A young person’s charity is hoping its new venture at one of Bradford’s oldest former cinemas, turned bingo hall, will get them a “full house”.

The Plaza cinema in Cross Lane, Great Horton, is being transformed into a learning centre to help teenagers through their ‘difficult’ years.

The red-brick and stone building – which has now been re-named The Impact Centre – has been given a new lease of life by the Joshua Project after it outgrew its previous space at St John’s Church, also in Great Horton.

Inside, the centre will be turned into a high street with shop-fronts leading to learning spaces behind.

The street will follow the cinema’s main aisle slope down to the stage, which will be kept as an auditorium.

The classrooms, a mixing desk and a cafe area are all being funded by private supporters, fundraising and grants with the long-term hope being to bring in more partners from organisations working with youngsters.

The lease is about to be signed and the centre should be up and running in the next month.

The project’s founder, Rich Jones, said schools would be able to hire space at the centre to work with disruptive and disturbed young people before they got into a situation where they were expelled.

“It will allow time and space for experts to work with the teenagers and get them to see the possibilities a good education can bring them. We can give schools the extra support they need,” he said.

The charity, which began in Bradford in 2007, has already been working with an average of 150 young people a week who have been coming to after-school activities at St John’s.

The Plaza opened a few weeks after the start of the First World War, showing its last film in 1963 – aptly called The Premature Burial. It reopened later the same year as a bingo hall, until closing a few years ago.