Bradford may have been crowned City of Culture but its shopping streets have been devastated by a slump which has led to stores being boarded up across the town.
The West Yorkshire district has more empty shops than nearly every other city in the UK and double those in London and Cambridge, according to a new think tank study.
Bradford Council is now gambling the town’s retail future on a multi million pound strategy to reverse the decline.
The idea is to replace the city’s Oestler and Kirkgate Markets with the new Darley Street market which opened this week creating 1,000 new homes in the process.
The two markets closed last month as part of a scheme which will also see the demotion of the Oestler Centre and eventually the Kirkgate Shopping Centre.
With Darley Street Market welcoming its first customers this week Mail Online visited the town to see if optimism is in the air.
We found a city centre that is a real Curate’s Egg of a retail experience. Some shopping streets are swarming with shoppers and the atmosphere seems vibrant.
But around every corner is a boarded up shop. The Oeastler Centre stands derelict amid a maze of deserted streets.
Two markets closed last month as part of a scheme which will also see the demotion of the Oestler Centre (pictured) and eventually the Kirkgate Shopping Centre
Some shopping streets are swarming with shoppers and the atmosphere seems vibrant. However, around every corner is a boarded up shop.
A number of To Let signs can be spotted throughout the city centre – the signs of a slump that has led to vacant stores
Across town, traders at the Kirkgate Centre reckon it will not be long before it also becomes a concrete shell to be flattened by the bulldozers.
Many areas are now wall to wall betting shops, vape stores, and nail bars, squeezing out local cafes, corner shops and even designer jewellery stores.
Several shops are reduced to selling tat for pittance to survive including bunches of fake flowers for £1.
Last year, the city centre suffered another blow when Marks and Spencer closed its branch in the Broadway shopping centre.
Debenhams also closed its store in the Broadway in 2021 when the stores closed nationwide and the brand was snapped up by Boohoo for online sales.
Meanwhile, High Street names have continued to disappear from the city, possibly for good.
One the latest casualties of the slump has been Dunkin’ Donuts, near the entrance to the Broadway.
It closed without warning this week, leaving customers stunned including Sophie Webster, 29.
One the latest casualties of the slump has been Dunkin’ Donuts, near the entrance to the Broadway. A sign on the door reads: ‘This store is now closed’
Locals claim most shops in the Broadway will ‘only be open for a few months or a year’ and the close and become something else
Sophie Webster (pictured) said: ‘My favourite coffee shop Dunkin’ Donuts closed on Tuesday. There was no warning. it just shut so I don’t know what that was about’
She said: ‘There are so many shops closing. I am born and bred here but I normally shop in Keighley town centre. I am only here now because I am at work.
‘My favourite coffee shop Dunkin’ Donuts closed on Tuesday. There was no warning. it just shut so I don’t know what that was about.
‘Most shops in Broadway will only be open for a few months or a year and then close and become something else.
‘Taco Bell has shut as well and I have no idea why. They didn’t put anything where Burger king used to be and all the food places are going.
‘Some places are not getting enough customers to pay the rent. Dunkin’ Donuts was never that busy. But Taco Bell was, I don’t know what happened there. But it seems something will open and then close again so its all a bit rubbish.’
John Henry Brown, 69, said: ‘I was born in Bradford in 1956 and I have not been out of Bradford in the 69 years since.
‘The state of the place now is atrocious. They have blocked so many roads off it has stopped a lot of disabled people getting into town on the bus.
‘Yet they are calling it the City of Culture. Where is the culture? It is just crap.
More stores are pictured with To Let signs – in the midst of large posters that boast of Bradford’s status as City of Culture
Locals claim many residents will go to Leeds for their shopping rather than doing it in Bradford city centre
John Henry Brown (pictured, 69, said: ‘The state of the place now is atrocious. They have blocked so many roads off it has stopped a lot of disabled people getting into town on the bus’
‘The new market is very expensive. If you want a chocolate eclair it is going to cost you a fiver.
‘They are supposed to be pulling a lot of the shops down to turn into houses but they already have so many empty properties they could turn into flats.
‘Demolishing the empty shopping centres is going to cost millions and it is just a waste of money.’
Josephine Eastwood said: ‘You will be surprised how many people who live in Bradford will say to you “Oh, we don’t go to Bradford to shop”.
‘We go to Leeds for our shopping and a lot of people go to Harrogate as well, like we do. It is not just the shortage of shops it is the smell of the drugs people are smoking.
‘That’s put me off as well. Then, you can guarantee someone will stop you and ask you if you have any money.
‘It is not just a one off, and that’s what puts people off coming here as well.
‘Me and my husband shop in Harrogate all the time and never once have we had the problems we have here in Bradford.’
A former Gold Connection Rolex dealers is now a pop-up shop selling cushions for £3 and head scarves for £1
The store is on the historic site of the A Fattorini The Jewellers, which made the FA Cup Trophy won by the Bantams but closed for good in 2021 after 190 years in Yorkshire
A former Gold Connection Rolex dealers is now a pop-up shop selling cushions for £3 and head scarves for £1.
The store is on the historic site of the A Fattorini The Jewellers, which made the FA Cup Trophy won by the Bantams but closed for good in 2021 after 190 years in Yorkshire.
A man browsing the £3 cushions, who refused to be named, said: ‘This used to be the best jeweller’s shop in Bradford. Now it has all gone downhill.
‘I blame people with cars travelling to out of town shopping centres That’s why all the corner shops have closed down.’
Many shoppers were in town to check out the city’s new Darley Street market which opened this week.
The much trumpeted state-of-the-art complex is being hailed by council bosses as a major boost to the flagging retail sector.
Catherine Bagnall, 76, added: ‘The shops around here are rubbish. Marks and Spencers closed down because of all the shoplifters.
‘We are lost without Marks and Spencers. That was the only thing worth coming into town for. We are only here today to see what the new market is like.
One local said: ‘The shops around here are rubbish. Marks and Spencers closed down because of all the shoplifters’
Someone else reminisced: ‘When I was a younger I used to love going up and down the high streets’
A phone shop pictured with its shutters down is another tell-tale sign the number of shops closed in the city centre is one of the highest in the country
‘Bradford is not what it used to be. There are too many people high on spice. Your heart is in your mouth every time you hear someone behind you.’
Among the first visitors to the new market were Jordan Fry, 29, and Rowan Tordoff, 27, and neither was impressed.
Jordan said: ‘The new market is not too bad. But there are not a lot of shops in there either. It is the first time I have been in the city centre in ages.
‘We have only come to see the new market. When I was a younger I used to love going up and down the high streets.
‘The new market is nice. But I don’t know if there are more shops that are going to open up. Inside, there are three or four butchers, a fruit place and the rest is fabrics.
‘We walked in five minutes ago, had a quick look, and came straight back out again.’
Nodding in agreement, Rowan added: ‘The new market looks a lot better than the rest of Bradford does.
‘But I would rather go shopping in Leeds because there is more there. The shops in Bradford are all the same shops.
After decades of trading the Oastler Centre closed on June 28 along with the Kirkgate Market. Both are facing demolition to make way for the Darley Street market (pictured)
A number of betting shops can be seen in a row together in Bradford city centre includign a William Hill, Admiral, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes
‘I only came in for a spot of breakfast and to see the new market but it has been a bit of waste of time.
‘The Kirkgate Centre is still open there is just not a lot in there now. Most of them have moved to Broadway or into the new market.’
Abdul Pandor, 70, has been selling watches in the Kirkgate Centre for 15 years. He said: ‘We had a really good business.
‘Then over time things changed. Covid did not help but shopping has changed over time.
‘They are selling stuff online cheaper than I can buy wholesale and I cannot beat that and survive when I have to pay rent and wages.
‘We are keeping going for as long as I can then I will head away into the sunset.
‘Fifteen years ago we were always busy but we are so quiet now.
‘Young kids nowadays don’t want watches anymore so we repair more than we sell.’
Abdul Pandor (pictured), 70, has been selling watches in the Kirkgate Centre for 15 years. He said: ‘We had a really good business. Then over time things changed’
Cheap headscarves are on sale for £1 in the City Centre as well as packs of cushions in a variety of colours
Mr Pandor said: ‘They are selling stuff online cheaper than I can buy wholesale and I cannot beat that and survive when I have to pay rent and wages’
‘Any bunch of flowers for £1’ – another indication of the town’s attraction to cheap consumer items
One resident concluded: ‘The whole place has gone to cock. I was born and bred around here and it has all gone downhill’
Alec Janow, 63, was one of the only people window shopping in the nearly deserted streets leading to the city’s former Oastler Centre.
After decades of trading it closed on June 28 along with the Kirkgate Market. Both are facing demolition to make way for the Darley Street market.
Mr Janow said: ‘The whole place has gone to cock. I was born and bred around here and it has all gone downhill.
‘The shops have been driven out by high rents and all the shoplifters. The new market is all very well but I think the place is too far gone.’
