Discover
Our
History

The Bradford Police Museum is an Arts Council Accredited, award-winning independent museum and registered charity, located within the magnificent Bradford City Hall in Centenary Square.

Voted one of the best small museums in the country by The Times in 2023 and 2024 and a winner of the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award in 2022, the museum offers visitors the opportunity to step inside Bradford’s policing and criminal justice history in the very spaces where it happened.

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Explore the museum’s original Victorian police cells, historic courtroom and former police offices, and discover the people, cases and events that have shaped policing in Bradford. Through fascinating objects, photographs, documents and personal stories, the museum traces the development of policing from the early watchmen through Bradford City Police and into the era of West Yorkshire Police.

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More than a collection of police memorabilia, the Bradford Police Museum tells a wider story of crime, justice, social change and the relationship between policing and the communities of Bradford.

Whether you’re interested in local history, policing and crime, historic buildings or simply looking for something a little different to discover in the heart of Bradford, there is plenty to explore.