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Cartwright Hall

Art museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ26425990
Source-derived summary

Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel Lister and it is named after Edmund Cartwright. The gallery which opened in 1904 initially had a display of artworks loaned from other galleries and private collections until it was able to purchase a permanent collection of Victorian and Edwardian works using money raised by the 1904 Bradford Exhibition.

Cartwright Hall stands in Lister Park and enjoys scenic views of the city. Cartwright Hall has been held to represent "Bradford Baroque", a style of architecture typical of Bradford. It is however designed by the same architects as Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (Sir John W. Simpson and E.J. Milner Allen), also in the Baroque style.

The purpose-built gallery is home to a collection of permanent works, from Old Masters to 20th-century British paintings and sculpture. Cartwright Hall also has a biennial open exhibition and contemporary and historical exhibitions by local, national and international artists. Since the mid 1980s the Bradford museum group has collected works that are associated with the cultural background of many post-war migrants to the Bradford area. Acquisitions include contemporary South Asian Art - Islamic calligraphy, phulkari style illustrated textiles and items of contemporary Sikh art, including a portrait of Guru Nanak.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Cartwright Hall” as art museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cartwright, Hall and museum.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1904-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cartwright, Hall and museum providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cartwright Hall”, the useful work is to connect “art museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26425990. VIAF identifies the subject as 135789259. The Library of Congress control number is n93099183. Authority coordinates are 53.812, -1.772. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cartwright Hall”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cartwright Hall primary sources, Cartwright Hall archive and Cartwright research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cartwright Hall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.