Page 281 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

takes both elements to pull that off, but without Hindoyan’s constant conjuring of magic from
his orchestra, the impact would not have been quite so dizzying.

Before a summing up of the finalists’ very different merits, though, why Bradford? Because the Town Hall in
Leeds is currently undergoing renovation (earlier rounds were held at the university there, a stalwart partner). St
George’s Hall (pictured below) was the first people’s pleasure palace to raise the tone of what was in 1850,
according to my excellent guide to the best and worst of the city’s architecture, George Sheeran’s Bradford in 50
Buildings, “an unwholesome amalgam of factories, foundries, breweries, beerhouses, dram shops and poor back
to back housing”.

Constructed in an Italianate, Palladian style by Lockwood & Mawson between 1851 and 1853, the hall was
standing “empty and dilapidated” when Sheeran's book was published in 2017; since then it’s had a wholesale
renovation, with spacious foyer areas and a bright colour scheme for the auditorium.

Other edifices converted to their former magnificence in Bradford include the later, Venetian Gothic style Wool
Exchange by the same architects, now housing the most strikingly located Waterstone’s in the UK (pictured
below). And if you think that’s not a bad bookshop, part of the jawdropping conversion of the main mill building
in the model village of Saltaire, four miles from the city, has another, alongside huge exhibition spaces partly
showcasing the works of Bradford lad David Hockney, whose financial support helped create a miracle
(admission free).