ANYONE who remembers bopping the night away at the Mecca Locarno on Manningham Lane will recall the huge dance floor, surrounded by a balcony, which had a starring role in 1963 film Billy Liar.

Today the building stands empty and boarded up, the sound of music and Saturday night banter long gone.

In Mark Davies's book Secret Bradford there's an eerie yet nostalgic image of the empty dance floor beneath a glittering mirror ball. It is one of many hidden places the social historian captures, revealing fascinating glimpses of the district as most people have never seen it - from an underground drain system to closed railway tunnels, old cinemas, a disused mortuary and dark satanic mills.

Mark explored old Bradford buildings as a child, including the Baird Television works near Artic Parade off Great Horton Road. "It was full of oscilloscopes and electrical equipment on work benches stretching as far as the eye could see. How I wish I had taken pictures," he said.

For his book he went to great lengths, including climbing 300ft high cranes, to photograph abandoned buildings, tunnels and chimneys. "This book is full of ghosts," he said. "Many of the images were taken in the previous four years, of buildings that are no longer there or have been altered. As time passes, the majority of these locations will disappear."

Mark says Bradford has been "incredibly unlucky" with fires destroying workplaces and leisure palaces of our forefathers, but adds: "There is a beacon of light beginning to illuminate Bradford again. After years of stagnating, great things are happening, and with that comes major investment." To illustrate this, he includes striking photographs of Bradford's illuminated City Park, and work-in-progress shots - panoramic images taken from rooftop windows - of the Westfield development.

Bradford's enormous Conditioning House is a monument to the city's textile heritage. Images of its crumbling offices, dark corridors and network of iron bridges connecting four storeys across an open court offer a fascinating 'tour' of the landmark industrial building.

Between 1869 and 1877, Keighley's Dalton Mills employed workers all over the Worth Valley and in recent years has been the location for TV drama North and South and a Will Young video. Mark's camera captures remnants of its industrial past; piles of old reels and rusting equipment, with ferns creeping in through broken windows. The vast attic space reflects the mill's imposing size, and a striking Telegraph & Argus image shows fire ravaging it in January, 2011.

Images of the old Denholme Velvets building, now destroyed, include an eerie mannequin draped in purple velvet standing in the middle of an empty factory floor. In the area of Lister's Mill still awaiting regeneration is a basement "resembling something out of an Indiana Jones movie set".

Shots inside Bradford's former Odeon cinema include abandoned projectors and the original theatre staircase leading to the lobby.

Shipley's Glenroyal Cinema, a landmark for more than 60 years, is described by Mark as "a building of singularly beautiful design", with a floodlit facade of rustic brick and terracotta tiling, and an entrance with gold walls, a mother-of-pearl domed ceiling and Spanish mahogany doors "hinting at the beauty within". A wide stairway, with an illuminated Buddha statue, led to a 350-seat balcony foyer. Mark's pictures, taken before the building was demolished following last year's fire, reveal old Kalee projectors and rows of tables from its bingo club days.

Also devastated by fire was Brick Lane Mills on Thornton Road. A wide image of the part-demolished site, with the mill chimney rising from the skeleton of the old engine shed, resembles a scene from the Blitz. In contrast, Midland Mills interior looks remarkably clean and dry, with painted steel pillars spanning a vast stone floor. St Mary's Catholic Church is the size of a cathedral and a view from the pulpit reveals its gothic beauty, with statues and artworks intact.

Among the rubble of West Bowling Mortuary Chapel is original tiling and carved stonework while spooky shots of Queensbury Tunnel - one of the country's longest, deepest railway tunnels - reveal remains of the old rail track.

Wapping School, the birthplace of school meals, is described by Mark as "a remarkable heritage in serious danger of being lost forever". His images show a derelict swimming pool, collapsed floors and skylight pouring through an open roof. Shots inside Bradford's former Odeon cinema include abandoned projectors and the original theatre staircase.

Fairmont Park Nursing Home in Manningham, empty for some years, retains its external Victorian splendour, and inside Mark reveals armchairs arranged around a television, velvet curtains at the windows, and a bed covered in a thick layer of dirt.

"It appears that staff and residents just left one day, leaving furniture and possessions behind, much like the Mary Celeste," he notes.

* Secret Bradford, by Amberley Publishing, is £15.99