Top Ten things to do in Bradford

Guest blog by Irna Qureshi

As I present my guide to being a home tourist in Bradford, I admit this list reflects my love of history and family oriented weekends. The places listed here are easily accessible and mostly free. I was thinking primarily about things to do which are not ticketed and don’t need prior booking or planning, which is why venues like the Alhambra or Theatre in the Mill aren’t included. Hopefully you’ll find, as I have, that the places listed here are worth visiting again and again.

1. Salts Mill

This is an iconic reminder and celebration of Bradford’s textile roots, but Salts Mill is so much more than that. This is where you get culture, heritage, art, food and shopping all in one place. During the week, Salts Diner is my favourite rendezvous for meetings, although if it opened at 9am instead of 10am, I’d probably have even more breakfast meetings here. At the weekend, a trip to Salts sometimes acts as a precursor to a visit to Roberts Park which is just down the road. This is a brilliant place to pick up the sorts of quality notebooks and pens you could only dream of finding in Office World or Staples. We love browsing in the bookshop. They’ve got little wooden chairs and desks that open at the top, just like we had at school – so it’s definitely a ‘sit and read’ rather than a ‘do not touch’ sort of bookshop. We like looking at the David Hockney paintings which have a permanent home here – they’re really popular with my little one too, perhaps because they’re so brightly coloured. We still haven’t made it to the church across the road where Sir Titus Salt and his family are buried. That’s on our list of things to do this summer as is taking an official guided tour of Saltaire village.

2. Bradford Industrial Museum

I think of this place as an Aladdin’s Cave. The spinning mill which houses the museum looks very unassuming and it’s hidden away just off the Harrogate Road. But the place acts as a tribute to Bradford’s industrial development – if you love the smell and sound of old machinery then this is the place for you. Our favourite part of the museum is the newly refurbished Textiles Gallery on the first floor. There’s a brand new families area – pews for the grown-ups, and lots of toys and books to engage young minds as well as the fluffiest (pretend) sheep in England for the kids to cuddle. The new permanent exhibition, Terrible Times for Children, is riveting and shocking at the same time. There are lots of pictures and stories about young children, and the harsh conditions they faced working in Bradford’s textile mills. To bring the point home, they’ve even got a couple of child sized stuffed dummies ‘working’ among the machines – believe me, it really sobers up the children and makes them realise how lucky they are! Our visit to the Industrial Museum isn’t complete without saying hello to the work horses. For a couple of quid you can even have a little ride in the horse drawn vehicle.

3. Bradford Mela

Bradford Mela is now 22 years old and I still love it. In its heyday, it was the largest mela of its kind in Europe and attracted more than 100,000 people over a summer weekend. This was during my young free and single days, when I would be hopping from stage to stage trying to catch as many bhangra bands as possible. These days I’m much more interested in the family areas and activities for children. We’ll be looking for acrobats, street theatre, halal hot dogs as well as bumping into loads of people we haven’t seen for years. The date’s already in the diary (12 June 2011, Peel Park).

4. National Media Museum – Families on Five

Visiting the National Media Museum always feels like an event. We often watch a family film for £1 which is excellent value. The family screenings are also brilliantly informal – children chattering away, squealing, slurping, rustling sweetie wrappers, getting up to go to the loo. I know from experience these events sell out so I try to book in advance if I can. After watching the film, we head to ‘Families on Five’, a dedicated area on the fifth floor for children’s art and craft activities themed around the family film of the day. For instance, after watching Matilda we made books with pink hard back covers. And after the Muppet’s Pirate Adventure, we spent ages making puppets with socks, furry fabric and double sided sticky tape. We even learnt how to animate our puppets.

5. Roberts Park

This gorgeous park deserves to be in my list based alone on the cleanest and roomiest toilets I’ve seen in any park. But believe me, it has many other merits. A trip to Roberts Park is not complete without a loaf of bread to feed the ducks, an ice cream from the barge, and a leisurely stroll along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. We do all this before hitting the revamped play area which is seriously imaginative – my little one and her friends love the basket swing and all the balancing stuff. My favourite is the tyre swing. I find it liberating because it’s a far cry from traditional swings where your bottom gets stuck between the chains on either side. There have been times I’ve sat on the tyre swing reading my book, completely undisturbed for up to 30 minutes, while the kids run riot around me.

6. Manningham Library

We love Manningham Library, even though we have to drive past a couple of other local libraries to get there. You’ve probably driven past it lots of times (on the corner of Carlisle Road and Church Street, opposite Barclays) without realising it was there. The library got a multi-million pound makeover a couple of years ago making it so much more family friendly. The new carpet means you don’t mind your kids rolling around on the floor and they’ve got some really funky furniture for the children to sit and read on. They’ve even got benches in the garden where we often sit and marvel at the courgettes and marrows growing there. With lots of free parking and Sunday afternoon openings, what’s not to like!

7. Prashad Restaurant

My idea of Prashad food heaven is a samosa chaat (samosa immersed in a thick sweet and sour chickpea sauce) followed by either mango or plain shrikand (yoghurt and saffron pudding). Compared with the Pakistani food we eat at home, Prashad’s vegetarian snacks and desserts seem quite exotic. Thanks to the acclaim following an appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s ‘best restaurant’ show, Prashad’s deli section has been sacrificed to expand the restaurant area. Although a separate takeaway section has now opened across the road, the deli counter won’t be replaced until they can get planning permission in the new premises. I rarely eat in, so this came as a big blow to me. I loved picking out the goodies on display in the deli counter. I particularly liked the selection of mithai (sweet meats) which were different from the ones available at Ambala or Mumtaz. My favourite was the diamond shaped kaju tukri (a sort of cashew barfi) which came with silver leaf garnish in a plastic tub. It cost less than a fiver and made a great gift alternative to chocolates. So, I’m certainly praying the planning permission comes through swiftly so we can get that deli counter up and running again soon.

8. Railway Children Tour

Exploring the film locations for the classic film, The Railway Children, is still on my ‘things to do’ list. I like the idea of walking around Howarth with a map, acting like a proper tourist, asking the real locals to point me in the direction of Perk’s cottage, the tunnel that the schoolboys ran through, and the house the children lived in. I’m sure we’ve inadvertently driven past many of the locations already, but wouldn’t it be great to step out of the car and take a proper, considered look. To complete the tour, we’d also need to take a trip on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

9. Undercliffe Cemetery

I realise this might seem unappealing, but think of Undercliffe Cemetery as a museum of grand mausoleums and THE place to appreciate Victorian funerary art. Dating back to the 1850s, it’s still a popular film location. One of the cemetery’s most striking features is its central promenade. During the 19th century, Bradford’s wealthiest families bought the most prominent plots along the promenade, and there they built extravagant memorials to their dead. Today, the promenade still offers one of the best panoramic views of Bradford. I’ve only been a couple of times and I really must go again. If you’re going to this year’s Bradford Mela (12 June, in Peel Park), you should also pop into Undercliffe Cemetery.

10. Shipley Glen Tramway

The Victorian tramway connects Saltaire with Shipley Glen which is located at the top of a steep hill. So the idea is that you take the tram to the Glen (a bit of a beauty spot in itself) and then walk back down through the woods. We’ve never been on the tramway. It’s been closed for repairs for a couple of years now, and I’ve heard they even run Santa Specials throughout December when the tramway is up and running. I also keep hearing about the Bracken Hall Countryside Centre, somewhere else we’ve never been, which is located on the edge of Shipley Glen. I’ve heard good things about their displays of local wildlife. I know we could easily get there by car, but I’ve got this thing about getting there on the tramway so I’ll just have to keep an eye on the Shipley Glen website.

Irna Qureshi also writes about growing up in 1980s Bradford against a backdrop of classic Indian films at www.bollywoodinbritain.wordpress.com

Glorious photographs by Tim Smith Photography