We can't do smiles like we used to. Despite our endless ability to preen ourselves in front of app-laden mirror lenses, we could never match the enigma-rich smiles of this unknown trio, captured on a Bristol Channel paddle steamer in the 1920s.
Year: 2020
Concrete Artery
I think I must have taken this photograph in the 1980s, which makes it rather late in my black and white days. By then the Burdock Way overpass had become part of the very body of Halifax; a vital artery rather than a varicose vein. Key buildings had shifted their positions to benefit from its' … Continue reading Concrete Artery
Shapes
I think this is York and I suspect this is a bit of York Minster in a contest with the gable ends for visual supremacy. The photograph must date from fairly late in my monochrome days - late eighties or even early nineties - and it demonstrates that nothing does shapes like a black and … Continue reading Shapes
Plain John Wainhouse
John Edward Wainhouse did not do plain. Ask him to build a dyeworks chimney and you would finish up with a monumental tower; ask him to build a row of cottages and you would get spiral staircases and terraced balconies. His tower still stands proud, his terrace has seen better days. This was taken in … Continue reading Plain John Wainhouse
Cause And Effect
I am not quite sure where this was taken from, but it could well have been in the King Cross area of Halifax. Whilst the dirt was being blasted off the public buildings of the town in the early 1970s, many terraces still bore witness to their sooty past. This multitude of chimneys, bitumen-black, gave … Continue reading Cause And Effect
When Not Why
There are two possible questions to go with this particular scan from my collection of old negatives. The first is, should old buildings be cleaned? There is an argument which says that power-washing the dirt, soot and grime off these fine old Victorian stone buildings is the architectural equivalent of a face-lift: momentarily interesting but, … Continue reading When Not Why
The Streets Of Sheffield
I must have taken these two photographs in the early 1980s when we were living in Sheffield. I think they were taken from the top of Solly Street looking towards the centre of Sheffield. They give the city an almost San Francisco feel to it and you wouldn't be too surprised to see either a … Continue reading The Streets Of Sheffield
It’s Only Nineteen And A Quarter Miles To Rochdale
So why would anyone place a milepost on an obscure back road in Rastrick telling people that it was only nineteen and a quarter miles to Rochdale? Who would want to know that? You might want to know how many miles it was to Elland, but that piece of information has worn away. Further research … Continue reading It’s Only Nineteen And A Quarter Miles To Rochdale
Carpeting The Calder Valley
The final shot from this strip of negatives places Clark Bridge Mills - at the time the headquarters of Homfray Carpets - at the centre of the action. Henry James Homfray may have been one of the lesser-known carpet barons of Halifax, but with mills in Sowerby Bridge, Luddendenfoot, Birstall and Halifax, he made a … Continue reading Carpeting The Calder Valley
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