DANCING was the perfect distraction.

Ballrooms were a popular destination for many young Bradfordians at a time when you pretty much made your own entertainment.

Back in the day when TVs were scarce and we didn’t have the transport, or transportation networks we have now, people found their own fun either at the flicks or packing out the local ballrooms.

For many couples dancing became part of the courting process - dances provided a social scene where many people met and subsequently were married, unlike today’s dating game which is quite often played out through online platforms matching up those who are looking for love.

Bradford’s popular dancing scene was evident in the number of ballrooms the city and district boasted.

For Bradfordian Jean Walker, fond memories of Bert Shutt’s ‘Ideal Ballroom’ at Bankfoot, Bradford, came flooding back when recalling Bradford’s ballroom dancing heyday.

“At Bert Shutt’s there was a ball in the middle of the floor full of lights and it used to sparkle. Everybody used to talk about going to Bert Shutt’s and dancing under this ball,” recalls Jean.

She also recalls the ballroom at the New Victoria, fondly known as the ‘New Vic’ and The Gaumont, at the junction of Thornton Road which was latterly home to the Odeon cinema.

Jean, who held her wedding reception there, recalls there was a restaurant within the building too.

She also remembers local churches hosting dances as well as many more venues around the city such as the dance hall she recalls in Tyrell Street which she says was particularly popular with young people meeting their match.

Other popular dance venues included the Textile Hall; the Gaiety, Tyrell Street; King’s Hall and Queen’s Hall in the Windsor Baths; the Majestic in Morley Street; the Milton/Harmony above the Lancaster pub in Lumb Lane; the Cameo in Godwin Street; DeLuxe in Otley Road; Fountains Hall and the Connaught Rooms on Manningham Lane.

Jean remembers venues where people could go to learn how to dance such as the Beacon School of Dancing in Manchester Road, Bradford. “You have to look at the style of dancing - I learned to dance from my uncle who was a Bradford Northern player, he went to Wembley, he met his second wife through dancing,” recalls Jean.

She says if you went to a dance and you couldn’t dance you ended up being ‘a bit like a wallflower!’

Perhaps that may be the reason why so many places within the city were offering dance lessons. Somerset House in Undercliffe and the upstairs rooms at Gledhills in Westgate were among the locations teaching the moves.

Private lessons were also offered at other venues including Glennons in Church Bank.

Of course, you could always wait until the weekend when opportunities to learn to dance were also provided at the popular parish hall dances in places such as St Francis’ in Five Lane Ends and St Clare’s in Fagley.

Bradford born, Derek AJ Lister, who has penned books about Bradford’s past, spent many a memorable evening in the ballrooms at the Majestic and the Gaumont where he worked as a DJ.

Well-known within the music scene, Derek sang with Dal Stevens and The Blue Jays and Dal Stevens and the Four Jukes, he recalls dancing on the Gaumont’s beautiful wooden dance floor. “Supposedly it was one of the best in the UK,” he says, referring to the maple ballroom floor, known as the ‘Valtor’ floor providing a traditional style yet modern process of sprung floor.

“They were really lovely days.”

“From a social point of view they had coffee bars where you could meet up but for the older people it was dancing and it was the only way you could meet a young lady and vice versa.

“It was a nice thing to to say ‘I will meet you at the Majestic or at the Gaumont,” Derek recalls.

“Even when I was disc jockeying I’d still go to the Majestic on Saturday nights for modern ballroom dancing. Lots of couples met there.”

Ballrooms were thriving during the Forties and Fifties until rock and roll began to eclipse its popularity.

“Everybody was working so when the buses stopped at 11pm Bradford was empty and that went right up to the Sixties because nobody could afford taxis and people were going home because they had jobs in the morning,” says Derek.

“All the jobs were in mills, shop work or working in an office. Those were the three main jobs for young people so really the outlet for them was to go dancing and have a really good time and get rid of that energy,” he adds.

This photo gallery of some of Bradford’s ballrooms, sourced by our librarian Odele Ayres, are bound to trigger fond memories for those who remember tripping the light fantastic, or even meeting their loved ones there, as ballrooms were an integral part of the city’s social scene.

Interestingly, the advertisements taken from the T&A, show the popularity of dancing back in the day with the Trocadero Super Ballroom, in Burton Chambers, Kirkgate, which apparently stood for ‘The Rendezvous Of Classic Art Dancing Excellent Radio Orchestra’ boasting of ‘still breaking all records’ with its Christmas and New Year dances.