The heritage campaign group made a listing application for the ‘Festival of Britain-style’ six-storey tower in 2024 in a bid to make the ‘totem of mid-century modern design’ the first post-war listed clocktower in the North.
Of the four post-war clocktowers currently on the national register, all are in the south of England or the Midlands.
Designed as part of a redevelopment of Shipley town centre by the Arndale Property Trust, the precast concrete tower stands above a surviving, semi-subterranean market hall, which was also turned down for heritage protection by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.
In its official notification, Historic England said that although the structure had a ‘playfulness in details, such as the alternating doorways with little shaped balconies on the brickwork stages’ the building was not as good as other examples elsewhere.
The government’s heritage watchdog also dismissed its links to the architecture of the 1951 Festival of Britain, saying the Shipley tower was ‘completed a decade later, and earlier listed examples [such as the 1952 Chrisp Street Market Clock Tower] Tower Hamlets and [the 1958 clocktower at Central Parade] Walthamstow have stronger connotations’.
Historic England went on: ‘While there is a degree of interest in its retention of the original timber and glazed entrance kiosk to the lower-level market hall and the bell-striking jacquemart to the clock stage, cumulative alteration has negatively impacted the structure’s overall appearance.’
It added: ‘The prominent sixth stage, clad in eye-catching white ceramic tiles, is seriously impacted by the loss on all four faces of the large, circular clock dials, while the spiral staircase silhouetted against the sky in the open fifth stage has been replaced by a more mundane angled ladder with safety hoops.’
Responding to the news, a spokesperson for the Twentieth Century Society said: ‘Anyone who saw acrobats dramatically abseiling down it during last year’s 2025 Bradford City of Culture will know how much of a local icon it is.
’All the post-war clocktowers that are nationally listed are currently in the South of England or the Midlands, with none in the North of England – adding Shipley to that list would have helped redress a glaring regional imbalance and celebrated a much-loved civic landmark.
‘For Historic England and DCMS to reject it feels more like levelling down than levelling up, but we’re confident that one day it will be recognised.’
They added: ‘Despite the disappointing listing decision, we hope the town council’s ambitions to restore the tower and add a public viewing platform come to fruition.’
Designed by Arndale’s in-house architect, Shipley market hall and clocktower sit on an island block on the northern side of the town’s market square which has recently been revamped and relandscaped by Bradford Council.
A Historic England spokesperson said: ‘After careful consideration, we recommended that Shipley Clock Tower and market hall should not be listed and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport agreed with our advice.
‘We advised that both buildings do not have the high level of architectural distinction and technological innovation that can be seen in other listed examples across the country. They have also been altered over time, with many original features being lost. While we recognise that the clock tower is a landmark within the local area, the buildings do not meet the high bar for listing in a national context.’
Comment
Si Cunningham, chair of Bradford Civic Society and vice chair of the Shipley Towns Fund board
The clocktower certainly has its admirers, and at a time when civic design is becoming increasingly homogeneous in towns like Shipley and Bradford, we should be encouraging a bit more fun and diversity in our landmarks.
I do think the whole listing process, and the inevitable headlines it generates, has become a bit of a distraction from the wider issue that buildings like this are increasingly not economically viable to take on. What use is a listing of a clocktower when it can’t be used to tell the time?
We have no shortage of listed buildings in Bradford that are rotting away – Sunwin House and the Richard Dunn centre being our two notable 20th century examples.
On a more positive note, the tower is firmly on the radar of the Shipley Towns Fund, which has a very clear remit to invest in Shipley’s town centre, so I’m hopeful we may hear its chimes again one day, with or without a listing.