Historic music venue’s £15.6m regeneration moves ahead
REGENERATION firm Bradford Live has taken another step to its goal of converting the former Bradford Odeon, built in 1930, into a 4,500 capacity live music venue.
Bradford Live, with project director Lee Craven, has submitted a £5m bid to the Heritage Enterprise Scheme, part of the Heritage Lottery Fund, to go towards the conversion.
Mr Craven said: “We have reworked our plans, and are confident we can bring the entire iconic building back to life for an overall cost of £15.6m
“HES is an impressive scheme that understands how the cost of bringing a heritage building back to life can often exceed its market value. HES helps bridge that gap.”
A decision is expected in January and Mr Craven said: “If successful, we will spend the next 12-18 months working with the HLF team on detailed development of the project, before moving to the main conversion works themselves. Our plan is for the venue to open in 2018.”
Over the past four years Mr Craven has brought together venue experts, a team which decided that the best course of action was to recreate the original auditorium in the historic building.
Bradford Live gets no funding from any public body including Bradford Council, with Mr Craven paying for all Bradford Live’s costs.
The cost of transforming the building means that a private developer would be unlikekly to make a commercial return from the project.
The firm said on their site that: “As for the ongoing running costs of the venue, we are adamant that these must be met by a commercial operator, and that no ‘revenue funding’ from the Council is possible, or even desirable.”
The site, on Godwin Street was completed in 1930 as the New Victoria, located on the site of William Whittaker’s brewery and malting, which had closed in 1928.
It was the third largest cinema in Britain when it opened, but closed in 1968, remaining unused for 20 years. In the 1990’s, The Gaumont (formerly New Victoria) nearly underwent renovation twice by Odeon, but neither was implemented.
In 1963, when it was still a ballroom, the then-unknown band The Beatles played there, as well as The Rolling Stones, and before that, Buddy Holly and Bill Haley & His Comets.
A sister site on Manchester Street was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1940, before being renovated in time for Armistice Day that year. It was bought and demolished by Bradford City Council in 1968 to realign the road.
