Piece Hall, Westgate, Halifax

Piece Hall, Westgate, Halifax

A cloth market built between 1775 and 1779, attributed to architect Thomas Bradley. The building is constructed of local, finely grained sandstone with stone slate roofs.

The Piece Hall is a large quadrangular structure built on a steeply sloping site. The topography, which drops markedly from west to east and more gently from north to south, has resulted in the building having three storeys and a cellar on the east side, but only two storeys with no cellar on the west side. The north and south sides have two storeys to the west rising to three storeys to the east, with partial cellars (those on the north side now hidden).

The central courtyard is accessed through gateways in the centre of the north, south, and west elevations. Each storey features an aisle or gallery behind a screen or arcade facing into the courtyard, with a series of small rooms to the rear. Originally, each room was independent with a window and door opening onto the aisle or gallery and a blind rear wall, though many rooms are now combined. A staircase in each corner of the building provides access to the upper galleries and rooms, with a fifth staircase adjacent to the west gate.

The main exterior elevations face into the courtyard and are built of sandstone ashlar. At ground-floor level on the east side and parts of the north and south sides, there is an arcade of round-headed arches with square piers, bases and square impost blocks. The middle Rustic level extends continuously around the entire building, featuring prostyle square-section pillars formed from squared blocks with incised V joints, square bases and square Tuscan capitals. These support an entablature and a stone flagged gallery deck above. The upper Colonnade level has circular-section Tuscan columns, with close groupings of three columns at each of the four corners. The Colonnade supports a stone eaves entablature. Cast iron balustrading between the columns and pillars at the upper gallery levels includes some replacement vertical balustrades in steel.

Behind the screens, the interior perimeter walls are also of ashlar blocks. The room frontages are original at the Rustic and Colonnade levels, featuring an alternating arrangement of doors and windows. The six-panelled doors are believed to be replacements dating from 1970s refurbishment. The original window openings survive, either containing fixed twelve-pane lights or twelve-pane lights hinged at the bottom to allow the top to open for ventilation; the hinged versions were installed when the rooms were converted into craft shops in the early 1970s. The north, east and south walls in the Arcade were altered in the 19th century to form arches, now with modern timber-framed glazing, except around the windows in corner rooms adjacent to the stairwells. The north entrance in the courtyard elevation is not differentiated except by an increase in span of the inner screen of pillars and columns, with five steps to each side giving access up to the Rustic gallery.

The south entrance in the courtyard elevation has flanking granite plaques commemorating the building's history and its conversion to a market hall in 1871, with two roundels above. The opening now incorporates an electrically powered lift bridge fitted in the 1970s, which replaced a cantilever bridge that previously permitted the ingress of large vehicles while maintaining access along the length of the south gallery of the Rustic level. The west entrance in the courtyard elevation has a slight widening of the inter-column spacing.

The outer perimeter walls form the rear elevations, built of coursed rubble-stone walling. The north-facing exterior wall has eighteen blind arches (nine on each side of the central gateway). The north entrance features a high round-arched opening with a giant keystone, flanked by raised engaged columns and pilasters set on pedestals and high bases, supporting an entablature and triangular pediment surmounted by a decorative urn. The west entrance has a high round-arched opening with a wide ashlar surround, two pilasters to each side surmounted by an archivolt, raised fascia with rectangular panels, cornice and triangular pediment with a blind circular window. An octagonal bell cupola with weather vane is located on the pediment and is reputed to be recent, though apparently a close copy of the original. The south entrance in its present form dates to 1871 and features a high round-arched opening in grit stone rather than the original sandstone, with ornate cast-iron gates of the same date.

Internally, the original rooms are mostly 2.44 metres (8 feet) wide by 3.81 metres (12 feet 6 inches), except for rooms at the end of each range, which are smaller with angled corners to create diagonal passageways onto staircase landings. Almost all rooms have since been knocked through internally to create larger units, the majority occupying three former rooms, though this is not apparent from outside.

The corner staircases are open well with stone treads, chamfered underneath to reduce weight, and half landings. Iron balustrades include some components replaced in steel. The staircase adjacent to the west entrance is a dog-leg stair with half landings.

The existing cellars have stone flagged floors with small round, irregularly spaced drainage holes. Brick fireplaces are thought to date from the 1870s.