Proposal launched for new Olympic sized skateboarding centre in Bradford

As Bradford prepares to become 2025 City of Culture, Twentieth Century Society (C20) – the national charity that campaigns to protect Britain’s modern architecture and design heritage – has partnered with Ian Chalk Architects, to produce an ambitious new proposal for the empty and abandoned Richard Dunn Sports Centre in the city.

If realised, ‘The Dunn’ could see the Grade II listed 1970s leisure centre converted into a new home for skateboarding and action sports in the north of England, creating the first permanent indoor / outdoor Olympic-level skate facility of its type in the world.

Following news of the listing, local newspaper the Telegraph & Argus ran a poll on what should happen to the building. Of the nearly 3,000 respondents, by far the most popular response was as a skatepark.

Bradford is the seventh largest local authority in England (population 546,400 – 2021 census), yet there are only 3 skate parks within the wider district – all of which are outdoors and would be classified as micro sized (less than 150m2). The nearest indoor facilities are an hour or more away, in Leeds and Halifax.

Added to the fact Bradford is Britain’s youngest city (29% of the population are under 20 and nearly a quarter under 16), and will become UK City of Culture in 2025, the opportunity to redress this imbalance while providing a dynamic new use for the listed leisure centre is clear.

From splash pool to skate park
The UK currently has no permanent Olympic level skate arena that combines Street and Park style courses (each providing different skating terrains and obstacles) with adequate spectator and competitor facilities. Bradford has the potential to provide all of these, housed under the iconic ‘big top’ of the former Richard Dunn Sports Centre – rebranded as ‘The Dunn’.

The radical vision for The Dunn would adaptively reuse the spaces currently occupied by the empty leisure pool, flumes and former sports hall, by inserting a unique indoor/outdoor skating arena. This would include a 555sqm concrete ‘park style’ concrete bowl that follows the contours of the original leisure pool, and a 1,475sqm ‘street style’ arena that transitions from the indoor sports hall area to a new outdoor course.

Other areas would be repurposed with climbing walls, a café and studio suites, to create a versatile new multiuse facility within the existing building.