Written by Paul Worrall
Bradford is David Hockney’s city. He was born here in 1937, went to Bradford Grammar School, studied at Bradford College of Art before heading to the Royal College in London, and has never entirely left — in the sense that you cannot visit Bradford without encountering the fact of him, and that Salts Mill in the nearby UNESCO World Heritage village of Saltaire holds the largest permanent collection of his work anywhere in the world. The 1853 Gallery, named after the year Titus Salt’s extraordinary textile mill opened, is free to enter and currently showing a David Hockney exhibition that runs until January 2027. Art materials are for sale alongside the paintings. Bradford was also UK City of Culture 2025, which has left the city with a renewed confidence in its own creative identity that feels genuine rather than imposed. I’ve never been — though I was briefly close to it once while driving through West Yorkshire in what I remember as impressive rain — but this is a city any artist should want to visit.
I run Discount Art Supplies — a price comparison platform used by over 36,000 UK artists every week — and I’ve spent sixteen years in the UK art supplies industry. Here’s the honest guide to what Bradford offers artists right now. If you’re planning visits to nearby cities, also check out our guides to the best art supply shops in Sheffield and the best art supply shops in Hull.
1. Salts Mill — The 1853 Gallery, Saltaire
I’ve included gallery shops in several of these guides but Salts Mill is in a category of its own. Titus Salt built the mill in 1853 as a model industrial complex — the largest factory in the world at the time, surrounded by a planned village (Saltaire) to house his workforce — and the building that resulted is a genuinly astonishing piece of Victorian ambition that has been repurposed since 1987 as a arts, retail and cultural destination unlike anything else in the North of England.
The 1853 Gallery on the ground floor holds a large permanent collection of David Hockney’s paintings, etchings and drawings — including a current exhibition of his 20 Flowers for 2025 and Some Bigger Pictures series, running until January 2027 — all free to enter, Wednesday to Sunday. Art materials and art books are for sale dotted throughout the vast gallery space. The combination of an extraordinary Victorian industrial building, the world’s largest permanent Hockney collection, free entry and actual art materials for sale makes this the most distinctive single entry in any city guide this site has produced. Worth an entire day rather than a quick visit, and the Saltaire train station is directly across the road from the mill — fifteen minutes from Bradford, fifteen minutes from Leeds.
2. Scrap — Bradford’s Community Materials Resource
Bradford’s community scrapstore — known simply as Scrap — is consistent with the model I’ve included in guides from Cardiff to Middlesbrough: surplus and donated materials from local businesses and manufacturers, made available to artists, schools and community groups at minimal cost. An ever-changing inventory of offcuts, end-of-line stock, industrial surplus and donated materials that mixed media artists in particular find genuinly useful before reaching for the credit card and ordering new. Worth checking their current opening hours and what’s available before visiting — the nature of a scrapstore is that stock changes constantly and a phone call can save a wasted trip.
3. Hobbycraft Bradford
The honest version of Hobbycraft, consistent with every guide: not specialist, not deep in professional-grade range, but genuinly reliable for everyday art and craft consumables at fair prices. For canvases, basic paints, sketchbooks, seasonal kits and restocking without ceremony, it does the job. Check our Hobbycraft discount code guide before visiting.
4. The Works — Bradford
The honest version of The Works, consistent with every guide: starter sets, sketchpads, pencils and craft kits at prices that make experimenting genuinly risk-free. In-person only since The Works stopped selling online nationally in March. For parents, teachers and complete beginners it earns its place.
5. The Art Shop — Ilkley
Twelve miles from Bradford city centre, The Art Shop in Ilkley has been operating since 1919 — a family of artists developing an art supplies business over more than a century. The range covers Wallace Seymour, Pan Pastel, Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Caran d’Ache, Rosa, Pro Arte, Derwent and more. For Bradford artists wanting serious professional-grade materials with proper depth of range and genuinly knowledgeable staff, the Ilkley shop is worth the drive — particularly if you can combine it with a walk on the Moor. We stock their deals on Discount Art Supplies — check our The Art Shops deals page for current offers before you visit.
A Note on Art in Bradford
Bradford has more genuine artistic heritage than almost any other city in this series — Hockney’s birthplace, a City of Culture, Salts Mill as a world-class art destination, and Saltaire as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its own annual arts trail that in May 2026 filled over twenty venues with contemporary artists across a bank holiday weekend. The art supplies provision doesn’t quite match the cultural ambition yet, but Salts Mill’s art materials offer, the Scrap community resource and the Ilkley option together give Bradford artists a workable local picture. For professional-grade materials and the best current UK prices, Discount Art Supplies compares prices across all major UK art retailers in real time.
