Bradford Civic Society has been successful in its bid for a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF), which will support an exciting new project in collaboration with Manchester School of Architecture (MSA).

The AHF will fund a ten-month project focussed on Bradford’s ‘Top of Town’ area, with undergraduates and practitioners from MSA teaming up with Bradford Civic Society to produce innovative research and design proposals for reimagining historic parts of the city centre.

The project aims to continue conversations about the future direction of Bradford’s ‘Top of Town’, while offering inspiring visual proposals to highlight the potential of a vibrant and sustainable creative quarter.

The project with will run from September 2020 to June 2021, and comes at a time when Bradford City Council are undertaking their own consultations for the ‘Top of Town’ – focussed on public realm improvements, and the creation of a new residential neighbourhood once Oastler Market relocates to Darley Street. It’s hoped that Bradford Civic Society and Manchester School of Architecture’s own design-focussed project will enhance the City Council’s emerging masterplan, and will encourage greater public participation in the planning process.

Bradford Civic Society and Manchester School of Architecture are also receiving support from Bradford City Council’s Townscape Heritage team, who are overseeing a four-year, £2 million grant programme – supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – to help revive historic buildings within the ‘Top of Town’ area.

This project aims to show what can be achieved by the growing collective of bottom-up creative organisations in the city, and the emerging cultural partnerships being formed as Bradford’s emphatic bid to be the UK City of Culture for 2025 gains momentum.

More information about the project, and details of how to get involved, will be released in September.