An historic city centre pub closed for the last year has had new life injected into it and will reopen as a specialist real ale free house next month.

It marks a turning point for the Jacobs Well pub, at the bottom of Manchester Road, currently boarded up after lying empty for months, after pub owner William Wagstaff decided to buy it.

Mr Wagstaff, the owner-landlord of The New Beehive Inn in Westgate for 24 years, plans to replicate the success of his other pub, the Shakespeare’s Inn, in Sheffield, which has just won the Camra Pub of the Year Award in Sheffield.

Speaking about the Jacobs Well pub, which will be known as Jacobs, he said: “It is one of Bradford’s institutions and I feel it should be back where it always was.

“I am one of those people who sees a building boarded up and my heart goes out. I think it has to be kept going, that is the main reason I am doing this and this is a little hobby of mine, I suppose.

“This is one of Bradford’s special pubs and after driving past it a few times, I decided I should be the person to do that and run it in a way I think it should be run.

“It is a traditional pub and a lovely old building and it should be opened as it used to be. I want it to be similar to the Sheffield establishment which has been open 21 months and also sells real ales.”

Mr Wagstaff said that he felt people were becoming more confident about Bradford.

He said: “I think Bradford is improving. One of the problems is that people have stopped coming or are not coming in as much as they used to. The City Park has made a big difference and there is a lot more potential now for attracting more businesses. There is a certain amount of confidence here now.”

Mr Wagstaff took the pub over on February 26 and is recruiting people with knowledge of specialist real ales and unusual ciders.

The new manager Graham Hardy will open the doors to customers at the end of May.

Entertainment in the form of acoustic music will also be on offer.

Just last March the Spirit Pub Company employed a temporary landlord William Joyce to look after the pub.

That was after a three-month closure before the pub was boarded-up.

Punch Taverns, who used to own the pub, gave it a £50,000 refurbishment in 2005.

Now Mr Wagstaff has bought it from the Spirit Pub Company and will be giving it a makeover before it reopens.