Thursday 9 December 2010

Bradford by night

On Tuesday, I travelled up to Bradford in West Yorkshire and ended up here, on level 9 of the NCP car park, right near the centre of the city. It was about 16.45 and already dark. I was attracted to the lights and thought I'd see what I could capture on 'film'.

This is Bradford Interchange. Rebuilt in 2001, such bus companies as Arriva Yorkshire, First West Yorkshire, Centrebus and others, run services to cities and towns around West Yorkshire, as well as locally. From here, it is also posiible to catch a coach and one of the potential destinations is Derby :)

Add to this a railway station, and you can pretty much go wherever you want!



Looking in the other direction, is Bradford City Hall, a Grade I listed building in Centenary Square. In spite of being in the bottom of the valley, its distinctive tower can be seen from all around this hilly city, rising to a height of 220 feet (8 feet higher than the cathedral tower in Derby). With the steam from the heating vents curling around the base of the tower and across the face of the clock, the effect was decidedly atmospheric.



Looking along the road is Jacob's Well, named after the pub to the left of the scene, with the Central Library dominating the centre of the shot and the National Media Museum to the right. The tall building behind the Media Museum is the ice skating rink which now also contains many student flats.


Although this last one is not a good shot, I included it because I saw a photo of this building and poster on someone else's blog on Tuesday morning not long after I arrived in West Yorkshire, and then saw it 'in the flesh' twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday! I'll let JennyFreckles tell you all about it because she is much better informed about the whole complex than I am.

3 comments:

  1. I'd love to know the camera settings you used to capture those shots. Were these areas all so well lit that you didn't need a tripod?

    Amazing shots, H. Cityscapes at night are da bomb.

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  2. Ever since I was a tiny little girl, I've loved the magic of twinkly lights ;)

    The Bradford City hall looks so mysterious lit up at night - at first, I thought the clock tower was the moon with whisps of cloud or smoke - made it seem even more "spook?" Then, I fetched my proper reading glasses :) Great image, either way!

    How very privileged you all are to have such a world class transport system in place. We lag behind hugely in our neck of the woods.

    As usual, really great to see you're still having so much fun with your new toy!

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  3. Oops! Seems I need more than my correct reading specs today - appear to have forgotten my brain cell somewhere, too!

    So, pardon the typos (wisps...and spooky...are what I intended to offer!)

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