I seem to have ended up with another mini-series this week, and it is all about the seaside. Most northern industrial towns would have a traditional "Wakes Week" about this time of the year, when the mills and factories would close down and the workers would head for the seaside. My Wakes Week starts with … Continue reading Wakes Week
Month: July 2025
The Buildings Of Halifax 7 : HBS Finish
My little mini-series featuring some of the buildings of Halifax, photographed during my walk last week, ends where it started with the offices of the Halifax Building Society. This isn't the nineteenth-century Victorian building featured on Monday, however, but the modern plate glass and concrete building at the other end of town.
Ingrained History
History is so often written into the very fabric of buildings, but it is also ingrained in the function of the building itself. This glorious building on Southgate, Halifax has, over the years, been home to the offices of a canal company, the William Morris Wallpaper Company and the Hoover Cleaning Company. Now it is … Continue reading Ingrained History
Looking Up
Many of the fine old buildings of Halifax you can look up and discover their history, their architectural merit, and their importance to the cultural landscape. of the town. Others you can just look up at and say: "My goodness, that's a fine old building!"
The Renaissance Comes To Halifax
In 1898, the renaissance came to Halifax in the form of the new Police Station and Magistrates Court building on Harrison Road and Blackwall. When it ceased duty as an offenders' one-stop shop at the start of the current century, it was in search of a new function. Luckily it has found one, and Halifax … Continue reading The Renaissance Comes To Halifax
Hidden Assets
I must have walked past Somerset House on Rawson Street, Halifax hundreds of times in my youth without ever knowing it was there. From the beginning of the twentieth century until the beginning of the twenty-first, this fine example of Georgian architecture (by John Carr of York) was hidden behind a row of shops. These … Continue reading Hidden Assets
Front To Back Hope
The second in my Buildings of Halifax series features Hope Hall, which now occupies a plot between Clare Road and Clare Street. This is a view of what now is the rear of the hall, but back in the eighteenth century, when it was built, it was part of an imposing front elevation. It's well … Continue reading Front To Back Hope
The Buildings Of Halifax 1 : HBS Start
I managed a good walk around Halifax the other day, and I decided to focus on some of the lovely buildings we all walk by each day and never really notice. This week is therefore devoted to "The Buildings Of Halifax," and I start at the corner of Princess Street and Crossley Street, and the … Continue reading The Buildings Of Halifax 1 : HBS Start
A Moorland Path From The Dark Ages
A photograph from the 1980s which was a bit of a Dark Age in terms of my own photographic history. Colour film meant a loss of control, and that control didn't return until I switched to digital photography at the turn of the century. Now I can scan those colour negatives and mess with them … Continue reading A Moorland Path From The Dark Ages
alanburnett.com 