A PREVIOUSLY neglected, historic part of North Street is continuing to thrive one year after it was re-opened following major renovation.

Townscape Heritage Initiative officer Sue Oakley said North Street Arcade is now being well used, with almost all of its apartments and shops occupied.

"There's been a lot of positive feedback since the arcade was re-opened," she added. "Everybody seems to be happy with what has been done. I've done some presentations about the work to local Rotary clubs and history societies and I don't think we've had a single negative comment."

The arcade was painstakingly restored with more than £700,000 of public cash. The building is a flagship project for the £2.7 million Keighley Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

Bradford Council has said the successful refurbishment of the arcade shows how THI can breathe new life into rundown Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

£725,000 of THI cash helped pay for the building’s complete transformation. One and two-bedroom apartments were created on the three upper storeys, with some fronting onto Temple Row. The exterior of the building has been repaired, with new windows, extensive rendering and a new roof for the arcade.

Specialists made ornate wooden frames and hand-carved details to ensure the shop fronts match remaining elements of the original design.

Miss Oakley said the property which used to be Turner and Wall reception had received particular praise.

"A lot of original features had been covered up, but they hadn't been removed, so it was quite straight forward to recreate them," she said.

"We also had archive photographs of what the arcade used to look like and the original planning drawings from 1898.

"It was a real pleasure to work on. Even a lot of smaller details were very interesting – such as the tiling in the staircase."

She said the arcade currently comprises seven shop units, four of which have been taken over by new occupants and two by businesses which were already present before the renovation.

"All 13 of the apartments above the shop units were let straight away and they are still occupied," she said.

"We've just had flagstones laid along the arcade's frontage, which makes it look even better. We would like to see some of the other nearby shops sorted out as well.

"Some of the owners who aren't part of the Townscape Heritage scheme have been making their own small and large improvements, so that has helped give the whole area a lift."

She explained that Townscape Heritage runs until December of this year, so further refurbishments beyond the arcade would continue to take place.

This will include additional flagstones extending further along the North Street pavement and renovations to buildings in Church Street and High Street.