St George's Hall

St George's Hall is the main concert venue in Bradford. One of the first of the major Victorian public buildings to open in the city, it is one of the oldest concert halls in Europe still in use. It was designed by Saltaire's architects, Lockwood and Mawson, and first opened in 1853. It has been extensively remodelled inside, after WWII and again after a major fire in the 1980s. Recently it has been closed for three years for an £8.5 million restoration of the exterior, roof and interior, financed by Bradford Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund.  It has just reopened, so I went along to an Open Day.

It has 'scrubbed up well' as they say round here! I have several happy memories of attending concerts here, particularly when I was a student at the Uni in the early 1970s. It has hosted many big names from the rock, pop and folk world, including Queen and David Bowie, though I didn't see either of them. I remember seeing (amongst others) Steeleye Span, Elkie Brooks and a wonderful American singer-songwriter called Harry Chapin (who was sadly killed in an horrific accident in New York in 1981) and, perhaps most memorably, Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

The hall is a regular venue for the Hallé Orchestra and has seen many big political and literary gatherings too. The author Charles Dickens; the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst; Labour Party founder Keir Hardie; former PM of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto (who was later assassinated) and the main instigator of the 1870 Education Act, W E Forster MP, all spoke here. Such an illustrious history...