Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the 1985 Bradford City stadium fire through the coverage of the national, local, and specialist print and broadcast media. Drawing upon extensive media coverage, it argues that the reporting of the fire provides a useful lens through which to understand the emotional environment and construction of communities during Britain’s ‘decade of disasters’. Moreover, archival sources have been consulted to reveal the multiplicity of personal and collective responses to the media reporting of the fire, covering both the immediate and longer-term aftermath. Through letters sent by members of the public to the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund, it shows how people received media narratives and articulated their own affective bonds with the tragedy. These included declarations of belonging, through which the disaster became the impetus for the creation of a multicultural civic identity in Bradford. Finally, it uses social services records to show how survivors and the bereaved continued to be affected by the disaster even as the story of the fire—as told in the mass media and through memorial ceremonies—turned towards resilience and recovery.

Highlights

  • Saturday, 11 May 1985 was supposed to be a day of celebration

  • Less than three weeks later, crowd disturbance between supporters from Liverpool and Juventus overshadowed the European Cup Final in Heysel, Belgium, causing the deaths of 39 people; this event was subsequently added to Popplewell’s terms of reference for his final report, which was issued in January 1986.8 The crisis of football hooliganism, and its close associa­ tion with stadium design and safety, inflected the emotional response to the disaster and the construction of communities which resulted

  • The legacy of the Bradford City fire was secured with the installation of three permanent memorials to commemorate the tragedy and conjoin the club and the city

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Summary

Introduction

11 May 1985 was supposed to be a day of celebration. Having won promotion to the Second Division as champions, Bradford City Football Club hosted Lincoln City at Valley Parade stadium for the final match of the season.

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