In November 2025, the People’s Property Portfolio took ownership of 17-21 Chapel Street, formerly known as the Bradford Resource Centre.
PPP is indebted to Bradford Resource Centre Ltd (1979 – 2021). Through the Resource Centre’s careful stewardship, they have ensured this beautiful Grade II listed building is safeguarded for public benefit.
Continuing this legacy, People’s Property Portfolio will refurb and reopen this important community asset, serving the community well into the future.
Our ambition is that once again, 17-21 Chapel Street will be the beating heart of the creativity and community in Bradford.
We are currently raising grant funding to do this, and we’re developing a community share offer to enable our community to own and shape the vision collectively.
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Founded in 1979, the Bradford Resource Centre (BRC) was a not-for-profit organisation that supported community and voluntary groups through training, information, organisational support and practical resources. BRC helped initiate and support numerous projects tackling social issues, including refugee support (such as BIASAN), unemployment, workplace health, anti-racism, welfare rights, and low pay. Part of a wider 1970s movement for “resources for democracy,” BRC empowered working-class and marginalised communities to advocate for social change.
The Friends of Bradford Resource Centre CIC (FoBRC) was set up in 2024 with the aim of clearing the old Bradford Resource Centre, enabling it to be repurposed and ensuring anything of archival value is preserved and celebrated.
For the 2025 exhibition ‘Resources for Democracy! A People’s History of Bradford Resource Centre’ FoBRC, Toothless FIlms Bradford Youth Film Collective, the 46-year history of the Bradford Resource Centre was uncovered and celebrated – drawing on archival materials, oral histories and collaborative workshops. You can find out more about the project and read Joel White’s extended essay here: https://www.fobrc.co.uk/a-short-history-of-brc-by-joel-white
17-21 Chapel Street holds both historic and architectural significance, reflecting Bradford’s social and industrial evolution.
Originally built in 1832 by the Quaker Movement to educate the children of the local working class, the site consisted of two stone-built schoolhouses separated by a courtyard. There was one for boys fronting Chapel Street, and another to the rear for girls and infants, with playgrounds and living quarters for teachers attached.
The local Society of Friends (part of the Quaker movement) formed the Bradford Friends’ School Association in 1829 and raised money to start a day school for ‘the labouring people of all religious denominations in the town and neighbourhood of Bradford’. This collectively funded endeavour for educational purposes is the earliest example of how the building has served for the social benefit of Bradford communities.
By the mid-19th century, declining attendance and financial strain led the Quakers to lease, and eventually sell, the premises to the Wesleyan Methodists in 1870.
The site’s purpose evolved in the late 19th century as Bradford’s textile trade flourished, and by the 1880s it had been substantially altered and enlarged into warehousing. It was at the heart of a new merchants’ quarter (subsequently known as Little Germany), which was built up rapidly in the latter part of the nineteenth century and focused on the export of locally produced textiles to mainland Europe.
After nearly a century of commercial activity, the building’s function shifted again in the 1980s when it was repurposed as the Bradford Resource Centre, providing space and resources for social activists and local organisers. However, since the mid-2010s, the Resource Centre struggled to operate with its previous vigour and the building and its functions gradually declined in use.
As the building’s new custodians, People’s Property Portfolio plans to build on this heritage, reviving 17-21 Chapel Street as a resource for community once more.