Bradford as 2025 City of Culture – opportunities for mission

Bradford 2025 has kicked off the New Year as the UK’s City of Culture, providing a perfect opportunity for gospel-focused churches to reach a wider audience.

The West Yorkshire city was announced as 2025’s UK City of Culture in May 2022 but has since been maligned by many (for reasons ranging from its gloomy weather to economic decline and racial problems). Almost a third of Bradford’s population is under the age of 20; and according to the 2021 census, four in ten people identified as being from an ethnic minority across Bradford District as a whole (significantly higher in the city centre).

But the former industrial powerhouse has a rich cultural heritage, notable for its Roman remains, Victorian architecture, thriving wool trade, and the Brontë Parsonage where Charlotte Brontë wrote her greatest novels.