cast concrete – Modern Mooch

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.

So eschewing the Düsseldorf School

Here we go, soot and whitewash away!

Holderness Rd Hull HU8 8JU

At the entrance to the park on Holderness Road are eight concrete walls.

They are covered in square, cast concrete modular panels.

Said to be the work of the City Architect in 1964.

Municipal Dreams lists the City Architect at that time to be JV Wall, having replaced David Jenkin in that same year.

My money’s on Wall – well it makes sense don’t it?

I had taken the bus from Hull Interchange on a chill April morning.

The driver obligingly giving me a shout at the appropriate stop – right outside the gates.

They are not universally loved:

A further testament to the concrete pourer’s art is to be found adorning the entrance to East Park. They are so horrible that I could find nothing on the net to indicate who designed them, shame is a powerful motive for reticence. So here they stand to welcome the visitor; after this the actual park couldn’t be any worse.

Hull and Hereabouts

I can only assume that the actual park is held in much higher regard, listed and adored by all.

To my mind they are a bold addition to the park’s entrance, very much of their time, yet at the same time, ever so very now!

The has been a gentle patination to the raw surfaces and limited external intervention from the local Tyke taggers.