Tales of the Urban Explorer: Richard Dunn Sports Centre

I am sure the owners of the 'Richard Dunn Sports Centre' are ecstatic that their monumental iconic property of the 1970s has been awarded Grade II listing status.

It was due to be demolished but after some probable dodgy negotiations, the new status means it cannot be flattened. This in turn means, the weeds grow longer, the vandals get more frequent, and what now looks respectable will in time become a landmark monstrosity.

Source

The Twentieth Century Society, which campaigns for the preservation of buildings constructed after 1914, requested Historic England to have the building listed.

I do wonder what the owners think of ‘The Twentieth Century Society’. I suspect hard words have been said with the promise of demolition pending and all that land that could be used for something else.

Oh, what a minute, this is Bradford…, maybe not.

“Who’s that standing around on the corner?”

It's bad enough that the entrance is opposite a row of houses but we didn’t want some busybody seeing us mitigating the anti-climbing fencing and walking toward this obviously abandoned property with possible ill intent.

Whoever Mr ‘I fuck around on corners and annoy people’ was, he wasn’t going to move. We decided to dump the car and head in. I purposely never look back as it arouses suspicion and we heard no challenges.

"Over there is where I got in", @lpff was telling us both. It looked a little freshly tinned in that direction but we had to check it out.

“Sealed” he was saying in discontentment. We would need to look for an alternative access point.

It was a chance to look over the externals which looked remarkably good. This was a first for me, something that looked almost untouched and a far cry from the depilated ruins, holey floors, and death traps I generally enter.

The view from the other side was looking better. Someone had created a makeshift access point that involved minimal climbing and a challenging balance on a very dodgy gang plank. I was more concerned about who else was inside.

We found ourselves in a slightly grubby basement area with what looked like doors heading to the upper areas. Not wanting to arse around, we duly ascended.

After navigating several tunnels and doors we found ourselves overlooking an old sports hall, with a few pieces of crap strewn around.

I could see the vandalism but it was far from being totally wrecked.

Opposite was the swimming pool, and it was dark over there with my giant light struggling to compensate.

It looks like the old shallow end with a little graffiti to add some extra colour.

The minimum stock level looked severely breached. I mean, what if I tripped and grazed my knee? Making a note to call the ‘Richard Dunn Sports Centre’ complaint depot soon... we continued.

I figure all these ‘staff’ no longer have any problems scheduling their holiday rota.

Water slides, I still love them even now, but they can bite you in the arse if you gain a little more speed than intended.

The scaffolding is in place to make sure you really don't go that way, call it a double 'No Entry'.

The strange-looking 'tree' in the middle of the pool didn't quite look genuine or 'growing'.

Steep steps but if you want to slide, then you must go up there.

I took note of the rules before settling in for the slide of my life.

The orange or the green, it was a tough decision.

After peering hard down the green tunnel I changed my mind. Where's the water? Crawling down there and getting stuck no longer seemed a particularly great idea.

You climb up there to check on everyone from a high watchpoint. As there were zero swimmers, I vetoed the climb.

@lpff had seen it all before and was showing a decided lack of enthusiasm far below.

Did swimmers climb up to the tree base? It would likely have led to a reprimand from the auditors on their high perch.

The deep end, none of those swimming aids in this area.

‘Richard Dunn Sports Centre’ appeared to be full of rules. I was fully expecting 'No Swimming' to be in my vision next.

We moved away from the swimming pool in search of alternative sports.

The reception and surrounding rooms had been beaten up quite badly, though we were quite early with this one.

Nice artwork adorns ‘Richard Dunn Sports Centre’, as well as terrible scrawly graffiti and lots of glass.

These are some kind of old receipts, old being dated 2003.

For now, it's safe to walk these tunnels. Give it a few years and you might be falling to your death if the floors start to disintegrate.

If there's glass it will be broken and smashed to smithereens, that is a fact.

Were we being monitored? I figured not.

Very uncomfortable plastic seating that hurts your arse, I wouldn't have liked to have watched a basketball match from here.

I think those lines denote Basketball, a sport that few give a toss about in the UK.

Using the seating at the base level, you can get a better view when watching whatever boring crap is going on.

Dated February 2022; it was May 2022 when we visited; someone had been in here in an official capacity very recently.

Some areas were a little more vandalised than others.

We passed some squash courts but as there was nothing of any photographic value inside, I didn’t bother.

Maybe an area that they used for Martial Arts?

Passing by the old squash rooms again I patted myself on the back for being correct.

It all looks a little technical.

I was surprised we didn't meet anyone at ‘Richard Dunn Sports Centre’. The location was on the TourBus and on hearing strange voices and noises I would have assumed it would be other explorers.

Once again, we had to use the makeshift death plank to exit ‘Richard Dunn Sports Centre’. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

FOOTNOTE:

LOCALS have hit out after an "ugly" sports centre was saved from demolition - and now they are stuck with it forever.

Locals in Bradford, West Yorkshire were eagerly waiting for the "eyesore" Richard Dunn Sports Centre to be knocked down but it was granted listed status instead.
Source

Well I did suspect this might be the case. Live with it locals, it's going to get worse over time!

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