Bradford Cathedral hosted extra guided tours and events for the City of Culture year. (Photo: Bradford Cathedral)
Bradford Cathedral has seen record numbers of people passing through its doors this year, thanks largely to the British government’s decision to name Bradford as the “City of Culture” for 2025.
Previous “Cities of Culture” chosen by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, include Coventry, Kingston upon Hull and Londonderry.
The cathedral said that “drop-in” visitor numbers were double that of any previous year since records began. In response, the cathedral put on a number of tours and events to cater for the surge in visitor numbers.
Bradford Cathedral’s Director of Education and Visitors, Maggie Myers said, “We are delighted that so many thousands of people have come through the Cathedral’s doors in 2025, for such a variety of reasons and from so many different parts of the country and the world.
“We’ve recorded visitors from all over Britain and from at least 36 other countries. These are just the people who have written comments in the Visitors’ Book or interacted with our welcome team, so we know the actual total of visitors and their home counties and countries will be even higher.”
As well as tours and cultural events, Myers said that many visitors had taken the time to attend services and musical performances at the cathedral.
She added, “Since January, we have put on history, stained glass, textiles and architecture guided tours of the building at regular intervals, done large scale events for different audiences, such as music events, exhibitions, educational visits, family activities, two days of events for crafters and our Her-itage Open Day, with its focus on female-led creativity and design. Our outside Timeline of our history since Saxon times was also a big hit with visitors. There really has been something for everyone.”
While the cultural events of the year may well have inflated Bradford Cathedral’s usual numbers somewhat, other evidence suggests that the Church of England and Christianity more broadly, are indeed experiencing a resurgence in interest.
Official Church of England statistics published this week showed a rise in attendance for the fourth year in a row, albeit with signs that the post-pandemic recovery is slowing. Earlier this year the Bible Society published research which indicated a “quiet revival” is taking place in Britain, with many more people attending church, particularly among the young.
