Bradford's Loading Bay reopens with exhibition of 'Extraordinary Portraits'
Loading Bay in Bradford city centre opened last year, and was initially due to be a “pop up” venue that was only open for the City of Culture year.
THOUSANDS of people are expected to visit a re-opened city centre venue when it hosts an exhibition of extraordinary portraits.
Loading Bay in Bradford city centre opened last year, and was initially due to be a “pop up” venue that was only open for the City of Culture year.
But it has now re-opened, with the hope that it will become a permanent venue for Bradford city centre.
The first exhibition will bring art from the hit TV series Bill Bailey’s Extraordinary Portraits to the Duke Street venue.
The exhibition opened on Thursday with an event that brought together the artists and the subjects of the portraits – each of which was chosen for their extraordinary stories.
It is the second time the venue has been chosen to host an exhibition based on the show – in March 2025 a similar collection of portraits marked the official opening of Loading Bay.
Over 13,000 people attended the venue – a former Marks & Spencer warehouse building – for that exhibition.
At Thursday’s opening it was revealed that 3,000 people had already snapped up free tickets for the exhibition before it had even opened.
Presented by comedian Bill Bailey, Extraordinary Portraits pairs artists with people with incredible stories to tell.
The most recent series featured art based on one of the men who helped tackle a terrorist on London Bridge and an “Iron Gran” who is running races will into her 80s.
These portraits are now on show at Loading Bay.
Opening the exhibition, Shanaz Gulzar, who headed up Bradford 2025 and now runs Bradford Culture Company, said: “It is great to have this exhibition back. Each story behind these portraits is so unique and so powerful.”
One of the subjects in the exhibition is Seema Misra, a postmistress who was wrongly sent to prison as part of the Post Office IT scandal while she was pregnant.
Artist Jack Dickson created a portrait for the show that is now on display in Loading Bay.
Asked how it felt to see her portrait on display, she said: “I’m very happy, very proud, its so exciting to see. The portrait really speaks to me. It gives positive vibes.
“The whole thing was amazing, everyone was so supportive.
“One thing I wanted out of this was to keep the story alive, the scandal is still not sorted out.”
Mr Dickson said: “These are the kinds of portraits you really want to make.
“It is really exciting, and there is a real sense of relief seeing the portrait up on a wall in front of lots of people where it should be and out of the studio.
“It is incredible to be here at Loading Bay having heard that last time there were queues around the block.”
Another portrait is of Grace Davidson and her sister Amy Perie.
Grace was born without a womb, but was desperate to be a mother. In a marvel of medical science, she received a transplant from her sister in 2023 and has since given birth to daughter Amy.
The sisters were painted by artist Karen Turner, who captured the close relationship of the pair.
Describing creating a portrait with such a unique story behind it, she said: “It is not a story you’d normally tell – it is really personal. It makes it a lot harder, you have to be very sensitive to the subjects.”
Amy said her and her sister had gone through a very trying time due to the medical procedures, but said it was an honour for their story to be on display in the gallery.
As well as gallery space, Loading Bay includes a theatre and basement performance space.
Ms Gulzar said: “We are working on how this can become a permanent venue for the city. This exhibition is fantastic to have in Bradford, and it is great to have these portraits celebrated. It is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
It will run until July 26.
Other events at Loading Bay will include a concert by folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman on June 21, Velma Kelli’s A Brief History of Drag on June 27 and the return of comedy night Loaded Laughs on July 18.
More events at Loading Bay are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.