BUILT by the New Britannia Lodge of Oddfellows in 1853, the Britannia Hall in Market Street was one of Keighley’s most imposing Victorian premises.

An early attempt to anticipate town planning, members of the New Britannia Lodge of Oddfellows bought the land, previously a church burial ground, on the assumption that their investment would increase in value with the building of the thoroughfare.

One of the first tenants was the Keighley Thespian Society, who used the hall to stage Shakespearian productions and other miscellaneous plays.

In 1861 Mr S Pickuls, proprietor of the “Royal Alhambra”another theatre in Market Street, hired the hall to stage productions “on a scale hitherto not attemped in Keighley” The production included Catherine Howard, Soldiers Progress and Miser of Hanging Ditch.

In the 1870s it served as a homely music hall known as Kershaw’s Varieties, run by Abraham Kershaw who would found the town’s original Queen’s Theatre and Opera House in 1880. Here appeared such turns as Alexander Day, the Only One-armed Solo Cornet Player in the Profession, and Blitz, the Wondrous Plate Expert and Pyramid Ascensionist!

In its later days, the Britannia Hall housed a fruit and potato warehouse, a bookmaker and a snooker club.

Demolished in 1984, its site is now a corner of Morrisons car park. The photograph was supplied by Mr Kevin Seaton, of Bradford Road, Riddlesden.