Market Street: Huddersfield Cloth Hall

The Cloth Hall was built in 1765 by Sir John Ramsden, the third Baronet as a Commercial Centre for the towns textile trade. up to this point all trading had been conducted in the old market place which by the mid 1700s had become quite inadequate for the volume of trade.

The Cloth Hall was erected on an area of open land off Westgate and fronted to the newly created (Market Street). It was built of quality brick instead of the local stone which was used for most buildings at the time. the structure was oval in shape and presented a forbidding aspect to the surrounding area with tall windowless walls to all sides, except for the elegant main entrance facing to Market Street.

The internal structure of the Cloth Hall consisted of a central open trading area divided by a long central structure running from the front entrance to the back of the structure dividing the central space in two (later additions included two additional wings to either side of the central structure which divided the central trading space into four even quarters).

The use of fashionable brick and the shear size of the building (which was for some time the largest building in Huddersfield) clearly demonstrated the increasing industrial and commercial wealth of the town.

The Cloth Hall was enlarged three times during its life time, first in 1848 then again in 1848 and finally in 1864, this last extension was however ill-planed as by 1870 demand for its services has much declined. By the early 1900s the Cloth Hall was now redundant and was finally demolished in 1930 by the local Council to allow for the redevelopment of the site.

After the Cloth Hall was demolished the Ritz cinema and an electrical Showroom were built in its place but did not last very long and were soon replaced by a supermarket and shops in the 1970s which remain to the present day.

Sources of information:

• The Buildings Of Huddersfield, Keith Gibson & Albert Booth, Tempus Publishing 2005