THE DELIUS CENTRE

(Also Known As The German Evangelical Church)

29 Great Horton Road, Bradford, BD7 1AA

Contact: Jon Armstrong, 07866 049 495
Email: jona@deliuscentre.ac.uk
Website: www.deliuscentre.org.uk

Located at thebottom of Great Horton Road in Bradford, the Delius Arts and Cultural Centre is based in the sandstone brick built German Church. Culturally and geographically it is part of that creative hub comprising The Alhambra, The National Media Museum, Bradford College and The University of Bradford.

The property originally built as a Wesleyan Church in 1877 and in 1890 becoming the German Church, includes a Minister's house and detached hall. The main building is grade II listed due to a Germanic-Flemish stylised slate spire and the building's significance for the worsted trade and the associated German immigration into in the second half of the nineteenth century. This significance of this connection with the worsted industry is highlighted as its close neighbour Bradford College was opened in 1882 by the Prince of Wales for the ‘purpose of imparting to youths, artisans and others, technical and scientific, artistic and general instruction' in textile manufacturing.

The centre is named after the Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius whose parents were immigrants from Bielefeld in Germany, moving to Bradford to set themselves up in the woollen business. As founding members of the German Church, the very beautiful and unique stained glass windows in the church are dedicated to the Delius family.

The building has strong links with national and international cultural and social icons - Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoeller. Both prominent figures of the resistance during WWII, preached at the Church: Bonhoeffer a German Lutheran Pastor and Doctor of Theology was a founding member of the Confessing Church. Niemoeller also a Lutheran pastor is best remembered for his poem First they Came.

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist....

Niemoeller an early supporter of Hitler grew to oppose the Nazis and was eventually imprisoned in Dachau Concentration Camp. The Bradford Declaration (the condemnation by German pastors in England of the compromises that some German clerics had made with the Nazi state) was signed at the premises in 1933. Bonhoeffer was executed on 9 April 1945 at Flossenburg concentration camp for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Today the building still represents peace and tolerance, services are held by German and Latvian Congregations, as well as Taize and Prayers for Peace. Street Angels (dedicated to making Bradford Streets safer) operate from the Hall and the centre is No 17 of the Bradford Peace Trail. www.cityforpeace.org.uk

Given the Church's original mission, heritage and strategic location within Bradford, the current congregation's generous contribution to the regeneration of the city in cultural and economic terms is an illustration of the gratitude they feel towards the City of Bradford for the welcome they received many years ago and has enabled the Delius Arts & Cultural Centre to be established at the premises with a lease for 25 years.

EXCITING,

SURPRISING,

INSPIRING...