Grade II-listed General Post Office building in Bradford to close for two-year renovation project before re-opening as arts centre

The arts organisation Kala Sangam has occupied the city’s former General Post Office since 2008, and when it re-opens in 2025 it will be renamed Bradford Arts Centre.

The building, built in Northern Renaissance style in 1886, will close to the public on December 22. During the refurbishment, a new theatre, five new studio spaces and improved access will be created alongside rooms available for commercial hire.

The completion date is mid-2025, during Bradford’s City of Culture year when the building will become a focal point. The Kala Sangam staff will move to other offices nearby for the duration of the work.

St Peter’s House is a gateway building to the architecturally significant Little Germany district, and the charity has already undertaken numerous upgrades. In 2000, a glass extension was built to link it to the Cathedral gardens, and there is now a rooftop cafe. The Ganges Hall performance venue opened in 2011.

It fronts onto Forster Square, and was one of the only survivors of a major redevelopment and clearance of the site in the 1960s, around the time the Post Office vacated the building. It has a more troubled past, as before the sale to Kala Sangam, it was the home of a failed museum called Life Force. Bradford Cathedral’s ownership of the site was defaulted after the museum, which was opened as a Millennium project, closed.