Indian businesses and services in Bradford, United Kingdom

Bradford's South Asian community grew out of its wool and textile mills. From the 1950s onwards men came to work the night shifts, many of them from the Mirpur district of Azad Kashmir and other parts of Pakistan, followed later by their families, and today people of Pakistani heritage form the largest South Asian group in the district, according to the 2021 Census. There are also long-standing Indian Punjabi, Gujarati and Bangladeshi communities.

Manningham, just north of the centre, is the historic heart of the community, with mosques, grocers, sweet shops and clothing stores on and around Oak Lane and Lumb Lane. Leeds Road, running east, is known for its restaurants, sweet centres and wedding shops, and is where the city's Shree Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple stands. Great Horton, Little Horton and Girlington are other areas with large South Asian populations and their own shopping streets. Bradford won the national Curry Capital of Britain title six years running in the 2010s, and eating out is a real part of local life.

Eid is the biggest moment in the city's calendar: chand raat, the night before, keeps Leeds Road and Manningham busy until the early hours as families shop for clothes, bangles and mehndi. The Bradford Mela, first held in 1988 and among the first in Britain, has not run every year, and returned as the Bradford City Mela in 2026. In 2025 Bradford was UK City of Culture, and South Asian artists and communities were central to that programme. Eid follows the Islamic lunar calendar and arrives roughly eleven days earlier each year, and Diwali moves between October and November, so check dates close to the time.