If you go beyond Hope Hall in Halifax, you get to Hope Hall Terrace. If you go beyond Hope Hall Terrace, you get to Back Hope Hall Terrace. That is where I took this photo forty or more years ago. It was cold and icy and for some reason the standpipes were out. You can … Continue reading Halifax Beyond Hope?
Category: Old Halifax
Hope
A photo I took 40 years ago and added some colour to 40 minutes ago. It shows what remains of the front of Hope Hall, Halifax, which is now the back of the Albany Club. 200 years ago it was the home of Christopher Rawson of Gentleman Jack fame. It's seen better days - but where there's … Continue reading Hope
Slam And Slide : Towards A Definition Of Culture
The welcome news that Bradford is set to be the 2025 UK City Of Culture got me thinking about what on earth culture is? Whilst definitions abound, they all tend to be constructed from words and concepts that are about as sound and structured as a jellyfish's ribcage. Clearly culture occupies a seat right next … Continue reading Slam And Slide : Towards A Definition Of Culture
Frames Of Reference
Halifax Town Hall framed in stone. Both the town hall and the half-demolished building on Winding Road (which was probably the works of Haigh, Allan & Co, Brass Founders and Finishers) must be of a similar vintage, but when I took this photograph in 1969, one was going, and one, thank goodness, was staying.
Roadworks On Salterhebble Hill
I have just added a new vintage postcard to my collection which shows "St Luke's Hospital and Salterhebble Hill, Halifax" The card was posted in May 1917, but I suspect that the photograph dates from at least a decade before that. St Luke's Hospital was the original name for what later became Halifax General Hospital, … Continue reading Roadworks On Salterhebble Hill
Moral Condiments
Another of my photos from 1969, and it shows the two cooling towers - Salt and Pepper - at Halifax Power Station next to North Bridge. Between them can be seen the hill rising to Claremount, with, I believe, St Thomas Street Methodist Church at the top. It is said that it cost more to … Continue reading Moral Condiments
Remains And Foundations
A photograph of mine from the late 1960s shows Halifax in transition. It’s the area around Gaol Lane and Ann Street, caught between the remains of pubs, chapels and debtors prisons, and the foundations of stores, colleges and bus stations.
Water Is Best
An article in the Illustrated London News of the 13th August 1859 reminds us of the gift of a water fountain to the people of Halifax by Joseph Thorp. The fountain was erected in People's Park, where it stands to this day. Whilst such a gift, two or three centuries earlier, might have been mainly … Continue reading Water Is Best
Nuts And Sweets And A Trip To The Dentist
Here is another of those wonderful old picture postcards of Halifax from the turn of the twentieth century, which provides an insight into both the public persona of the town and, at the same time, the private persona of its citizens. The public persona is provided by the front of the card, posted in May … Continue reading Nuts And Sweets And A Trip To The Dentist
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