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Saturday, 1 September 2012

Little Germany


This, by contrast, is the area known as Bradford's Little Germany, down the hill from yesterday's Gatehaus building.  It's an historic area of narrow streets and Victorian warehouses, mostly built between 1860 and 1874 by German Jewish wool merchants - rich and influential men who used the best architects (among them Lockwood and Mawson, Saltaire's architects) and vied with each other (and with other local cities) in their desire to produce buildings that reflected their standing. The area has been a conservation area for many years, with many listed buildings and attempts have been made to repurpose the buildings in a sensible way. They've tried to push it upmarket with a sort of arts/cultural theme. Many of the warehouses are now apartments, but the area struggles to be a community because of its isolated location.

3 comments:

  1. Looks to be a fine area. German Jews from Bradford. They must have had interesting accents.

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  2. Such beautiful architecture.

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  3. That is a shame that it hasn't taken off. One would think if they were apartments a new community would strike up.

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