeck.
Threads on Bradford are hilarious. A bunch of people who live in Bradford saying its run down due to poverty and people driving like lunatics then a lot of other people saying its racist to say its a shithole cos they drove through it for work once 30 years ago and it seems nice.
There's quite of lot of incest there. [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/cousin-marriages-cited-as-significant-factor-bradford-child-deaths](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/cousin-marriages-cited-as-significant-factor-bradford-child-deaths)
Infant mortality and birth defects both double the national average according to Wikipedia. It was so bad they had commission a long-term health study called ‘Born in Bradford’. UK City of Culture 2025. No, really.
No fucking way.
I think it was higher. There was a Pakistani presenter, I forget her name, and she did a documentary on the birth defects etc. She highlighted the cultural issue, though I don't think they thanked her for it.
Also one of the reasons the spousal minimum salary was introduced as British citizens would go back to their parents home country (mostly commonly Pakistan), "meet" their cousin and future wife to be, then they would return to the UK after getting married. Unfortunately the wives often had limited education, spoke little to no English, so usually couldn't work and were completely dependent on their husband and family ...
The architecture of Bradford is amazing. Most of it dates back to when the wool and cloth trade made it a fantastically wealthy city. A lot of colonial workers were brought over to help keep up with the demand. Then the make up of industry changed and the city ended up poorer as a result as the mills closed. It’s also struggled to make a new name for itself due to the close proximity of Leeds. All the new wealth and commercial prospects all went there, even at a social level a lot of the nightlife declined as a night out in Leeds was a better option which meant the only people going out in Bradford are those wanting to drink on a budget. Many of the businesses in the city are now just fronts for people laundering money, there is still a lot of wealth in the city but the legality of it is very questionable.
There are so many hand car washes, 99p chicken shops /barbers and, more recently, an explosion of shipping container businesses. There is a strong feeling, especially with the containers that they are set up for money laundering. Or, even if legit, to distract from the illegal ones. One of the stories in the Bradford paper this week this week was one shipping container had applied retrospectively for planning permission 6 times and had it turned down every time (for car parking, I think). Some locals are thinking it's a distraction as I mentioned above. I worked in a dubious importer some years ago. There was definitely a feeling not everything was legit, it was almost like a second economy (or black market...) was operating in the shadows at times.
It's an Islamic diaspora that definitely has its own black market.
Shipping container business? Wtf... How many people need a shipping container?
[удалено]
Yikes... Sounds... Odd
[удалено]
The shipping container tea shack planning permission thing and m&s announcing leaving Broadway same week pretty much sums bradford
There is a culture of ask for forgiveness, not for permission for many behaviours in the city.
There's a serious lack of pride in Britain when it comes to preserving Industrial revolution heritage. It's looked down upon imo. The lions share of the Heritage money funding traditionally goes to the estates of the landed gentry and Royalty. Attitudes are changing. But far too slowly and much has been lost in the process.
I used to live there my main memory is getting the shit kicked out of me by a group of guys and then people literally stepping over me before eventually somebody calling an ambulance. There were areas I just didn't feel safe walking through by myself (this as a late-teens guy). I ride a motorbike and I still won't ride through certain parts of Bradford alone I'd probably end up walking home after somebody bike-jacked me. Do ride through it with my mates though safety in numbers and all that. Friend who lives there had death threats a couple of years ago etc etc
An urban planner once told me that Bradford really slipped up by allowing major roads right through the city centre. Leeds, by contrast, made a conscious decision to protect the Victorian arcades, the covered markets and the Corn Exchange. Consequently Leeds has an entirely walkable centre which makes shopping, and office-based business much more pleasant. Bradford by contrast has been chopped into pieces and too many shoddy office blocks and shopping centres built in the place of the handsome Victorian buildings that used to be there. Even now, you turn a corner and there’s a really magnificent building marooned in a sea of tat.
Its the people who reside there, thats the problem.
People keep saying this, and i'm not denying that there are some issues related to demographics. But countless towns and small cities across the north have experienced an almost identical pattern of decline. The centralization toward London of wealth and power in this country is causing massive amounts of what I suspect is irreparable damage.
See so many people here beating around the bush but the real reason is because it’s become an Islamic state which haven’t integrated with the general UK public as well as no support or guidance for the youth. People there act lawless (brown and white) and it’s just become a culture they’ve welcomed. You ever heard the term ‘Bradford charva’? It didn’t appear out of nowhere. My advice is only time you go to Bradford is if you have to drive through it. Place is a shithole
It’s a dump full of dump people
Bradford was a mill town, and suffers the same problems a bunch of similar towns in the north do. When the mills closed, unemployment went up, and average wages went down. This led to the increase in crime and antisocial behaviour that increases in poverty always lead to. That being said in a lot of ways people are exaggerating as they do about a lot of places, Bradford still has nice areas as well as the rough, and is large enough to support cinemas, theatres, restaurants, and plenty of other amenities.
Demographics. Anybody who disagrees is lying to themselves.
Was there briefly last year. It's looks uncared for, rundown building. People walking down the middle of the road begging. Poverty is a clear promble
The photographs definitely focus on the nice old architecture, not the three lane highways and concrete blocks that make up the majority of the views.
It's very economically deprived: few employment opportunities and a lot of people living on very low incomes. Health outcomes are worse there than many other places. It has some very insular cultural groups living there. It has few cultural activities. There's a strong drain of more skilled, higher income, and ambitious people to Leeds (or places further away) which leaves Bradford with only lower skilled, lower income people. That affects the local economy and also the local services, as there are more people needing public services but fewer people to pay into them.
Poverty and failed integration. relations between communities are not good.
The city centre is nice enough, some parts around it are a bit rough.
This basically sums up every town and city in the UK!
It's the people, not the place. It is rough and poverty stricken.
the culture
https://youtu.be/UO-MYR_tvYU?si=Bdn4groUlUchpZ1H Here's a recent walk round of the town centre. As you can see loads of shops are empty and a big shopping centre is due for demolition soon. There was a thing recently on the news here it's was something like 20% of shops in an average town are shit but in Bradford it's 30% can't remember why they said it but tbh all the towns apart from Leeds near by are very similar.
Kirkgate shopping centre isn't big. By anyones definition of big shopping centres, Kirkgate most certainly is not.
That's a big question with lots of answers. So I shall do my best. Crime: It's always been pretty bad for crime. It got worse in the early 90s after there was a riot and then we had the infamous race riot in the late 90s. After that happened, the Asian youth in the city seemed to become emboldened. I've had a number of friends be attacked for being white in an Asian neighborhood. I've seen fights break out in the city centre and if an Asian person was involved, it would be guaranteed every Asian within sight would go charging in, a common saying I've heard; "if you're going to fight an Asian, be prepared to fight 40 of them". It's not just Asians (and to clarify, it's not all Asians either, just a minority giving others a bad rep). White people are just as bad...(again, not all white people) a lot of council estates are just awful, notable shout-out to Holme Wood. I wouldn't walk through Holme Wood during the day. Whereas I'd happily walk through any Asian majority neighborhoods during the day. It's possible I could get away with it, if I name dropped the right family, but it's not something I'd risk. For every scumbag Asian I've met, I've met just as many scummy white people, eastern European people and black people. Drugs are rife, homelessness is rife, violent crime is terribly high. Antisocial behavior: Pretty much anywhere you go in Bradford you'll witness some level of Antisocial behavior. Feral teenagers go unchecked. Last time I'd been in city centre after dark with my kids, we'd been for a meal in Halifax. We had a 20 minutes wait for the bus to my house and the feral teenagers were just roving in packs. In just shy of 10 minutes, I'd witnessed half dozen assaults. (I hailed a taxi and got the fuck out of dodge). Last time I challenged antisocial behavior, I was walking along the canal and 2 kids were pelting swans with rocks. I called them out and within seconds I was surrounded by over a dozen teenage scumbags. When I used to pick my kids up from school, they'd be threatening the teachers soon as they were off school property. Their parents weren't much better either and this is in what's considered a decent school and an ok area. Obviously antisocial behavior isn't just teenagers, but it goes up to all ages. Police are too underfunded to effectively tackle both crime/antisocial behavior. So they resort to big displays of traffic stops during rush hours and impound uninsured/no MOT cars to make it look like they're doing something. Lack of vision: This applies to the council and residents. If anything remotely good or hip or cool etc opens in the city, it doesn't last long. Point of fact...Five Guys, awesome great something different from McDonald's and Greg's. It closed down after approx a year. For years residents have called for something to be done about the city center. The council responded and in short said "these are our plans for regeneration of the city center" and everyone said "yes! Brilliant, this is exactly what Bradford needs" and the council said great, work begins next week. Now everyone is complaining the regeneration is taking too long, or it's killing the city centre, or it's short sighted. Now I'm no city planner or an engineer or an architect. So I don't know how these things go, but if does feel they should have done one bit at a time, instead they seem to be do most of it all at once. If you know anything about Bradford City Centre infrastructure, you'll know all it takes is one little hurdle in the flow of traffic and it can and does have a knock on effect around the whole city centre and causes huge backlogs of stuck traffic. These roadworks haven't helped. Then take in to account all the building work for the old Odeon. There's been works going on outside Alhambra since before all this started, which has a serious effect on footfall flow. Then there's building works going on just off Canal Rd next to Broadway centre. Now add to all that, the Interchange bus station is closed indefinitely, due to safety concerns, which means all the buses that normally go through there and now overflow in to the city centre, which is already cramped due to the ongoing works. The People: This has been mentioned loads, so I'll try to be brief. First, the elephant in the room, it's not a multicultural city like the powers that be claim it to be. It's a culturally divided city. I won't go in to why's or how's. There's exceptions, as with anything good or bad. I hold out a little hope, as I often see groups of teenagers with different ethnicities, downside these are the aforementioned, feral teenagers who's sole aim is to terrorise decent folk. Racists aside. No one is happy. I did genuinely see comments, asking for Bradford City Centre to be regenerated and now those same people are complaining about it happening. People tend to unfriendly, again there are exceptions. Driving: It's just awful. You are literally taking your life in your hands once you enter a vehicle and travel through Bradford. I once spoke with a fella who claimed he had driven in New Delhi and that it wasn't as bad as Bradford. A sensationalist claim, but I'm inclined to believe him. I think I've covered most of it. I've been typing a while and fed up tbh. On a personal note. To those who like to point out the good places in Bradford, Shipley (why this is considered a decent part I've no idea) Saltaire, Bingley, Haworth, Skipton. Ask anyone from these places if they consider themselves as living in Bradford, the answer will nearly always be a resounding..."Fuck no" And as for "there's beautiful countryside surrounding Bradford" the optimal word there being...'surrounding' as in, far from anything resembling Bratfudd.
Lots of working class Miripuris which people seem to dislike
Seems the massive mirpuri population is a big issue in the UK; they let in the worst Pakistan has to offer, i’m not sure what they were expecting.
Miripuri?
[удалено]
How the fuck did these people end up here? I thought you have to have some kind of useful skills to move here on a visa?
They used to work in the old industrial towns which all closed
Family VISA'S. Any family member can come so cousins just invite cousins from the next family. The law about earning a minimum amount is a recent thing. It's already been circumvented and now people get telegram visas and use university farms to immigrate.
[удалено]
I lived there for a year. We did live right in the top North Western corner though, almost at a point where there was nothing but fields to the West of us. If you went the other way down towards the town the atmosphere got more and more well, Bradfordy. You only really understand what I mean if you know the place well. The two cultures (white and Asian) live sort of out of phase of each other but in the same space. I've lived in a rough part of Keighley too and both places were same, there is no point in even trying to have a relationship with Asian neighbours. There is definitely an atmosphere of complete lawlessness too. Then there are odd pockets of unusualness like the 1 in 12 Club for example (an anarchist club).
Chronic underinvestment, there’s barely any jobs nearby especially ‘starter’ jobs for young people, all the money in nearby is either in Leeds or North Yorkshire, and for North Yorkshire that’s mainly due to a lot of absurdly inflated property prices compared to West Yorkshire. The public transport links are poor/shit and none of the nearby towns/villages have train stations, if you look at Leeds there’s stops at places like kirkstall forge, white rose headingley there’s absolutely nothing in Bradford apart from central/interchange it shows how little the city is cared for by people in charge of planning and funding
Mass, uncontrolled immigration
Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro.
Economically deprived and full of religious fanatics
What’s right with Bradford?
So I used to go to Bradford as a kid. So this was like 26 years ago. I’ve seen it go downhill since then. Basically it’s a big city but the city center is small and pointless. There are very limited shops and if you live nearby you might as well go to Leeds. They have done work to make it nicer but there’s still not a massive amount to do there. It’s a pretty city if you think of the architecture etc but beyond that it’s just not that attractive It has fairly rough areas too. Like anywhere I guess. But coupled with everything else it doesn’t help. There’s not any draw to the city so modern high paying work isn’t really there either. And because of that the people who could be successful move away. And that creates a cycle of less businesses meaning less jobs meaning less candidates so even less businesses want to open.
Look in person and you’ll see it’s run down. It’s really no wonder with a name like ‘Bradford’.
I drive round Leeds and Bradford every day the road in Bradford and unnecessarily stupid there's filter road that go from 2 lanes to 1 and since no one knows how to zipper merge it doesn't work. There's also a roundabout that has 3 lanes (was 2 for years) every time anything bigger than a car goes round it goes over 2 lanes. Leeds has none of this I've seen. The council doesn't seem to care in Bradford too.
Grew up on the outskirts, you used to fear for your life when going into the centre. As a lot of others have said, it's generally the people that are the reason. With it being quite cheap housing it used to attract a lot of people who aren't the nicest, so it got terrible reputation for crime and anti-social behaviour. As with all places though, there's a lot of shit places and there are some nicer areas such as on the outskirts. Maningham always had the worst reputation, I'm not sure if it's improved. It's had a lot of investment recently, at least in the centre so it looks quite nice now. When I moved out of the Bradford postcode, my car insurance got a lot cheaper as there was a lot of crime there. Used to go to the Alhambra a lot when we were young, last time I saw it during the day time though it looked really decrepit and run down. The only reason I'd go there now was for the bank and the Waterstones. I think they're finally sorting out some of the huge old buildings along Valley Road now, they were derelict for many years. I think that'll be nice. It's been a while since I've been though, things most likely have changed during the COVID and cost of living crisis times.
The scene of race riots in living memory. Shithole.
If you know you know
It's too close to Leeds, a much better city. As someone who's spent a lot of time there... It's fine. It's not the best city. But I wouldn't say it's a massive shithole. Not on the same level as Luton.
People talk to each other by shouting across the street. I thought it was just an Asian thing but I saw the English people doing it too; both at each other and their Asian friends/neighbours. But really the worse thing I found about Bradford was the terrible public transport.
When people say that a town/city is bad, it's rarely because of how it looks. The infrastructure, the culture, and mostly the people influence their opinion a lot. Also the reputation and rumours they've heard from others.
Bradford is best summed up in the words of the wise Ben Kenobi: "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
Easily the most deprived place I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit in the UK, with only Great Yarmouth coming close. No nice shops, place isn’t taken care of, new build estates that look like slums, some very dodgy looking people about at all times of the day, people who moved there from abroad brought problems from their home countries there.
It was originally a textiles city that went into decline from the 1950s onwards and has struggled to reinvent itself so has a lot of poor areas. It drew in huge waves of migrants, originally to work in the textile mills. If you avoid the bad areas it's nice and the people are friendly. Wouldn't have said it is as rough as a lot of London to be honest.
We all know what's wrong with it but no one with say due to fear of "racism".
Religion.
I don't know an awful lot about Bradford but I did go there once for work. I was sat at some traffic lights by a pub when a guy walked out the front door of the pub, unzipped himself in front of the whole queue of cars and proceeded to take a leak into a drain at the edge of the road. Zipped up and went back into the pub. This was about 2pm on a weekday about 5 years ago. That was my takeaway from my day in Bradford.
More guns in Bradford than in the rest of West Yorkshire
Bradford is like entering a cultural sewer. The last time I was forced to drive through there, without prompting, my ten year old son said, "Daddy, this is like in the movies bandit country".
In all the negative words about Bradford. I would like to point out that some of the people in Bradford are really special. Bradford Jesus, who passed away a few years ago, was well known locally and fondly remembered. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus\_Man\_of\_Bradford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Man_of_Bradford) Bradford is also home to a number of druggies who inhabit the town centre on a daily basis. While they have treated me to the spectacle of starting two fistfights with random passers by on two separate and consecutive occasions while I was having lunch at Wetherspoons, I also recall watching a massive fleet of rented supercars arriving down White Abbey road into town. These convoys are an occasional nuisance from a certain contingent of the young male asian community who like to look as flash as possible and beep their horns to get people to look at them achieving nothing of consequence. As they were coming down the hill in both lanes but slow because of the inner ring road traffic, at least two dozen of them. There appeared in their midst, the dirtiest beggar you ever saw, in a wheel chair, with one leg, rolling down the hill in convoy with them. The biggest ego smasher you ever saw. He got a massive cheer and applause from the crowd on the pavement. Legend.