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Tuesday 22 June 2010

Where is Saltaire?

In response to T Becque's question in last Sunday's comments - Where is Saltaire in relation to London? - it's here:

It looks quite a long way, but England isn't very big really! It is about 175 miles (281 km) from London and takes less than three hours to travel by train from London, via Leeds, to Saltaire.

Saltaire, when it was first built, was a village (or township) in its own right. Sir Titus Salt deliberately chose a greenfield site, away from the centres of population at the time, because he was appalled at the poverty and disease-ridden slum conditions in the centre of the nearest city - Bradford - where his existing textile mills were situated. But gradually over the years, urban development has spread so that now Saltaire and Shipley, the nearest small town, have almost merged to become part of Bradford's suburbs.

It takes about 14 minutes by train from Saltaire station, travelling south, to get into the centre of Bradford. It also only takes about 17 minutes to get to Leeds, which is to the east. Leeds is the other big city in the area, larger and more prosperous now than Bradford. Perhaps in the weeks to come I will show some photos of these two cities. They were both proud and important northern cities, growing as a result of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. They have very different characters and Leeds has developed and prospered very differently from Bradford in more recent times.

11 comments:

  1. You're nearer from Scotland than from London!
    Yes , it would be interesting to see the cities around. i'm interested in everything that's english!

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  2. Is this part of what I've seen called the Midlands?

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  3. Surely the question should have been "where is London in relation to Saltaire" Someone will be suggesting that the earth revolves around the sun next!

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  4. For those of us in the states this really helps. I am in Iowa, know where that is?It is in the center.Europe would fit in the Midwestern area of the US that I live in.

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  5. So I can see where the 'salt' comes from ... I guess 'aire' comes from the river?

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  6. Thanks for showing us! I keep forgetting that England is not that big.

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  7. Yes, Bob, Aire is the river.

    Vicki - it's not the Midlands, it's 'Yorkshire'(which incorporates North, South and West Yorkshire and, for some folks, part of Humberside which used to be called the East Riding of Yorkshire) or just 'North'.
    The Midlands is a bit further south - Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire - down to about Birmingham I think - it's all a bit vague!

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  8. Thanks for sharing this info. NOW, I know.

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  9. In Victorian times Bradford was a Hell Hole. Probably the worst place in the country to live.

    It also had lots of Millionaires, more than anywhere else in the world I believe

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  10. Oh thank you so much! So not where I was picturing it to be - for some reason I formed some opinion that it was about 1 hour north of London! From your pictures your town looks so beautiful.

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  11. I'm so glad to see this, I never thought to look it up myself! ~Lili

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