Factfile on Queensgate

who might not visit otherwise.

“People think the market hall is half empty, but it’s not. There’s only a few empty spaces. Occupancy is at about 80%.

“Trading is ticking on fairly healthily. It started getting quite hard two or three years ago but there are still a lot of good businesses in here.

“The gallery is temporary. It will move out of a space if we get a new tenant.

“The idea behind moving tenants is voluntary. It makes the market look more compact rather than with empty shops and gives us a space where we can bring in other speciality events and stalls. I’m very positive about it.”

Mr Smith and fellow tenants have been assured by the council that the market hall, the library and the town hall collectively represent one of Huddersfield’s “gold star areas”.

Opened in 1970 the market hall has been the focus of several rumours in recent years, not least that the building and adjoining multi-storey car park was being eyed by the University of Huddersfield as a potential extension to its campus. QUEENSGATE Market Hall was opened in 1970 following the demolition of the old market hall on the Shambles.

The new building was designed by the Birmingham-based J Seymour Harris Partnership with massive external glazed ceramic panels - known as Articulation in Movement - by the German sculptor Fritz Steller (1941 - 2015).

The market is unique because it is roofed with 21 free-standing asymmetric inverted hyperbolic paraboloid shells - a feature that has led to it being hailed as an architectural wonder. Each mushroom-shaped shell weighs 72 tonnes.

In 2007 it was awarded the Certificate of Excellence for a mature structure by the Concrete Society.