Crossley Street in Halifax

The former Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society

In the Yorkshire West Riding volume of The Buildings of England, Pevsner refers in his 'perambulation' around inner Halifax to the streets around Halifax Town Hall (1859-62), which Historic England (HE) also describe as possessing an important group of buildings. 

 

An extract from Pevsner's 'perambulation' around Inner Halifax

 

Before the design of the town hall had been finalised, John Crossley had already been developing this part of Halifax town centre and laying out new streets, with the Bradford based architects Lockwood and Mawson designing several large buildings in a Neoclassical style. 

 

The 1854 OS map of Halifax before the creation of Crossley Street

 

Looking at the 1854 and 1894 Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, the extent of this redevelopment is quite obvious, but HE only describe the listed buildings built during this phase of development as being mid to later C19, except for the White Swan Hotel (1858) on Princess Street, with Pevsner mentioning that Marlborough House on Crossley Street was opened in 1857. 

 

The 1854 OS map of Halifax after the creation of Crossley Street

 

Although not part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, the first building that I looked at was No. 4 Crossley Street, which HE describes as being in a Classical style and highlights its Corinthian capitals to the pilasters and the bracketted main cornice. 

 

No. 4 Crossley Street

The first of the buildings on my list to photograph was the Offices of the Borough Engineer on Town Hall Street East, where again the bracketted cornice is highlighted by HE, but I actually misidentified this building and had to crop another photograph to submit for the Photo Challenge. 

 

The Offices of the Borough Engineer

 

I didn’t examine the sandstone used for any of the buildings on Crossley Street, but they all have a uniform slightly yellowish colour and look like the sandstone used for Halifax Town Hall, which is built with sandstone from the Elland Flags at the Ringby quarries. 

 

No. 17 Northgate

 

On the corner of Crossley Street and Market Street, the building listed as No. 17 Northgate is another building described by HE as designed in the Classical style, again with its description highlighting the cornice and its semi-circular window arches with enriched tympana. 

 

Nos. 8 to 12 Crossley Street and Nos. 1 to 3 Wesley Court

 

Making my way back along Crossley Street, Nos. 8 to 12 and Nos. 1 and 3 Wesley Court have frontages that are very different, with the latter being quite plain. HE say very little about the building and I was very interested to see the coat of arms above the doorway, which seems to combine the Royal coat of arms with the motto Deus Nobis Haec Otia Fecit and liver birds, which are both associated with Liverpool. 

 

A detail of No. 8 Crossley Street

 

On the opposite of the road is the Grade II* listed Marlborough Hall, which was built in a Classical style as the Mechanic’s Institute. This building was not on my list, but I took a single photograph of its first floor, which has ornate tympana, keystones and floriated capitals above the windows and engaged Corinthian columns. 

 

A view of the first floor of the Marlborough Hall 

 

At the end of Crossley Street, I stopped to take a photo of the Art Deco style former Yorkshire Penny Bank (1934), which replaced the original bank that occupied the adjacent site but was demolished in the same year. I then walked back to the corner of Princess Street, where the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society was relocated to in 1861.

The former Yorkshire Penny Bank on Waterhouse Street