Dear readers — you’re probably still reeling from, or rolling your eyes at, the big national story today. Although, if you haven’t been checking the news then let us be the first to tell you that yes, Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as prime minister.
The development raises several questions locally, including: will his replacement be as vocally supportive of the Leeds tram? If Andy Burnham, as expected, gets the job, will he draw on his experience as a mayor and give more powers to Northern city regions? And will Britain have a new prime minister before Kirklees council finally gets its act together and chooses a leader?
Meanwhile, we’ll be here with the local news you need. Today’s briefing has shuttered shopping centres, gritty graphic novels and heritage high drama. Get stuck in.
The round-up:
👛 Kirkgate Shopping Centre closed its doors for good on Thursday, ending a 154-year run as a linchpin of commercial hustle and bustle in Bradford. The original 19th-Century marketplace was replaced by the now-familiar concrete hulk in the mid-1970s,and saw both the heyday and the decline of the British shopping mall. By May this year, it was a ghost town.
Krishma Ohri, manager of Brow Art Beauty Salon, was one of the very last holdouts, closing her shop there on 30th May. She told The Exchange that she had been threading brows there for 15 years. The businesses and staff there “were like a family,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll feel that feeling in another mall in future.” The Bradford Council-owned site is set for demolition — to the dismay of some fans of Brutalist architecture — to make way for Bradford City Village, a 1,000-home regeneration project.
🍽 Leeds is getting a Dishoom. The 🙌 emoji got liberal use in The Exchange slack channel after this post from Dishoom announcing a new restaurant on 68-78 Vicar Lane. The behemoth of Irani-Bombay-cafe dining says it’ll serve breakfasts, lunches and evening meals from its soft launch on 3rd of August — look out for half-price food during that time. The interior will take its inspiration from a bizarre 1944 shipping disaster in which the SS Fort Stikine exploded in Bombay dock, sending its cargo of gold bars flying in all directions. We think this probably means there will be a lot of gold leaf.
📝 The chaos at Kirklees council rolls on, with West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin now joining the fray. She wrote to Kirklees councillors — who still haven’t decided on a leader — on Wednesday warning of the “consequences” of the situation, including the fact that Kirklees will now not have a representative at the upcoming West Yorkshire Combined Authority AGM this Thursday.
This prompted an 850-word statement, sent to Local Democracy Reporter Lyra Auld, from Reform group leader Cllr Sarah Wood. As well as alluding to a “heated confrontation” that was attended by West Yorkshire Police in May, she says her party — the largest group in the council — will not be considering a formal coalition. No sign of this one sorting itself any time soon, and the odds of the UK having a new prime minister before Kirklees has a new leader are looking pretty good.
☀️ Absolutely sweltering temperatures coming up this week, with the BBC predicting highs of 33C in Leeds on Thursday. The Met office is bringing in an amber weather warning for Wednesday and Thursday. Drink lots of water, and if you want to cool down, you could head to Topcliffe, deemed “Yorkshire’s coldest village”, where temperatures will be a mere 31C.
🗳 The final make-up of Bradford Council was announced on Friday with the results of Idle and Thackley ward’s by-election. The original election was postponed due to the death of longstanding Liberal Democrat councillor Jeannette Sunderland. Lib Dems Alun Owen Griffiths, Aislin Naylor, and the late councillor’s daughter Rachel Sunderland clinched all three seats with 19% of the vote apiece.
The election was never going to dislodge Reform from their dominant position, being comfortably ahead of the other parties by 10 seats, but it’s a solid result for the Lib Dems, who had previously held all three. The vote turnout was 37.27%, per Local Democracy Reporter Chris Young.
🏛 A last-ditch attempt to get Historic England protections for Pudsey Town Hall has put the brakes on its imminent sale. An application for listed status has been filed, which if confirmed brings additional obligations for any developer. It’s unclear when a decision will come through. The handsome yellow, turreted building served as HQ for Pudsey Borough Council for much of the 20th century, but a sale for an undisclosed sum to a — believed to be residential — developer was agreed in February. The move has inflamed some passions, with petitions opposing the sale, but the council argues that there’s little that can be done to keep the building in public use. (West Leeds Dispatch)
The big picture: No place like Holmfirth
We love this stunning image by Richard Littlewood of an abandoned farm a few miles out of Holmforth. Follow his work here. Got a great photo of life in West Yorkshire to share? Send it to Mia to be featured here.
What we did last week:
Gigs, created by Leeds duo Mark Mosedale and Si Smith, is a graphic novel that’s a “chillingly prescient” exploration of a world where A.I. has taken most work, while an app (Gigs) provides mundane jobs that citizens must complete to be paid their “Basic Income”. Think Tinder but instead of notifications popping up for matches, it’s a cleaning job, and if you don’t do it, you won’t be eating that day. Brad went along to the book launch at the long-standing OK Comics in the Thornton Arcade on Thursday, where a large queue of fans queued up, eager to get their copies signed.
The graphic novel features several nods to Leeds, including the city’s bus station entrance, an old bank building on the Vicar Lane/Headrow junction and the skyline behind Leeds Playhouse. Smith’s stunning illustrations feel uncomfortably close to home, and Mosedale, the author, told The Exchange: “We really aimed to make it feel grounded, we didn’t want to create a fanciful, sci-fi feel, we wanted it to feel like it could be 20 years from now.” The release of Gigs has been delayed a couple of years, which Mosedale admitted wasn’t ideal but actually “makes it better, more relevant. Every time you open the news at the moment you think: ‘here we go’.”
Meanwhile, enthusiastic to learn about her new home, Mia has been reading Mick McCann's "Encylopaedia Leeds — How Leeds Changed the World." Containing notes on everything from the brilliantly-named Wordsworth Donisthorpe, an under-recognised inventor of the moving image, to the final resting place of Pablo Fanque, it's both obsessively researched and very funny.
Home of the week:
As we flicked through each photo of this three-bed house in Highburton, near Huddersfield, we expected to see at least some diversion from the colour palette but this one is steadfast in its commitment to the neutral. That said, it’s absolutely pristine and features a decent-sized master bedroom, a beautiful kitchen-dining area complete with farmhouse sink (white of course), and a huge garden. Yours for £375k.
Catching up and coming up:
Last week was dominated by the loss of one of Bradford’s greatest sons — and one of the world’s leading artists — in David Hockney, which set Brad and Mia on the path of talking to former schoolmates and artist friends. “Our laddo” was how one source referred to him —“It’s a sign of how Hockney is viewed here that people speak of him in these familiar terms,” wrote Brad. They also chatted to West Yorkshire artists whose work was irrevocably changed by his influence; and a little bit of archive digging led them to the odd sliding-doors moment with a Bradford printing house, if it weren’t for whom Hockney might never have studied art at all. That, and a lot more, with (we think) never-before-told anecdotes of the great man here.
On Saturday we published Daniel’s look behind the curtain of Channel 4’s move to Leeds. Highly-placed sources have told him that the move — intended to replicate the energy of the Beeb’s move to Greater Manchester — hasn’t brought the “new era” claimed by the then-Chief Executive. The move was even deemed a “Faustian pact” by one source — a desperate gesture aimed at staving off threats to privatise it. And air has fizzled from the balloon thanks to one particular household name who has flat-out refused to leave London. “Good feature on C4,” said reader Andrew Thompson (who also noted that C4 News is produced by ITN, not in-house as we had said. Many thanks for the spot, Andrew).
This week, Brad has been talking to the inhabitant of an encampment outside Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court, whose jumble of gear has aroused concern from onlookers. Look out for Brad’s story, which is surprising and human in equal measure.
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Things to do:
🎸 Tonight you can enjoy live music with Scrapyard at Oporto in Leeds from 7pm until 11pm. Event organiser Monomyth Records has described the event as “noisy sludgey shoegaze and mirth”, with brand new bands showcasing their talent. “A massive headache at the best bar in town.” Tickets are just £7, available here.
🧘 If you’re looking to relax for a couple of hours, then there’s just a few tickets left for an evening of heat, harp music and R&R at the Songbird Sanctuary in Roundhay tomorrow. Hosted by George Buchanan Music from 6pm until 8pm, attendees can enjoy a 50-minute sauna session and 50-minute live Harp & Song Sound Bath with tickets available here for £50.
⚽ England can secure passage to the World Cup knockout rounds with a win against Ghana on Tuesday (kick-off 9pm) after a convincing (at least offensively) 4-2 win against Croatia in their opening game of the tournament. If you want to cheer on the Three Lions, why not try Bradford Live’s Fan Zone, where a huge crowd erupted into joyous celebrations last Wednesday after England’s opener (obligatory beer-soaking warning). Or if you want “maximum noise”, The Moot Hall Arms is offering air horns and noise sticks out in a bid to become the loudest Stonegate pub in the country for tomorrow night’s game.
🧐🍷 A night of crime and wine is on offer at Cargo Wines in Farsley on Tuesday evening, between 7pm and 9pm. Wine expert and Saturday Kitchen presenter, Olly Smith, has turned his glass-swirling hand to writing and will present his debut novel, the aptly-named Death by Noir, at the event. Tickets are £22.38, or you can get entry and the book for £31.05 (which has a RRP of £20 on its own).
