Details
679/14/224 MARKET STREET
23-NOV-73 BOROUGH MARKET WITH SHOPPING ARCADE TO
NORTH
II*
Also Known As:
BOROUGH MARKET WITH SHOPPING ARCADE TO NORTH, 8 AND 10,
RUSSELL STREET
Covered market. 1891-5 by Leeming and Leeming for the Borough of Halifax. Ashlar with left return to Albion Street having ashlar dressings to thin courses of squared stone; slate roof with stone and ashlar chimneys and glazed panels; wrought and cast-iron structure. Free Renaissance style.
PLAN: Rectangular plan with enclosing shop ranges on three sides and projecting arcade on north side. A raised street runs at first-floor level behind the properties on Market Street and Southgate accessed by staircases to the left of the central market hall entrances and also staircases rising internally from within the market hall.
EXTERIOR: Market Street (E), Southgate (W) and Russell Street (N) elevations are of three storeys plus an attic storey over a basement. Albion Street (S) elevation is of two and three storeys. Market street elevation has recessed central entrance with block rustication of square piers with Ionic capitals supporting elliptical multiple keyed archivolt to overlight with glazing bars. Impost string above supports small lights and pedimented panel with low relief letters BOROUGH MARKET. Further rusticated jambs either side flank glazed doors with pedimented overlights and further tall semicircular overlight. Second floor has double arcaded lights with flanking side lights in square pilasters; double eaves strings with central dormer with paired windows below raised pedimented finial; steeply pitched roof behind flanked by pyramidal roofs. Flanking bays break forward, with rusticated piers at angles and defining shops. Two wide outer entrances in third bay from left (S) and second bay from right (N), with decorative iron gates. Two bays either side of central entrance have carved panels over first-floor square-headed windows. Other bays mostly have round-headed windows on first floor with surrounds of fluted jambs and open pediments; each pair of bays defined by half-octagonal lessens which rise to ball finials. Second-floor windows have round heads on impost strings; multiple keys to archivolts. Each pair of bays has gabled dormer. Windows on second floor and dormers have small-paned upper lights. Much rich carving; scrolled foliage enclosing heads representing the 'holy face' of Halifax. Other elevation in similar style, the right-hand entrance in Southgate having wrought iron trellis over gates with THE ALBANY ARCADE in cursive style. The shopping arcade on Russell Street (N) has an especially high entrance arch flanked by an unaltered shop front to each side.
INTERIOR: Two-storey arcaded shops flanking north alley leading to market interior, with cast-iron piers. Glazed roof supported by four cast-iron trusses. To rear of original pierced cast-iron gates at far end is a full-width glazed screen with three pairs of part-glazed double doors into the market hall. Market interior in richly ornate cast-iron, has tall quatrefoil piers with clasping rings; dragon brackets and geometric patterned spandrels on braces to balconies. Internal walls of cream-glazed brick have patterned frieze in coloured brick. Grid of alleyways forms crossing at centre with high glazed octagonal domed lantern over cast iron market clock; clerestories to lantern have alternating faces of wooden arcading and semi-circular lights with geometric glazing bars. Four avenues leading off to the central entrances in each range terminate in similar semi-circular lights, and also have wooden clerestorey arcades. South avenue has a canted oriel window at first-floor level for the Market Inspector's offices. Roofs have boarded lining and glazed lower strips.
HISTORY: The Borough Market was designed by local brothers Joseph and John Leeming, who initially set up a practice in Halifax in 1872 and subsequently moved their office to Westminster, London, after winning a competition for the new War Office and Admiralty Building in Whitehall (Grade II). After the Borough Market they went on to design the new Kirkgate Market, Leeds (1904, Grade I), and new Victoria Market Hall, Oldham (1906, destroyed by fire in 1972). The Borough Market design was based on Lockwood and Mawson's Kirkgate Market, Bradford of 1872 (demolished in 1973). The wrought and cast iron frame was designed and manufactured by the firm Walter Macfarlane of Glasgow. The clock and lamp standard was by W Potts and Sons, Leeds. A fish market was built under the same roof as a separate enclosure, known as the Albany Arcade, in the south-west corner. In 1896-7, almost immediately after its construction, twenty-three timber shops were built on the market hall balconies. Between 1896 and 1900 there was a phased installation of wooden doors behind the iron gates to cut down on draughts (only those to the north arcade remain). In the early C20 the fish shops were reversed so they opened onto Albion Street, which had previously been a blind wall.
SOURCES
Archaeological Services WYAS Report No.1917: Halifax Borough Market, Southgate, Halifax
Fitzgerald, R, 'Historic Building Record and the Halifax Borough Market Doors', Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol XXIX, May 2007, Number 1
Schmiechen, J, and Carls, K, the British Market Hall, A Social and Architectural History (1999)
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Halifax Borough Market, 1891-5 by Joseph and John Leeming, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons.
* Rarity: The Borough Market is a rare surviving example of a C19 glazed market hall built with a central octagonal lantern, a complex form and one which gave the building the appearance of a cathedral to commerce
* Design: A market hall is combined with multi-storey shopping facades and a shopping arcade in a single-eye-catching building to maximise its competitive position. The convenient design is extended to the market traders with the provision of accommodation in the form of high-level terraces opening onto walkways running along the perimeter of the market's glass and iron roof
* Interior: The elaborate glass roof is embellished by a richly ornate cast-iron structure, including dragon brackets to the balconies, foliate spandrels, quatrefoil piers with clasping rings similar to those subsequently used at Leeming and Leeming's 1904 Kirkgate Market, Leeds (Grade I), the original cast-iron market clock, and perimeter shops
* Architect: Joseph and John Leeming were brothers and local architects who gained a reputation for designing covered markets after becoming nationally known for winning a competition to design the new War Office and Admiralty Building in Whitehall (Grade II)
* Architectural Interest: Great attention to detail is demonstrated both in the overall massing of the free Renaissance elevations, the emphasis of the market entrances and the use of finely-detailed carving of high-quality ashlar stone to create a dramatic addition to the urban townscape
