Bradford
"IIlbert hath it - it is a waste." - The Domesday Book, 1086.
This is hard for a Lancastrian to admit, but isn't the best beer the stuff you get in Yorkshire? Think the mighty Timothy Taylor's, or the plethora of small breweries that have sprung up across West Yorkshire in recent years, such as Eastwood and Sanders, Goose Eye, and the local brewer, Salamander. If you know where to look, Bradford's as good a place as any for a pint.
That said, here's the disclaimer. Not all of the below pubs have been visited on a matchday. I've passed through Bradford now and then over the years. This is a significant caveat, as some people seem to think this is a derby game and the matchday environment can be tense. Some good pubs may be shut or reluctant.
If you're coming by public transport, chances are you'll hove into the poshly-styled Interchange station, which occasionally has a direct train service to Burnley, in between strikes and engineering works. That's the train all the yobs catch, of course. There's also Forster Square station, which is jolly handy if you live in Shipley. Neither are particularly near the ground, although Forster Square is better. Up Manor Row and Manningham Lane to the ground from here. Assuming you come into Interchange, however, then once you've negotiated the rather bleak shopping centre-cum-bus station, you're in the city centre, where there are some pubs.
Close to the station, on Market Street, is the Old Bank, a Hogshead pub which used to be... guess what. It's a big building, decorated in standard Hogshead slabs-of-colour-and-metal style, and the beer was disappointing on my visit, being cold and overpriced. Don't know why I ever get my hopes up for these places, really. Still, it is handy for the station and they did food.
A better chain pub is the local Wetherspoon's, Sir Titus Salt, on Morley Street. On my first visit, I struggled to find this - Morley Street is obscure and there was a lot of building work going on around there - but if you aim for the famous landmark of the Alhambra Theatre, it's just down the side. This was a good version of Wetherspoon's, and everything the one in Burnley isn't. It's a large, attractive pub, converted from an old public baths. There's a lot of metalwork, a high roof, and some seating upstairs. The beer was good, too. They had a fine range rightly biased towards Yorkshire beers, including a good pint of Tim Taylor's Landlord at an absurdly low price. Only the service was poor - but should we surprised? - while food was the usual standard stuff. The toilets are upstairs. How to find them? They're the furthest point from wherever you are. This pub is in a part of town which hosts several chain pubs - one of those grim Walkabout places has recently opened (although it plays a useful function as a wanker magnet) - so I guess it might be grim on a Saturday night. On a non-football Saturday lunchtime it was, however, very quiet. And if you didn't know that Titus Salt was the mill owner who built the nearby model town of Saltaire, marks off.
By way of contrast, you could get yourself down the Shoulder of Mutton, on Kirkgate, in the heart of the city centre. It's a large, basic and localish Sam Smith's pub. It has several rooms, but it was absolutely heaving when I first called in. This might have been something to do with the cheap beer. It being a Smith's pub they only sell one beer, Old Brewery Bitter, which isn't the great pint it used to be, but it's still worth visiting to sample what is an excellent pub of its kind. Food here is big - the speciality seems to be a giant Yorkshire pudding, filled with chips! The snug is pleasant and boasts posters advertising a tune about a gay postman, with imitation banjo accompaniment - couldn't they afford a real banjo? - and a monster-free carnival, which will be a relief for the little ones. The toilets are, of course, outdoor. Surprisingly enough, it also has a really nice garden.
On one visit I made a substantial diversion up a bloody big hill to visit the Cock and Bottle, on Barkerend Road. This was supposed to be a good community pub, but alas, it had evidently changed hands, and was a great disappointment. It only sold Tetley's. That's never going to be a great beer, but at least it's local, and you can get some pretty good pints of Tetley's around Leeds and Bradford. Unfortunately, we didn't get one here. Shame, because the pub itself is an attractive, multi-roomed Victorian building, with glass and mahogany prominent. The snug was very. In the right hands, it could be a great pub. One of my researchers has given a rather better report since, so perhaps I caught it on an off day.
Better to head in the other direction, up Westgate and onto Grattan Road, where you have the Castle Hotel. This is nice and quiet, a hotel bar - and it feels like it. It was friendly, but it was not somewhere to be noisy. I had a good pint of Jennings mild on my last visit. They promise lots of good beers, including Barnsley Bitter as standard. They earned further brownie points from me for selling Seebrooks crisps. Made locally, these are of course the best crisps in the world. Crinkle cut cheese and onion, please. The Castle Hotel is close to the Colour Museum, whatever the hell that is.
Westgate continues, and takes you to the wonderful and slightly mad New Beehive. It looks shabby and unpromising from the outside - it's the mural that puts me off - but inside, a big, rambling, old pub awaits. I got lost going to the toilet! There's a small room with the bar in and many other rooms, including a snug with bell-pushes. They still have gas lighting. That fancy electricity stuff never really caught on round here. I had several excellent pints of mild in here, again from a very Yorkshire-oriented range, and rolls and bargain home-made pork pies were available. They had a large number of whiskies, too. The ground is walkable from here - get up onto Manningham Lane.
Continuing further along Westgate takes you to White Abbey Road and the Melborn Hotel - correct spelling - again within walking distance of the ground. This is evidently a down-at-heel area, and it's another big, scruffy pub. It was filled with curious things, or so it seemed to my beer-altered perception. Tetley's seemed to be the regular beer, but they had Slater's on my visit, although it has to be said my pint was indifferent.
The Fighting Cock, on Preston Street, is a true beer den in true middle of nowhere. This pub sits amongst warehouses in a windswept post-industrial wilderness. They offered a staggering choice of beers, from which I plumped for the rare Thwaites Mild. The pub was narrow, warm and cosy, and surprisingly busy with home supporters. People obviously do walk to the ground from here, although it's a fair way. I struggle to give directions to this pub. Grattan Road will take you to Thornton Road, and thence Preston Street. Really, suggest you get a map. This is one of those pubs - like the great Grove in Leeds - where you just have to know it's there.
There are a couple of pubs I know the other side of Valley Parade - or whatever Bradford City pretend their ground is called these days. The Corn Dolly and the Goldsborough are more or less next door to each other on Bolton Road, and they share some similarities. They both had copies of Bradford fanzines on sale, for example, while the Goldsborough in particular had quite a display of Bradford City stuff. You can see the ground from here, so their allegiance is not surprising. I haven't been in either when Bradford are playing, though I suspect they might be busy. But both are fine boozers.
The Goldsborough was a largeish, plain and woody pub. They sold Taylor's Landlord and a favourite of mine, Old Mill Bitter. They also had quite an interesting menu, and a friendly landlord. On our visit they were showing a football match on a big screen, if that sort of thing interests you.
The Corn Dolly is an older and more traditional-looking pub, perhaps gloomy inside with its faux rustic trappings. The beer is excellent, though, and included on my visit Black Sheep and something that just has to be tried - a house beer brewed by our very own Moorhouses of Burnley. A bit of Lancashire class in there with the Yorkshire pints. They had guest beers too.
And so to the ground. The first thing to note is that they like to pretend it's not called Valley Parade any more. They currently like to call it the 'Bradford and Bingley Stadium', and even worse, they used to call it the 'Pulse Stadium'. Do they have no dignity? Resist, of course, and insist on calling it by its proper name. Still, they've gone further now by changing even the name of the club, to "Bryan Robson's Bradford City". Is nothing sacred? By the way, did you know their record attendance is against us?
It's one of those grounds that is good in parts, but those parts are the ones we don't get to sit in. Behind the goal, the away end, when built called the Charlie Brown stand (no, really) and now the T L Dallas Stand, is a peculiar, cramped construction of some ugliness, with little space and a poor view. I read somewhere that the odd nature of this stand was because they had very little space to build it in. For games with bigger turn-outs, away supporters also get part of the newer stand down the side, which is better in every respect. Of course, they fill the crap one first. On past visits it seems to have been the practice that those buying tickets in advance got the worst seats - I had a lovely view of a post last time.
For our March 2004 visit, when third bottom plays second bottom in a key relegation battle, they have in their wisdom decided the best way to deal with thousands of Burnley supporters descending on them is to not issue tickets at all. Strange, when I know for a fact they are selling advance tickets in home sections. Quite what the best approach is - cut short the drinking to get there early or arrive late in the hope of getting a better seat on the side - all must decide for themselves, but it would be a long way to come from London not to get in. What odds on a delayed kick off? Humph. Never had a lot of sympathy for this lot since Geoffrey Richmond's time, but what I had left is rapidly waning.
If you've got time to spare and don't fancy a pint - strange, I know, but we try to cater for all sorts - you should go to the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. It's really nice, it's free to get in, and they have an IMAX cinema as well. Visit their website for more information. The museum is hard to miss, being an imposing building at the top of the city centre. Outside is a statue of local lad J B Priestley, which from the back looks like he's taking a leak. Do you know J B once had a trial for Burnley?
As for grub, it would of course be criminal to visit Bradford and eat anything other than a curry. There are stacks of good places to choose from, but I particularly recall a visit to Mumtaz, Great Horton Road, with fondness. Brilliant place, excellent Kashmiri food, and although it's booze-free, the lassis were fantastic. Of course, they have a website.
If you're looking for Bradford City sites, The City Gent is one of football's oldest fanzines, and their website (one of many to have taken the Rivals.Net shilling) has a brief drink and food guide. True, they only list two pubs and we've already covered them above, but the eating suggestions are appealing. The Boy From Brazil is one of the better unofficial news and opinion sites. And of course you can keep up to date with all that's happening in Bradford pubs by visiting the local CAMRA website.
For a nearby alternative, you could try the hardly neutral territory of Skipton - although I suspect the Leeds fans outnumber the Bradford fans these days - and one of England's finest cities, Leeds. Both have some truly great pubs.
Firmo
Last visited: September 2002
Last updated: March 2004
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