A HISTORIC former college building in Bradford city centre, dating back to the 1870s, will be sold at auction next month.

The Grade II listed former Cathedral School on Captain Street has been empty since August, and it is among the properties that will go under the hammer at an auction by Pugh on December 7.

The building dates back to the 1872 when it was opened as a Cathedral School.

More recently the building was the home to Forster Community College. However, this summer the college moved its services to the upper floors of the City Training Services building in Little Germany, leaving the grand Captain Street school empty.

The building, a short distance from Napoleon’s Casino and the Corn Dolly pub, is in one of the quieter areas of the city centre. It is owned by the Church of England Diocese of Leeds, and the guide price is between £120,000 and £130,000.

It is currently divided into offices, training rooms and classrooms, but a local group says the building should ideally be converted into “high quality” housing.

Alan Hall, Vice Chair of Bradford Civic Society, hopes the building finds a buyer willing to give the building the investment it deserves. He said: “As a listed building it shouldn’t be demolished or just left to decay.

“Bradford Civic Society would like to encourage a higher standard of housing in the city centre, and Captain Street could be the perfect site to show how this can be done.

“The building would be suitable for genuinely high quality, spacious housing as it’s in a relatively peaceful part of the city centre and really near Forster Square station.”

The school building is next to the site of a major development of flats. Last month Bradford Council granted planning permission to Michael Exley to build on a 125 space car park on Captain Street. His proposals would see a 90 flat, six storey building constructed on the site, as well as two storeys of underground parking.

There will be 75 two-bedroom flats and two three-bedroom flats for sale on the open market, and seven one-bed flats and six two-bedroom flats sold as intermediate housing.

Other local lots going under the hammer at the auction, at Leeds United Football Club, include a 330 square metre piece of land at Kelmore Grove/Moresby Road, Woodside, currently owned by Bradford Council. The guide price for the lot is £15,000.

An empty Council owned former hairdressing salon in Greengates, 36 New Line, will have a guide price of £40,000.