Piece de resistance
If it’s industrial heritage, grand architecture and a bit of culture you’re after, then Halifax has got the lot, writes Amanda Wragg.
Halifax ‘The Shoreditch of the North’. I prefer to think of it as an urban Glastonbury, but with better toilet facilities.
Local lass Sally Wainwright has brought two outstanding series to our screens in recent years: Last Tango in Halifax, with a stellar cast including Sarah Lancashire, Sir Derek Jacobi and Anne
Reid, and she told the story of Anne Lister with the phenomenally successful Gentleman Jack. Stunning Shibden Hall, a 600 year old timber framed manor house built in 1420 is a stone’s throw from the town centre and set in 90 acres of rolling parkland. Built for the Lister family and occupied by them for generations, it was inherited by Anne in 1836. She became known for both her political activity and unconventional relationships; the actor Suranne Jones brought her to life with a great deal of style and wit, and a second series on the way.
There’s an embarrassment of architectural riches in Halifax, and it’s always worth looking up from shop fronts to see the facades of the original buildings. Somerset House on Rawson Street saw a remarkable facelift just over a decade ago. Built in 1766 for merchant banker John Royd, it was designed by Wakefield architect John Carr, most famous for his work on Harewood House. Royd commissioned the York based Italian Rococo artist Guiseppe Cortese to decorate the ceilings in Tuscan-style and the beautiful, intricate stucco carvings have survived.
Halifax’s ornate Grade 2* Listed town hall was designed by Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament. The Holdsworth’s family history recalls the day in 1863 the Prince of Wales arrived to open the town hall: “There were amazing scenes in the decorated streets and in the Piece Hall. An estimated 100,000 people visited Halifax to join the celebrations. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway put on a staggering 358 trains to Halifax on the two days of the Prince’s visit. As many as 70,000 tickets were issued from stations to Halifax on the first day alone. In the town, the crowds were watched by 870 police, 200 of them from London and others from Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and elsewhere.”
Haligonians have a special pride about their town, no better illustrated than in Alan Whicker’s 1968 documentary about cat’s eyes inventor Percy Shaw, who became a multi-millionaire but other than buying a Rolls-Royce Phantom didn’t let his fortune go to his head. He lived for 86 years in a ramshackle house in Queensbury, and when Whicker asked him if he’d ever thought about living in London, he didn’t miss a beat: “Why would I? I’ve got everything I need right here.”