Fountains Church: Transformation from nightclubs complete

The multi-million-pound project to turn a rundown former nightclub building - housing Walkabout, Livingstones, Wired, KoCo, Revolution and Tequila across its history - on Glydegate Square began in 2019.

Five years later, Fountains Church, renowned for also hosting wrestling classes, now hosts two auditoriums, a hub space, and a cafe.

The new auditorium has opened at Fountains Church (Image: Newsquest) At a celebration opening the final phase, the upper auditorium, Revd Linda Maslen said: "We started five years ago, four nightclubs that were totally derelict on the inside, and gradually bit by bit we have renovated them all.

"As you can imagine, that has taken quite a lot of time and money.

"Now we can heave a sign of relief now that it is all finished."

Archdeacon of Bradford, the Ven Andy Jolley added: "I will probably start tearing up if I think about it then.

"This building was wrecked. It had been badly vandalised and had been lived in. It was deteriorating in front of your eyes.

"It is a story of transformation."

The lower auditorium is often used for wrestling classes (Image: Newsquest) The great and good of Bradford - such as Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, Naz Shah MP (Bradford West), and Deputy Lord Mayor Mohammed Shafiq - were among the 100 or so gathered in the newly-opened auditorium on Thursday evening.

Guests enjoyed drinks and canapés before the Bishop of Bradford Toby Howarth, Revd Maslen, and Ven Jolley took to the stage.

A 30-minute chat followed then the audience were invited on a tour of the finished building.

Bishop Howarth said: "We had been praying for years and years for something like this for Bradford.

"The renewal of this whole space, coming from the Broadway to City Park, I think of it as the Bradford smile.

"Glydegate was a rotten tooth. We are now part of that smile."

The Hub (Image: Newsquest) The new auditorium, which can fit around 600 people, will host a range of different events.

From conferences and theatre performances to services and weddings, the venue is available for hire.

"We needed the extra space," said Revd Maslen.

"Our church has grown quite substantially. Also with the other things we do here for our community.

"Everything was beginning to creek at the seams a little bit. We now have more space to use and offer.

The cafe (Image: Newsquest) "We have found that lots of people want to hire our space. There is a real need in Bradford for this size of auditorium."

Bishop Howarth added: "We were in the smaller one downstairs and we have outgrown that as a service on Sundays.

"We worshipped here for the first time last Sunday afternoon. Suddenly from being all crammed in, we had that space."