THIS was the dismal scene in Keighley’s Municipal Hall in early March of 1962, after the Saturday night fire that gutted much of the Mechanics’ Institute.

A total of 75 firemen fought a blaze that cracked windows on the opposite side of North Street while their water froze on the walls.

The event made national news and featured on BBC bulletins.

Member of Parliament Marcus Worsley visited his constituency to see the damage.

The building housed both the Boys’ Grammar School and the Technical College, whose art department was destroyed.

Pupils arriving at the grammar school on Monday morning found a message chalked on a blackboard ‘Forms 6th and 5th Report to Central Hall, Alice Street. The rest to go home for one week’.

Some rats and frogs survived in the biology department, together with a six-inch alligator.

The photograph has been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Bradford Road in, Riddlesden.