Written by Judy White
The Chapel Street building is buzzing when I go in – two people are busy cutting out key articles from newspapers to be added to the library while a couple of others are busy hunting out background material for a campaign against damp housing. A worker is helping someone to use a computer, while another is printing leaflets advertising an anti-racist protest. In the kitchen preparations are underway for making a meal for refugees and asylum seekers, and some early arrivals are having some English tuition.
I’m making my way upstairs for a meeting with the Occupational Health Project who are going to do a health and safety assessment of my workplace. The lift is out of order (again!) so I climb the stairs to their second-floor office, passing the main training/meeting room on the first floor, where some welfare rights training is underway.
After my meeting I pop upstairs to see what’s happening in the community arts area on the third floor – it’s always inspiring with screen printing, photography, collage, drama and a multitude of other creative activities taking place.
This was the Arts and Resource Centre building in the early 1990s when Community Arts and the Resource Centre jointly managed the Chapel Street building. Most people didn’t have their own computer, and the world wide web was still in its infancy. So, the building was a vital hub for community and trade union activity in Bradford – a place to meet, train, get information, borrow equipment, print leaflets etc. A lot of activists and a lot of campaigns would have struggled without it.
Sadly, over the next 20 years funding gradually fell away, and the building emptied and fell silent. It was a base for the Metropolitan Food Bank for a while and then in 2025 after a gargantuan effort by the Friends of BRC (FoBRC) to clear it and save archival materials, ownership was transferred to the People’s Property Portfolio (PPP).
Clearly some of the functions of BRC are no longer needed – e.g. the library of newspaper cuttings – but in the current political climate, activists and campaigns are needed more than ever. That’s why FoBRC are jointly hosting a workshop on 26th September to explore what ‘resources for democracy’ (the BRC strapline) are needed today.
We hope to bring together those of you fighting for peace, for human rights, and against climate change to discuss the challenges and come up with some solutions. PPP are going to renovate and reopen the building as a community and arts hub and want to hear your views about what that will look like, FoBRC want to use our remaining resources to support this.
Please come, make your voice heard, see our exhibition and film about BRC and join us for a social to celebrate the legacy of BRC and the transfer to PPP.
Resources for Democracy Workshop (2-5pm) and Social (7pm-late)
Saturday 26 September 2026
Kirkgate Community Centre, Shipley, BD18 3EH
Join us for this free workshop exploring which ‘resources for democracy’ are needed today (including space, services and training), and anything else necessary to organise in the future. This session builds on the legacy of 17-21 Chapel Street’s 20-year life as the Bradford Resource Centre.
The workshop will be followed by a ‘pay-as-you-feel’ social event featuring Melosa Jazz, Bradford Resource Centre film and exhibition, and DJs.
Bar from The Triangle.