Old Photographs: Bradford in the 1960s
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A small collection of black-and-white photographs which belonged to a former Museum Steward and Treasurer. Structurally little has changed since these were taken, but the cars give the date of the pictures -many of which would be regarded as “classic cars” now.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view
No collection of photographs of Bradford is complete without one of the Town Bridge with its “blind house” lock-up. The difference from the view today is the change to the buildings of Church Street Mills, which were converted to housing in the 1990s. Just to be seen through the branches of the big plane tree on the left are part of the factories that linked Church Street Mills to Abbey Mill, which were demolished in the 1960s to create an open yard.
The other obligatory photograph of Bradford is of the Saxon Church of St Laurence in Church Street. A big change in the view today is that the land behind the church that was once Trinity School has been developed into the bulky residential complex called The Ropewalk.
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Only minor changes have affected Woolley Street, except that the photographer today would risk being knocked down by traffic! The cars are, from the nearest, a Vauxhall Victor FB (introduced 1961), an Austin A30 (1950s), Ford Prefect (1950s), Vauxhall Viva HA (1963), and a Rover P4 (1950s to 1964).
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The remaining four photographs are of St Margaret’s Street.
There are very few structural changes here: the reinforced concrete street lights have been replaced with steel ones; just visible on the left is the clock which was fixed to Westbury House (then Bradford Urban District Council offices) before moving to the Lamb Factory by the Bridge and now on St Margaret’s Hall; The Lamb Factory itself has now been redeveloped and has a new top storey; the building on the right was the Liberal Club in the 1960s.
Further up St Margaret’s Street, with no traffic and only a parked motorcycle. Westbury House council offices is now flats and the main entrance has been re-opened; the Abbey Mill chimney behind has been demolished; Bryant’s hardware shop (right) is now the Thai Barn restaurant and next door, the Green Tree café is an alternative health clinic, having been an insurance office in between.
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The opposite side of St Margaret’s Street and plenty of old cars: on the left, next to the grocery shop advertising Green Shield Stamps, are two Fords- Zodiac Mark II (1956-1962) and Zephyr Mark III (1962-1966); on street- Austin or Morris 1100 (1962-1971); Vauxhall Viva HA; a Morris (Oxford?); Hillman Minx (Series III 1958-1963).
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The junction of St Margaret’s Street and Frome Road, with Hall’s Men’s Almhouses (1700) on the right. The shop on the corner of St Margaret’s Hill was the grocery of N. & G. Rose; it was later St Margaret’s Pharmacy (now in the Health Centre) and now a Christian centre. Beyond, a rubbly open space marks where two 17th century houses had recently been demolished.