(Commonwealth_Europe) Bradford photographer Roz Doherty recalls that when she was younger, people she met on holidays would ask where she was from. “I’d say I was from just down the road from Leeds,” she explains. Despite the city’s long-standing reputation for being “a little bit rubbish,” she takes pride in her home city, declaring, “But really, it’s not.”
For years, Bradford has battled with a challenging image, often associated with negative events. Outsiders continue to link the city, which is home to one of the largest Asian communities in Britain, with the infamous race riots of 2001. More recently, allegations of child sex abuse and “grooming gangs” targeting vulnerable teenage girls have tainted the city. Local Tory MP Robbie Moore recently stirred national debate by claiming that the scale of grooming gangs in Bradford “dwarfed” the issue in Rotherham, where 1,400 white girls were reported to be abused by mainly Pakistani-British gangs over a span of 16 years.
The timing of Moore’s comments couldn’t have been worse for Bradford, which was gearing up for its turn as the UK’s City of Culture for 2025. The event, aimed at showcasing the city’s culture and achievements, came at a time when many still viewed it through the lens of its darker past. But the city’s residents were determined to reclaim their narrative. Last week, a crowd of 10,000 gathered in Centenary Square for the official launch of Bradford 2025, marking the beginning of a year-long celebration of local art, culture, and community. The event featured a variety of performances, including poetry, rap, acrobatics, and a magic show, all celebrating Bradford’s vibrant modern culture and its strong Asian heritage.
The warmth of the celebrations contrasted with the cold, as temperatures dipped below minus three degrees. However, the freezing weather seemed to mirror the grit and determination of the locals, who were eager to present their city in a more positive light. Among those contributing to the celebrations are artists like Doherty, who hopes to shift the perception of Bradford with her work. “We’ve had a lot of bad press over the years, but we’re building it up,” says Charlotte the Magpie, a local music scene organizer.
One of the most notable things about Bradford’s City of Culture celebrations was the city’s calm response to the violence that affected nearby areas in early August. While riots broke out in other Yorkshire towns, Bradford remained peaceful. Local activists worked closely with police to ensure calm, saying to them, “We’ve dealt with all this before. It’s all cool.”
Conflicts between far-right protesters and British-Asian youths sparked the 2001 riots, damaging Bradford’s reputation. The violence centered around the immigrant community of Manningham and lasted for several days. Despite the lasting impact of those events, the city’s communities made efforts to rebuild trust, including initiatives to improve relations with local police. While Bradford continues to grapple with social challenges, including high unemployment and deprivation, it has made strides in healing some of those wounds.
The rise in national attention around grooming gangs, including several high-profile prosecutions in nearby towns, has presented another challenge for the city’s reputation. In 2015, a grooming gang in Keighley received sentences of up to 20 years for a range of offenses, including rape.
But there is hope for the city’s future, and the Bradford 2025 program represents an opportunity to reshape how the city is seen by the outside world. Miriam O’Keeffe, the operations director for Bradford 2025, says there was a clear need to change the perception of the city. “You need a moment to put yourself on the map,” she explains, noting that there’s nostalgia within Bradford for the past when the city was a thriving mill town with equal status to Leeds. The City of Culture award, O’Keeffe believes, is a way to show the city’s present and future.
One of the highlights of the Bradford 2025 program is the new photography exhibition, “Nationhood: Memory and Hope,” led by renowned Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh. Doherty, a local photographer, has also contributed, capturing a diverse range of young people from Bradford against a backdrop inspired by the claret and amber colours of the Bradford City football club. Her portraits, filled with optimism, focus on the hopes and dreams of the younger generation. “The younger people that I photographed were all beaming with civic pride,” she says.
For Doherty, her hope for Bradford is simple yet powerful: “My main hope is just that people like our city. That sounds simple, but it is also important to me.”
The celebrations will continue throughout the year, culminating in December with the awarding of the prestigious Turner Prize for art, an event that has previously honored figures like Damien Hirst. While the City of Culture designation may not solve all of Bradford’s challenges, it is inspiring pride and unity among locals.
As Shanaz Gulzar, creative director of Bradford 2025, says, “The people who live in a place have to own it. They have to care about it and show up for themselves too.” Bradford’s journey is one of resilience and hope, and as it takes the spotlight in 2025, the city is poised to present itself not just as a place defined by its past but as a vibrant, multi-layered community full of potential.
