Guided Tour & Live Performance: FREE EVENT but booking essential. 

Royal Arcade, Low Street, 

Friday 8th: 11.45am, 1.45pm and 2:45pm

Saturday 9th: 10.15am, 11.45am, 1.45pm

Tours last for a maximum of 30 minutes.

Pre booking essential. Visit our Facebook page or click: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/171875643677  

Nancy Newbody – Mill Worker, invites you to visit the underground shopping emporium at the Royal Arcade Keighley, exploring with her stories tall and small of past owners, shoppers, retailers and residents to explore the echo of their lives and footprints.

Hidden for decades, the underground arcade is a time capsule to Victorian and Edwardian social mores, class division, shopping and retail habits. When first discovered, shop fronts, stables, signs and delivery paraphernalia were in still situ, creating an eerie Marie Celeste feel to the environment – which still exists now.

Nancy will retell experiences of above/below ground shoppers, the different retail offers for the wealthy and the workers, of temperance and topers, ladies of the day and night. An experience of sounds, smells, stories. 

Maximum 15 people per tour, not suitable for under 14 years. 

The environment is dusty, has uneven floor/ground, with no natural light and is dim in places; there are stairs to reach the area with no disabled access. Suitable footwear and clothing is recommended. If you need a signer to participate, please contact jan@keighleycreative.org