An abandoned sports centre that escaped demolition after being turned into a backup Covid morgue could be in line for a new role as the UK’s first national skateboarding park.
Andy McDonald, a skateboarder who was called “Rad Dad” after competing in the Paris Olympics at the age of 51, is among those backing the proposals to reinvent Bradford’s boarded-up brutalist Richard Dunn sports centre.
He said: “It would be the only Olympic-sized course in the UK and would allow skateboarders a place to skate year-round, where they could learn and develop up to a level to compete at international events.”
The plans – submitted in the run-up to Bradford hosting the UK city of culture – also involve facilities for other action sports popularised at the Paris Olympics, such as bouldering, climbing and BMX, as well as parkour and wheelchair motorcross. They are presented as a solution for a building that has become a symbol of urban decay and a focus for arson attacks and vandalism.
Photographs of the centre last year showed its drained swimming pool, abandoned water slides and ping-pong tables gathering dust and debris. This week it is being used as the setting for scenes in Danny Boyle’s post-apocalyptic horror film, 28 Years Later.
Its battered reputation is a far cry from its opening in 1978 when long queues of people formed to visit a sports centre named after the local boxing hero Richard Dunn. He was working as scaffolder on the building when he lost to Muhammad Ali in a heavyweight championship of the world bout in 1976.
High maintenance costs forced the centre to close in 2019 and it was then earmarked to be bulldozed for redevelopment. The building won a stay of execution by being put on standby as a temporary mortuary during the pandemic. Then in 2022 it was granted Grade II-listed status after a successful bid by the Twentieth Century Society (TCS) – a charity that campaigns for modern architecture and design.
The society is now collaborating with the award-winning firm Ian Chalk Architects to reuse the building as the world’s first permanent Olympic-level skateboard park with indoor and outdoor facilities. The sport’s governing body, Skateboard GB, is backing the proposed centre that would be relabelled, The Dunn.
Fraser Doughty, the assistant manager at Welcome Skate Store in Leeds, said such a facility would also boost Team GB’s skateboarding medal haul at future Olympics. “GB is winning medals in skateboarding but often by people who have access to facilities abroad. With something like this we could start to hone in on homegrown talent,” he said.
“It would be a dream if the UK funded something like this – there are still some cities in the UK where laws forbid skateboarding. Anywhere in the UK would benefit from this kind of facility, but West Yorkshire can get overlooked.”
Since the Paris Games, Doughty has seen a growing interest in parents wanting to encourage their children into the sport. “They’ve seen from the Olympics that it can be taken seriously,” he said.
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Doughty is particularly enthused by the prospect of photography and video studios that are also part of the plans. “Bradford council should see this as a real legacy of being capital of culture. Look at what skateboarding does for local communities, for people with different backgrounds.
“Whether you call it a subculture or a sport there’s room for everyone, including those who might not get involved on a physical level. If there are photography and video studios as well, the possibilities for outreach are endless not just for people in Bradford but the rest of West Yorkshire.”
A 20-page document setting out the plans points out that the building’s listed status unusually excludes internal structures which it can repurpose for new sports, without demolishing the listed exterior. Such an approach would save money and materials, it says, but no price tag has been put on the plans.
Catherine Croft, the TCS’s director, said the plans show how listed buildings can be “radically yet respectfully reinvented”. She said: “If realised, they would help write an exciting new chapter for the centre, show Bradford leading the way with environmentally responsible development, and offer young people opportunity and fulfilment through sport.”
Neil Ellis, the head of engagement at Skateboard GB, said: “Skateboarding participation in the UK is at an all-time high and with the success of the Paris Olympics, it is expected that interest will continue to grow.”