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Keighley

Keighley sits on the triangular alluvial fan at the mouth of the Worth Valley. This large fl at area makes it ideal for an accessible town centre with retail, arts and culture. As the largest town of Airedale it is essential that Keighley functions as a strong service centre for the surrounding rural towns and villages. Its architecture and capacity for invention give Keighley the opportunity to be a town of heritage and innovation.

3.3 Keighley - A Town of Heritage & Innovation

Keighley is a town of heritage with buildings of a quality and scale that refl ect its Victorian grandeur. This heritage needs to be built upon, exposed and celebrated through its redevelopment. The wealth of the town was built on the diverse industries of textiles, metals and engineering, which required skilled labour and invention as products were developed for markets. This spirit of innovation remains not only in the manufacturing sector today but also in the rapidly developing business services and communications sector that is emerging in the town. For these reasons we feel that heritage and innovation should be the focus of Keighley’s future.

Keighley, as the largest town in Airedale, needs to be seen as the retail, leisure and cultural centre of Airedale, drawing on its heritage and wonderful surrounding area. Keighley needs to create a new, distinctive retail offer and to revolutionise the leisure and cultural facilities available for residents and visitors.

The proposals for the town centre are supported by enhancing the public realm and strengthening the pedestrian links, helping to reintegrate existing retail areas that have become fragmented from the core. These links are vital but will only be delivered once the underlying highways and traffi c problems of the central area have been addressed. Proposals to remove through traffi c (except buses) from Cavendish Street and Hanover Street, and to concentrate car parking around the town centre perimeter are key parts of this approach.

There are three areas where change should be concentrated – the town centre, Dalton Lane and Beechcliffe. The creative corridor dominates the Dalton Lane and Beechcliffe areas. The town centre developments are principally related to the lifestyle corridor.

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Keighley Town Centre Proposed Land Use

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North Street Hotel Conference & Leisure Complex

The redevelopment of the existing Keighley College site has the ability to transform the character of the town. At the heart of the town, this large site should be a new high-quality hotel with conference, leisure and restaurant facilities. The development should set the standard with state-of-the-art fi nishes and facilities. A high-quality restaurant would raise the standard of dining and draw the surrounding wealth into the town. The hotel would be a place to host weddings and conferences and would send out a whole new message about Keighley. This may be the site to create a bold new “health spa”, reusing some of the fi ne stonework remaining within the college buildings.

Cavendish Centre

The principal retail development proposal within the town centre focuses on the redevelopment of the Cavendish Retail Park. This edge-of-town development with its large central car park should be replaced by new retail/mixed use development that seeks to strengthen north-south pedestrian movement through the town by introducing a new shopping street that extends the quality retail core to the east. This will enhance the quality of the town centre retail environment and the appeal to retailers, complemented by leisure facilities and residential space. The developments will also serve to bring retail on Cavendish Street back into the core, and to draw the railway station to the town centre. A new, prestigious, multi-screen cinema as part of this development could serve the needs of the town and the wider affl uent catchment area around Keighley.

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Keighley Arts Centre

There is a strong musical and performing arts scene in the Keighley area and an opportunity exists to create a vibrant arts centre venue combining the existing Central Hall and Playhouse cinema. Complemented by a new public square and restaurant facility this would be a multi-purpose community asset for staging small and medium performances in a renovated hall incorporating world-class acoustics. The rooms to the rear of central hall could be converted to provide teaching, practice rooms and a recording studio. With a new multi-screen cinema in town, the Playhouse cinema could focus on art-house fi lms and become affi liated with the National Museum of Film and Photography in Bradford.

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Carnegie Library, Keighley: Cultural Heritage

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Temple Bazaar

Temple Road is an opportunity to create a distinctive shopping experience. The existing plumbers’ merchants in the former Wesleyan chapel could be relocated to free up a fi ne Keighley building for use as an artisan exhibition hall and speciality retail bazaar. Local arts and craft products could be traded beneath more permanent exhibition space. A new public square could be created outside the buildings and used as a venue for outdoor plays and performances.

Railway Station

The railway station is a key asset and gateway to the town but its presence should extend further than its existing entrance way. It should have accessible approach walkways and squares that welcome users and that are a delight to visitors. The railway station was originally designed to be integrated with the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It should be restored to its full Victorian condition throughout and then begin to act as a respectable neighbour to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and a gateway to an important tourist attraction of the area.

A new station entrance should be formed at the bottom of Sainsbury’s car park with a new public square. Access could utilise the Bradford Road bridge arches and connecting subway between all the station platforms. This would allow the relocation of the ticket offi ce from the busy Bradford Road bridge to the existing railway car park. The existing station ticket hall could be converted to a restaurant/café serving adjacent new business and education developments.

Arcade Chambers

An attractive new pedestrian route could be formed through the Arcade Chambers enabling specialist retailing activities to be created. With broader pavements and dramatically improved public realm North Street should become a busy, up-market retail area again.

Keighley Railway Station 1905 looking towards Skipton.

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Carnegie Library

The Carnegie library is one of the heritage treasures of Keighley. It should be restored so that learning is seen as a leisure activity. The grand reading room should be renovated and retained as a place of tranquility within an increasingly busy town. At ground level there should be a greater emphasis on computer use for access to information and more lively knowledge absorption. The creation of a high-quality coffee bar will draw people to this distinctive and historic building and reinforce this northern area of town as a place of leisure and a heritage destination.

Town Centre Living

In order to encourage town centre living in Keighley it is imperative to draw upon the success of the economy in Leeds and Bradford to capture some of the potential commuter wealth. This is essential to raise property prices locally and encourage the private sector to deliver the restoration and regeneration of town centre buildings.

An ‘early win’ should be the redevelopment of the Old Cotton Mill on Gresley Road, to act as a catalyst for other surrounding developments such as Low Mill adjacent to the railway station, and the current retail areas around Gresley Road. The new residential blocks could take the form of a crescent wrapped around a new parkland area straddling the River Worth.

A large open site exists at South Street adjacent to the North Beck. This prime waterfront site should be the location for new residential development, with some limited ancillary retail and leisure to deliver mixed use development.

Dalton Mills

The restoration of the listed Dalton Mills for residential accommodation will be a vital project for the town. This desirable mixed use development will raise the underlying land and property values in the Dalton Lane area, preserve this majestic mill and provide space for commercial business, arts and leisure uses. The inclusion of childcare facilities will meet a growing need in the Keighley area.

Grove Mills

The regeneration of Grove Mills at Ingrow is of a size and scale that will act as a catalyst throughout the Worth Valley. The focus for this project should be of a quality similar to Victoria Mills at Shipley. The development is likely to comprise a mixture of residential, offi ce space and crèche facilities. The proposed combination of residential accommodation, business space and childcare facilities will meet the growing needs of new business enterprises that are being started up within the Keighley and Worth Valley area. This project is likely to be a £50 million investment and will set the tone for the future of residential property in the Worth Valley. Its regeneration will remove the dereliction observed from the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and allow access to an improved Worth Valley Way and future country park area.

Victoria Hall

Victoria Hall is the principal concert hall in Airedale. Its location overlooking Victoria Park places it in a gateway position for Keighley. This facility has the potential to be a much better concert hall and should be refurbished to its original condition, with improved facilities.

Victoria Mills, Shipley Town Centre Living

Victoria Hall, Concert & Exhibition Hall

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Dalton Mills

The restoration of Dalton Mills for mixed use development of residential accommodation, business, arts and leisure space will allow the creation of a vibrant community. The development will predominantly be a residential one which then supports business space, conference and performing arts facilities. The business space would be an ideal location for the University of Bradford’s product design and development team which would bring access to research and design facilities of some of the UK’s largest manufacturers. The quality of this listed building should not be underestimated as a potentially signifi cant destination in combination with the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and future Centre for Heritage Restoration.

Dalton Lane Innovation Business Zone

Town Gateway

A new entrance would be formed from the Worth roundabout to Dalton Lane and create a level access to the area. Tree-lined, it would be a new boulevard approach to Keighley passing the restored Dalton Mills, offi ce complexes and new Keighley College site. There are many underused and redundant sites that can be assembled to create a large zone for commercial offi ce and industrial buildings in a high-quality, accessible, area supplied by a skilled workforce, trained locally.

Keighley College & STAR

The £25 million relocation of Keighley College is an important catalyst for the town, providing skills and training for the future. The exciting STAR centre will have a new aspirational edge that will allow students to engage in space, aeronautics and technology of the future. The new campus allows a total rethink of the railway station access for pedestrians and public transport with a new bus rail interchange off Dalton Lane and a multi-storey park-and-ride car park. Bradford Road bridge will remain a very busy highway, and it is imperative that pedestrian movement to the new Keighley College site is tackled through the redevelopment of the railway station.

Eastwood Business Park

Proposals to redevelop the existing Peter Black Warehouse on Bradford Street as a foodstore must be resisted. It will cause signifi cant damage to the retail recovery and future prospects of Keighley and Bingley. This area should remain as a place of employment with new offi ce development, providing premises for the emerging design, digital, knowledge and business service sectors of the Airedale economy. This could be the place for relocating some of the smaller, more

specialist Civil Service departments from the South East under the Lyons Review. Ideally, these departments would be related to science, technology, heritage or tourism. Complementing the new Keighley College site, there should be equal landmark buildings that reinforce the sense of a new, vibrant gateway to the town. A new footbridge over the railway to the front of Sainsbury’s would allow better integration of the business park and Eastwood to the town centre.

Centre for Heritage Restoration

The former foundry to the rear of Dalton Mills would be an opportunity site to create a Centre for Heritage Restoration where there is a focus on developing skills in the restoration of buildings, automotive vehicles,

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canal boats and railway engines. The site could offer a base for the Keighley Bus Museum to focus on along with foundries, wrought iron workshops, fabrication and stone masonry aimed at the growing restoration and heritage market. These could be served by a central knowledge base contained within a digital library and a restoration design offi ce. The centre would be able to draw on the considerable experience and international reputation of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in railway preservation. It would be concerned with harnessing traditional skills with new technology and would be measured commercially by its output of restoration products.

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Cliffe Castle, Keighley

Beechcliffe

Beechcliffe Park & Ride

Keighley and its rural catchment has a large population that accesses the Airedale Railway line at the town centre railway station. The site at Beechcliffe presents an opportunity to create a new park-and-ride railway station. The residential areas of Utley and Beechcliffe could benefi t from access to rail which would probably lead to an uplift in the property value in these areas, securing them against decline. The new railway station would also create access to employment land and be the catalyst for this area to develop a high-quality mixed use business location. The railway station will be essential to drive the value and quality of this area.

Royd Ings Employment Land

Royd Ings is a large area of fl at industrial land currently with substantial areas of second-hand business space which could contribute more to the economy of Airedale. It should be the focus of a Business Improvement Area, with road access improvements connected to the dualling of this section of the A650. This project would also improve the through route to Central Lancashire City Region, and begin to unlock some of the traffi c problems around Keighley.

Greenhead School

Greenhead School is due to be rebuilt under the Schools for the Future programme. The intention should be to prepare Greenhead to be an aspirational specialist school where it will become highly desirable as a town centre school, linked to new business at the Dalton Lane and Beechcliffe site. The school should have a specialist focus on future skills that fi t the economy of Airedale and draw on its confederation partnering relationship with Ilkley Grammar. The former school site is due to be changed to a new sports centre that should become an Airedale-wide facility. The new railway station at Utley would provide safe routes to both the school and the sports facilities.

Waste Recycling Centre

Bradford District is increasingly affected by its inability to recycle waste. At Royd Ings there is an opportunity to create a new mechanical waste recycling unit alongside an environmental business unit. This project could set new standards in sustainable living and design, creating a building that is sympathetic to the surrounding rural landscape and defi ning the boundaries with dry-stone walls rather than paling fences. This location could also be a site for the focus of sustainable waste industries that can utilise waste materials for new products and uses.

Airedale Stadium

The Keighley Cricket Club and Cougars Rugby Club are adjacent to each other, and, in the future, it might be appropriate to redevelop these facilities to provide an Airedale stadium for a range of sporting activities and quality community and sports training facilities. The combination of shared cricket, football, rugby league and rugby union facilities would bring together different members of the community, raising aspirations through sport. The quality of building and its surroundings will raise the value of the adjacent industrial estate.

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