New heritage signs aim to improve city centre look

New heritage signs are to be put up on some of Bradford's most historic streets, created by the same foundry that makes the iconic signs for the City of Westminster.

The new signs and boundary welcome posts, paid for with national funding, are Bradford Council's latest effort to smarten up some of the city's oldest streets.

The black signs would be added to streets within Bradford Heritage Action Zone, starting with Market Street, Hustlergate and Bank Street, according to the council.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, executive member for regeneration, planning and transport, said the high quality signs would create a "much smarter city centre" people could be proud of.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the design was originally developed in 2023 in partnership with the council, Bradford Civic Society and Keighley designer Jimmy Smith, of Smiths Workshop in Leeds.

To keep costs down, it was originally intended that the black signs featuring the new civic crest would only be installed when an old one needed replacing.

However, Ross-Shaw said: "When the opportunity came to replace old signs on some of our most impressive city centre streets using national funding, we jumped at the chance.

"We have ambitions to grow Bradford and join the Core Cities network.

"So, while this sort of project might seem relatively small, I think it's important we're taking things like civic pride seriously and doing all we can to improve the look and feel of the city centre."

Funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund paid for the signs, with the council's in-house sign shop working closely with the foundry which makes signs for the City of Westminster and Transport for London.

Si Cunningham, chair of Bradford Civic Society, said: "I'm delighted we are beginning to put much more emphasis on the importance of quality design and craftsmanship in Bradford - it's what our city was built on.

"The new-look heritage signs look fantastic. They really help promote the unique character and heritage of the city centre."

Cunningham said other cities like Liverpool and Leeds had their own unique identities visible "at every opportunity", and Bradford should too.

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