When in Halifax it’s imperative to visit Haley Hill flats, as we did in May 2025.
It’s a labour of love ascending the granite setts to the side of Dean Clough.
Walking in the footsteps of photographer Bill Brandt.
A Snicket in Halifax: Bill Brandt 1937
A Snicket in Halifax: Steve Marland 2025
Postcard c. 1970
So it’s October 2025 and today Matthew I am mainly Bill Brandt.
Walking in the footsteps of giants.
Print quality is a variable thing depending on the purpose of the image. I would expect a pure record photograph to have a full range of tone, with both shadow and highlight gradation. Against this, pictorial or art based imagery requires the range of tones best suited to making the statement. The classic case is the soot and whitewash printing of Bill Brandt. So we have a situation that carries a contradiction; blocked up shadows in applied work is not acceptable but blocked up blacks in pictorial work is often perfectly acceptable, if that lost information is not relative to the image. Burnt out highlights are more dangerous, but again Bill Brandt did it with great effect.
Bill Wisden
So, the record print would have an even tonality thus:
Whilst the pictorial artist may favour the higher contrast.
We were wandering by bicycle in the Wolds – we came to see All Saints Church in Rudston.
I was particularly intrigued by the Twentieth Century stained glass.
Grade II Listed All Saints sits in the grounds of the famous Rudston megalith , this alone clearly points to the area being of ritual use thousands of years before this Norman church was erected. At 26 feet high, it is the tallest standing stone in Britain. The megalith was set here around 2000 BC, after being quarried and transported from the Cleveland Hills, west of Whitby.
It is a lovely early Norman church built around the year 1100 by William Peverel, lord of the manor. Of that Norman church, the tower remains, and you can still trace the original west entrance in the stonework at the west end of the church.
The Norman building was extended in the 13th century when both north and south aisles were added, along with the name and chancel arch. In the sanctuary is a slightly later sedilia.
Most of the Stained Glass in the Windows is modern, designed by John Hardman Studios– 1954-56, and replacing 19th century glass by Capronnier of Brussels and Hodgson of York, destroyed by a land mine in the second world war. The various depictions speak for themselves and these pleasing windows are worth examining, particularly the east window above the altar. It has four panels, the left one depicting SS Peter, Paul, James, John, Ethelburga and the Venerable Bede, the two central panels show the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, and the living Christ ‘Reigning from the cross.’ The panel on the right shows northern saints Wilfrid, Cuthbert, Chad, John of Beverley, Alcuin of York, Oswald, Edwin, and most unusually William Wilberforce, MP for Hull and then Yorkshire, who pioneered the abolition of slavery.
Design for Stained Glass Window for Notre Dame Church Fall River Massachusetts USA – 1921
Chancel North Window by Arthur Lucien Ward 1915
Depicting Sir Alexander Macdonald playing the organ surrounded by a choir – We Praise Thee O God. Sir Alexander gave the organ, and was organist and choirmaster for nearly 50 years.
He designed for AR Mowbray from around the time of the First World War into the 1930s.
Having completed five years at York Art School, then work experience with Harry Harvey FMGP, Ann chose to specialise in stained glass. After working as Harry’s studio assistant for several years, she set up her own workshop in 1987.
The Sower window by Harry Harvey – 1956.
Harry William Harvey FMGP born 1922 died 2011, was born in Birmingham and received his initial training in stained glass from the local firm of Pierce & Cutler. After the war he joined Wippells of Exeter, before moving to York at the instigation of another Wippells old boy, Harry Stammers, with whom he worked until establishing his own studio in 1956. He also collaborated over many years with Joseph Fisher of Shrigley & Hunt. Two of his assistants, Ann Sotheran and Sep Waugh also went on to establish their own studios.
And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Later in the week I discovered more of Harry Harvey’s work, in nearby All Saints Kilham – the chancel north window 1967.
Depicting on the right Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, JS Bach, St Hilary. Whilst on the left there is John Dunstable, St Gregory, St Ambrose and John Merbeeke.
Visiting Halifax Borough Market for the first time feels a bit like taking a step back in time. This award-winning market was first opened in 1896 and has been the beating heart of the town ever since. Its Victorian splendour can be seen throughout – on the ornate clock-tower, in the glass roof and on the intricate carvings. Décor and atmosphere combine to create a shopping experience that just cannot be matched.
Calderdale Gov
The Markets and Fairs Committee decided in 1890 to replace the overflowing market place with a new structure. Local architects Joseph and John Leeming were engaged to draw up plans. A £50,000 loan was obtained by the Corporation the following year, with the final cost rising to £130,000, which was £20,000 over budget. Work began in October 1892 and progressed slowly, until the market was officially opened on 25 July 1896 by the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George V and Queen Mary.
The life of the market along with the high street faces an uncertain future, the local authority are doing their best to ensure that both have a future.
Through UK Government funding, we’re updating this iconic Victorian market. We’re creating a warmer and more welcoming place for people to shop, eat, drink and spend time.
I have very fond memories of shopping with my mam on Ashton Market, and use my local market here in Stockport. I love the conviviality and the stimulating visual displays, the overcrowded abundance, a florid cornucopia of goods and services.
However, in this instance I was beguiled by an empty stall, the former home of Illuminate Electrical Supplies.
Gone now are the rich variety of shades, plugs, flexes, batteries and lamps, what remains are the bare bones of making do.
Odds and ends, fixtures and fittings, fitted in as and when.
To begin at the beginning, to begin at Baitings Reservoir.
Wakefield Corporation Waterworks started impounding the valley of the River Ryburn in the 1930s, with Ryburn Reservoir being completed in 1933. Construction on Baitings took place 20 years later with completion in 1956. Baitings Bridge, on an old road linking Yorkshire and Lancashire, was to be flooded under the reservoir so a concrete viaduct was built. During spells of very hot weather and drought conditions, the old packhorse bridge is revealed.
Wakefield Express: 31st August 1955
The dam head is a curved structure that is 1,540 feet long and over 160 feet high. The reservoir covers 59 acres and has a catchment of 1,830 acres , and when it is full, it holds over 113,000,000 cubic feet of water. The dam took eight years to complete at a cost of £1.4 million, and is located at 840 feet above sea level. A tunnel connects reservoirs in valleys to the north with Baitings to allow for the transfer of water. Manshead Tunnel is 8,000 feet long and was opened in 1962.
Inconveniently, the footpath to the lower Ryburn Reservoir was closed – we were diverted over the dam.
We took the pathway to Booth Wood Reservoir – over Pike End and beyond.
We dropped down beneath the Booth WoodDam.
Booth Wood Reservoir is a man-made upland reservoir that lies north of the M62 motorway and south of the A672 road near to Rishworth and Ripponden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. The reservoir was approved for construction in 1966 and completed in 1971.
It supplies water to Wakefield.
The reservoir dams the Booth Dean Clough watercourse and takes water directly from the surrounding moorland. It has a plain concrete crest on the dam head which is straight and extends to a length of 1,150 feet and a height of 157 feet.
Below is a dinky pumping station, tucked beneath the dam.
We took a precipitous path through the wood – up to the level of the reservoir.
Under the the M62 and past the infamous Stott Hall Farm.
Stott Hall Farm is a farm located between the eastbound and westbound carriageways of the M62 motorway in Calderdale. It is the only farm in the UK situated in the middle of a motorway and was built in the 18th century on Moss Moor. It lies south of Booth Wood Reservoir where the carriageways are separated between junctions 22 and 23. The road divides for much of its length between the Windy Hill and Deanhead cuttings because of the surrounding geography; but a myth persists that it was split because Ken and Beth Wild refused to sell. However, the farm was actually owned by Yorkshire Water at the time the M62 was built.
We walked over the upland moors to meet with the Catchwater, which formerly fed the Ringstone Edge Reservoir, prior to the construction of the motorway cutting.
Climbing again over Cow Gate Hill to meet the Saddleworth Road.
Crossing the motorway and dropping down to meet the Scammonden Dam.
Scammonden Dam is part of the M62 motorway between junctions 22 and 23, the only such structure in Britain. Its construction by the Ministry of Transport and Huddersfield Corporation Waterworks required the passing of the Huddersfield Corporation Act 1965. The motorway dam spans the Deanhead Valley in the Pennines between Huddersfield and Rochdale and the main contractor for the project was Sir Alfred McAlpine & Sons.
It was designed by Rofe, Kennard and Lapworth
Surveying began in November 1961 and the route of the carriageway was determined in mid 1963. Excavation in the Deanhead Valley commenced the following year and for the dam in 1966. This required the removal of 25,200,000 cu ft of peat bog to reach the solid rock base nearly 43 ft below ground level. Material excavated elsewhere on the line of the motorway, clay from cuttings between Lofthouse and Gildersome, and 3.4 million cubic metres from the Deanhead excavations was used to build the dam’s embankment which is 2,051 ft in length and 207 ft above the original valley floor. The embankment is 1,427 ft wide at its base and 180 ft at road level.
Scammonden steps comprises five flights of steps up the hillside from the valley below. Totaling 458 steps, the cumulative step count when ascending each of the five flights is 95, 200, 287, 363 then 458.
At the base of the dam is this delightful Pumping House.
The motorway, which was dependent on the completion of the dam, was opened to traffic on 20th December 1970 and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II who unveiled a plaque near the valve tower of Scammonden Water on 14 October 1971.
Ascending and looking back toward Scammonden Bridge also known locally as the Brown Cow Bridge – after the nearby Brown Cow Inn, now closed, spans the Deanhead cutting carrying the B6114.
The bridge was built for the West Riding County Council to the designs of the county surveyor, Colonel S Maynard Lovell.
It opened to traffic on Monday 18 May 1970 by Major Bruce Eccles – Huddersfield Transport ran buses to see the bridge.
The M62 is a 107-mile-long west–east trans-Pennine motorway, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; 7 miles of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester.
The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and conceived as two separate routes, was opened in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor near Huddersfield and finishing at that time in Tarbock on the outskirts of Liverpool. The motorway absorbed the northern end of the Stretford-Eccles bypass, which was built between 1957 and 1960. Adjusted for inflation to 2007, its construction cost approximately £765 million. The motorway has an average daily traffic flow of 144,000 vehicles in West Yorkshire, and has several sections prone to gridlock, in particular, between Leeds and Huddersfield and the M60 section around Eccles.
We were walking along Tunshill Lane on our way to the Piethorn Valley, our crossing of the M62 facilitated by this elegant road bridge.
A notable structure between junctions 21 and 22 on the uphill section towards Windy Hill is the Rakewood Viaduct which carries the road over the Longden End Brook.
The viaduct is 280 yards long and 140 ft above the valley floor. It was built in 1966 by Reed & Mallik and opened to motorway traffic in October 1971. It has a sister bridge, the Gathurst Viaduct in Wigan, which carries the M6 motorway over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, the Manchester-Southport line and the River Douglas and was constructed before the Rakewood Viaduct.
The steelwork deck was subcontracted to Robert Watson Steelwork of Bolton.
The University of Leeds has a long established collection of public art, this has now been formalised into an Art Trail around the campus. Each of the pieces on this largely accessible display, has a QR code with a supporting audio tour, along with an information panel.
Printed guides are also available from the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, or online here.
Burton’s – The Tailor of Taste, have long been benefactors of the collection – here’s a little of the company’s history.
Sir Michael Sadler, University Vice Chancellor 1911-1923, was instrumental in developing an interest in Modernist art, through his own collection.
Sadler felt that a student’s education was greatly enhanced by a cultured and harmonious environment. He set about creating such an environment through the public display of pictures from his collection.
Take some time to wander around and consider the works in context, set against two centuries of architectural style and fashion, along with generous open and green spaces.
You can devise your own route around the trail, this is mine.
#4 Christ Driving The Moneylenders From the Temple – Eric Gill
The trustees operate within these two positions: we absolutely condemn Eric Gill’s abuse of his daughters with no attempt to hide, excuse, normalise or minimise, yet we also have a duty to protect, display and interpret the art work we hold in our collections.
Arriving by train and ascending into the light – here’s the station lights.
The railway station has sharpened up its apron and facade.
We have transformed the station forecourt. It has become a quality gateway which delivers a great first impression for visitors arriving in Doncaster by train. This will help stimulate interest from investors and developers, helping to attract new investment and create jobs for the borough and wider region.
Celebrating engineering, speed and connectivity and stretching forty metres in length the public art at Doncaster Station consists of forty seven monoliths which are a nod to Doncaster’s past, present and future. With a fountain and three impressive water walls, the art takes centre stage in the new public space as you step out of the train station and head into the town centre.
The concept was devised by Doncaster Council and further developed by Chris Brammall.
Typically the high and low streets of Britain’s industrial towns and cities, are an amalgam of architectural style and fashion, spanning at least two or three centuries.
Behind the buff faience frontage is a lovely, small two-room pub with a well preserved interior created under plans of 1934. It was remodelled by the Grimsby brewers Hewitt Brothers Ltd who were Doncaster’s biggest pub owners for many years.
Of course, every town had a Burton’s – the tailor of taste.
This post war infill has that distinctive Festival of Britain feel, original metal window frames, Portland stone and blueish slate like panels.
The revamped Frenchgate Shopping Centre, officially opened on October 4th 1968, has in places an upper tier, resistant to zinc over cladding.
The centre has been the heart of the city for over 40 years and was originally called the Arndale Centre because it was built, owned and managed by the Arndale Group. It was renamed in 1988 after a change of ownership, with the new name reflecting the name of the street which passes to the east of the centre and which is one of Doncaster’s main shopping streets.
The sale of the centre came just a year after Frenchgate had undergone a £200 million facelift to transform it into the country’s first shopping centre with integrated public transport and retail interchange.
We propose this is fundamentally transformed though the addition of apartments that wrap along the back of the first-floor retail with a further 2.5 new storeys placed on top. We also feel additional height -up to seven or eight storeys, is justifiable to the corner of Frenchgate and Trafford Way.
The Lovers were once located in the Arndale, removed to a local garden, unloved – then later reinstated in the Waterdale Centre, where we will embrace them a little later.
Turn right to take in the 1920s mosaic remake remodel of the Grade II listed Blue Building.
The Blue Building which used to be the Doncaster Design Centre and Tourist Information Centre was originally the home of John Whitaker, a wine merchant, and son of James Whitaker who was Mayor of Doncaster in 1758.
In 1925 the complete building was demolished apart from the facade which was retained and given a facing of decorative blue tiles. The intention was to build a shopping arcade from High Street to Printing Office Street. Only part of the arcade, known as the Westminster Arcade was built. It had a number of shops, the largest being that of Woodhouse & Co Furnishers.
Two adjacent 60s extensions – to the right a redundant post office to the left an almost redundant telephone exchange, with the earlier brick built exchange in smack dab the middle.
Turn another corner and it’s all at the Co-op now – the Grade II listed Danum Co-operativeBuilding, department store and offices: 1938-40 designed by T H Johnson & Son for the Doncaster Co-operative Society Ltd.
Over the road a zig-zag Halifax Building Society branch, tightly contorted by its corner footprint.
To the right of the Danum, this former Boyes store, having relocated to the Wilko site, the building is ripe for residential conversion.
To the left the Colonnades Shopping Centre a fierce angular glass and brick bunker of mixed office and retail space – the sole occupant seeming to be Home Bargains.
A £3.3m makeover of the Colonnades shopping mall in Doncaster town centre was completed in 2019.
The scheme of works was co-ordinated by Doncaster Council and funded by the Sheffield City Region Local Growth Fund.
Built in the 1980s, the brick built building received a major overhaul. The investment saw the visual appearance enhanced inside and out. The five floors were transformed into the prime office space needed in the town centre and the enhancements to the retail area were also finished.
The shift in the town’s axis to the Frenchgate and Market areas, seems to have taken the wind out of its sails.
The former flicks now a redundant pale brick behemoth – no more and ABC.
Doncaster’s new £250,000 ABC cinema, part of the Golden Acres development near the town centre, was opened on May 18th 1967.
Closed in January 1981 for conversion into a triple screen it re-opened on 9th April 1981 with seating in the three screens for 477, 201 and 135.
The Cannon Group took control in the mid-1980’s and it was re-named Cannon and it closed on 18th June 1992, screening its opening film Doctor Zhivago.
Cinema Treasures
The Golden Acres development seemed to have morphed into the Waterdale Centre.
It is currently being reshaped to provide a line of desire twixt the Civic and Cultural areas, from the town centre. There are still the remnants of homes, shops and a pub amongst the demolition – almost inevitably there is new paving.
Waterdale is a well-known part of Doncaster’s town centre. During its heyday it was a bustling area with people flocking to shops and the like – it was a place you had to visit while you were in town. However, it had suffered a steady decline which continued when the southern bus station closed – Frenchgate Interchange opening, and Doncaster College moved to the Hub at the Waterfront. With limited public transport entering the area and no student population on its doorstep, less people had reason to pass through.
Demolition of the College.
The Civic and Cultural Quarter is transforming Waterdale reconnecting it to the town centre. The quality and content of the plans is raising the profile of this part of town to new levels. The carefully thought out layout and consistent building design is giving the area a clear identity. It is already becoming a big attraction that draws people in and encourages redevelopment in the neighbouring areas.
The weary walker is diverted toward the Civic Quarter Car Park.
The former Civic Offices are to be demolished.
Demolition of the Central Library is well under way.
Facing the former library we find the CAST Theatre, Civic Buildings and Savoy Cinema, grouped around Sir Nigel Gresley Square.
Within the square is a frieze, salvaged from the former Gaumont Cinema, the work of sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent.
The Gaumont Palace Theatre in Hall Gate at the corner of Thorne Road, Doncaster opened on 3rd September 1934 with Jesse Matthews in Evergreen.
It was designed by architects WE Trent and W Sydney Trent.
In 1949 WH Price the Borough Surveyor produced an outline plan for the area, with a green space at its heart, it was never realised. In 1955 Frederick Gibberd produced his plan to include a ten storey Town Hall, Art School, Technical College and Civic Theatre, revised and reduced in 1963 – eventually his Police Station and Law Courts were completed in 1969.
The former NHS Clinic at the ‘T Junction’ is transformed into a day care service.
The building was designed in the office of the Doncaster Borough Architect’s Department in a team led by borough architect Mr LJ Tucker.
The ceramic designs were a later addition when it was discovered that the large open areas of glass overheated almost everything inside, the work was undertaken by LJ Tucker and family.
The sculptural work by Franta Belsky, now has a skip for company.
As a footnote the work by Fabio Barraclough reveals a murky past.
Barraclough was born in Madrid in 1923, to a Spanish mother and Yorkshire father who founded Madrid’s Chamber of Commerce. He moved to London with his family in the 1930s as a refugee from Francoist Spain. He taught fine art and sculpture at Rugby School, where colleagues considered him “highly entertaining, a most unorthodox and highly gifted” teacher. He established himself during the 1960s and early 1970s as an authority on sculpture, publishing in academic journals and becoming a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
In 2000, it was revealed that Barraclough, while outwardly living the life of anti-apartheid activist since the 1970s, had been a paid informant of the South African state security police. The media was used to promote his image as a “brilliant, liberal artist with apparently impeccable credentials” in order to gain public trust, while he was funnelling money from anti-apartheid groups to the police. He died on 6th January 2019.
Over the way faros the green sward is St Peter in Chains RC – A large and striking design by JH Langtry-Langton, incorporating important furnishings by J F Bentley from the predecessor church, along with good furnishings of the 1970s. The churches houses the modern successor to the medieval shrine of Our Lady of Doncaster.
Figurative stained glass by Patrick Feeny for Hardman in 1973 and abstract glass fitted in 2000 as part of reordering and revival of the shrine.
Designed by architects Bond Bryan and built by main contractor Willmott Dixon, the new cultural and learning hub has been created following the restoration of four existing buildings.
A key focal point of the scheme is the restored frontage of the Edwardian former Doncaster High School for Girls, which has been framed by Senior’s slimline SF52 aluminium curtain wall and showcased within a new steel-frame building. The glazed facade, which was fabricated and installed by Senior’s supply chain partner Chemplas, also features Senior’s aluminium commercial doors.
I was informed by the seriously erudite Christopher Marsden that the bus station and car park were the work of Derek C W Vane: Borough Architect 1972-1974.
Having visited and photographed the bus station in 2016 I thought that it was about time I went up in the world, to the top level of the car park.
Mixed opinions from Parkopedia reviewers – let’s take a look around.
There are plans for refurbishment outlined in 2022 in the Huddersfield Hub.
The bus station will undergo a major revamp both inside and out and the most striking feature will be a sweeping canopy with a living grass roof which will run right across the main frontage from Macaulay Square to Upperhead Row.
Also of note a project by Kate Matthews to seriously rethink the role and design of the space.
The starting point for this project was the Welcoming Water group scenario, involving the controlled flooding of areas of the town.
The new interchange includes facilities for cycling, walking, and public transit. The basin and marina on the new lake allow for an increased focus on water-based transport, including a new bus-boat. The main Transport Hub sits below an undulating roof and contains not only the bus bays and ticketing facilities, but also co-working and relaxation spaces. The curves of the roof, trying to confuse the binary of floor and ceiling, are just one example of the ambiguity throughout the scheme.
This project was nominated for the Architects for Health Student Design Award in 2021.
The Adelphi Picture Theatre is located in the Attercliffe district in the east of Sheffield. It opened on 18th October 1920 with Irving Cummings in Auction of Souls. The red brick building has buff and blue coloured terracotta enrichments on the façade, especially on the small turret dome over the entrance, which also has stained glass windows.
Seating in the auditorium was provided in stalls and circle, and the projection box was located in the rear stalls, underneath the circle. The cinema was in reverse, and patrons entered the auditorium from behind the screen. The decoration includes pilasters, a segment-arched panelled ceiling and a moulded proscenium arch with a central crest which is flanked by torches. The circle has a lattice-work plaster front.
Single photo enhanced with easyHDR 3.15.2: Adelphi 1920 10 18.jpg
It underwent some restoration in 1936 and a re-decoration in August 1939. It received some bomb damage during the second week of the blitz and was closed for around a month. It received further renovation in August 1946. It remained an independently operated cinema throughout its cinematic life and was usually tied in with the Coliseum Cinema on Spital Hill.
The Adelphi Picture Theatre closed on 28th October 1967 with Robert Vaughn in The Karate Killers and Glenn Ford in The Rounders. It became a bingo club, last operated by the independent Walkers Bingo. After this closed in around 1995 it became a nightclub and since March 2000 was converted into a music teaching centre. This closed in 2006, and the building stood unused, and by 2013, it was in use as a storage facility. It was announced in November 2022 that the city council were seeking to purchase the building to renovate and convert it into a community centre.
Since early 1996, the Adelphi Picture Theatre was designated a Grade II Listed building by Historic England.
Just the other day I came across an old ticket stub issued by The Savoy in Heaton Moor.
They used a Automaticket machine, but with dead stock tickets.
Evolving from being gear and lever driven, to powered by electric motors, these ticketing machines served as somewhat of an industry standard for over eighty years.
While there are still a few of these machines in use, the theatre industry generally abandoned such ticketing systems, in favor of computerized ticketing, by the late 1980’s.
The striking art deco – sic. building later hosted Sheffield’s famous Gatecrasher club nights, among other events, and was also used as a music teaching centre.
It sat empty from 2006 until 2013 and has since been used only for storage.
My dad was a regular at The Adelphi during the war years. He remembers that the showings were always like a theatre with two matinees during the week and two evening showings everyday unlike the continuous showing at other cinemas and a children’s matinees on a Saturday.
He and his friends had six seats booked on Q row for every Monday and Saturday night as more often than not the films ran for three nights Mon, Tues and Wed, then a new picture Thurs, Fri, and Sat – no show on a Sunday. Occasionally a good film, now known as a blockbuster, would run for longer; if this was the case they just put up with seeing it twice.
The cost of the film was 4d or 6d upstairs, the cinemas in town were dearer.
Called up in February 1944 he did not return to Attercliffe until his first leave from the army a week before VE day in 1945. He returned from Germany, said hello to his Mum and Dad, dropped off his kit bag then caught the tram the three stops to the Adelphi where he knew his friends would be. The smartly dressed commisioner, in blue with plenty of gold braid, standing outside immediately recognised him even in army uniform. He showed him in telling him the lads were all there. He crouched in the aisle next to his friends and caused quite a commotion once he was spotted – he has no memory of the film showing but great memories of the reunion to this day.
It was bought by Sheffield City Council earlier this year, as part of the Attercliffe Levelling Up project, and has now gone on the market as the council seeks someone to revive the Grade II-listed building as a vibrant cultural hub.
Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the council’s Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said:
We’re thrilled to announce the Adelphi Cinema building in Attercliffe is now on the market and we’re eager to hear from interested parties. The building forms one part of our ambitious plans for the area which will all come together to breathe new life into the community.
The last post on the concrete coast was from Filey
Now we’re heading south to Bridlington and beyond.
Where we find another dense cluster of sea defences, some but not all extant.
After the south coast, both East Anglia and the Yorkshire Coastline were identified as vulnerable to invasion. Bridlington Bay, was and ideal location for an invasion; flat sandy beaches for amphibious landing crafts, above the foreshore flat landscapes perfect for tanks and gliders to land, an isolated small population with only the residence of Bridlington close by and finally the control of an established port at Bridlington, once it was under German control. According to the Defence of Britain Survey undertaken in the Late 90’s, Northern Command had some of the best defend beaches in the country, this includes Bridlington.
Here there are forces, past and present, at work shaping the landscape and the manmade addenda.
The remorseless waves, wind and rain eroding the coastal clay and contorted concrete.
Anti-tank blocks line the foreshore here; with deep foundation they are meant to be so immovable that tanks cannot go through them and rather have to go over them, exposing the weakly armour undersides of the tanks, which can then be fired at. The anti-tank blocks are arranged in batches of both parallel and perpendicular to the sea, which helps to divide up the beach and channel enemies towards the pillboxes and into fire.
Once more unto the beach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead.
Having visited Cayton Bay last year I ventured forth last week, to Filey and beyond.
The shore toward Hunmanby Gap when faced with the threat of invasion, was home to a plethora of coastal defences, formed from raw concrete between the years 1941 and 1942, along with attendant armed forces.
Pill boxes, anti-landing trenches, anti-tank obstacles, beach lights, coastal batteries, flame fourgasses, gun emplacements and machine gun posts were clustered along the coast.
The majority have subsequently been removed, a few are extant – slipping from their cliff-top positions, as the soft clays have been eroded.
Their remains are now skewed and diminished by the weather and the North Sea’s formidable waves, taking on striking sculptural forms, embedded in the shifting sands.
During May 1940 the branch of the Directorate of Fortifications and Works – FW3, at the War Office was set up under the Directorship of Major-General G.B.O. Taylor. Its purpose was to provide specific pillbox designs to be constructed throughout the countryside at defensive locations.
During June and July 1940 saw the FW3 branch issue seven basic designs. However, often, once in the field, the local construction companies modified these under the direction of the area commands.
The FW3 pillbox design concept was to provide a simple fieldwork standard that could be constructed very quickly. Most designs consisted of or incorporated some of the following features:
Minimum of Bullet/Splinter Proof protection No attempt was made to provide living accommodation Some designs were enhanced to Shell Proof standard Simple Blast Walls to protect open entrances External flat side walls with rectangular or polygonal shape
The use of common designs with standard sizes for doors, loopholes and flat sides made it easier to mass produce items for concrete shuttering and hence the speed of construction. However, with the general countrywide lack of material it was often necessary to use bricks as the shuttering. This often fools the casual observer into believing that the whole structure is constructed of brick. Closer examination often reveals the integral reinforced concrete back-bone.
We arrive at and begin our journey at the Interchange – the bus station is closed, along with the station entrance.
Bradford accepts that it is a part of the Northern Supercity stretching from Coast to Coast – Liverpool to Hull. Every existing town and new settlement must be unique. People belong to their own hotspot as well as Coast to Coast. Bradford as a dispersed centre will give it individuality as well as becoming synonymous with the whole new city. Bradford is a mini version of the whole. It is composed of a series of mini hotspots which will each act as a focus for each square kilometre.
Bradford has the topography to allow every citizen to wake up to a view – both physical and mental. Their collective ambition can create a place of extraordinary difference.
The Interchange opened in 1971 was the first of its kind in the country, designed by the BR regional team headed by RL Moorcroft and the City Architect.
Onward to the Magistrates’ Courts designed by City Architect Clifford Brown in 1972.
Bradford is in the process of paving and puzzling pedestrians, as it becomes City of Culture in 2025.
So we wind our way over the inner ring road, advisedly avoiding the filled in underpasses.
The former Central Library awaits us, designed in 1965 by Clifford Brown – a striking podium and tower, currently home to council offices.
Next door the Sir Henry Mitchell House home to the Children’s Services.
Sir Henry Mitchell 1824 1898 was a mill owner and Mayor.
Moving further along the Telephone Exchange of 1936, design by architect FA Key.
Partner to the Telephone Exchange of 1976 by architect Trevor H Hanson for PSA
The gates were open and we were afforded a view of these delightful vents.
Next to the Ice Arena topped off with Wardley House – Sanctuary accommodation for key workers and students.
Wardley House is equipped with all the modern amenities you need for a comfortable and connected life as a key worker. The rent includes high-speed broadband and building-wide Wi-Fi, utility bills, and contents insurance. Our top-notch facilities comprise a large common room with a pool table, flat-screen TV, and live BT Sport – the perfect social space.
Up the hill and around the bend totheUniversity of Bradford – the main Richmond Building fronted by Joe Mayo’s tiles.
At the University of Bradford our focus is oncreating the conditions for social, cultural and economic impact. We will achieve this by using our proud heritage as a springboard and remaining steadfast in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. We will harness our strengths in research, innovation, teaching and partnerships to extend our reputation, influence and impact. All of this will create a values-led culture that is inclusive and effective in enriching lives and benefitting society.
The undercroft has undergone a major refurb rethink – transformed into a Goth Disco.
We emerge unscathed into the clear light of day and the BDP designed Chesham and Horton blocks.
The mosaic covered columns remain unclad.
Let’s hop to the Grade II-listedCo-op designed by CWS in house architect WA Johnson and JW Cropper in 1935.
Architect W A Johnson worked for the Cooperative Wholesale Society from 1899 until 1950. He was heavily influenced by the German architect Erich Mendelsohn after 1930, evident in his embrace of the International Modernist style. Johnson travelled widely in Germany and Holland, and Mendelsohn’s Schocken store in Stuttgart 1928 is quoted as being a particular inspiration for the Bradford Co-op.
Demolished despite protests in 1960.
In 2019 the Architectural Heritage Fund announced a £5,000 Project Viability Grant to Freedom Studios Ltd.
The money funded a viability study to investigate the potential of building becoming a multi-use cultural hub.
In 1979, the building won a European award from the International Council of Shopping Centres.
But the Historic England report described its design as mundane and repetitive.
Janice Ivory and Lisa Donison didn’t hold back in their criticism of the centre in its current state.
Thank God for that, was Janice’s reaction to the news the building was set to be bulldozed, although an exact date for its closure remains unknown.
It’s just a concrete monstrosity, she said of its design, which Historic England said was lacking architectural flair.
It’s just an ugly building, added Lisa.
Once dubbed Bradford’s space age retail destination, Kirkgate Shopping Centre will soon be no more.
The city centre landmark, which opened for business as an Arndale in 1976, has been denied listed status by Historic England – paving the way for its demolition.
Geoffrey Cowley from Wibsey, who was in town for an eye appointment, said demolishing it:
Might be the right thing to do.
There are plans to remove and display the William Mitchell panels along with these other examples of his work.
In-situ at Highpoint.
In storage – removed from the Bradford And Bingley Building Society.
Artist Bernd Trasberger plans an artistic project, which involves repurposing Fritz Steller’s tile works.
As Ken Kesey so rightly said – Further!
Up to Highpoint designed by John Brunton and Partners 1973.
The derelict former headquarters of Yorkshire Building Society, on one of the highest parts of the city centre, looms over the city centre, and to many people is the city’s ugliest building.
High Point is the perfect site for the first Radii development. Now perceived as an exemplar of the Brutalist style, this eight-storey titan, has languished derelict and in disrepair for many years in the heart of Bradford City Centre.
Our regeneration of High Point into an innovative residential apartment complex with a community at its heart, embraces ideas of sustainability, preservation, and rejuvenation that will bring a new lease of life to this abandoned landmark.
Sharp, chic and spacious apartments available. Furnished to the highest standards throughout and with the flex to provide you with office space if required – this is modern city living that’s easy on your eye and your pocket.
And finally the cafe that is not a cafe – Fountains, where the griddle no longer grills, the lights are always out and the shutters tightly shut, ain’t nobody home.
Wishing nothing but well for this West Riding gem – Bradford City of Culture and cultures and culture.
Last day of the holidays and we’re off to Balmoral!
No not that Balmoral the other Balmoral, the car park attached to the Balmoral Centre, built in 1974 – with little or no reference to the Highland baronial.
Though the old Balmoral Hotel had to be removed in 1973.
Scarborough is a beloved seaside resort and we’re pleased to have secured these well-known, popular parades, bringing them into our in-house portfolio.
We are committed to focusing our efforts on regional retail centres and neighbourhood parades where we can see there is incredible potential. The Balmoral Centre and Bar House provide us with significant opportunities to add significant value and we are already looking to identify how we can revitalise these centres further. We hope to make announcements on how we can achieve this over the next few months.
The staff at this car park are always friendly and really helpful.
You can tell they take pride in their car park.
We stay in this car park every time we come to Scarborough and stay in Britannia hotels, we find it safe and secure to park your car, the staff are very helpful and polite and keep the car park in tip top condition.
We will always park here great opening and closing times also five minute walk to Royal and Grand Hotel and shops.
The Masonic Hall has an extension of 1967 by Hadfield Cawkson Davidson & Partners
The Masonic Hall has an extension of 1967 has a concrete mural by William Mitchell.
Symbolising the turmoil and chaos of the outside world, contrasting with the order of the Masonic Temple – a Freemason told me so.
I thought to propose the idea that this may well be a false dichotomy – then thought I’d better not.
These are the constituent panels.
These are the details.
Having been asked to speak to the Sheffield University Alumni Women’s Group – on the subject of Modernist Sheffield, I had easy access to the interior space.
I was ever so excited to discover these decorative panels on the stairway – I assume that they are also the work of William Mitchell.
Nobody knew.
The Masonic Hall is now a venue in addition to being a Masonic Hall.
Vickers was a successful miller who invested his money in the railway industry. In 1828 he garnered control of his father-in-law’s steel foundry business, formerly Naylor & Sanderson, and renamed it Naylor Vickers & Co. He went on to be Alderman and the Mayor of Sheffield and was the first President of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce before he died in 1897.
On the day, I was eager to visit the Westfield Estate for the first time.
Westfield Estate Mosborough, formerly Waterthorpe Farm Estate, a rural township which was subsumed by Sheffield’s expanding housing schemes.
Mosborough, a vastly expanding village, eight miles North East of Chesterfield and six miles South East of Sheffield.
Waterthorpe Housing Estate near Beighton named after Waterthorpe – formerly Walterthorpe Farm.
Path which goes behind houses on Short Brook Close 1974
The Waterthorpe and Westfield housing estates were built from mid-1970s and were added to over a number of years. Eventually linking with both the old council estate of Beighton and the new estate of Halfway, the estates house a condensed significant number of almost wholly local authority owned properties following the phasing down and demolition of the original estates around Parson Cross and Shiregreen in the north of the city.
Oh how I loved this place my family drunk in here for years and years, I remember waiting outside on a weekend with a packet of crisps and a glass of coke, waiting for them to come out. I think it was the first place I had my first legal drink, loved the place hate to go past now and see it as a Premier. Anyone seen Dave and Ann lately once upon a time landlord and landlady, does anyone know how they are doing?
Sunday afternoons karaoke and everyone sat outside in the summer – oh the memories.
I used to Drink in there around 1975/76, it was OK in those days, a local wrestler used to drink in there, his name was Alan Kilby, I saw him fight on TV a few times.
The former pub’s striking roof is still striking – sadly the last orders bell stopped striking long, long ago.
The shop was busy and the chips from the chippy were just the job on a cold damp November day.
Changes in the demographics of the area, social trends and the general economic malaise, have ensured that many estate pubs are no longer able to thrive and prosper.
Illustrating a wide range of building types in and around Sheffield sheltering beneath the broad umbrella of Modernism.
By way of context the photographs are all Topographic in nature – in which a landscape subject is photographed, devoid of people, framed orthogonally and lacking artifice or effect.
Practiced most famously by the 1970s New Topographics photographers, including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon, and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
A shocking paroxysm of a building, an explosion in reinforced concrete, a bunker built with an aesthete’s attention to detail, a building which is genuinely Brutalist in both senses of the term.
With a hyper parabolic roof a doubly-curved surface that resembles the shape of a saddle, that is, it has a convex form along one axis, and a concave form on along the other.
Featured in the video for the Arctic Monkeys’ 2006 number one hit – When the Sun Goes Down at 1.21.
5 Park Hill – 1957 and 1961 Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith under the supervision of JL Womersley,
Grace Owen Nursery – with two Wicksteed climbing frames
The Play Ground should not be put in a corner behind railings, but in a conspicuous and beautiful part of a Park, free to all, where people can enjoy the play and charming scenery at the same time; where mothers can sit, while they are looking on and caring for their children.
The Sheffield Blitz in December 1940 killed almost 700 and damaged some 82,000 homes, over half the city’s housing stock. As the city looked to rebuilding, its 1952 Development Plan estimated the need to replace 20,000 unfit homes and build a further 15,000 to cater for the natural increase of population.
Supreme, but often overlooked, achievement … is the Gleadless Valley Estate which combined urban housing types and the natural landscape so effectively that it still looks stunning, especially on a bright winter’s day.
7 Hallam Tower Hotel 1965 Nelson Foley of Trust House Architectural Department
It opened officially on 24th March 1965 and was the first luxury hotel to be built in the north of England since the Second World War. The exterior was designed to complement Sheffield’s post-war modernist developments; the interior by Colefax and Fowler of Mayfair offered warm, gay colours to contrast with the black and grey tones of the city.
The plant started its first full year of production in 1929
The plant was located at Hope, because it is at the edge of where carboniferous limestone of the Monsal Dale Group, meets Edale Shale, the two main components of finished cement.
Since 1951, when the Peak District National Park was created, most of the outbound traffic from the plant has been exported by rail.
Colleagues in the team included Bill Varley, Ron Bridle, Sri Sriskandan and FA Joe Sims. The team was responsible for the introduction of a great deal of new computing technology into bridge design, as well as for some of the most imaginative bridge engineering going on anywhere in the country. Their design efforts were supported by close involvement in research and testing work, for example, on half-joints and concrete hinges. All the above named engineers went on to considerable seniority, some in the Department of Transport, and Sims and Bridle in particular have published various papers and contributed to books on the history of Britain’s motorway development.
I have walked around the exterior on more than one occasion.
This concrete enclosed, collection of transformers and switchgear.
Electricity substation. 1968 to designs by consulting architects Jefferson, Sheard and Partners, Sheffield, led by Bryan Jefferson, in association with the Regional Civil Engineers’ Department of the CEGB North East Region. Contractors, Longden & Sons Ltd, Sheffield. Reinforced concrete frame with board-marked finish with formwork bolt marks, construction and daywork joints emphasised, concrete floor slabs, blue engineering facing bricks, cladding panels of Cornish granite aggregate.
The good folk at Sensoria and The Black Dog staged My Brutal Life inside the building – using the void created by the non-expansion of expanded demand for electricity.
The exhibition features work byBill Stephenson, Mick Jones, Mandy Payne, Martin Dust, Scott Amoeba, Richard Davis, Jen Orpin, Alun Cocks, Human Studio, Sean Madner, Helen Angell and The Black Dog.
Modern Mooch 