Bradford Civic Society is delighted to confirm an excellent panel of speakers for the forthcoming debate on the role of brutalism in the city.

‘Save High Point / Raise High Point’ will challenge experts from the worlds of design and architecture to debate and discuss the merits of Bradford’s much maligned High Point building. The event will also seek to discuss the wider role of modernism in a famously Victorian city centre.

Our panel will be made up of the following speakers…

Save High Point:
Catherine Croft
Catherine is the Director of the C20 Society, which campaigns for the preservation of the best buildings constructed from 1914 onwards. She is an expert on post war architecture, and the public perception of C20 design, particularly changing attitudes to brutalism and post modernism. She established and runs the Conservation of Historic Concrete course at West Dean College, is the author of Concrete Architecture and has contributed to many other books and publications, including a series of concrete repair case studies for the Getty Institute due out later this year. She lectures widely on architecture and heritage, in the UK and abroad, and was a judge of the Carbuncle Cup award for the worst new building in the UK in 2017.

Raze High Point:
Sir Simon Jenkins
Simon is a journalist, author and broadcaster. He writes twice weekly for the Guardian. He began his career in education, at the London Institute of Education, and went on to work for the Evening Standard, Sunday Times and the Economist. He had edited the Evening Standard and The Times. He was deputy chairman of English Heritage and retired three years ago as chairman of the National Trust. He helped found SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the Railway Heritage Trust and has written books on London, politics and architecture, including England’s 1,000 Best Churches and 1,000 Best Houses, and studies of cathedrals and railway stations. He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society of Literature.

Also on the panel will be…

Vijay Taheem
Vijay is a Bradford architect and senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield’s School of Art Design and architecture.

Jordi Campo Bria
Jordi is originally from Barcelona and has been with Bradford-based Yeme architects (in the shadow of High Point) for the past four years.

The debate will be chaired by Dr George Sheeran, Honorary Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Bradford, and author of several critically acclaimed books about Bradford’s architecture and built environment.

Save High Point / Raze High Point will take place at Assembly Bradford from 7pm on Tuesday 27 February and a limited number of tickets are still available here.