h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A529436

Ladies, gentlemen and miscellaneous life-forms: I give you what is probably the first Guide Entry ever to be delayed due to major civil disorder.

I grew up in the Bradford area and returned just over a year ago, after living in London for 15 years. I started writing this Entry in April, and kept steadily adding to it over the following three months. During that time I did quite a bit of authentic field research! I have actually visited all the places mentioned in the "Places to go..." section, and the Central Library proved to be very useful for research purposes.

I had almost finished the Entry when the rioting broke out here. I then decided to wait until a month had gone by after the rioting before putting the Entry up for Peer Review. I was concerned that it might seem insensitive to be talking about Bradford's good points when part of the city had just seen such ugly scenes.

But the month is now up, and things seem pretty much back to normal here. The violence has stopped, and the city centre no longer looks like a police convention in the evenings. I can now honestly say that Bradford is a reasonably safe place to visit!

There are some good things in Bradford. I hope this Entry draws attention to them without glossing over the place's problems, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

*applauds*
This is great Almost inspired to go on a visit now

This is a wonderful entry! Of course, now that you are a Scout yourself ther are only 39 people ready to pick it instead of 40 .

I particularly like the way that the entry is still so well balanced, even though your enthusiasm shows through at every stage.

One little point, which is pure nostalgia on my part, could you mention in the beginning that the Yorkshire textile industry was originally all wool? That's one of the first bits of English geography I remember learning - wool in Yorkshire and cotton in Lancashire, though the reasons are a bit hazy at this stage.

Anyway, great work!
Azara

Thank you both! Yes, in places I did have to restrain my enthusiasm, particularly when it came to writing about my beloved Bradford City FC! I even mentioned the rugby team first!

Azara, I have added a bit more about the wool trade in the introductory part. I didn't want to dwell on the city's past for too long and risk boring people with a long history lesson. But mention should be made of how big the Bradford wool trade became, and I've found a statistic that illustrates that pretty dramatically. Also, mentioning the mills leads neatly into the bit about the formation of the Independent Labour Party.

With due respect to your former teacher, I have held back from stating categorically that the Yorkshire textile industry was 100 per cent based on wool while the Lancashire one was totally built around cotton. It seems improbable that the demarcation could have been quite that simple. But the intro section does now make Bradford's long association with wool a bit clearer.

Ahh. Memories come flooding back. Since you mention several places worth visiting, it's surely worth pointing out some of the better places to go in the evening? Suggestions: Pickwicks, Maestros, The Westleigh, the Shearbridge, that Irish theme place whose name escapes me that used to be called the Mannville and was alledgedly the Ripper's local, and I'm sure many more. I may in fact here be showing how long it is since I was there, but I'm sure the author could mention a few places of note?

H

Thanks, Ormondroyd, that extra little bit about the wool is very neatly done. My nostalgia was for the very cut-and-dried kind of geography I was taught in national school: there's definitely still an automatic link-up in my mind between 'Leeds, Bradford and Halifax' and 'wool'.

Azara

Thanks, Azara!

Hoovooloo - I did consider putting in a "best nightspots" list, and one of my favourite Bradford pubs gets mentioned in a footnote. The main difficulty there is that pubs and clubs often don't last very long, especially in a place like Bradford where there isn't much spare cash around, and even if they do remain open they often get refurbished and change their names. If I'd compiled a section on 'Bradford's best pubs' at the start of this year it would already be out of date, because two of my favourites have been taken over, renamed and transformed greatly to their detriment.

Of the places that you've mentioned, the pub that was the Mannville Arms and then became Scruffy Murphy's has since changed again and become The Head. The Shearbridge is still there (or at least it was when I last looked, about three months ago) but I haven't heard of Pickwicks, Maestros or The Westleigh.

See what I mean? And even if pubs do last, they can improve or go downhill so quickly that the list would keep needing to be changed. That's not really something that you want in an Edited Guide Entry.

PS: Also, the Entry does contain the generalised recommendation for the West End (the area around where the Mannville used to be) as the place to go for a night out. That's been the liveliest part of town for as long as I can remember (about 25 years) so I think I'm on pretty safe ground there!

Lot more to it than I remember but then I was only there for 4 weeks in 1990.

Saw the initial posting on Peer review and then I saw who had written it I knew it was going to be a good article. Very thorough Ormy. Bradford is a nice city, not too claustraphobic and ideal for shoppers in the centre with all the predestrianised bit. Don't think I could spot anything needing adding.

Thank you, DD!

I think I've come up with a good solution to the 'best pubs' question raised earlier by Hoovooloo. I won't try to identify the best Bradford nightspots in the Entry, but if the Entry makes it into the Edited Guide then I'll start a Conversation on 'Bradford's best boozers'.

That way, I can name my favourite houses, safe in the knowledge that if one of them is subsequently turned into a Godawful theme bar I can alert potential visitors with a simple posting, rather than having to trouble the Italics. The same principle would, of course, apply if a great new pub opened in Bradford. And anyone else who has a night out in Bradford could then chip in with descriptions of the cool places they discover.

Agreed?

Sounds good Ormy.

Now I suppose I'd better get Bangor finished and consider finishing off the Pub Crawl article on the same town really as you've done Bradford so well.

Excellent idea! for your info, Maestro's (or The Maestro) is/was a huge nightclub out towards the north of the town, further up than the Bombay Brasserie (good curries btw - is it still there?).

The Westleigh is/was about 300 metres from the Shearbridge, opposite the Uni halls of residence, and Pickwicks was a real student place between the Westleigh and town centre on the right, membership required, three floors, two dance floors, etc. etc.

But getting all this stuff in a convo is a very good idea....

H

OK, that's agreed, then!

I have now added another couple of sentences to the introductory section, explaining when Bradford was officially designated a city and when it became a Metropolitan District.

Comes to comment as promised...

Wonders why there is no smiley


Naaah, brilliant. In fact what an entry!!!

Can't fault it

Orcus, you , you had me going for a moment there! Thank you - glad you like the Entry!

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK '.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Congratulations Ormy

You and me both getting movced off Peer Review in the same hour.

Cheers, DD - have a on me! 'Appen tha's made an old Yorkshireman very 'appy!

Ormy

Orcus! Something else to celebrate at the Radish in Leeds!