Bright picture as cinema becomes youth centre

ONE of Bradford’s oldest cinemas is being transformed into a centre to help young people through their challenging teenage years.

Built at the beginning of the First World War, the former Plaza cinema in Cross Lane, Great Horton, has been empty for at least 18 months.

But now the building is being given a new lease of life and will become home to the Joshua Project, which works with young people aged from nine to 18.

The project has been involved with youngsters in Great Horton, Little Horton and the surrounding areas for over two years and has outgrown its space in St John’s Church, Great Horton.

Project director Rich Jones said: “We are quite excited about restoring a former community gathering place to its former purpose.

“We recognise there are statutory organisations that work with young people and some of the organisations struggle to reach the young people that we manage to engage with. So part of the rationale behind the new centre is the possibility of developing partnerships with these organisations – which work for the benefit of young people within this area.”

The project began in September 2007, working with around 30 youngsters. Since then, it has grown to work with more than 200 children and teenagers.

“We identified a need in this community for activities for young people. There was not any obvious provision that young people could engage with so we started to respond to that,” said Mr Jones.

The Joshua Project runs a programme of activities including youth clubs, a small group mentoring network, workshops, an advice and guidance drop-in service, football training and a boxing academy.

Re-named the Impact Centre, the project’s new home will include “soft” classrooms in a street-style, a mixing desk and a cafe area. It retain many of the original features of the cinema, including the stage area.

It is hoped that the centre will be open within the next month.

The Plaza cinema opened with a silent black and white film and went on to provide a vital life-line for people wanting news of the war front. It screened its last film in 1963 before being turned into a bingo hall.