Salt n Silver

A lovely sunny day this morning in Yorkshire, so me, mum and MrsB were on the road by 11:00. Rather than another Dales stroll, this time we headed into Bradford first to see the new City Park and 'Mirrorpool' installed; and then head to Salts Mill in Saltaire to experience again the wonderful eclectic 1853 galley there, and then have lunch in Salts Diner.

I have featured the City Park before on blip, so for that reason I haven't shown it today. If I am honest though, as successful a piece of public realm design as it undoubtedly is, the place sticks in my craw. This is because the public art originally agreed was never fully realised in the end due to late funding cuts.

Pity they couldn't have ditched the huge BBC screen there instead, which absolutely ruins the place with it's sensory overload. It was belting-out at full volume this morning, an episode of 'The Great British Bake Off'. That can't be right in a civic space, especially on a lovely Sunday when you want peace and quiet.

If you want to experience a more genuine example of urbane public realm and cultural philanthropy in Bradford, then better you head for nearby Saltaire instead. Here you will find Sir Titus Salt's original model village and Victorian masterpiece of utopian thinking - and now UNESCO World Heritage site. This is a shot taken from the bridge over the Leeds-Liverpool Canal adjacent.

Over 130 years later, another philanthropic entrepreneur (and Bradford Grammar School friend of David Hockney), Jonathan Silver bought The Salts Mill there in 1987. Silver realised it would make a perfect gallery for his old school friends work, and so set up the 1853 gallery alongside a superb SALTS retail outlet, bookshop and restaurant. Silver sadly died in 1997 of cancer, but the spirit of his vision still survives happily. If you haven't been, then you must go...... Oh, and it's one of the few David Hockney exhibitions you will see that is totally free!

We concluded the trip with a wander down to the park, set alongside the River Aire. Amazingly, we then stood and watched gob-smacked as fish after fish (probably trout, possibly seatrout, hopefully salmon) tried unsuccessfully to jump up the weir in the space of about 10 minutes. What a sight, and what a perfect way to end our trip.

Sadly Predictably, I videoed the fish jumping and have uploaded this to YouTube here.

Postscript: According to the web, Bradford Council has already produced an action plan to boost the chances of seeing salmon in both the Aire and Wharfe rivers. A 2007 Environment Agency paper also estimated there were hundreds of salmon in the lower Aire - and if planned work is undertaken in Leeds, then Bradford could simply arrange for a fish 'pass' to be installed at this very same weir.

Come on Leeds and Bradford, pull your collective fingers out.