Crown Street / Old Market

If you walk to the top of Woolshops it winds round to the right and turns into Northgate then if you wind left again this is Old Market which then turns into Crown Street and at the top is Swine Market and eventually this turns into Gibbet Street (right to left on the map above).

Old Market is home to Halifax's oldest pub, the 'Union Cross', originally called 'The Crosse Inn' as it stood next to the old market cross when the town market was held here. The pub was recorded as early as 1535.

Crown Street was originally called High Street in the 18th Century. More recently it has been known as 'Shoe Shop Street'.

Once you cross Commercial Street it now becomes 'New Crown Street.

One of the most recognisable survivors is the Union Cross Tavern, which still stands by Old Market. It was originally known as the Crosse Inn, a name associated with its position beside the old market cross. HalifaxPeople.com records the inn as appearing as early as 1535, although that early date should be checked against the original historical record before being treated as definitive.

As Halifax grew, the old market’s role changed. The New Market opened in 1790, and later Victorian redevelopment altered the streets around Old Market. On 26 July 1866, street-widening work began there; the Corporation had to purchase the projecting frontage of a shop owned by E. Bray before the work could proceed.

Old Market’s importance lies in what it reveals about the older town: commerce, public punishment, local power and everyday social life all converged in the same small space. Although the stalls and much of the old streetscape have disappeared, the name and the surviving inn still mark out a place at the heart of historic Halifax.

Read about Butter Cross

Looking up from Northgate

Looking back down towards Northgate

Crown Street

Crown Street was once one of the principal shopping streets of Halifax. In the eighteenth century it was known as High Street — a name that reflected its importance in the town’s commercial life. Calderdale Council’s archive notes that it was still known by that name until 1764.

The street was much narrower than it is today. Its older buildings had projecting upper floors, timber-framed walls and gables facing the street. Some overhung the roadway so much that the street was reportedly only 14 feet wide at one point. A drawing of Crown Street made in 1838 by Robert and James Mudd captures the crowded, picturesque streetscape before Victorian redevelopment changed it.

A street of shoemakers and shopkeepers

Crown Street was also known locally as “Shoe Shop Street”, thanks to the many footwear businesses that traded there. The street’s historic directory entries show just how varied its shops were. In the 1830s, addresses included boot and shoe makers, clog and patten makers, a watchmaker and jeweller, a chemist, a tailor and a linen draper. These businesses served a busy market town where shopping, manufacturing and the cloth trade were closely connected.

At the top of the street, near Hall End, stood the Crown Inn. The area was also associated with Halifax’s early cloth halls: the old Cloth Hall and Linen Hall were located nearby. The street carried packhorse traffic travelling between Wakefield and Lancashire, while inns such as the Upper George and White Swan served stagecoach travellers.

Victorian widening transformed the street

The old buildings were not all preserved. Street improvements during the nineteenth century led to demolition and widening. Calderdale’s local-history material records substantial changes in the 1860s, while Malcolm Bull’s Calderdale Companion also notes a council initiative in July 1886 to acquire and demolish buildings for further widening. These dates may refer to different phases of work, so it would be misleading to describe the street as having been widened in just one operation.

One notable survivor is No. 11 Crown Street, a building associated with the early eighteenth century. Halifax Civic Trust identifies it as one of the town centre’s oldest surviving brick buildings. Most of the other buildings on the street are Victorian, and several are Grade II listed.

Crown Street’s story is a reminder that the modern town centre stands on top of a much older one: a narrow medieval street, a busy route for cloth and packhorse traffic, a line of specialist shops, and then a Victorian street reshaped for a growing town.

At the corner of Cornmarket and Crown Street. You can see J Flemings and Graydon's in the drawing above this photo too.

Burton’s Corner — From Lipton’s Store to a Halifax Landmark

Looking back, this scene at the junction of Princess Street and Old Market would be instantly familiar to older Halifax residents. In 1931, the main building at the centre was occupied by Lipton’s, the well‑known provision merchants.

The premises were later demolished and rebuilt for Burton’s, who had previously traded from smaller premises nearby. Their new store opened in 1932, marking a fresh chapter in the town’s retail history.

Lipton’s had held the corner site for more than thirty years, having opened there in 1890, but gave up the shop in 1923. Before that, the same spot had been home to local tea merchant John Everson, whose sign — fittingly — was a large teapot.

Gradon's later became Mitchell's and Arthur Gledhill's was at the opposite corner

Crown Street in 1835 by N.Whittark

Once called High Street, this busy thoroughfare carried the pack horse traffic from Wakefield to Lancashire. The street contained the Upper George and White Swan Inns which provided for the stagecoaches.

Local publishers & printers established around 1820 by Nathan Whitley and John Booth. Their premises were at The Castle, Crown Street, Halifax.

In December 1832, they published the first edition of the Halifax Guardian.

After Nathan's death in 1832, his wife Elizabeth carried on the business.

In 1834, they were listed as Music & Musical Instrument Sellers at 3 Crown Street.

The company were subscribers to John Horner's book Buildings in the Town & Parish of Halifax [1835].

They were agents for The Leeds Mercury [1838, 1839].

When The Castle was demolished in 1888, the company moved into the replacement building.

In 1890, the partners included Mrs Booth and E. W. Booth.

Malcolm Bull

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Grove Edwards, 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry (The Prince of Wales's Own) at the head of his regiment marching into Crown Street, Halifax, 1884.

Oil on canvas by John Wright Oakes (1820-1887), 1887.

Charles Grove Edwards (1843-1904) succeeded his father as Honorary Colonel of the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry (The Prince of Wales's Own) in 1890. Sir Henry Edwards Bt (1812-1886) had been Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the regiment from 1863 and its Honorary Colonel from 1884, while his brother, nephew and all four sons served in the regiment.

Sir Henry, probably the largest landowner in the district, was one of the mill owners who were responsible for re-raising the regiment in Halifax in 1843. He was also a local magistrate, the first Tory Member of Parliament for Halifax (1847-1852), MP for Beverley (1857-1869), and Deputy-Lieutenant of the West Riding.

The Prince of Wales's Own 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry was first raised in 1798. It was disbanded in 1802 but subsequently re-raised and disbanded a number of times in the early nineteenth century. In 1843 it was re-raised for the last time, following violent demonstrations by the Chartists and the 'Plug Riots' of 1842, which gave powerful local cotton-mill owners cause to seek protection. During a period of serious economic depression, the Plug Riots began as a strike in the mills to protest at the imposition of wage cuts but soon spread to involve nearly half a million workers throughout Britain.

The 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, 'the Blue Jackets', was regarded as one of the three most efficient regiments of yeomanry cavalry in the country. Nevertheless, it was disbanded in March 1894.

National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3 4HT
Registered Charity Number: 237902

Plebs/Clarence's

Established by James Walker Clark, Drapers  [1891, 1911]

Styring, John[1783-1858] Son of George Styring.

Born in Huddersfield.

Baptised at Highfield Chapel [28th May 1783].

He was a wholesale & retail grocer, tallow chandler and oil merchants.

He was one of 26 founding members of Bethesda Methodist New Connexion Chapel in Elland [1824].

On 5th December 1811, he married Sarah Green [1790-1876] at St Peter's Church, Huddersfield.

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• Jno Crabtree Parker, chemists & druggists [1837]

No. 20  - Thomas Russell, watch & clock maker & jeweller [1837]

No. 34 - T. Helliwell & Sons Halifax linen shop.

They were at the large shop at north-east corner of the junction of Crown Street and Waterhouse Street – later occupied by Sam Stocks & Sons Limited

Top of Crown Street looking at Swine Market (Upper George alley on the left)

Looking towards Old Market

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Hall End

Hall End was once a key part of Halifax’s commercial heart. The name refers to the area at the top of Crown Street, near Silver Street and Waterhouse Street — a place where the town’s early cloth trade gathered before Halifax built the much larger Piece Hall.

The story goes back at least to 1572, when a cloth hall for selling linen, known as Halifax Blackwell Hall, is recorded. The lord of the manor charged a levy of one penny per piece of cloth traded there. The hall was later rebuilt as the Linen Hall around 1700, but as Halifax’s textile trade expanded, these earlier facilities became inadequate.

The town’s need for a larger marketplace led to the creation of the Piece Hall, built for handloom weavers to sell their woollen cloth directly to merchants. It opened on 1 January 1779 and offered hundreds of individual trading rooms arranged around a central courtyard. The new building took over the role of the older cloth halls, which had become too small for the scale of business.

The old streets swept away

Hall End was not just a market building: it was a cluster of old streets and buildings, including Copper Street. Many survived into the nineteenth century, but the area changed dramatically in 1865, when the old buildings were demolished to make way for the Halifax Commercial Banking Company’s new premises. The building later became associated with Lloyds Bank.

A surviving image of Hall End, drawn by local artist Joseph Rideal Smith, shows the older streetscape before its disappearance. His series of views of “Old Halifax” became an important record of buildings that were being lost as the town modernised. Calderdale’s archive also preserves an illustration of Crown Street as it appeared in 1854, before the redevelopment.

Hall End’s history captures a turning point in Halifax: from a local centre for linen and woollen cloth trading to a town reshaped by banking, commerce and Victorian redevelopment. The name remains, but the early cloth halls and the surrounding old buildings have largely vanished.

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Upper Crown Street

Upper Crown Street, Halifax: The street once called Swine Market

Upper Crown Street has a name from Halifax’s past that sounds rather unusual today. It was formerly known as Swine Market — a name that points towards the town’s older market economy, when livestock trading was part of everyday commercial life. Malcolm Bull’s Calderdale Companion confirms the former name, although I haven’t found a source that establishes exactly when pigs were sold there or how long the market operated.

The older name matters because it reminds us that Halifax’s historic centre was not just a place for shops and cloth trading. Market activity was spread across different streets and spaces, with particular areas serving different purposes. As the town developed, these older names were gradually replaced by the street names used today.

William Milner and a printing press with a wider reach

One of the most interesting stories linked to the old Swine Market is that of William Milner (1803–1850), a Halifax printer and publisher who began his own printing business there.

Milner went on to publish The Curse of the Factory System, an 1836 work by factory reformer John Fielden, who campaigned against the harsh conditions faced by workers in Britain’s textile mills. The book connected a small Halifax street with a much wider debate about industrial working life.

Milner later moved his business to Upper George Yard, near Cheapside, where he developed a reputation for publishing inexpensive books. His firm made literature more affordable to ordinary readers, and later traded as Milner & Sowerby. The company eventually moved to larger premises in Raglan Street in 1858, after Milner’s death.

That gives Upper Crown Street a second identity beyond its former market name: it was also an early workplace in the story of Halifax publishing and the spread of affordable print.

A name worth preserving

The history of Upper Crown Street illustrates how much can be hidden in an old street name. “Swine Market” hints at the practical business of a market town; William Milner’s printing press connects the same place with industrial reform and popular reading.

This was the back of the Sportsman pub but was the front entrance during most of it's existence.