A tale of two cities? Bradford blunder at hospital restaurant
The wrong Bradford's landmarks have been on display at the West Yorkshire hospital - until spotted by our journalist Richard Murie.
Last updated 11th Apr 2026
As journalists we are trained to be always on the look-out for a story and often you stumble across them quite by accident, that’s what happened to me after recently visiting my wife at Bradford Royal Infirmary where she was recovering after surgery.
Whilst sat in the Lifestyle Restaurant there (she wanted to get away from the ward for a change of scenery), I started looking at the pictures on the walls of local landmarks, the usual sorts of things you’d expect in Bradford were there: City Hall and Saltaire.
But then a street I didn’t recognise. And a bridge that was equally unfamiliar. And a church that I certainly didn’t know.
Having been a radio journalist in and around my home city for more than 30 years now, I'd like to think I’ve got pretty good knowledge of the area and these pictures just bothered me as there being something amiss.
I don’t know why but something made me wonder, they’ve not put up pictures of ANOTHER Bradford have they? And after I did an image search online, I discovered that, yes, instead of Bradford, West Yorkshire these were indeed Bradford-upon-Avon in Wiltshire!
Just 225 miles off-target.
I didn't want to do a story taking the mickey about this - it was pretty obvious what had happened, but I had another idea.
I contacted the people who run the restaurant to point out the error – and I offered them pictures I’ve taken myself of some other local landmarks from the Bradford district, if they wanted to replace the ones from the other end of the country.
They took me up on that and the correct Bradford is now on display at the BRI’s eatery, with images I've taken myself across the district replacing the incorrect ones.
So, if you're going for a meal there you can now see my photos of the City Park Mirror Pool fountain, the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Five Rise Locks and Damart Mill in Bingley and Cartwright Hall at Lister Park, recently home to the Turner Prize exhibition.
A spokesperson for One Retail said, “We would like to thank Richard for bringing the incorrect images to our attention. He also provided some fantastic photography of the local area for us to use and these are now proudly displayed in the hospital’s restaurant. We hope everyone agrees, the new images look great.”
I’m amazed that this hasn’t ever been noticed before, I think they’ve been up for quite a few years. Though I guess most people probably have more to think about when they’re visiting than checking what’s on the walls, like paying attention to their poorly loved ones. Which apparently is something that I should’ve been doing and not searching random pictures on the wall of a restaurant, according to my wife. She’s fine now, by the way.