A Piece of history

It was a gloriously sunny day a couple of weeks ago when we took a trip to nearby Halifax. It’s a long time since we’ve been and we wanted to pay a visit to the recently restored, historic Piece Hall.

It’s incredible to think that when the Hall was first opened, trading within was only allowed for 2 hours per week – and just on a Saturday. In his book, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis writes:

The Piece Hall was erected by the manufacturers and is a large quadrangular building of freestone occupying an area of ten thousand square yards with a rustic basement storey and two upper storeys fronted with two interior colonnades which are spacious walks leading to arched rooms where goods in an unfinished state were deposited and exhibited for sale to the merchants every Saturday from ten to twelve ‘clock. This structure which was completed at an expense of £12,000 and opened on 1 January 1779 unites elegance convenience and security. It contains three hundred and fifteen separate rooms, and is proof against fire.

The Hall is on 3 floors, now housing a range of little independent shops located along the long, beautiful colonnades. Shops such as Yorkshire Soap Company, Loafers Vinyl & Coffee – there’s even a gin bar in a corner on the ground level. The large central square is being used for concerts, gigs, markets, workshops and so on. The Antiques Roadshow takes place there this summer.

We couldn’t leave without taking a couple of photos of the impressive, restored cast iron south gates manufactured in 1871.

The white rose of Yorkshire is one of the prominent symbols. The gates are inscribed with the Latin, “Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem” from Psalm 127 meaning, “Except the Lord keep the city”. They bear a figure of a lamb, a nod to the fact that Halifax was an important centre of the woollen trade in England. The head of John the Baptist is also present, he’s the patron saint of wool weavers’ guilds.

Sign of the Times

We bought a batch of vintage 1960s Sunday Times magazines the other day. The word ‘sixties’ just trips off the tongue like it was yesterday, but it’s half a century ago now! These magazines are like time capsules from the era.

Some have wonderful covers such as this one with skirt length predictions.

There are some really interesting articles…

…and great photography from the likes of Eve Arnold, Robert Freson, Lord Snowdon, Ernest Cole, Peter Laurie, Donald McCullin, Duffy, David Montgomery, Ray Green, Constantine Manos, Horst Baumann & Maxwell Boyd to name just a few.

There are features on fashion and food…

…and, as is often the case in magazines from this period, some eye-catching ads that would be good enough to frame in themselves.

Throw in some wonderful illustrations, drawings & cartoons – and you have a really great read, wonderful source material and archive.

We’ve just listed them all individually on eBay – quite a mammoth session! There are a few photographs and a brief description for each edition. Here’s the link if your interested in taking a closer look.

Etsy List: On the map

Maps have been around for millennia and will continue to be so – sat-navs will never wipe them out!

Antique and vintage maps are so interesting; the way borders flux & change and entire countries come & go. History and geography were two of my favourite subjects at school and that’s just what maps are all about.

We’ve curated this list to share some beautiful old maps and to show some great ways they’ve been upcycled; origami fairy lights to decoupaged picnic sets. We’ve included some brand new maps as well; laser-cut table lamps, educational wall murals for children and even a door mat!

On the map
Curated by H is for Home

Bookmarks: Menu Design in America

We have a really fabulous book for today’s Bookmarks post.

It’s Menu Design in America, 1850-1985 by Steven Heller & John Mariani and edited by Jim Heimann.

The book charts the history of menu design in America in the 19th & 20th centuries.

The menus featured inevitably incorporate the evolution & development of food.

But they also draw in American and social history, politics, immigration, civil rights, prohibition, social taboos & norms for various eras – some of which can be eye openers.

Fans of graphic design, illustration and typography will also be in heaven!

There’s a broad subject overview at the start of the book, followed by further insightful captions on each page.

They add details for specific venues or menus – artists/designers, who owned/frequented an establishment, its popularity, dates, details about the food – chefs, new introductions, where items may have been sourced etc.

In some cases, there are accompanying photographs of the actual restaurant locations, buildings, interiors and the diners themselves.

The menus are the real stars of this book, of course. There are nearly 400 pages crammed full of fabulous examples. Both the stunning covers and their menu contents will give hours of visual pleasure.

We’ve included lots of images for this post, but even this is only a small portion of those contained within the book.

Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Jazz age to Space age – it’s all in here!

The menus are sourced from hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, diners, steamships, cruise ships, trains & planes.

We know one thing though – after browsing this book for an hour we were starving!

Some of the menus had up to a hundred items from which to choose.

There are familiar dishes such as steaks & burgers (done in a myriad of different ways, of course).

Others have choices that were new to us – ‘stewed terrapin with hominy’, ‘fried smelts with figaro sauce’, ‘calf’s head en tortue’.

There are enjoyable aspects to take from all the menus – our favourites in terms of design & artwork are those dating from the 1930s and the 1950s. There’s a few in this book we’d love to add to our collection.

We started acquiring vintage menus some time ago. In fact, we’ve blogged about the subject before.

We love both the artwork and browsing the dishes on offer. They can be stored in a folder, but also look great framed – and as you can see from the wonderful examples in this book, the designs can be just stunning.

So we were sold even before opening a page, but if you are a newcomer to the subject, this book can be enjoyed as pure eye candy or will provide a fascinating insight into the history of a nation through its culinary culture.