THE building where David Hockney and many other artists honed their creative skills has been put up for sale, and one of its alumni hopes it could be turned into a gallery.

Formerly the Bradford Regional College of Art, the Grove Building in Great Horton Road was vacated by Bradford College when it moved many of its classes and facilities to the purpose-built, £50 million David Hockney Building in September.

The impressive Grade II listed building became a library after acting as the college of art, and has now been put on the market as part of the college's accommodation strategy, which will also see a £10 million advanced technologies centre open on the former Alexandra car park in September.

Artist David Oxtoby, one of many to be taught at the art college, hopes that it does not suffer the same fate as many of the city's historic buildings.

The promotional materials by property agents Sharma Williamson say it is available for a "wide range of end uses," and are inviting prospective buyers to make offers for the building.

It says it is: "situated in the heart of the city’s learning quarter" and only yards from college buildings and the University of Bradford.

Mr Oxtoby studied at the building in the 1950s, the same time Hockney attended.

Along with fellow students and artists John Loker, Michael Vaughan and Norman Stevens, they were known in art circles as the Bradford Mafia.

Mr Oxtoby, 77, who now lives in London, said: "It would make a beautiful gallery, is has some stunning spaces inside.

"There is a lot of space so you could hang some big pieces inside. I think it should be something like that, because that is the building we all came from.

"I don't want it to just disappear, I didn't mind it becoming a library, but it would be much better if it was a gallery."

Mr Oxtoby said he recently visited the city for the first time in years, and was disappointed so many buildings he remembers from his youth had been lost. He said: "It looked like a bomb had hit Bradford. I looked out of the window and wept.

"It was a thriving area but so many buildings are now empty or gone.

"It is a beautiful building, but knowing Bradford it will probably be knocked down. I hope whoever buys it respects the building, but unfortunately not a lot of buildings are respected in the city centre."

Andy Welsh, Bradford College Group chief executive officer: “The sale of the Grove Building forms an important part of our exciting accommodation strategy, which has seen the college estate transformed to provide an innovative and technology rich learning environment in the heart of the city.

"The aim of the strategy is to achieve efficiencies by reducing the number of sites and overall quantity of space that it occupies while ensuring excellent learning and teaching environments and facilities.”