Drum Machine party

I've featured Drum Machine on my blog before. They are an exciting drum collective, based in Hebden Bridge. I didn't expect to see them at the Piece Hall but they were there to give a party atmosphere to the opening of the new sculpture exhibition, 'People Play' (see yesterday).

Listen to them HERE.

I think I like their performances so much for two main reasons: firstly, being deaf, deep sounds are much easier for me to hear. Drumming resonates within your body in an rather engaging way. Secondly, it reminds me of my childhood, when we used to watch the Miners' Parades through my home town. Each coal pit had its own brass band and I loved to feel the bass of the drums vibrating in my tummy as they passed by.

 I recently had chance to join a short workshop on African drumming (not with Drum Machine) and that was fun too. I've not much sense of rhythm to be honest - but I didn't let that stop me!

People Play

I met my daughter at Halifax's Piece Hall recently, for a meal and then a trip to the theatre. We went to see 'Giovanni Pernice: This is Me' at the Victoria Theatre, a touring dance show starring the Italian professional dancer from 'Strictly Come Dancing'. It was colourful, cheeky and actually very funny in parts, with fabulous dancing, lighting and costumes as you'd imagine. We had a very good time, part of our Christmas present to each other. It's not often that just the two of us meet up separate from the rest of the family, so I enjoyed that.

Beforehand I explored the new sculpture installation in the Piece Hall courtyard. Called 'People Play', it has been commissioned from emerging artist Alice Irwin. It consists of nine large, colourful painted metal characters, exploring the concept of childhood, play and also referencing the treatment of children in the textile trade in Victorian times. I found it quite fun, though not especially engaging. Children (perhaps inevitably) seemed more drawn to it and to the holes and spaces within the figures. The Piece Hall is such a vast space that things within it seem tiny by comparison so, although the pieces were substantial, they still seemed a little lost in the space. But perhaps there is food for thought there too... 

It looked more interesting after dark, when a heavy rainstorm created reflections to add to the illuminations created for the exhibition's opening night.

The Blanket

The central courtyard / piazza of Halifax Piece Hall is a massive space of 66,000 sq ft, ideal for events, concerts, markets and exhibitions. They are currently displaying a large sculpture: The Blanket, by David Murphy, their first visual arts commission, in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Its steel tubes create a magnified weave of overlapping warp and weft. The intersecting lines (and the strong shadows on the day I was there) give the impression of a large picnic blanket. It is intended to reference the Piece Hall's history of woven cloth - an effect more obvious when viewed from one of the higher levels of the building.  

I'm not sure whether I really liked it but it's an intricate and fascinating piece. It was hard to know how best to photograph it. I tried lots of angles and different points of view, trying to work with its shadows to incorporate them in a pleasing way. It would look different again on a dull day. 

There's a gallery of related sketches and drawings too. It looked interesting through the window, though it wasn't open when I was there. The sculpture is on display until April 7th.

Loafers

Halifax's Piece Hall has several cafés and bars to choose from. I decided to sample the brew in Loafers, a cosy venue that combines a coffee bar and vinyl record shop.  Good choice! The coffee was excellent, though I wasn't quite brave enough to sample the more exotic blends. You have good music to listen to whilst you sip your drink... double the pleasure. They also sell music-related art prints (by Matt, Vinyl Soul Images), which make a colourful display around the walls.

I had a lovely conversation with another photographer, a young man sitting at the next table. He was taking photos of the coffee and the view. With the sun streaming in, it was too good a shot to miss, though I should have taken mine before I drank my coffee! I also chatted to the owner, Mark Richardson, who seems a lovely, friendly guy and was very welcoming. He and his wife not only run the busy shop, which has been open about 18 months, they also have a young baby too. They must work hard! 

(I'm resolved to be braver about asking people for portraits. It's 'a big ask' for a deaf introvert like me! So far, no-one has objected...)

Return visit to the Piece Hall

I returned to Halifax to visit the Piece Hall again, taking advantage of a brilliantly sunny though very chilly day. The arched south entrance beckons you in. It's a wonderful and unusual Georgian building, opened in 1779 originally as a cloth hall where they sold 'Pieces' of handloom woven, woollen cloth. (Click the Piece Hall label below for more photos and information on its interesting history.) Since they have spent vast sums (£19 million) renovating it, it has a new lease of life. They hold regular events - markets, festivals, food stalls, entertainment - in the large square inside. There are more and more shops and cafés opening in the old cloth rooms that make up the four sides.

One can happily spend a couple of hours browsing around and it was good to explore it when there weren't too many crowds (though some of the shops close on Mondays and Tuesdays).

Renovations have included the adjacent Square Chapel and the Square Church spire, now incorporated into a new library. The exit from the Piece Hall towards the Library has lovely views of hills and mills. The old warehouse on the left is now Calderdale Industrial Museum, though I'll have to go again to visit that. It's only open on Saturdays.

Albesila

Over the recent Bank Holiday, there has been the most extraordinary 'luminarium sculpture' installed inside the Piece Hall in Halifax. Designed by 'Architects of the Air', it is called Albesila.

It consists of a series of interconnecting inflated PVC domes in different colours, through which you wander barefoot.  Daylight shining through results in incredibly luminous colours, blending and changing as you move around the chambers and corridors. With gentle music playing, the ambience was calming and meditative... 'somewhere between a womb and a cathedral' was a quote I read and that seemed apt. 

I arrived before it opened and still had to queue for an hour to get into it. The wait, however, was well worth it and I feel privileged to have experienced something so different and affecting. Quite pleased with my photos too!

Unfortunately my family were away; otherwise I'm sure the grandchildren would have enjoyed it too. 

See below for what it looked like on the outside - intriguing but with little hint of the wonder inside. 

Piece Hall details

Halifax's Piece Hall is a wonderful and unique building. The site slopes and the building has various levels. Each colonnaded tier has a different design. Many of the original 315 small rooms have been knocked through to make bigger spaces more suitable for modern use but the original doors, windows and staircases have been retained. There are reminders everywhere of its original use as a cloth hall - numbers, hooks and the splendid iron gates. The hall originally only traded for two hours every Saturday. The rest of the time it was used to store the valuable 'pieces' (lengths of handwoven woollen fabric). Security was vital; the exterior has blank walls with no windows and the entrances were heavily gated. In 1791, the average cost of a 30 yard 'piece' of cloth was £2, with some costing as much as £6. A wool spinner earned just £8 a year! A doctor might expect to earn £500. The people who made money were the clothiers and merchants, who could earn in excess of £2000 a year. It's little wonder that the finest buildings in these parts were mansions built by the textile merchants.

The Piece Hall

We'll take a break from holiday photos, to return to Yorkshire for a while...

The Piece Hall, a Georgian landmark in nearby Halifax, has just reopened after several years of extensive renovation. Now a Grade 1 listed building, it was originally opened in 1779 as a cloth hall where 'pieces' (30 yard lengths of woollen worsted fabric woven on a handloom) were traded. It originally had 315 small rooms, arranged on three levels around a huge courtyard. Many towns had cloth halls, but this is the only surviving example - and a very splendid one. (The spire behind belongs to the now defunct Square Congregational Church, which is also being renovated and incorporated into the Piece Hall scheme as an arts venue).

Handloom weaving more or less ceased after the Industrial Revolution, when the textile industry moved into mills, and for a while the Piece Hall became a wholesale fruit and vegetable market. In the late 20th century it became a retail centre, with small independent shops operating out of the rooms. It continues in that way now, but the renovation has vastly improved the facilities. The central courtyard has been levelled and paved and will be a wonderful venue for all sorts of cultural and community events designed to attract visitors to Halifax.

Monochrome Weekend: Piece Hall Dome

This is the dome on the roof of the magnificent Piece Hall in Halifax (see previous two posts), opened in 1779. The dome was installed in 1782 when another entrance was added to the west side of the Georgian building to cope with the crowds. It has a weather vane featuring a captive sheep - the Golden Fleece - and a cupola containing the Piece Hall bell. The bell was rung at the start of trading at 10 am and again at the end at 11.55 am (a bit like the Stock Exchange!). Anyone selling a piece of cloth before 10 am or after noon got fined 1 shilling.

Halifax is some 10 miles from Saltaire, but its history is deeply interwoven ('scuse the pun!) with that of Saltaire because of the woollen trade. Halifax is also home to Dean Clough Mills, which gives another strong link to Saltaire. Jonathan Silver, Salts Mill's entrepreneurial 'rescuer' was one of the partners in the regeneration of Dean Clough in the early 1980s. That experience provided a springboard in many ways for his vision for Salts Mill, which he bought in 1987.

For more Monochrome Weekend images, please click this link.

Piece Hall Gate

This is one of the massive gates to the Piece Hall in Halifax (see yesterday's photo). The gates date from 1871. By 1868, when the Piece Hall's original purpose as a market for worsted cloth traders had been overtaken by industrialisation, the Piece Hall was handed over to Halifax Corporation (local council). In 1871 it became the city's wholesale fish, game, fruit and vegetable market. (The Piece Hall website has an interesting history of the building, downloadable from the site.)

The south entrance was widened to allow access by large vehicles and these cast iron gates were installed, showing the Halifax coat of arms. It has a Latin text. I think it reads "Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem" - my Latin isn't great (failed O level!) but I believe that translates roughly as "Unless the Lord watches over the City". The head is that of John the Baptist. Legend says his head was buried here after execution! (Why?) I can't quite read or understand the other words - nalea fax? or halea fax? I think that must be "Halifax", which is said to mean Holy Face. There's the inevitable sheep and a flag of St George, by the looks of it. Any more ideas?

Whatever the exact symbolism, they are impressive gates. They are within the archway, so I wasn't able to stand far enough back for my camera lens to take in the whole. In the unlikely event that I progress to a DSLR, I'll go back with a wide-angle lens!

Halifax Piece Hall

A week or two ago (March 8) I said I'd visit the Piece Hall in Halifax, when I had chance. Well... mission accomplished. Here it is. You may remember I said that the Yorkshire Pennine area was the centre of the worsted handloom weaving trade in the late 18th century. Several towns built Cloth or Piece Halls: markets where the cottage weavers could sell their 'pieces' of cloth. But only the one in Halifax remains.

The weavers in Calderdale specialised in a type of hard-wearing cloth called 'kersey', and the medieval kersey market was held near the parish church in Halifax. The first cloth hall was built in 1555 by the Lord of the Manor of Halifax, who took a tax of one penny for each piece of cloth sold. The magnificent Georgian Piece Hall was opened on New Year's Day 1779. Its size and splendour demonstrated the importance of the woollen kersey trade to the area. It was designed by Thomas Bradley, a local man (he was only 22) who became chief engineer of the Calder & Hebble Navigation (canal). Built around a quadrangle, it has 315 small rooms which were owned either by individual clothiers or shared by several traders. Those who could not afford the £28 4s subscription could sell their cloth in the central courtyard. The site slopes, so one of the sides has two levels and the opposite side has three; each level differs in the style of its columns and archways.

The 19th century industrialisation of the wool worsted trade rendered redundant the original purpose of the Piece Hall, and it became a general market instead. The building still survives as small rooms - shops, cafés and galleries - with a central market area, but is a bit run-down these days. There are plans to restore and improve it, and an application for Heritage Lottery funding is being prepared. If that is successful, the Piece Hall will be closed from 2012 to 2014 for extensive renovations.
The church spire behind is all that remains of the Square Congregational Church, destroyed by fire in 1971. It is now home to a breeding pair of peregrine falcons, which can be sometimes be seen flying over the area.