The Piece Hall Halifax / Cotton Seed

My pen illustration of The Piece Hall on a cotton seed background colour – a nod toward’s this site’s industrial trading heritage.

The Piece Hall in Halifax is like a slice of Italian architecture in God’s own country (that’s Yorkshire if you’re unsure). Once the beating heart of cloth trade in this industrious area, The Piece Hall now serves a new flavour of hustle and bustle with its wall-to-wall packed concerts, events, eateries and bars.

As a local to Halifax, and a lover of history, it seemed apt that I should dedicate an illustration to one of its most love landmarks. I have complemented my original black and white drawing with a cotton seed brown backdrop and a duplicate white outline which is visible in the sky and courtyard. This white outline aims to accentuate the vastness of this incredible building.

Each giclée print measures 16 x 8 inches and has been professionally printed using archival ink on quality fine art paper. The title of the artwork and signature will be written inside the white border.

£45.00

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Details

  • paper size
    16 x 8 inches
  • paper type
    Natural white, 310 gsm acid-free, Hahnemühle German Etching fine art paper
  • print
    Printed using high-quality, fade-resistant pigment inks
  • Signed?
    Yes

“It’s like an Italian piazza in the middle of Yorkshire!”

Why did I draw it?

The backstory

The Piece Hall is on my list of favourite hometown spots. As kids, my sister and I would love exploring the hall’s many tiers – climbing the stairwells and looking over the balconies. My earliest memory is of the industrial museum that (in my memory) was based in one of the corner’s of the hall. I must have been around 5 or 6 years old at the time. One of the displays featured a mannequin using a spinning wheel. At the time, I found it to be pretty chilling as I’d recently watched Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and spinning wheels = bad news.

As I got older, the hall became a place of retail curiosity. The boutiques that were dotted around its perimeter were always filled with interesting stuff. There was also a market on the square on weekends, and outdoor events were common in the summer months. During my student years, my commute into Leeds saw me walking through the Piece Hall everyday between the bus and train station.

inspired by history

Despite my personal memories of The Piece Hall, it was actually a piece of text I found in an old book that inspired me to create an illustration of this amazing location.

Beyond drawing, I’m also into researching my family history. My cotton spinner and weaver ancestors hopped between Rochdale and Halifax in search of work. I’m always on the hunt for interesting information and stories about places that they would have known and visited.

The Piece Hall opened in 1779 as a place for weavers to trade ‘pieces’ of cloth. The hall’s significance in local cloth trade was profound. According to an account I read in the 1795 edition of Aikin’s Manchester, the Piece Hall, at one time, held goods to the value of £50,000. That’s approximately £1.15 million in today’s money.

the process

Drawing The Piece Hall was quite a challenge. I work freehand so my lines are never ruler straight, they squiggle and wiggle and sometimes banana, and that’s all part of the Doodlher style. So drawing a panoramic vista like this one was enough to make my somewhat steady hand feel pretty nervous.

Once I’d finished the pen drawing, I imported my sketch onto my computer at high-resolution to finish the artwork with a digital wash of colour. The sketch sits on a base of either blue or yellow, with the pen outlines also appearing above the sketch in white to exaggerate the depth of the panorama.

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