Institutions, Galleries, Parks and Museums

The University of Bradford has around 10,000 students. It received its Royal Charter in 1966, but traces its history back to the 1860s. It has always been a technical and technological institution, and has no true arts faculties; but it still covers a wide range of subjects including medical sciences, optometry, nursing studies, and modern languages. Its peace studies department, founded by a Quaker foundation in the 1970s, was for long the only such institution in the UK.

Bradford College offers a wide range of Further and Higher Education courses, and is an Associate College of the University of Bradford.

The city is well known for the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, which has an Imax cinema. There is also an industrial museum, and a colour museum, and Cartwright Hall in Lister Park is an art gallery.

Owing to its heritage as an international trading centre, Bradford boasts some fine Victorian buildings, including the Wool Exchange, the Medieval mansion Bolling Hall, Manningham Mills, as well as a fine Victorian cemetery at Undercliffe.

Within the city there are numerous parks and gardens, including Lister Park, home of Cartwright Hall museum and art gallery and the Mughal Water Gardens, Peel Park (the venue for the annual Mela — a celebration of eastern culture) and the local beauty spot of Chellow Dene with its two fine Victorian reservoirs set in pleasant woodland.

There are four theatres in Bradford: The Alhambra was built by Frank Matcham and refurbished in the 1990’s; the Studio is a smaller studio theatre in the same complex. Both of these are operated by Bradford Council. The Theatre in the Mill is a small studio theatre in the University of Bradford which presents both student and community shows and small-scale touring professional work. The Priestley is a privately run venue with a medium sized proscenium theatre and a small studio.

St Georges Hall is a grand concert hall, built by Lockwood and Mawson in 1853. It is sometimes used for theatrical productions.

Little Germany is a district just east of the city centre which boasts many very fine victorian buildings. In recent decades it has been somewhat run-down, particularly since Eastbrook Hall was destroyed by fire in the early 1990s. There have been many attempts to revitalise the area, which were not very successful in the 1990s, but more recently there has been a change. In mid 2005 renovation began on Eastbrook Hall.