A NEW retro arcade centre could soon be opened in a section of the former Telegraph & Argus building.

The first floor of the loading bay building, accessed off Drake Street and facing the city's Crown Court, is the subject of a new planning application for a non-gambling gaming arcade.

It would include retro arcade machines, air hockey tables and a cafe area in the building - a more modern extension to the T&A's former headquarters.

Last year it was announced that the paper had sold its Hall Ings building, and had moved to the Grade II listed Newhall building, a former clubhouse of West Bowling Golf Club off Rooley Lane.

The newspaper has retained a city centre office and its extensive archive at the Hall Ings site, which is made up of a Grade II listed Victorian building attached to St George's Hall, the cavernous glass printing hall and the loading bay building.

The plans for the arcade have been submitted by Boxer Machines, and say the arcade would open from 9am to 11pm.

It would be known as Flashback Arcade.

New future planned for former Telegraph & Argus building after move to new headquarters on Rooley Lane

The application, for a change of use from office space to gaming, says: "The development will be an amusement arcade comprising of retro and new video arcade games.

"The unit will also have air hockey tables and basketball machines.

"There will be NO gambling/fruit machines."

It says the machines will all be free - with customers paying an entry fee instead of paying for each individual machine.

The business will also include a small cafe area.

The site is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, and is covered in scaffolding. This work includes creating new access to the press hall, previously only accessible from the main building, and a refurbished public space outside the building.

Beckwith Design, the company behind the refurbishment, has said the site would remain in commercial use.

The main building would be marketed as office space while the press hall would be used for commercial space, such as a shop, or leisure.

The arcade is the first new business to be announced for the building.

A decision on the application is expected next month.

If approved, the arcade will be the latest in a string of leisure businesses to reveal plans for the city centre post-lockdown.

A "Ninja Warrior" activity centre will open in an empty unit in the Broadway Shopping Centre, and plans for a climbing wall centre have also been approved for another unit in Broadway.

An application for a soft play centre off Leeds Road was approved before the pandemic, and work is currently underway on a Virtual Reality gaming centre in the former Boyes shop unit on North Parade.

A former adult gaming centre on Westgate is being restored to its previous use - Tickles Music Hall.

And recent weeks have seen an acceleration in work to convert the former Odeon building in the city centre into Bradford Live, a major new music venue