A NEW restaurant is to open in a well-known and historic former pub.

The Turf, which sits at the junction of Keighley Road and Emm Lane, will become a new Kashmiri Aroma restaurant.

Scaffolding can currently be seen around the building, along with an ‘opening soon’ sign for the new restaurant.

The business, which has also has restaurants in Ilkley, Halifax, Wakefield and Sheffield, confirmed the news on Facebook and said it’s hoped the new branch will open in April.

The landmark pub building has a long history.

Back in 2012, it reopened after a £150,000 makeover. It had been called the Park Hotel, but its former name was restored to celebrate the new look.

The building dates back to the late 1800s, with a foundation stone above the door dating The Turf to 1894.

It was built opposite Lister Park after a toll road was created between Bradford and Bingley, suggesting it might have been a coaching inn.

There had been speculation back in 2017 that the pub was to be turned into an Indian restaurant.

In January of that year, the Telegraph & Argus reported that the pub was to imminently close its doors, with locals saying they understood it was to be turned into an eatery.

At the time, one customer said: “This local meeting point has been around for over 200 years, do we really need another curry house?”

They described it as the “end of an era”.

Wear Inns, which at that point owned the pub, said an “attractive offer” had been made to buy the pub and it made business sense to go ahead with the sale.

The next month, it emerged the pub had been taken on by a Bradford entrepreneur and would be back open to customers.

But following the announcement from Kashmiri Aroma, it appears the building’s use as a pub has to come to an end.

Bradford CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) has lamented the loss of another pub in the area.

Campaigns officer Peter Down said: "Obviously we consider the news very disappointing.

"It's a loss of yet another real ale pub in the Heaton area.

"There's only really the Hare and Hounds on Toller Lane left now."

He added: "It's leaving very little choice for anybody who lives in that area."

Mr Down said CAMRA appreciated the pub had been "struggling for quite a while" and highlighted a number of factors hitting the beer industry in general including changes in people's drinking habits, competition from supermarkets making it cheaper for people to drink at home and the impact of rising business rates.

He said there was a little bit of comfort in the fact the building would be in use rather than standing derelict, but said: "From our point of view, we would still rather see it as a pub."

Looking at the Bradford district as a whole, Mr Down said the Bingley area in particular had been hit by a number of pub closures, including the Sun Inn at Cottingley.

"The Ivegate area seems to be undergoing quite a bit of regeneration, but it's offset by other areas, like the area behind the Alhambra. It's a mixed story at the moment," he said.