Gradual decline, entropy, or death by natural causes
I remember the narrow streets of Bradford in the late 1960s packed with people crammed onto the pavement. Congested roads with cars, buses and trams all competing for space.
Standing at the stop waiting in long queue for the bus home after a day’s shopping with mum and dad. The scary shrill sounds of a thousand starlings seeking refuge for the night on the parapets and gargoyles of grand stone buildings above.
Looking up now, the buildings are still there, but look structurally unkempt, free from droppings, no longer teaming with wildlife, except the occasional clinging shrub or weed sprouting from waterlogged gutters or fall-pipes. Walls strained with the seasonal flow of rain cascading down the side of the building caused by glogged arteries and moribund maintenance cycles.
Now the streets seem deserted in comparison, rubbish, litter, detritus and even dangerous to the old man I seem to have become overnight.
The buildings are old and need of new ideas for investment.
“This is a huge opportunity to celebrate our extraordinary district and for our young, ethnically diverse population to become leaders and change-makers and begin a new chapter in our story.”
Shanaz Gulzar, Chair of Bradford 2025.
Reanimating a corpse, Frankenstein’s monster is made of different body parts
You have to dig deep to the first signs of life, talent and new thinking can emerge from under the ground from the tattiest facade. There is a pulse!
It’s alive, it’s alive!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein 1818.
Slickstercast 