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Title: Piece Hall, Halifax - DTA00350
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Title
Piece Hall, Halifax - DTA00350
Description
During the course of the 18th century Halifax came to occupy a prominent place in West Yorkshire as a cloth market, and the Piece Hall, opened in 1779, is a striking monument to the pre-factory age. ‘Pieces’ or lengths of cloth, handwoven in Pennine houses, were brought to market each Saturday morning by local manufacturers and smaller cloth makers, to be sold not only to local merchants and to buyers from across the country, but also to agents acting on behalf of Continental merchants.
The building itself, probably designed by John Hope of Liverpool, is an open rectangular structure containing originally 315 rooms, surrounding a courtyard of some 10,000 square yards and comprising a two-storey colonnade with a lower storey added on the eastern side to take account of the sloping site. The architecture draws on Roman classical precedents, with rustic piers supporting semi-circular arches on the ground floor ‘Arcade’ level, square jointed columns on the intermediate ‘Rustic’ level, and a series of round Doric columns on the top floor ‘Colonnade’.
The mechanisation of the textile industry in the first hall of the 19th century progressively undermined the position of the handloom weaver in the local economy, and the centralisation of all textile processes within large mill buildings, to which merchants had direct access, rendered the Piece Hall increasingly obsolete. During its decline it was used for a variety of public events, including political meetings, firework displays, a balloon ascent, and Whit Monday Sunday School ‘Sings’. It was finally handed over to Halifax Corporation in 1868, and for over a century served as a wholesale fish, fruit and vegetable market. Although scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 1928, its historic and architectural significance was not widely appreciated until the 1970s, when it was cleaned and restored. It now houses a wide variety of shops, and a restaurant, art gallery, tourist information centre and pre-industrial museum.
Text from: Calderdale Architecture and History.
The building itself, probably designed by John Hope of Liverpool, is an open rectangular structure containing originally 315 rooms, surrounding a courtyard of some 10,000 square yards and comprising a two-storey colonnade with a lower storey added on the eastern side to take account of the sloping site. The architecture draws on Roman classical precedents, with rustic piers supporting semi-circular arches on the ground floor ‘Arcade’ level, square jointed columns on the intermediate ‘Rustic’ level, and a series of round Doric columns on the top floor ‘Colonnade’.
The mechanisation of the textile industry in the first hall of the 19th century progressively undermined the position of the handloom weaver in the local economy, and the centralisation of all textile processes within large mill buildings, to which merchants had direct access, rendered the Piece Hall increasingly obsolete. During its decline it was used for a variety of public events, including political meetings, firework displays, a balloon ascent, and Whit Monday Sunday School ‘Sings’. It was finally handed over to Halifax Corporation in 1868, and for over a century served as a wholesale fish, fruit and vegetable market. Although scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 1928, its historic and architectural significance was not widely appreciated until the 1970s, when it was cleaned and restored. It now houses a wide variety of shops, and a restaurant, art gallery, tourist information centre and pre-industrial museum.
Text from: Calderdale Architecture and History.
Creator
Donald Taylor
Source
Pennine Horizons Digital Archive
Date
No date yet
Rights
PHDA - Donald Taylor Collection
Relation
Pennine Horizons Digital Archive
Identifier
DTA00350.tif
Collection
Citation
Donald Taylor, “Piece Hall, Halifax - DTA00350,” Pennine Horizons Digital Archive, accessed April 18, 2024, https://penninehorizons.org/items/show/3700.
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