POORER-class housing in the middle of late-Victorian Keighley is graphically illustrated in this view along Turkey Street, to which the photographer with his tripod has attracted a motley group of children. The premises behind the lamp on the left were occupied by the Angel Inn.
In 1853 the Keighley Inspector of Nuisances described Turkey Street as harbouring “a very large number of pigstyes, manure heaps and other filthy and nauseous places”.
Neighbouring Leeds Street was even worse: somebody there was “boiling bellies and other animal matter for pigs in a room under a dwelling house, under the window of which is the pigstye and manure heap, very filthy”.
The area was to be swept away in Keighley’s between-the-wars clearance schemes, its residents being re-housed in new council estates at Guard House, Woodhouse and Broomhill.
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