Sitting to the west of Bradford city centre, Girlington is an area in West Yorkshire with a predominantly South Asian population, drawn largely from Pakistani, Afghan, and Bangladeshi communities. Thornton Road and Toller Lane are among the main routes through the area, with Duckworth Lane and Kensington Street also running through its streets.
A History Rooted in Cinema and Commerce
The name Girlington dates to at least 1412, derived from the Old English personal name Gyrla combined with ing and tun. The area has a notable cinematic past. The stone-built Elite Cinema, constructed at the junction of Fairbank Road and Toller Lane for the Elite Picture House Company, opened in 1913 with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and seating for 700. It expanded to 1,304 seats by 1925, gained an electronic organ that year, and added sound in 1928. After passing through several owners including C & H Cinemas and Star Cinemas, it closed in 1968 and reopened as a bingo club. By 1986 it had been sold to become the Jamiyat Tabligh-Ul-Islam mosque, though a fire in 1987 caused partial destruction. The original stone facade and entrance were preserved when the auditorium was rebuilt in the 1990s, and the mosque continues on Hoxton Street. A second cinema, the stone-built Victoria Picture Palace on Thornton Road, opened in 1914 and was operated by Hibbert Pictures Ltd. Refurbished and renamed the New Victoria in 1927, it gained sound systems and a CinemaScope screen before closing in 1961. Wm. Morrisons Ltd purchased the building and in 1961 opened what became Morrisons’ first supermarket – the Victoria Supermarket – in the converted cinema. The original building has since been demolished and replaced by a modern supermarket nearby. Several public houses that once served the area have also closed over the years, including The Craven Heifer, The Girlington, The Shoulder of Mutton on Thornton Road, The George and The Royal on Kensington Street, and The Travellers Rest (formerly the Tut ‘n’ Shive) on Duckworth Lane. Only one pub remains open today.
Parks, Places of Worship, and Community Spaces
On West Park Road in the western part of Girlington, West Park is a small community park with areas for basketball, five-a-side football, and cricket, as well as a bowling green, a fenced play area, and a skatepark. Girlington has a community centre on Girlington Road. Churches include Saint Chad’s on St Chad’s Road and Saint Philip’s on Thorn Street, while mosques include the Jamiyat Tabligh ul Islam on Hoxton Street and Masjid E Umar.