diff --git a/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClient.java b/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClient.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2f5c579da8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClient.java
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+package uk.ac.ic.wlgitbridge.io.http.ning;
+
+import com.ning.http.client.*;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import uk.ac.ic.wlgitbridge.util.FunctionT;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.function.Function;
+
+public class NingHttpClient implements NingHttpClientFacade {
+
+    private static final Logger log
+            = LoggerFactory.getLogger(NingHttpClient.class);
+
+    private final AsyncHttpClient http;
+
+    public NingHttpClient(AsyncHttpClient http) {
+        this.http = http;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public <E extends Exception> byte[] get(
+            String url,
+            FunctionT<HttpResponseHeaders, Boolean, E> handler
+    ) throws E {
+        try {
+            return http
+                    .prepareGet(url)
+                    .execute(new AsyncCompletionHandler<byte[]>() {
+
+                ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+
+                @Override
+                public STATE onHeadersReceived(
+                        HttpResponseHeaders headers
+                ) throws E {
+                    return handler.apply(headers)
+                            ? STATE.CONTINUE : STATE.ABORT;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public STATE onBodyPartReceived(
+                        HttpResponseBodyPart content
+                ) throws IOException {
+                    bytes.write(content.getBodyPartBytes());
+                    return STATE.CONTINUE;
+                }
+
+                @Override
+                public byte[] onCompleted(
+                        Response response
+                ) throws IOException {
+                    byte[] ret = bytes.toByteArray();
+                    bytes.close();
+                    log.info(
+                            response.getStatusCode()
+                                    + " "
+                                    + response.getStatusText()
+                                    + " ("
+                                    + ret.length
+                                    + "B) -> "
+                                    + url
+                    );
+                    return ret;
+                }
+
+            }).get();
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        } catch (ExecutionException e) {
+            try {
+                /* No clean way to do this */
+                //noinspection unchecked
+                throw (E) e.getCause();
+            } catch (ClassCastException cce) {
+                throw new RuntimeException(cce);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClientFacade.java b/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClientFacade.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2d37bff367
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/git-bridge/src/main/java/uk/ac/ic/wlgitbridge/io/http/ning/NingHttpClientFacade.java
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+package uk.ac.ic.wlgitbridge.io.http.ning;
+
+import com.ning.http.client.HttpResponseHeaders;
+import uk.ac.ic.wlgitbridge.util.FunctionT;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.function.Function;
+
+public interface NingHttpClientFacade {
+
+    /**
+     * Performs a GET request
+     * @param url the target URL
+     * @param handler handler for the response headers. Returning false
+     *                aborts the request.
+     * @return
+     */
+    <E extends Exception> byte[] get(
+            String url,
+            FunctionT<HttpResponseHeaders, Boolean, E> handler
+    ) throws E;
+
+}