Someone asked me the other day whether I had any photos of the Daily Tailors shop in Halifax - and going through my archives, I discovered I had one - or at least half of one (think of it as a photographic sports jacket rather than a suit). The photo must be one of my … Continue reading A Photographic Sports Jacket
Category: Old Halifax
Waiting For Change
Halifax as it was sixty years ago. If you compare and contrast it with Halifax as it is today, you will find that most of the structures are still in place - but the shops have changed, the signs have changed, the cars have changed, and you can no longer wait for 30 minutes. The … Continue reading Waiting For Change
If It Wasn’t For The Trees In-Between
Back in the 1950s, there was a school geography textbook which, in the section on urban geography, had a picture of Halifax, and pupils were encouraged to count the number of mill chimneys. My photo was taken a decade later, but you could still make a decent counting exercise out of it. These days you … Continue reading If It Wasn’t For The Trees In-Between
Fill In The Faces
Market stalls in Brighouse in the 1960s. Other than the little girl (who is probably just about to become a pensioner!) you can't see any faces. You don't need to. Your mind automatically fills in the missing detail. The faces lined by years of work. The complexions scarred by too much worry.
Monumental Beer
I must have taken this photograph of the Old Lane Inn, Halifax, in the mid-1960s, by which time it had already closed. It briefly came back to life as Dicky Mints 20 years later, before closing again, and eventually, the building was demolished. The monumental bottle of beer painted on the gable wall should have … Continue reading Monumental Beer
Peeled Away By Time
This is one of those photos where I have to start drawing potential lines of sight in order to work out where I was standing (it was an awfully long time ago!). There's Whitaker's Brewery and there are (I think) the Albion Street flats. And there are numerous layers of industry, most of which have … Continue reading Peeled Away By Time
The Fate Of The Horse
This is one of those photographs where you try to line up buildings and, with all the skill of a CSI officer, work out where I might have been standing when I took the photo fifty-odd years ago. I'm not sure of the answer, but zooming in on the background and seeing which buildings have … Continue reading The Fate Of The Horse
Monochrome Memories
HALIFAX POWER STATION FROM CHARLESTOWN ROAD, 1967 : The clouds can't really have been that dark, the walls that soot-encrusted, the chimneys so stark. Time must have paid tricks on the film emulsion, or my exposure calculations were somewhat inaccurate. As for my memory, part of it says the sun always shined and the sky … Continue reading Monochrome Memories
Crowning Glory
This is a sight familiar to a whole generation of Halifax folk. I took the photo from on top of Godley Bridge, but you got the same view from the front seat of a Corporation bus. There was something quite cinematic about the constrained view as the bus made its way up Godley Cutting, and … Continue reading Crowning Glory
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