HERE, occupying the now controversial site of the former Keighley College, is a reminder of what we lost on a cold Saturday night in 1962 when the Mechanics' Institute caught fire.
Designed by the famous Bradford partnership of Henry Francis Lockwood and William Mawson, the Mechanics' Institute opened in 1870 as an educational and social centre, housing a Municipal Hall, a Trade and Grammar School and a School of Art. The clock on its tower, added as a gift from industrialist Prince Smith in 1892, served for over 70 years as Keighley's focal point.
It seems often assumed nowadays that the fire destroyed most of the building, but its clock tower had been built to last and survived the blaze. It remained above the gutted ruins for several years, clearly proclaiming the time from its four clock-faces until, by what must surely rank as a spectacularly misguided planning decision, it was demolished.
Presumably it would have clashed with the practical style of the new college.
This photograph was taken in 1904 on the introduction of Keighley's electric trams.
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