SIR – Further to the excellent letter from Nick Harrison (T&A, January 17), in the early 1900s Bradford was the wealthiest city in Great Britain and one of the wealthiest in Europe.

It had the highest square footage of quality shops of any city in the country outside London, whereas it now has the second-highest percentage of empty shops nationally (T&A, February 11, 2010).

The city has many firsts. The first Betty’s cafe outside Harrogate opened in Bradford in 1924 (Leeds 1929). The first Pullman train service in Britain ran from Bradford in 1874.

Bradford was the first local authority in the country to build a local electric generating station in 1889, and the first to run trolley buses in 1911. The first school baths were opened in 1899, and the first school meals introduced in 1907/08.

Bradford’s Esholt sewage works were the first to run at a profit (lanolin extraction). The Scar House Reservoir complex gave Bradford most efficient water supplies – necessary for the wool trade of which Bradford was the centre. And so on.

In those days Bradford was managed by aldermen and councillors, most of whom were businessmen and who worked unpaid for the city.

Looking at the City Hall with its Florentine clock tower is a reminder of how great, worldwide, the city once was.

Paul Stephenson, Cliffe Gardens, Shipley