Bradford’s Walkabout bar will be closed down as part of a rescue deal for a troubled pubs and clubs chain.

A total of 186 jobs will be lost across the country as administrator BDO closes nine of parent company Regent Inns’ worst performing sites.

They are the Bradford branch, and Walkabout sites in Lancaster and Shaftes-bury Avenue, London, and five Jongleurs clubs in Bow, Bristol, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton. Also closing will be a Quincey’s in Bristol.

The deal will safeguard 60 other sites along with 1,800 jobs.

David Haigh, president of Bradford Inner City Licensees’ Association, said the closure did not come as a surprise.

He said: “Bradford is too quiet at the weekends – I am not surprised. I’ve been to Walkabout on a Thursday and Friday and there’s no-one in it.

“The city centre bars aren’t busy like they should be – it was about ten or 11 o’clock at night when they really should be busy.

“If you took everyone from all the bars around there, they wouldn’t fill one establishment. I think it’s a sign of the times. People who use the city are less and less drinkers.”

Walkabout, which opened in 2002, was part of Bradford’s City Centre Beat initiative and was awarded accreditation under West Yorkshire Police’s Best Bar None Scheme.

It was selected from more than 100 Best Bar None accredited premises to be named Best Nightclub in West Yorkshire in 2007.

The management team that led the rescue buyout has formed a new company called Intertain to complete the deal, and appointed former Pitcher & Piano manager Mike Dowell as strategy and business development director.

A spokesman for Walk-about said: “Intertain has taken on most of the Walkabout sites from Regent Inns, however there are a few sites where the economics are such that long term viability cannot be assured and these sites have not been taken on.

“Unfortunately, this venue is one such site."