A NEW drinking spot is ready to open its doors in Bradford, bringing a fresh lease of life to a vacant city centre space.

The Exchange Craft Beer House, below the Wool Exchange in Market Street, is due to open this evening. It follows the closure of Bradford Brewery-run The Exchange earlier this year. Prior to that it had been empty for four years. The new venture is the brainchild of Matt Bell, of Mytholmroyd-based Nightjar Brew Co and the Nightjar bar in Hebden Bridge town centre.

It's a return home for Matt, 50, who originally hails from Shipley.

He said: "I found out that this building was vacant, came for a casual look, I used to come here in the 80s, but don't remember a lot about what it looked like them.

"I walked through the door and thought 'wow, what a space' and what a tragedy that it's sat empty. At that moment, I thought 'right, we're going to do have to do this'."

He added: "It's not a brew tap, this just happens to have common ownership.

"Nightjar beers will have a place here, so long as they prove popular they will have a place here, but they won't be dominant.

"We are going to put a range of guests on, we want to rotate the beers so that every time someone comes in, they've got something new."

And while it will be craft beer led, there will be also be a selection of around 30 gins, as well as spirits, whisky, wine and more. Matt said it will also be the first bar in the country to stock the new Salt Beer Factory cans.

The £1.7 million micro-brewery opened in Saltaire last month.

The Exchange Craft Beer House, the name a nod to its previous history, will employ five people to begin with and there are plans to branch out. Matt revealed the bar intends to start serving food, will host board game evenings, pub quizzes, live acts and potentially comedy.

"Definitely optimistic" was the message ahead of opening in the city centre.

"Just in the last few years I think The Broadway has made a significant difference," Matt said. "There's work still to be done, but there appears to be the appetite to do it.Things like Bradford Live are getting people excited, social media appears to be very supportive, people saying 'great let's do this, can anyone help with this?'. The momentum is definitely going in the right direction."

He said: "It's a new era for this bar and it's exciting times."