Heart of Bradford's historic wool trade brought to book

Nothing sheepish about this architectural revival

One of Bradford's historic buildings gained a face-lift and a new lease of life to create a startling regeneration success, writes Mark Cantrell

This article that first appeared in the The Yorkshire Journal (2000)

MOST of our heritage, the relics of past lives, is preserved like an Egyptian mummy. Dusty and hollow, its vitality has been gouged out along with its innards.

The Wool Exchange in Bradford is different. It stands as a monument to the past, but it also represents a prosperous future. In a sense, the Wool Exchange is Bradford. Over the generations it has followed the fortunes of its Pennine home.

Once it attracted traders from across the globe to haggle prices on the floor of its cathedral-like hall. As the industry declined, this fine building fell into disuse to stand as a brooding shadow of the past. Unnoticed. A tale of what was.

Cities never stand still if they are to grow and thrive. And Bradford certainly hasn't. In recent years it has pondered a future beyond the wool industry. Legacies of this past have been brought to life as galleries and offices and retail developments.

Our past has been brought to life in a way that transcends the here and now, if only we have the guts to continue along the road.

The Wool Exchange has become a centrepiece for this revival of old monuments. A £2.5 million refurbishment transformed the Grade 1 listed building, that today houses shops, a restaurant, a pub, cafe and commercial offices.

Pride of place went to Waterstones, the booksellers, which took up residence within the old trading hall. The ghost-like statue of free-trade advocate, Richard Cobden, towers over bookbuyers and packed shelves, where once wool-men fiercely haggled prices.

Situated on the granite columns and stone walls, the visitor can find plaques and testimonials to the building's past. The walls speak to us, even as we browse.

The centrepiece of the renovation was the glass facade that now fronts Waterstone's. This replaced a blank, connecting wall. At the time, it caused controversy. But architecturally it works, allowing the once gloomy interior to be illuminated. The heart is on display in all its splendour, whether you stand on the inside or the outside.

The Exchange now stands for what it is, and will be. Much as it did when it was first opened in 1867. In those days it symbolised the importance of Bradford and the wealth that flocked into the hands of its wool Barons.

It was built at a cost of £40,000 in the Venetian Gothic style. The foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston in 1864. It can still be seen today in the basement restaurant.

Unusually, the Exchange was built of different coloured stone, rather than the usual honey-hued Yorkshire gritstone that forms most of the city's Victorian architecture.

In 1877, the statue of Richard Cobden was erected on the main trading floor.

The ground level exterior is decorated with statues and carved heads of the luminaries of free trade and discovery: Cobden, Salt, Stephenson, Watt, Arkwright, Jaquard, Gladstone, Palmerston. On the other side are: Raleigh, Drake, Columbus, Cook and Anson.

These are the men who "discovered" the world, laid the foundations of an industrial society and otherwise opened up the world for global trade, thereby allowing the kind of wealth and international links once enjoyed by the city, in those days nicknamed "Worstedopolis".

And yet it is the building that is noticed and admired. The "Founding Fathers" of world trade, if they are noticed at all, are anonymous. Could that be some kind of poetic justice?

The new frontage may have been a cause of controversy. But the Exchange was born in controversy when the contract for its construction was awarded to the firm of Lockwood & Mawson.

Lockwood was a talented architect. He was also a close friend of the wool magnate Titus Salt. Through his friendship he gained plenty of work, including the contract for Salts Mill at Salt Aire.

Sour grapes were the order of the day once the firm gained the contract, and accusations of favouritism were rife, though none of this acrimony was allowed to interfere with the project, which is seen as one of  Lockwood's best designs.

Admirers of the building point to its high, narrow-hammer-beam roof as a particularly striking aspect of its design. This is best appreciated from the floor overlooking the trading hall, which now makes space for a cafe.

Light from the stained-glass roof windows illuminate the ornate pillars and arches. And looking down from this vantage point at the booksellers below, one can almost erase the shelves from the mind and picture those long-gone wool-men.

By the early '60s the Exchange's list of subscribers tallied over 3,000. That may not seem much but they were a powerful breed. The world's wool trade existed in their collective hands. These players came from all over the world, representing traders and suppliers, but most were Bradfordians born and bred - if such a phrase can truly be applied to people born of itinerant stock.

These men had many languages and were familiar with markets the world over. Between them, they possessed a global network of contacts and specialists who knew about local markets and tastes. This gave them the edge in terms of exploiting a diverse range of markets.

By the late '60s this was all gone. Bradford ceased to be the centre of the wool trade and the Exchange fell into disuse. The floor no longer babbled with voices of the world. Richard Cobden's ghost was left to the lonely gloom.

In 1968 Bradford Council bought the building to save it from demolition. A fate which befell many of "old Bradford's" architectural landmarks, such as the Swan Arcade, that now exists only in fond memory.
   
Some may have thought demolition preferable to its new fate, for the Wool Exchange became a flea-market. Shabby and gloomy, it was largely ignored by the city outside.

Fortunately for future generations, the building was not destroyed and refurbishment brought it back from the dead. Like many other monuments to the wool days, the Exchange was rightfully recognised as an asset to the city in its bid for regeneration. Some, like Little Germany (the old warehouse district), have been developed to house galleries and exhibitions and office space.

Yet none of these redeveloped icons quite stand out like the Wool Exchange. After it reopened the building became something of a focus for nostalgia as old "wool people" returned to admire their former workplace.

They assailed the staff at Waterstones with their fond memories. Eventually, the store decided to collect them and put them on the record when they published: The Wool Exchange - An Oral History. The proceeds of the book went to charity.

What emerged is that Bradfordians are passionate about the place. Somehow this building has become a symbol of the city's pride. Not just amongst the old, but also those who are too young to remember its former incarnation.

They visit the shops, they eat and drink there, they browse the bookshop, they walk beneath its walls. The Exchange exerts an almost subliminal presence. It's part of the landscape, it's been there always, most know little of its history, yet it is loved and admired for its character.

The Exchange is living heritage.



First published in The Yorkshire Journal, Winter 2000 issue.

When Bradford was at the forefront of education reform

"How can we educate dirty and ailing children?"

Mark Cantrell on a woman's struggle to give working class children a healthy and educated start in life, back in the days when they were seen as little more than 'fodder' for the mills

STRANGE to think that it was a period of bitter industrial turmoil that indirectly brought Margaret Macmillan to Bradford, where she did much of her pioneering work in child education.

The early 1890s was the period of New Unionism that saw fierce clashes between employers and workers. Riots, bitter strikes and outbursts of violence did not leave Bradford untouched. After a lengthy dispute at Lister's Mill, the Riot Act was read out from the steps of City Hall and troops were called in to pacify the city centre.

One such street that survives from that dramatic time is the narrow Ivegate - where troops with bayonets charged the retreating strikers. Anyone who has ever been down Ivegate can surely imagine the terror of such an event.

From this momentous period, the Independent Labour Party was formed and in 1892 they invited Margaret Macmillan to lecture their members in the city.

Coming from an affluent background, she was born in New York in 1860. After the death of her near-bankrupt father, her family returned to Aberdeen where they were treated as the poor relations. Margaret became the "mother" figure after her own mother descended into "a gloom of melancholy."

She trained as a teacher and toured Europe. On her return she became the companion of a wealthy socialite, Lady Mieux, described as a "fiercely pro-Tory Tart". This Lady promised Margaret a prosperous future and fine acting career.

Since Margaret was a committed Christian Socialist, it seems bizarre that she gained such employment. She recalled her own worries over declaring her politics, but such worries proved unfounded. By all accounts Lady Mieux was delighted; promising that after a while together, Margaret would be cured of her affliction. It is also likely that this fine benefactress gained a certain mischievous delight by consorting with a "Red".

If this was so, she certainly lived to regret it. In her spare time Margaret mixed with a wide range of exiles who flocked to London at the time, as well as other politically active individuals. Kier Hardie, Beatrice Webb, Bernard Shaw, and the anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin were frequent associates.

Eventually she introduced the "Vierge Rouge" of the Paris Commune to Lady Mieux, who subsequently invited both women to a dinner party, doubtless in order to delight in showing off her revolutionary chums. However, things did not go to plan. The guests were horrified by the "revolutionary fervour" of the conversation, and the good Lady was reduced to a screaming fit.

"Go!" she later declared. "You may blot me from your memory."

Thus Margaret and her Lady parted company, just in time for the invitation to lecture in Bradford - the "Socialist Rome" as it was then known in left-wing circles.

On their arrival at Forster Square Station, Margaret wrote: "We saw in a shower of rain the shining statue of Oastler standing in Market Square with two little black and bowed mill-workers at his knee. Lord Shaftesbury had unveiled it in 1869, and it stood there - a tragic avowal of things that still went on."

Much of what she saw in the city appalled her: many children were dirty, vermin infested, hungry and stunted. Arriving only to give a few lectures, these sights compelled her to stay.

In 1894 she was elected as the Independent Labour Party (ILP) member of the Bradford Board of Education. She was the youngest member ever to join, and the first woman. She remained with the Board until 1902, and through all that time she fought to improve the quality of education for the children of industrial workers.

"How can we educate dirty and ailing children?" she asked the Board. First and foremost, Margaret believed that if a child was to benefit from education, then that child must be healthy. Many of her battles were conducted not just to improve education, but to fight the neglect that withered young minds before they could even form.

Life for the children in the industrial slums was extremely poor. Low-quality food at home, unhealthy conditions, inadequate or non-existent facilities for keeping clean, and parents working long shifts at the mills. In fact, many of the children themselves were condemned to long shifts of work.

This was known as the "half-time" system, whereby children were required to work for six hours before attending school. Margaret opposed this practice.

In 1897 she gained one of her first victories for deprived children, when the Wapping Street School opened the first school baths in the country.

"I recall the jeers which greeted her first demand, as member of the School Board, for baths," a former colleague said. "First derision, then anger at her persistence, then examination and finally proud acceptance."

This was but one of many of the "mad" schemes she fought to bring into reality, gained through determination, conviction and love of children.

Medical inspections became another success, when the city appointed its first Inspector for schools. The rest of the country would follow 13 years later, and they portrayed a harrowing account of life for working class children. During one inspection of 300 children, the inspector discovered that a third had been sewn into their clothes and not removed them for six months. Many were infested with lice, they were under-grown and in poor health.

After establishing the link between health and performance at school with the food children received at home, Margaret succeeded in introducing kitchens to provide the first - free - school meals. These were carefully balanced to provide a minimum nutritional standard that would improve the children's health.

Other improvements followed: she replaced long benches with tables and chairs. Buildings were poorly contrived and badly lit with poor ventilation. Echoing modern concerns, they were also badly overcrowded. She fought to change all of this, liberating the children from "fort-like" schools, and allowing them outside for walks in the green surrounds of a park.

What she is best known for, however, is the Open Air Nursery Movement, which she founded with her sister Rachel. The first was opened in Bradford. London followed. These gained widespread recognition for the good they achieved, and soon nursery schools swept the country, after the 1905 Education Act empowered local authorities to establish them.

A far cry from the stereotyped Victorian teacher, Margaret advocated play, freedom and a lively, talkative atmosphere in the classroom. During visits to her nurseries, she would often spend hours sat on rugs playing with the children.

She is described as a dreamer, who found practical solutions to make her dreams real. Yet the things she dreamed are simple by today's standards, even though she was the champion of the very things we take for granted. In her day, however, they were Revolutionary (Yes - with a capital 'R').

It says a great deal about her tenacity that she won these gains for the children. After all, they were mill-workers' "brats". What need had they for an education, when they were destined for a life in the mills anyway? Yet to Margaret, education was a thing of value in itself. In that respect, she was typical of a whole generation of socialists and early trade unionists.

Margaret Macmillan died in March 1931, leaving a lasting legacy not just in Bradford, but in London and the rest of the country, where all children benefited from improved educational prospects.

In 1960 a commemorative plaque was placed on the house at 49 Hanover Square, Manningham, where she lived during her time in Bradford. It was inscribed, simply: "All children are mine."


First published in Old Yorkshire Magazine #7 Autumn 1998.

Meet the man who conquered "Bradford's Disease"

When Anthrax was an industrial hazard

First published by local history magazine, Old Yorkshire Magazine, Mark Cantrell looks back at the exploits of a man who conquered a disease that is today more commonly associated with bio-terrorism than it is the wool textile industry

ANTHRAX is an unpleasant disease, little heard of today, beyond perhaps the annals of biological warfare. In the early part of this century, however, it was a major industrial hazard for Bradford workers.

Dr William Eurich

The elimination of the disease baffled the wool textile industry. It was a complete mystery - its source, causes and transmission, yet it claimed many lives. Particularly among woolsorters, since they dealt with the very source of the contagion: wool and animal hair.

The disease became such a scourge that in France it was known as 'Bradford's Disease'.

One sorter who gave evidence at an inquest said he personally knew 22 men who had died after sorting mohair. Many such attacks were fatal. It was common for a worker to go home feeling 'out of sorts'. Twenty four hours later he would be dead.

There was increasing concern over the number of deaths of workers after handling alpaca and mohair, which had been coming into the city since 1847. Bradford & District Trade and Labour Council urged the need for a Bacteriological and Pathological Lab to assist doctors in their diagnoses.

In 1905 they finally got their wish. The Home Office, in co-operation with the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, established the Anthrax Investigation Board. Appointed as bacteriologist, Dr William Frederick Eurich promptly set up his lab in the old Technical College (now Bradford & Ilkley Community College).

Over the next 30 years, Dr Eurich devoted much of his energies towards defeating the anthrax threat. This "cause" was considered his life's work. But he had already gained his professional credibility via other aspects of his work.

Considered a brain and nerve specialist, Dr Eurich made a name for himself in the study and treatment of certain classes of criminal behaviour. For 24 years he was the Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Leeds. He also worked as pathologist to Bradford Corporation, and was an honorary physician at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

At the Infirmary he regularly devoted Saturday's to treating patients unable to afford doctors' fees.

He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and took his medical degree at Edinburgh University, where he became a gold medalist MD. He began practising in Bradford in 1896.

Born in Chemnitz, Germany, in 1869, he was brought to Bradford by his parents at the age of eight. They were typical of the wave of immigrants who influenced the city, bringing with them liberal politics and a humanitarian outlook that contributed towards Bradford's progressive social stance at the time.

Anthrax became recognised as Eurich's greatest achievement. In his make-shift lab at the Technical College he studied cultures of over 14,000 samples of the anthrax bacillus and studied thousands of hair and wool samples. Through this, he discovered it was the wool and hair that transmitted the deadly spores.

Over the years he was in constant contact with the very agents that could kill him in less than a day. As the Yorkshire Observer commented: "He was playing with Death - that others might live."

Though it took 30 years to thoroughly defeat the disease, Eurich made rapid progress. Within three years there was a dramatic decrease in incidents of the disease. The Medical Inspector of Factories reported a decrease in the number of fatal cases of anthrax.

Eurich had discovered that clean hair was just as dangerous as when dirty. Thanks to his research he was able to provide workers with the knowledge to spot likely contaminated material. This brought about a great deal of preventative measures against infection.

New methods of treatment also increased the numbers of those who survived the disease. It was through a colleague, however, that Eurich discovered the way to sterilise the wool. This led to
the establishment of a Government disinfection station at Liverpool, where contaminated material was brought into the country.

An associate, G E Duckering commented to Eurich that he often used a drop of formaldehyde on his pillow to help him sleep. The smell lingered after it had dried. This provided Eurich with the inspiration to use formaldehyde to disinfect wool - with no detriment to the wool or workers' health.

At Eurich's retirement from practice in October 1938, the Coroner, J G Hutchinson, made this comment: "In the old days I conducted scores of inquests on anthrax victims. But no case has come to my notice for many years now."

In recognition of his work, the Textile Institute presented Eurich with its medal in November 1937. He was the first non-member ever to receive the award.

After his death, Eurich was further honoured by Bradford Civic Society. An oak bench, inscribed with the words: "He conquered anthrax", was presented to the Technical College's Textile Department on the centenary of Eurich's birth.

That bench still lies within the College textile department, gathering dust in a corridor.

After gaining renown for the service he did to the city, Eurich's modesty, and the removal of a serious threat from the lives of ordinary Bradfordians, has caused the dust to gather over Eurich's memory too.

At his retirement party a guest said: "The comparative immunity to anthrax and the lapse of time since Dr Eurich began his life's work creates a real danger that his splendid self-sacrifice may be overlooked and perhaps forgotten.

"It is the duty of everyone to see that it does not happen."

They failed. Though perhaps not entirely.


First Published by Old Yorkshire Magazine, #4, Winter 1997

Cover Story: Don't overblow it

There may be bubbles ahead

There’s a worry that Britain faces another house price bubble, but this time it’s not just sale prices that are over-heating – rents are blasting through the roof too. Can these bubbles be safely deflated before they blow up in our faces?

By Mark Cantrell

First published in the May 2013 edition of Housing magazine 

SO, here we go again, one might think. The smart money, or should that be the ‘smart mouths’ of the commentariat, are talking bubbles; the kind that are primed to blow with devastating economic and social consequences.

Actually, if the critics are anything to go by, it’s the Chancellor of the Exchequer who’s been blowing the bubbles, inviting Britain to join him in an “aspiration nation” with a Government stimulus package intended to revivify the market for first-time buyers.

Homeownership is supposedly back on the agenda, courtesy of George Osborne’s Help to Buy package, which promises some generous Government cash and State guarantees to underwrite mortgage-lending to the tune of a staggering £130bn. Taking out a mortgage and buying a home is a risky venture, of course, and the potential drawback to the Chancellor’s scheme is that he may well have – in effect – mortgaged the UK’s economy to the flagging fortunes of the housing market.

Help for first-time buyers is welcomed by a broad spectrum of industry figures but there are mixed feelings about the Government’s proposed method; too little too late, on the one hand, fears that it simply sets the scene for a nasty crash somewhere down the line. While it may help a few first-time buyers short term, over the longer term, we’ll all pay a price if these fears prove prescient.

The Chancellor might hope that his Budget measures boost the delivery of new homes but any such movement is expected to be small scale, even when combined with the more direct investment in newbuild, such as Build to Rent and the £225 million to deliver an additional 15,000 affordable homes. But these numbers are small fry when set against the 250,000 or so new homes needed per year to begin addressing need.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) noted “the measures could push up house prices if they fail to stimulate housebuilding on a big enough scale”. And the organisation has not been alone in warning of the potential for the Chancellor’s market interventions to inflate another housing bubble.

“[T]he danger is that if we don’t tackle the fact we’re still not building enough homes, we’ll just create another housing bubble that will continue to push prices up and out of reach of the majority,” said David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF). “Our housing market has long been weakened by the lack of new houses being built, which are forcing up rental and house prices – leaving millions of people struggling to get on the property ladder or pay their rent.”

To the campaigning organisation Priced Out, the Chancellor’s Help to Buy package is a “disaster waiting to happen”. It said: “Pumping more money into a housing market with chronic under-supply has one sure-fire outcome: pushing up house prices. At best it may help a small number of new buyers but it will mean housing becomes more expensive for those that follow.

“The major problem faced by first-time buyers is high prices and daunting levels of debt needed to enter homeownership.

"Of all the policies you could think of to tackle this, it is harder to think of a riskier or more short-termist policy than Help to Buy. House prices across much of the UK are already unaffordable for young adults and families with ordinary earnings, so this extra upward pressure on prices will create far bigger problems in future.”

Indeed, house prices have already been ‘recovering’ since well before the Chancellor’s latest intervention in the market. Figures vary across the country, and from month to month, with London as ever the prime hotspot, but they remain very much on an upward drift.

The average price paid for a home in England and Wales rose by £532 in March, according to the LSL Property Services Index, with house prices up by £1,117 over the last year (and £6,600 if London is included). It puts the average house price at £230,078 – a mere 0.8% below the pre-crash 2008 peak.

The knock-on effects of high house prices, not to mention the post-crash reservations about mortgage lending, have been felt in the private rental sector, where business has been booming over the last few years as it mops up the homeownership exiles.

Increased competition from those who have become known as Generation Rent has put upwards pressure on rents; not one bubble but two, a double whammy in the making.

Last year’s Home Truths report from the NHF summed it up neatly. “The shortfall of homes year-on-year has huge consequences. Rising house prices mean the dream of home ownership is beyond the reach of millions and the size of a mortgage deposit alone stops many would-be first-time buyers from getting on the housing ladder. More and more people are therefore being pushed into the private rented sector and as demand rises there, so too do the rents.

“With private rents becoming increasingly unaffordable, and with the lack of security and often quality, that private renting offers, many people are turning to the affordable housing sector for a home. One in 12 families in England is now on a social housing waiting list and homelessness has risen by 26% over the last two years.”

Traditional social housing remains critically understocked, however, and so offers little scope for a haven for such exiles. Furthermore, there is concern across the sector about its ability to deliver sufficient new homes.

The sector’s ventures in the Affordable Rent programme, low-cost home ownership, even private rental and sale offerings could be expected to mop up some of those cast out of the conventional marketplace, but in many respects it’s early days yet. In any case, it is far from clear whether it can deliver sufficient properties under the existing environment to defuse any ticking market timebombs.

Rents, like house prices, are in constant flux, varying from month to month and place to place but again demonstrate a strong ascent. Indeed, generally speaking, rents appear to be rising with far greater vigour than sale prices.

The March 2013 HomeLet Rental Index showed that the average cost of renting in the UK went up 3.3% during the first quarter of this year, reaching an average rent of £776 per month. The LSL Property Services Buy-to-Let Index reported an average March rent of £735 per month for England and Wales, a 0.5% rise on February. It reported a new high for London, with an average monthly rent of £1,106.

The Countrywide Quarterly Lettings Index, meanwhile, indicated that average monthly rents rose the most in Wales and the East of England in the first quarter of this year, both up 5.5% to £618 and £814 per month respectively. Outer London’s average monthly rents rose by 5.4% year-on-year to
£1,107 per month, though the index reported a decline of 1.1% in the South East, falling to £1,054 per month. The North and South West also experienced  a year-on-year rise in average monthly rents to £603 and £745 respectively (up 2.7% and 2.3%). In the Midlands, rents rose 1.8% to an average of £636.

Snapshots of snapshots the above figures may well be, but they serve to demonstrate the inflation taking its toll on household finances; the risk is that people priced out of homeownership are now becoming priced out of private rent. Indeed, rising rents are arguably another barrier to homeownership, depleting households’ disposable income that can be put towards a deposit for a home.

In its latest Savings and Investment Report, pension provider Scottish Windows indicated it would take renters 23 years to save enough for the average deposit on a home, put at £50,845.

For first-time buyers, it would take 13 years for them to save an average deposit of £27,984; as things stand now, doubtless prices and therefore deposits, along with rents, would continue to eat into their savings capability during that time.

This is taking its toll, according to the charity Shelter. In a survey, it found that two thirds of renters are struggling to pay the rent or even falling behind. The survey of 4,300 private renters found that one in three were cutting back on birthday and Christmas presents; one in four visit family and friends less often; one in seven use a credit card to pay the rent; one in 12 have borrowed money from children to pay the rent; also, it found that 6% (the equivalent of 515,000 people) had been forced to move home because of a rent increase. And pressure on the private rental sector continues to increase, even as wages stagnate, the charity said.

“This is proof that the growing cost of renting is hitting families where it hurts, forcing them to make impossible choices about what they can cut back on next,” said Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive.

“When families are forced to resort to taking money from their children’s savings or paying their rent on a credit card, it’s a clear sign that sudden rent rises are pushing many ordinary families to the edge.”

Hardly surprising, then, that the numbers of people falling off the edge are likewise increasing. Quarterly statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) indicated 13,570 households were accepted as homeless in October-December 2012, up 6% on the same period of 2011.

Homelessness was up 10% in 2012 compared to the previous calendar year.

“This is yet more proof of how families across the country are being pushed to breaking point,” Robb added.

“The crippling cost of housing, combined with rising prices, flatlining wages and cuts to housing support, is meaning many families are simply no longer able to hold on to the roof over their heads.”

As we already know to our cost, house price bubbles are catastrophic; all the more so when they burst – as burst they must – and send their destructive shockwaves crashing through the economy, and ordinary people’s lives. Unless the bubbles are safely deflated, then eventually this house of cards will come tumbling down – and then where will we be?


This article first appeared in the May 2013 edition of Housing magazine. It was subsequently republished on the Housing Excellence website, 22 May 2013.