Gone, but not forgotten

I was reminiscing recently about Bradford's Rawson Market, which was where I bought most of my fresh food when I was living and working in Bradford in 1984-5.
I worked, briefly, as a cutter for Seymour's Shirts, on Sunbridge Road. We clocked off at 4.00 pm, which allowed a little shopping time before the stores closed. Then, I could walk way faster and further than I can now; a very brisk walk up Grattan Road and through the ginnel (alley) into James Gate, then onto James Street, took me into the market as they were packing up. I was on a low wage, so I took advantage of the end-of-day price reductions, and the produce was still good. A couple of quick trips after work and a main shop on a Saturday (no Sunday trading then!) took care of all my needs.

Rawson was one of three covered markets; through the bottom door (like much of Bradford, it's on a hill!) and across the road, there was the Kirkgate centre, then mostly a shopping centre but still with a few stalls selling clothing and haberdashery. Through the top door and across the road, there was John Street Market, and the Westgate Morrison's supermarket. John Street had some greengrocers selling more exotic fruit and veg, and a delicatessen, and probably other stalls with things like crockery, fabrics or carpets, but I don't really remember them.

Rawson market's main hall mostly contained the greengrocers' and butchers' stalls, in separate sections, with shops around the edge specialising in cured meats or offal, such as tripe and black pudding. There was a small Morrison's stall too, still selling butter and a few other goods, even though they had a supermarket across the road. One of the shops sold hot pork pies in a bowl of mushy peas, with sharp and aromatic mint sauce on top. With a mug of tea, it was a great lunch on a cold day. Not that I like meat much nowadays, but it's still the only way I could contemplate eating a pork pie. One of my favourite butchers did wonderful, thick pork chops with a slice of kidney in them; not something you see any more.
A side hall with a door onto James Street contained stalls selling fresh and cooked Whitby crabs, fish and shellfish, game and eggs. The vendors would happily prepare your fish or game, chatting as they wielded scarily sharp knives. Not a place for the squeamish, but it seemed to me that fewer people were, then. 40 years since the end of WWII, but that was still very much within living memory of the older population, whose main meals were still based on the traditional British 'meat and two veg', where one of the 'two veg' was generally potato.

I remember the place as light and reasonably clean, easy to navigate and friendly. I now regret not having tried to capture the atmosphere with my camera. In those days, I found photo processing expensive. Besides, it seemed so ordinary; but as with so much in everyday life, a retrospective view reveals the extra-ordinariness and impermanence of what we took for granted.

There is some archive film of the 700th Anniversary of Bradford's Market Charter in 1951 (sadly without sound), with footage in the markets, complete with eggs still on ration. It looks like its rebuilding, after being bombed in 1940, was managed in time for the anniversary. Or perhaps they just didn't point the cameras at the unfinished bits.

I haven't been back to Bradford since the late 1980s, when old and derelict housing and mill buildings were already being redeveloped for new housing, I thought it was time for a little tour via Google Maps. To my immense sadness and surprise, I found that the Rawson and James Street Markets are no more.

I found it quite hard to find out what happened and why. A public version of an agenda document for regeneration from 2017 had a couple of paragraphs. Google didn't bring up very much and although there were a number of articles from the Telegraph and Argus, photos have often been lost in the conversion to their new archive, and many articles are edited down to a desired length.

It seems in 1989 there were 'serious Health and Safety concerns and inadequate trading facilities', thus major redevelopment work was thought necessary by the Council. Only four years after my impressions that it was a thriving market full of well-established businesses! (Historically significant, too, as I believe J. B. Priestley remarked on the Pie Tom pie and peas shop!)

Traders were relocated to a temporary market in 1996 during the planned refurbishment. I'm guessing this is the 'new Rawson Market' shed building on Rawson Road, north of John Street Market, (which itself was refurbished, extended and renamed the Oastler Centre in 2002). Rawson Market was demolished in 1997, but by 1999 it had still not been refurbished.

So what of the old market traders, who expected to be back in a newly-refurbished market in 1998 as promised when they were moved out, and whose livelihoods depended on their trade? A few might have moved into the Oastler Centre, but I expect many of them didn't survive the move out of the old markets. It might be due to losing clientele in the upheaval of moving, and the lack of passing trade at the new site, (the old Rawson Market was a handy cut through, because who wants to take a less direct route in the typical Bradford winter weather?) Changing tastes mean reduced demand for game, meat and fish, and a preference for sanitised, packaged lumps of produce, with no reminder of their living origins.

The old Rawson Market has since been 'regenerated' into the Rawson Quarter, containing, by the looks of it, a Wilko and a B&M, and some residential units behind the old facades. The Rawson Road building has since been renamed 'The Bazaar' and reused by a selection of stalls selling (largely Indian/Asian) clothing, jewellery and make up. In the pictures, it looks bright and clean and just the place to go if you need a new shalwar kameez.

It makes me wonder if this was part of a hidden Council agenda; markets, with their open stalls, are obviously untidy and most of their shoppers are poor and immigrants, etc. There's more to be made in business rates and rentals, the creeping gentrification placing more value in the young, trendy and more affluent section of the population.

By 2017, footfall in the Oastler Centre was declining, partly attributable, I'm sure, to the closure of the adjacent Morrison's on Westgate in 2016 (? - I may have the date wrong). There has now been a proposal to demolish the Oastler Centre and regenerate the 'top of town' into a 'city village'. The existing infrastructure probably makes redevelopment there less financially daunting than other derelict property around the city, which would need updated services, utilities and road infrastructure, as well as potentially having to clean up contaminated brownfield sites.

A new, 'food-led' market is being built on Darley Street and Kirkgate market will undergo changes too. Nothing stays the same for long any more. Unlike the magnificent (and grade 1 listed) Victorian buildings such as City Hall and Cloth Hall, it seems the expected lifespan of modern developments is only 20 to 25 years. 'The death of the high street' and need for urban regeneration are big topics for another time, perhaps, but I find the rate of change alarming, as if we no longer value what we have.

So much for progress. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to experience and use Rawson and James Street Markets. They were a marvellous and now increasingly rare resource. I like living down here and don't miss the city, but I wish we had a proper market. The young and trendy don't know what they're missing.



Links (in case you feel inclined to explore further!)
https://bradford.moderngov.co.uk/documents/g6553/Public%20reports%20pack%2008th-Mar-2017%2018.00%20Regeneration%20and%20Economy%20Overview%20and%20Scrutiny%20Committee%20.pdf?T=10
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18240998.1-000-home-plan-city-centre-village-described-radical-unprecedented/

Create 366 January

Following on from last year's Create 365 paltry output, I restarted the clock from the winter solstice. It's a leap year, so it's Create 366! Even if I don't manage to create 366 items, the aim is still to do something creative every day and then brag, sorry, blog about it. It will also be a continuation of the destash, getting projects and ideas off my chest and out of my overcrowded head.

I've made a good start, I think, over the first six weeks (although it could be better, of course!). While I was fetching the Christmas decorations, I came across a bag of bags of works in progress (WIPs) and there's nothing like a spot of knitting or crochet in front of the TV on a winter night for some some relaxing, happy, flow time.

The process of working out patterns is perhaps not so relaxing. Trying to get the decreases on a hat (to match the cowl, below) while keeping the pattern going, the frogging (that is, unravelling, ripping back) has got to me. It's sitting by the side of the sofa, looking at me accusingly, while I remind myself that I must pick it up again - this is the way that works in progress become hibernating Unfinished Objects (UFOs). As usual, I aim not to have UFOs and finish the WIPs, because these posts are all about the finished objects (FOs), but it really takes an effort of will. It's still a good idea, it just needs some persistence.

The WIPs included bags of knit and crochet motifs; sets of different coloured leaves, to be attached to a scarf (yet to be worked out and knitted, or possibly 2 scarves, depending ...); a bag of flowers in pinks and pinky-purples, with some leaves, to be made into a flower scarf; another bag of motifs in orange and yellow shades, with some greens for leaves, to be made into a summer jumper - better get on with that! I started all of these five years ago. FIVE! High time they were finished. So I've picked them up again and in so doing, made a start on another idea which has been lurking in my subconscious for a while.

Create 366 

Here's the 'January' output:
'Hillview Road' cowl. The textured stitch is absolutely scrumptious. I shall do a separate blog post on this when I've sorted out a hat pattern, providing I can get my head around the decreases, and possibly mitts too, if I have enough yarn,
A 'destash' crochet square.
A double layer flower knitted with the last of the Stylecraft Cabaret. It needs a matching leaf or two before it becomes a brooch.
Various knit and crochet leaves: 9
Various crochet flowers: 5

Create 366 totals:
Total this month: 17
Cumulative total to date: 17

Happy New Year and Decade, 2020

Here we are, yet again. Time for a review of the year, plans for the year ahead, and my now traditional photo of the London fireworks.
I was disappointed with their football theme, but they made a good show, even if every third shot seemed to be looking through the London Eye.

Pods of the London Eye.backed by and reflecting the light from the fireworks.

There were so many going off at once, that sometimes the sky was just blaze of light, missing the individual beauty of some of the fireworks. I think I would like a finale where, after a crescendo of rockets going off, there is one final, large, beautiful rocket, the sparks dying away as we all admire the falling stars, rather than yet another big blast which whites-out the sky and then abruptly, nothing. Then perhaps less could be spent on them, given the extreme need for funds in all directions, even though the entrance fee for those standing on the embankment to watch the show repays some of those costs.

Too many fireworks at once, and this was quite early on!

I've delayed this post a little, because I've had an attack of the glums in the six weeks since the solstice. I was just re-reading a friend's Christmas letter on Christmas day and thinking loving thoughts towards her and her family, when her husband sent me a message to say that she'd been in hospital for over a week with a respiratory problem which had been plaguing her, and they had decided there was nothing more to do but put her on palliative care. She died on 29th December. On the same day, my closest friend lost her brother, who had been fighting pancreatic cancer for a while.

In early December, we had a general election which returned the Conservative Government (although Wales still has a Labour majority, and the Scottish National Party holds Scotland, but England has the majority of seats in Parliament, because of the higher population, so whatever England wants, England gets), sealing the UK's fate to leave the EU. With all the talk, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were leaving Europe (and it feels like it), the Channel widening as we move into the Atlantic. The UK (and Gibraltar, who I bet voted to Remain) formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January, entering an 11 month transition period, and effectively putting full withdrawal on 31 December 2020 with 'no deal' back on the table.

The jubilation of those who were enthusiastic to leave the EU is getting to me. I've seen lots of comments along the lines of 'now we need to all pull together to make Brexit work' and 'putting the great back into Britain' (sorry, Northern Ireland, you obviously don't count!). I don't know what this means in practical terms. I really want to know what, precisely, those who were keen to leave and are urging us to make it work are going to do, what action they are going to take to implement this, personally and together. So far, no one is coming up with anything concrete except that both sides have to stop arguing and we have to 'wait and see what happens', and a lot of crowing about finally being free and not having the EU telling us what to do.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, US President, wants us to import chlorinated chicken from the USA and there's been a lot of talk about deals involving our precious National Health Service (NHS).

Enough of our woes, the news is full of worldwide gloom too.

After months of drought, then record high temperatures, bush fires are now burning across Australia. People have died, many have lost their property, the cost of fighting the fires is huge, but the environmental cost is enormous, with many animals, including endangered species, killed or left without shelter, food and water. Then, like some cruel cosmic joke, there have been downpours in some areas, extinguishing the fires, but causing flooding, with golf ball-sized hailstones which have damaged houses and cars (and further battered the poor wildlife).

The climate emergency is still high on the agenda in Europe and many other countries, pursuing a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, but this excludes the biggest CO2 emitters, China, the USA and India. Trump started a process to withdraw the USA from the Paris Climate Accord, because (apart from other things, like possibly not believing there is a climate emergency) he supports using coal.

His idiosyncratic style of brash denials, blame, insults and threats continues unabated, with added drone strikes, so that what started last year as a US-led military effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz nearly escalated into full-on war with Iran in early January.

The Civil Wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria rumble on, with no apparent end in sight.

Also in early January came the first news of a virus outbreak in Wuhan, China, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised was a new type of Coronavirus. It later emerged that cases have been known since November, but Doctor Li Wenliang, who in December alerted some of his colleagues and tried to warn the authorities, found himself being investigated for spreading rumours and lies. (Update 7 Feb: sadly he was infected with the virus, and has just died). However, they didn't lock down Wuhan straight away, because they thought it was caught from animals at a market and was spread by animal-human contact (which it obviously was). It soon became clear that it could and did also spread from person to person, with an estimated incubation (where a person can be infectious but not aware of symptoms, just like a cold or 'flu) of a fortnight, at a time when people were travelling internationally for Chinese New Year, so the virus has a head-start. By the end of January, it became clear that previous estimates of the numbers infected were completely blown out of the water and it had spread outside China, the WHO decided to declare the novel Coronavirus a global health emergency. Let's hope it's brought under control quickly and doesn't affect the Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo in July-August. However, it is already spreading to other countries and has the potential to become a pandemic and impact the global economy.

Mid January brought Storm Brendan, with damaging 80 miles per hour winds and heavy rain on already saturated soil.. The shed is now so wonky, the door keeps falling off. There's a warning already looming for next weekend (update: now named Storm Ciara), with similarly high winds and rainfall.

So much gloom and doom! What else has 2020 in store?

• (Chinese Zodiac) Year of the white metal Rat. Although I don't take much notice of horoscopes, it seems this year could be a better one for me than last year.
• Year of the Nurse and Midwife (NHS/World Health Organisation)
• International Year of Plant Health (United Nations): 'an opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development'.
• Year of Coasts and Waters (Scotland)
• Global Year of the Bible: 'to highlight the importance of the Bible as the enduring foundation for fostering unity, freedom, development and quality of life'.
• MMXX has a nice symmetry to it, as does the date 02/02/2020.

Last year started with buying a new car. Even though it isn't as easy to get in and out, and was right at the top end of my budget, I love my Skoda Fabia, and the freedom it represents. Although the insurance is slightly more expensive (it goes up every year anyway, despite no claims), the garage is good at their customer service, it seems to be more economic on fuel and the road tax is way cheaper. And it's a faster, smarter car, and there are lovely little details, such as a drop down box above the windscreen for my driving glasses, and a little clip on one side of the windscreen for parking tickets. So far, very good.

I also passed the JWAAD 'Understanding Music used in Belly Dance course. It seems so long ago now, but it was a great course, and I ended up listening to so much wonderful music.

Although I didn't get to teach much belly dance, I treated myself to a weekend in Swansea for some workshops with Khaled Mahmoud, which gave me so much to practise and think about, they completely blew my mind.

My right knee played up so much last year, it got in the way of a lot of gardening, walking, dancing and generally having a good time. It's still a major issue now, something I want to change!

I've started the year with several WI bookings, both for belly dance talks/tasters and a couple of wire-wrapped sea glass workshops.
I've replaced my Create 365 project with Create 366, so the crafting, creativity, destashing, making do and mending continues.

My aims are the same as ever: trying to earn an income, losing weight (I'm very pleased with the 7.5 kg lost last year), getting the garden, the house and my life in general feeling less chaotic and more under control.

Whatever this year and this decade brings, I hope and wish for us all health, wealth, luck, happiness and creativity!