|
|
Queensgate Market Princess Alexandra Walk, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire,
HD1 The architectural practice of J. Seymour Harris Partnership designed Queensgate Market to replace the 1878 market building. The new market opened in 1972. The market hall combines high quality engineering with a strong sensibility for its specific site. The exterior of the building is partially clad in local stone. Through the use of this material the market makes reference to important buildings in the town such as the Library and Art Gallery opposite, which are clad in the same material. The building’s striking feature is its roof, designed to allow maximum natural daylight into the 187 island stalls. It consists of twenty-one asymmetrical paraboloid shells, each supported by a single off-centre concrete column. The heights of the roof shells vary by about a metre to secure the greatest amount of natural lighting within the stalls. The glazing is clear sheet glass in aluminium bars. At the time the building was the first European example of such a market to have a vertical patent glazed roof of this type. This highly functional and aesthetically stunning design is communicated to the outside of the building by roof sections of different heights, which cantilever above the building. This effect can be best perceived from Queensgate Road, one of the busiest streets of the town. Being located at such a crucial point, the building and its roof structure add considerably to the character of the cityscape. The east side, facing Queensgate, shows nine cubic ceramic reliefs that project from of the wall. The abstract design emphasises the dynamic roof landscape and adds a rhythm to the long façade. The reliefs, all individually sculpted by the artist Fritz Steller, enhance the visual impact of the building and add an artistic dimension to its architectural qualities. The market hall shows a radical re-working of the traditional market building. It is currently well used and fully let. Huddersfield has got good post-war buildings, but these have not yet been recognised through listing. We have put the Market Hall forward for listing in September 2003 and pushed for the building to be included in the conservation area which covers most of central Huddersfield except the Market Hall and the site surrounding it. Its problems – overheating and general shabbiness - are nothing that cannot be rectified through the installation of air-conditioning and refurbishment and do not justify demolition. Due to current plans by Kirklees Metropolitan Council to redevelop the centre of Huddersfield, the market building is now under threat of being demolished. Kirklees has recently published seven options for the redevelopment of a large site around the market’s neighbour, Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery (also put forward for listing at grade II by us in September 2003). The majority of the options aims at the demolition of the Library / Art Gallery and the creation of a dense new development around it. In this context the demolition of the Market Hall is also being discussed. Public consultation will finish in summer 2004 and the council plans to publish a shortlist of schemes in autumn – opting for the most radical proposal, we fear. Both buildings are currently little appreciated by Kirklees but we are actively trying to get them listed and bring them to the forefront of the discussion on the centre of Huddersfield. But as long as they are unprotected their fate remains uncertain. Cordula Zeidler
Current status Further reading Contacts Image credits |
