A NEW bid to bring one of the district’s most prominent derelict buildings back into use has been revealed.
The Carnegie Library on Leeds Road, Shipley is a landmark building on one of the main routes into the town from Windhill.
But the property has been derelict for decades and currently has vegetation growing out of its stonework.
The Carlton Care Group – a locally based organisation that provides support for adults with mental health issues and learning disabilities - has revealed plans to refurbish the building and turn it into its new head office.
The building was constructed as a library for the town in 1905 thanks to a grant from Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who also helped fund Keighley’s library.
More recently the building has been used as a lecture theatre, dance studio, and Irish centre, but it has stood empty for years.
Despite its significance in the town and its impressive exterior design, the building has never been listed.
The new planning application would see the building fully refurbished and converted into office space. A nine-space car park would be created at the rear of the building.
The application says: “The office conversion will form the Head Office/admin team for Carlton Care Group.
“The property has been vacant for a number of years and in a state of poor repair.
“The existing building will be preserved as much as possible and new windows will be in keeping with existing.”
A decision on the application is expected in September.
It is not the first time an application to refurbish and reuse the building has come across the desk of planners.
Plans to turn the building into 10 apartments were approved in 2008, but the conversion never started.
In 2021 Carlton Care group was granted permission to convert the building into seven supported living units. That too never got off the ground, and the company’s new application says: “After deliberation on alternative uses on the site it is proposed to use the property as office.”
The most ambitious plan for the building came as part of a large-scale development of the area that would include a new supermarket and housing.
These plans – which never went ahead – would have seen the library demolished to make way for an improved junction.
It would then be rebuilt brick by brick on a nearby site and converted into apartments.
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