A NUMBER of Keighley public houses were rebuilt on a grander scale around the turn of the 19th century.

This was the original Albert Hotel in Bridge Street, looking like a private house set back behind rockery gardens.

Presumably the landlord is standing in one doorway and his female staff in the other.

Late in 1899, Keighley Corporation approved plans submitted by Timothy Taylor and Co, of the Knowle Spring Brewery, for a new Albert Hotel intended as “an improvement to the town”.

This featured two smoking rooms, a filling bar, and a vault.