THE Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd also produced some bold between-the-wars buildings.
This was the Broomhill branch officially opened on Co-operators’ Day, July 7, 1928, with large windows and clear displays.
Broomhill was Keighley’s first council housing estate, the Co-operative Society moving in before its completion – here Broomhill Avenue has not yet been made.
Comprising grocery, butchery, fruit and confectionary departments, this was the society’s 20th and then-largest branch apart from its Brunswick Street headquarters. Co-op membership in 1928 stood at 11,845, more than one-in-four of the Keighley population.
Built to a classical design of the CWS architectural department, its fittings were up-to-date, substituting tiles for wood wherever possible.
“The building,” declared president Frank Midgley at its opening ceremony, “was built on good, strong lines, pleasing to the eye, and built on rock, and like the co-operative principle, would stand all the winds that blew.”
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