King Street and Cripplegate area
King Street
King Street lies just north of Halifax Parish Church, in an area that once formed part of the older town around Cripplegate, Woolshops and the approaches to the church. Its history is one of crowded housing, small businesses, inns and the gradual transformation of medieval Halifax into a growing industrial town.
According to local historian Malcolm Bull, King Street was originally known as Skelder Gate, running between Cripplegate and Woolshops. By the early twentieth century, the area was densely populated, with several common lodging houses recorded in 1904. These housed people who needed inexpensive accommodation, reflecting a very different Halifax from the town centre visitors see today.
The inns and yards of King Street
Old photographs preserve glimpses of the street’s former character. They show buildings crowded closely together, with yards and narrow passages tucked behind the main frontage.
Among the names associated with King Street were the King’s Arms Yard and the Duke of Wellington Inn, described in the photograph captions as a beerhouse in a building above the yard. Malcolm Bull’s listing also records a range of public houses and beerhouses associated with the street, including the Bacchus Tavern, Black Dog, King of Prussia and Wool Merchant.
These names give a sense of the street’s social life, although the exact dates each establishment opened and closed need checking against trade directories and licensing records before they can be stated confidently.
A street transformed
King Street belonged to an older part of Halifax where medieval street patterns survived into the age of industrial growth. Its earlier name, Skelder Gate, is a reminder that the town’s street names and boundaries changed over time.
The surviving photographs are especially valuable because they record buildings that have since disappeared. For a fuller article, the images should be matched to specific locations wherever possible, rather than assuming that every photograph shows the same stretch of street.
King Street
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North side of King Street
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The yard to the left was the Kings Arms Yard and the building above that had a beerhouse within it called the Duke of Wellington Inn.
Feature page on Bacchus Tavern
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Wool Merchant taken from Mulcture Hall Road
Turning 180 degrees and we see Stone Dam Mills taken from Mulcture Hall Road
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South side of King Street
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Looking up towards town from Nelson Street
Read more about this area here
Lower Kirkgate, 1825, by John Horner. This drawing, published in 1835, also shows old houses prior to their demolition in 1825, heralding a period of urban expansion in the second quarter of the 19th Century. One of the half timbered buildings in the foreground bears the sign 'Bradley - Gingerbread maker, wholesale and retail'. (photograph courtesy of Bankfield Museum)
Halifax Coal Drops — Strength in Stone and Steel
Men at work transform a simple photograph of the coal drops at Halifax railway station into a study of industrial beauty. Without the wagon and the two figures, the scene might pass unnoticed — but with them, the eye is drawn to the rhythm of horizontals and verticals, the geometry of labour and design.
Each chute tells its own story: the hopper wagons above, discharging their loads with mechanical precision, and the massive stone staithes below, rough‑hewn yet enduring. From Shaw Syke to Beacon Tunnel, Halifax’s railway builders left behind a legacy of strength and ingenuity — a testament to their mastery of materials and the artistry hidden within utility.
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