It's a rare find ..... and a complete Victorian street is being being brought back to life after being found beneath a shopping centre in Keighley in West Yorkshire.
The hidden gem, created at the end of the 19th century was discovered under the town's Royal Arcade and now plans are afoot to make good use of it as Adam Fowler reports.
The man hoping to development an underground Victorian shopping arcade in Keighley says there are many planning restrictions - and anything built will fit in with its Victorian pa
– Nick Holroyd, manager of the Royal Arcade in Keighley"We’d be very restricted for what we could do.
"It’s mainly on safety and fire assessment grounds. If we can get these things sorted then we definitely will develop it.
"It’s something we would really like to do. We’ve looked at opening it up with craft shops. It will be a working environment - shops that would fit in with what it used to be. We’ll utilise what’s in there."
Other ideas being considered include creating a visitor attraction or converting the old shops for use by craftsmen and specialist traders.
When builders discovered an underground shopping arcade in Keighley, much of the Victorian building work on the cellars of seven shops was still intact, while wooden shop-fronts and stable pens were in place.
Constructors also found doors, signs and fittings from some of the original shops in the street, which was then owned by Frank Booth and Mark Holroyd.
Now Nick Holroyd, manager of the Royal Arcade, which is above the discovery, is investigating whether the street - once at ground level - can be restored.
He has enlisted an architect and structural engineer - and plans are being made to develop the street, which has space for up to eight units.
Shoppers may soon be able to bag a basement bargain - and walk through a secret Victorian shopping street after it was announced the street could reopen for business.
The subterranean cavern of former shops and stables were uncovered under the Royal Arcade, a two-storey complex of stores and flats in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
Last used in the 1890s, it was found after builders smashed their way through while converting the arcade in 2002.
A new multi-million pound shopping complex is to open to the public in the centre of Leeds this morning.
Read the full storyThey may be celebrating the opening of the Trinity shopping centre in Leeds on Thursday. But similar shopping centre schemes in Sheffield and Bradford remain on hold. A few views here from the folk of Bradford.
Many of the region's shops and their tens of thousands of staff face a make or break week in the countdown to Christmas.
For our local high streets, struggling after a double dip recesssion, the next eight days could be crucial with some experts warning it could be a battle for survival for some retailers.
The developers behind a large shopping development in Bradford say they are committed to finishing the project.
Protesters have moved in to the site in the city centre, angry that building work has not been taking place and the Westfield project was mothballed in 2009.
Westfield Shoppingtowns Limited have written an open letter to the protesters, saying the development has fallen foul of the financial crisis, but they remain committed to Bradford.
– Duncan Bower, Director of DevelopmentDespite these conditions, Westfield has remained committed to Bradford and has invested significant funds and time into seeking to progress the Broadway scheme. Like you, we are are eager to start this development as soon as possible and we are progressing with the key leasing pre-lettings that need to happen before construction can begin. In October 2011, Westfield received a revised planning permission for the scheme and we are currently working with the Council to market Bradford asa retail destination.
