Richard Dunn's Sports Centre
Love it or hate it, its certainly been a landmark on Bradford’s landscape.
Built in 1977 as a tribute to Bradford’s very own professional boxer Richard Dunn
Corridors
Two of the iconic slides - Zambeeze and Cobra
Richard Dunn - The Boxer
Richard Dunn and Mohammad Ali - both great friends outside of the ring
Richard Dunn is an English former heavyweight boxer, born in Halifax but lived in Bradford, who was the British, European and Commonwealth champion. He competed unsuccessfully with the American boxer Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight title in 1976, lasting 4 rounds and 3 knockdowns before the contest was stopped. Later returning to being a scaffolder after a hotel venture failed, he almost lost his life after a 40 foot fall on an oil rig shattered both his legs. Now residing in Scarborough, he is the honorary president of the town's amateur boxing club
Richard Dunn - The Sports Centre
The 'Richard Dunn Sports Centre' was opened by Bradford Council in Dunn's home town in 1978, named in honour of his sporting achievements. A strange ‘tent’ shaped structure, the large concrete, modernist building certainly had it’s haters but was always the first thing you looked out for when coming back into Bradford after a holiday! The facility was closed in November 2019, and is due to be demolished in 2020, with the Council announcing the intention to name a new road on the site after Dunn in the future
As I first thought that many people, only from Bradford, would appreciate this post, it would seem that 1000’s outside the city also came to enjoy the immense water slides here. For many years, over 30 years ago, I travelled by bus with a friend twice a month, early on a Saturday morning to escape the crowds, and start the weekend off with 2 hours of stair climbs, queues and an exhilarating blast down the tubes. There was nowhere else like it and as a 12 year old it was the most fun you could have outside a sedentary village life.
My first thought when I heard the building was going to be pulled was “but the guy is still alive!” and I was baffled at how you can build such an incredibly imposing structure in someone’s honour to then pull it down whilst the honoured is still living. I suppose it’s progress and a lot of people won’t be sad to see it go but I’m positive the new Sedburgh Centre, built to replace it a mile away, won’t have the same impact on the city as this did.
There was nowhere else like it and as a 12 year old it was the most fun you could have outside a sedentary village life.
Swimming….
The reason for the strange shape of the building is to offer such large areas inside with less interfering retaining walls. The areas both left and right of the internal access walkway are immediatley obvious and you couldn’t help but watch the action through the glass windows on the walk up to pay.
Five-a-side days
The courts to the right as you walked up the walkway were usually full of five-a-side teams, booked in advance, and you were lucky if you could just rock up and hire out a court. I played a few times here after work with the lads and it was always great bonding time whilst making a fool of yourself!
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