Year: 2020

Style And Charm

I must have taken this photograph in the mid 1970s: it shows Commercial Street in Halifax, looking towards Wards End and the, then, new headquarters of the Halifax Building Society. There is a sharp contrast in architectural styles: on one side of Commercial Street are the late Victorian facades of shops and commercial premises, whilst … Continue reading Style And Charm

Imaginary Prospecting

So here we are again: locked down and searching for ways of occupying ourselves between box sets. Next to my desk I have a suitcase full of old orphan photographs. These are photographs of unknown origin, things I have bought by the box full, job lots of memories. Whenever I have nothing better to do … Continue reading Imaginary Prospecting

Change And The Wool Merchant

For more than a century a wool merchant has dominated the junction of King Street and Mulcture Hall Road in Halifax. For most of that time the building was the premises of the wool merchant business of H Holdsworth, but more recently it has been the home of the Wool Merchant Hotel. Whether trade or … Continue reading Change And The Wool Merchant

The Green, Green Grass Of …. Rhodes Street

This is the last of this particular batch of photographs from fifty or so years ago, taken in the Rhodes Street area of Halifax. Like the other four, it shows the area around Gibbet Street in Halifax shortly before redevelopment. Looking back at these five photographs, it shows a different Halifax, one caught in the … Continue reading The Green, Green Grass Of …. Rhodes Street

What We Get Up To Late At Night

It is late at night, midnight has come and gone and the Auchentoshan bottle has been tipped a good few times. I am half watching some old thing on the television, half messing about with Photoshop. An image emerges which seems to sum everything up. Hashtag serendipitousphotography!

Finding Faith In Rhodes Street

As I continue my exploration of the area around Rhodes Street, Halifax - time travel by courtesy of a series of photographs I took almost fifty years ago - I find faith on Rhodes Street. Before too much celebration is embarked upon for the salvation of my lost soul, let me add that the faith … Continue reading Finding Faith In Rhodes Street

Gas Lights And Atmosphere

I know I have featured this particular image from my negative archives before, but I like it, so I will wheel it out again. I took it almost fifty years ago and it is one of the street around Rhodes Street, which ran (and, indeed, still runs) between Gibbet Street and Hopwood Lane in Halifax. … Continue reading Gas Lights And Atmosphere

Abandon Hope

I read somewhere that the Vikings called their new discovery Greenland in full knowledge that it was anything but green, but in the hope that it might attract settlers. The same principles were obviously used by nineteenth century town developers who gave endless rows of smoke-black terraces names such as Paradise Street and Bellevue Road. … Continue reading Abandon Hope

Acorn Autumn

If you go out for a walk in these parts, you can't get very far without treading on a bed of acorns. It's a little like walking on wooden marbles, and the sound of them crunching and snapping underfoot is reminiscent of the famous ladybird summer back in 1976. Just to check that it wasn't … Continue reading Acorn Autumn