A beautiful stained glass window of Bradford’s German Church bears the Delius family name.

The parents of Frederick Delius were founding members of the church, which has been at the heart of Bradford’s German community for more than 130 years.

With its distinctive Germanic-Flemish grey slate spire and sandstone brick build, the Deutsche Evangelica Kirche (German Evangelical Church) is a striking feature at the bottom of Great Horton Road. Originally a Wesleyan school, the building, which has a minister’s house and detached church hall, was bought by members of Bradford’s German community in the late 19th century for use as a church.

Delius’s parents arrived in Bradford in the 1850s as immigrants from Germany, and went on to make a distinctive mark on the city’s cultural heritage. As a boy, Frederick was part of the church’s congregation.

In 2008, thanks to a goodwill gesture by the German congregation, the building was reopened as the Delius Arts and Cultural Centre, which has facilities and space for exhibitions, concerts, arts workshops, conferences and community meetings.

Rooms in the adjoining vicarage were converted into artists’ studios.

The Grade II-listed building is owned by the German Church, which handed it over on a 25-year lease. Seeds for the project were sown when the church started planning for its future and carried out a feasibility study, consulting the congregation, arts organisations and businesses. The response was in favour of a cultural centre.

Church trustees secured £250,000 to renovate the historic building, and £120,000 came from the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative. Funding and support also came from Bradford organisations including Legi, Wren and Fabric. “The congregation has been very generous. They could have sold the building and it would probably have ended up as another restaurant or nightclub. Instead, it will be a centre for cultural growth, keeping creative talent in the city,” Delius Centre board member Claudia Powell told the T&A.

“The congregation has even sold pews to make room for exhibitions and performance space.

“The German Church is doing this to say thank-you to Bradford for helping its German population through troubled times.”

On the eve of the Second World War, churches in Germany were forced to support the Nazis, but German pastors in Britain declared they would have nothing to do with Nazism. In 1933, the Bradforder Erklaerung (Bradford Declaration) was made and signed at the city’s German church.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoeller, both prominent figures of the resistance movement, preached at the church. Niemoeller was eventually imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp and Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945 at Flossenburg concentration camp for his involvement in a plot to assasinate Hitler.

Today, the building continues to represent peace and tolerance. Services are held by German and Latvian congregations.

In 2009 the arts centre opened with a ceremony attended by members of the Delius Society, including president and Delius biographer Dr Lionel Carley.

The opening was celebrated with a Delius Inspired festival, which included the premiere of Liquid Barium by Bradford composer Jonathan Brigg. Bradford College students staged a performance incorporating two Delius compositions, and the church hall was decorated with a montage of brightly-painted handprints, the result of a creative workshop called ‘Delius’s Dad’, exploring the notion of inheritance.

Today, there is a regular programme of music and drama at the Delius Arts and Cultural Centre, and a programme of events planning the anniversary of his birth is currently being planned.

The centre is one of the tributes to Delius standing across the city. Taking pride of place in Crown Court Plaza is the striking ‘Delius Leaf’ sculpture, and at Barkerend is Delius School, which opened in 2010 following a reorganisation of the special school sector in Bradford. The school is for children with a range of needs.

The part of the city where Delius grew up today houses a creative hub linked to his work. It comprises the Delius Arts and Cultural Centre, the Alhambra, the National Media Museum, Bradford College and the University of Bradford.

On Claremont, near the German Church, a blue plaque on a large house celebrates Delius’s childhood home.

Next door stands a pub which had opened and closed a few times when Paul Crompton took over two years ago. Revamped and rebranded, it was given the rather apt name Delius Lived Next Door.

“We’ve designated a corner to him – it’s called Delius’s Corner and contains pictures of him and his family, pictures of album covers and music sheets,” says Paul. “It is a nice, cosy corner and a popular place to sit.”

While there are no firm plans to hold anniversary events at the pub, Paul plans to speak to staff at the University of Bradford with a view to organising small concerts with a classical slant. “We are known for live music, but not of the sort Frederick Delius would have approved of,” he says.

Delius Lived Next Door has been rebranded with new ‘Delius’ signage. “We’ve created a bit of a caricature of him, which works really well,” says Paul.