Tuesday 12 March 2013

Bridge Street (pictured above in 2013) is one of several places where unfit Victorian (and even earlier) houses were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s, often being replaced by car parks, not through a lack of vision so much as the need to meet rapidly increasing car ownership, which brought a surprising sudden reluctance nationally to walk even short distances in a population that previously had travelled far and wide on foot. As I will show in forthcoming posts, the clearances transformed the townscape.
Pictured above is the same view of pre-demolition Bridge Street from the junction with Briggate. Below is an even earlier picture of the street farther on towards the present Bell Square. These two photographs are courtesy of Silsden Camera Club.