Repurposed and Restored Industrial Heritage in Halifax

In Brief.

Halifax town centre has a number of attractions that may draw in visitors; these include the Eureka! children's museum (not visited here, but recommended from past experience for primary age kids), the Calderdale Industrial Museum and the Piece Hall. The latter is a pre-industrial revolution trading hall for pieces of cloth from cottage industries, now repurposed as a restaurant and retail building around a space that hosts concerts and events.

The entrance to the Calderdale Industrial Museum.

What's Here?

The Calderdale Industrial Museum is run largely by volunteers, and there are enthusiastic retirees throughout the building to discuss the different themed exhibitions. In fact, there are reasonably few signs to explain the exhibits, so the staff are an important part of the experience. The museum is extensive, occupying 4 floors of a former factory, and includes areas on the transition from cottage industries to factories, the evolution of power sources in factories, the development of the machine tool industry to support manufacturing and a display on carpet making. Many of these feature working equipment, both large scale (e.g., a carpet making machine) and more modest (e.g., for making socks). I expected the museum to be a small part of my visit, but it exceeded expectations.


I primarily came to Halifax to see the 18th Century Piece Hall, a large public square surrounded on all sides by a building that was constructed for a weekly market that traded hand-made pieces of cloth from cottage industries.  The building and space are potentially imposing, but the recent use of the site as a concert venue rather obscured the original building. Anyway, the fact that it is making a living as a venue is surely a good thing, and although this clobbered the view, the ground floor restaurants were doing good business, with lots of people sitting outside. There are also many and varied shops in the two upper floors, so this would be a good place to visit for retail therapy or for some ideas before Christmas.

The centre of Halifax seems to have been significantly redeveloped in recent years, and one of the entrances to the Piece Hall leads to the Westgate Arcade, an airy collection of shops and restaurants that continues the independent outlets focus of the Piece Hall.

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 33 miles

Drive Time: 1 hour

Price: $ for Calderdale Industrial Museum (check the website for the days it is open), Piece Hall is free to enter but requests donations. 

Parking: There is handy and reasonably priced parking at HX1 1QG.

Food and Drink: There are many outlets; I had a tasty apple cake in the museum cafe, the Piece hall hosts several ground floor eateries, and there are also cafes and restaurants at the nearby Westgate Arcade.

Retail Therapy: The Piece Hall hosts many small independent shops.

Child Friendly: There are toy and model shops in the Piece Hall, and various noisy machines in action in the Industrial Museum.

Toilets: Yes: Piece Hall and museum.

Do it justice in: Museum: 2 hours; Piece Hall depends on how long you shop/eat.

Inside-Outside: 80:20.

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