Bradford: Kirkgate Shopping Centre 'lacks architectural flair'

Kirkgate Shopping Centre has been a familiar sight in Bradford city centre since 1976

A Bradford shopping centre earmarked for demolition will not be given listed status after it was described as "lacking architectural flair".

Bradford Council plans to demolish Kirkgate Shopping Centre to make way for a city centre housing development.

In 2023, the authority asked Historic England to consider issuing a "certificate of immunity" preventing listed status to allow its demolition.

The heritage body agreed the building should not be given protected status.

In its report about the building, which was built in 1976, it said: "It lacks the architectural flair, design or technological innovation found in exemplar Brutalist buildings of this period.

"It has a bulky, monolithic appearance due to the uniform elevations, repetition of key features and continuous flat roof line of the rooftop car park."

Its design was also criticised as "mundane and repetitive" when compared to similar examples, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Splendid unique building'

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Dr Otto Saumarez Smith, an architectural and urban historian at the University of Warwick, said he was "gutted" at the verdict and disagreed with the findings.

"Bradford Council will now celebrate their year as City of Culture by demolishing this splendid unique building," he said.

"Like it or loath it, I utterly reject that Kirkgate is 'built to a standardised design with mundane, repetitive features that lack ambition'."

The report said the centre was "of some historic interest for its role in urban rebuilding programmes of the 1970s, but this does not compensate for its lack of architectural interest".

Kirkgate Shopping Centre replaced the city's Victorian Kirkgate Market and quickly became the city's main shopping hub.

In 1979, it won a European award from the International Council of Shopping Centres.

The market inside the centre will be shut when the neighbouring Darley Street Market opens, with clothing retailer Primark due to move to Broadway shopping centre.