Loading Bay — Local services in Bradford

I was so excited when I discovered the BBC Extraordinary Portrait series was going to be exhibiting... and then I realised it was in Bradford! My my, that's almost a 4 hour drive from North London! Well, I was so pleased I made the effort even though upon arriving I found a queue! It's a good sign that it's busy, I thought, even if somewhat frustrating, as after that drive, all I want to do is gain entry! Still, I'm a patient man, and my patience was duly rewarded as the portraits were breathtakingly spectacular. Some were almost life-size and rendered so beautifully that I stood in awe. The Portrait by Oriane Pierrepont was without doubt my favourite and tbh, the main reason for this trip....

This was my first visit, to the gallery and to both theatre spaces, as part of the New Music weekend. This is a great venue- staff were friendly and helpful, and genuinely interested. The gallery is big enough for the exhibition currently on, which was a moving exposition of a shared culture- recording voices on cassette. Both theatres were reasonably sized and spacious too. And there is a lift if you are...

Well. The venue itself isn't bad, nice display area and they were reasonably well organised. But.... We went to the portrait exhibition which we queued for 35 minutes to get in. Whilst the portraits themselves were very good there were only 6 of them ! So overall...