A magical history tour of old Halifax

Stephen’s new book is a walking trail through the town centre in days gone by

enough to fit into a pocket or handbag, and the pictures are arranged in a tour of more than 50 streets and buildings.

Thus Halifax History Tour is a history trail which should appeal to both local people and visitors to our historic town.

It’s a clever idea by publisher Amberley, which has included the Halifax title among 10 similar volumes, all issued this year. They include tours of places as diverse as Norwich and Peterborough, Southampton and Durham, Pontypridd and Hemel Hempstead.

The volumes are based on earlier books; in Stephen Gee’s Case it is his Halifax Through Time, published in 2010, and there are one of two minor updating omissions, such as the mention of the Portman and Pickles pub in Market Street, which in 2012 became the Jubilee to mark the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.

But this is a bit nitpicky. The main thing is the pictures and they are superb, as can be seen from the selec- tion here. They come from Stephen’s amazing collection of more than 15,000 local views and they include fulllength shots of streets such as the wonderful view on the opposite page of Crown Street on a busy working day, with horses and carts, policemen and pedestrians, Princess Street with the Town Hall prominent, Silver Street in the days of the much loved Harrison Gibson’s furniture store, Powell Street, Bull Green and Cow Green.

The buildings include the Piece Hall when it was a wholesale fish, fruit and vegetable market, Edward Street when the Cafe Royal still existed, Somerset House when it still lay in open parkland before even Commercial Street existed, the Theatre Royal, the general Post Office, the Odeon when it was still a cinema and so much more besides.

Oddities include a photo of a train at the old North Bridge station and an atmospheric shot of Halifax power station, long before the cool-