ARGUABLY Keighley’s most prestigious building, its Mechanics’ Institute of 1870 was designed by the famous Bradford architects Henry Francis Lockwood and William Mawson.
It is seen here prior to the addition of a clock to its tower in 1892. This was the gift of industrialist Prince Smith, making the building, at the top of the Cavendish Street, the town’s focal point.
In the left-hand foreground the Temperance Institute had yet to be built – this was to come in 1896, complete with a hall seating 800 and a lower hall of 350.
Also housing a School of Science and Art and a Trade and Grammar School, the Mechanics’ Institute played a vital role in the educational, civic and social life of Keighley.
It was burnt out in 1962, surely one of the most disastrous architectural losses the town has ever known.
This is another photograph from Kevin Seaton’s collection.
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