The Halifax Piece Hall is a building in the town centre of Halifax

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, originally built as a sales centre for woollen handloom weavers. It opened on 1 January 1779, with over 300 separate rooms arranged around a central courtyard. The term piece refers to pieces of cloth that were sold. As factories started up in the early nineteenth century the trade in handwoven wool declined and around 1815 the rules were changed to allow the sale of cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 goods.

The piece hall was erected by the manufacturers and is a large quadrangular building of freestone occupying an area of ten thousand square yards with a rustic basement story and two upper stories fronted with two interior colonnades which are spacious walks leading to arched rooms where goods in an unfinished state were deposited and exhibited for sale to the merchants every Saturday from ten to twelve o clock. This structure which was completed at an expense of 12,000 UKP and opened on 1 January 1779 unites elegance convenience and security. It contains three hundred and fifteen separate rooms and is proof against fire.

The Hall is in a central part of Halifax, next door to Woolshops Shopping Centre, outside the bustling Market Street, and is close by to the Bus and Train Stations.

On the exterior on the Market Street side are a pair of handprints, which, according to folklore, are cursed, as many attempts over the years have failed to eradicate them.

The Piece Hall is now home to specialist shops, an art gallery, the Tourist Information Centre and other organisations.

The 1996 film, Brassed Off

Brassed Off

Brassed Off is a 1996 British film written and directed by Mark Herman. The film, a British-American co-production made between Channel Four Films, Miramax Films and Prominent Films, is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit...

featured a scene set and filmed on location at The Piece Hall. In the film it is the location of the National Brass Band Championships - Yorkshire Area Qualifying Contest.

Also Maestro music, a successful music shop in The Piece Hall, a comedy sketch for BBC3 has recently been filmed.

External links

• Piece Hall web site
• Great Public Squares: An Architect’s Selection, Robert F. Gatje, (Norton), 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-73173-6 http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/book-shelf-its-hip-to-be-square