Bradford Wool Exchange sells for more than £700,000

A Grade I listed building that was once at the heart of the global wool trade has sold for more than £770,000 at auction.

Bradford's Wool Exchange, a landmark of the city's textile trade roots, was sold on behalf of Bradford Council and brings in roughly £50,000 a year in rent.

The 30,000 sq ft building, housing businesses including book shop Waterstones, Tiffin Coffee and The Exchange bar, went under the hammer on Thursday with a guide price of £500,000. Details of the buyer have not been announced.

Cartmex Limited is the current tenant for the building, with its 125-year lease starting in 1996 and running until 2121, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The building has not been used for trading wool since the 1960s and currently contains 12 retail units in total on the ground floor and a further two floors of self-contained office accommodation.

It was designed by Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson and was completed in 1867.

Its Historic England listing said: "In type the design looks to the precedent of the great Flemish cloth halls but the style is Venetian gothic.

"The Wool Exchange, perhaps more than any other building, symbolises the wealth and importance that Bradford had gained by the mid-19th Century on the basis of the wool trade."

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