Stanley Gordon Wardley (1901–1965) was City Engineer for

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

during the major redevelopment of Bradford city centre in the 1950s and 1960s,

Biography

Wardley was born on 13 January 1901 in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

. He was appointed City Engineer and Surveyor for

in January 1946. Wardley House, the building that houses the

National Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...

among other things, was named after him.

Redevelopment

Wardley's vision was for a new city 'with provision for a continuous self-regulating flow of traffic', and the buildings that were erected were

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

. The local sandstone was rejected as a building material. Many much-loved buildings were demolished to make way for the 'city of the future', and there was eventually considerable opposition.

J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...

and

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

were among those who protested in vain against the demolition of the

Swan Arcade Swan Arcade were a British folk music vocal group formed in 1970. "A leading light of the British folk revival" they sang a wide variety of songs, including blues, pop and rock and roll, as well as traditional folk music, mostly performed a cap ...

in 1962. In 2005 one of the icons of Wardley's redevelopment, Forster House, was demolished as part of the 'Broadway development' (see

Forster Square, Bradford Forster Square in central Bradford was redeveloped in the (2006) Broadway development, but gives its name to Bradford Forster Square railway station and a retail park. History Forster Square was laid out in the late-19th century at the botto ...

). Other recent changes have seen reversals of 1960s planning in Bradford, e.g. filling in of pedestrian under-passes and promotion of traffic-calming measures, and attempts to promote residential use of the city centre, as opposed to 1960s zoning.

Biography

Redevelopment

References

See also