Wrexham pipped by Bradford as UK City of Culture 2025
Bradford has been named the UK City of Culture 2025.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries made the announcement live on BBC’s The One Show.
Bradford won over fellow finalists County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham County Borough.
The shortlist was compiled from a record group of 20 that had initially registered bids to take over the title, currently held by Coventry.
The advisory panel, chaired by Sir Phil Redmond, visited the four shortlisted places before making their final recommendation in May, which was later approved by Ms Dorries.
For the first time this year, the eight longlisted winners received a £40,000 grant to strengthen their applications. They included Cornwall, Derby, Stirling and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.
Since winning the title, Coventry has seen more than £172 million invested in funding music concerts and the UK’s first permanent immersive digital art gallery, as well as a further £500 million for the city’s regeneration, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.
Missing out on the title completes a miserable four days for Wrexham following Saturday’s 5-4 defeat against Grimsby at the Racecourse ground which ended hopes that AFC Wrexham could secure a return to the EFL after 14 years in the National League.
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You’re in Wales you had no chance of winning have we in Wales ever won this competition???
No and neither has Scotland, maybe it should be renamed England City of Culture.
Was genuinely once told this when I mentioned the lack of UK-wide cultural institutions in Wales (not that I would be for that, of course. Was simply implying tacitly that Britishness is and always had been a sham): “you lot would only turn it into some welshie sh#tfest”.
Don’t need them, never did. Not a part of their delusional, phantasm of a culture. Neither are they, really.
Thought Glasgow and Derry or was it Belfast in the past ??
Wales will never get anything.
Weren’t they European Cities of Culture in the halcyon days before Brexit?
I thought the UK c*c had only been a thing for a few years. Hull and Coventry wasn’t it? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?
Why asterisk C.o.C? It was an acronym for City of Culture.
The moderation on this page in recent days seemingly leaves a lot to be desired
There have been 4 UK City of Culture awards since it was started. The first was Derry, then Hull, then Coventry, and now Bradford. It would be nice for a Welsh city to win it, but given there’s only ever been 4 of them I’m not sure we’ve got enough data points to show bias yet. If anything, the current data shows a bias towards cities in Northern Ireland!
Very surprised at this loss. Wrexham has a Tory MP, so they should’ve been a dead cert.
Not surprised. Don’t care. Wrecsam is now spared years of Unionist jingoism. The investment would be nice but I believe some of this comes from Westminster so would probably be stolen for the “shared prosperity fund” and used somewhere in England’s new blue wall instead
Wrecsam is far too diverse and cosmopolitan.
I am happy that they land the affliction on Daily Express reading Bradford.
The only culture they understand up there is probably the local fish and chip festival.
It was a bit optimistic (or pessimistic) to hope (or fear) that Wrecsam would win it. Only been a city for a week!