Temperance Hall -- former home to Keighley's teetotallers group -- is set to become a pub.

JD Wetherspoon, which has over 600 pubs nationally, is negotiating to buy the historic town-centre building.

Its £1 million scheme would create around 30 full and part-time jobs.

A spokesman for the company -- which has been searching for some time for a suitable site in Keighley -- said: "Things are still at an early stage, but we are in negotiations to purchase the building.

"The next stage would be to submit a planning application and to apply for a licence.

"It is an excellent location and we are very keen to open there. The scheme would bring back into use a site which has stood empty for a considerable while.

"The pub would be music-free and there would be a range of cask-conditioned beers and a full menu. The building would be wheelchair-accessible and about one third of the customer area would be designated non-smoking."

The site -- at the junction of North Street and Albert Street -- was bought by the Wakefield-based Walker group in 1982 for £100,000 and was converted into a bingo hall.

It was closed down in 2000 and put on the market in May of that year for £250,000.

l The hall was opened in 1896 by Keighley Temperance Society.

Local historian and Keighley News columnist Ian Dewhirst said that prior to its bingo days, the hall was an extremely useful and well-used public building with various meeting rooms.

Its heyday was probably in the years leading up to the Second World War, and on one evening 11 organisations held simultaneous meetings.

The Temperance Society was responsible for Keighley's first ever periodical, the Keighley Visitor.

The monthly propaganda publication, distributed free of charge, was launched in 1853.