We're going on a Saltaire hunt (1)

(Whilst I recover from eye surgery, with the consequent 'clipping of my wings' - no driving, nothing too strenuous - I'm going to post some local photos I took in the late summer last year (2019). It is nice in winter to look back at brighter days. It does no harm either, on a blog like mine, to do a recap of some of the local sights. They're so familiar to me that I almost take them for granted but it's a while since I showcased the local icons.)

So... We're going on a Saltaire hunt... (no, not a bear hunt - though you can't go under it, you can't go over it... you've got to go through it!). It was a beautiful day (and I wasn't scared) so I decided I'd take a local walk for a change. I'd been out and about so much over the summer, I really hadn't done much around home. Mind you, over the years I've taken so many photos in Saltaire that it begins to be difficult to find a fresh view. Here are the classics, again:

Our first view of Salts Mill (above), from Caroline Street, with the Shipley College horticultural department allotments displaying a few bright red dahlias in the foreground.

We arrive at the main crossroads in the village centre, where Caroline Street and Victoria Road intersect. Looking southwest, a few of the Victoria Road shops lead up to the square where the Victoria Hall sits (out of view on the left) opposite the old school buildings, now part of Shipley College, behind the trees.

Looking northwest from the same spot, the Victoria Road shops continue down to the railway bridge:

Advent windows 6

Saltaire Living Advent Calendar 2019

Some of our local shops get involved in decorating their windows as part of the Living Advent Calendar festival. I always enjoy the display in Louise Perry's bridal shop on Caroline Street - angels this year.

The homewares and gifts shop, Rad Studio, on Victoria Road, is also in on the act, with a new Christmas bauble being painted in on the window every day. You can't really see the painted picture in my photo but I thought the shop looked very colourful and welcoming with all the lights on.

Ill-fated in Ilkley

I went over to Ilkley to have a walk by the river and to take some photos of the Christmas lights. It was, unfortunately, an ill-fated expedition. On the way back to my car, I managed to trip over a low kerb in the dark. I went flying and so did my DSLR camera, bouncing on its lens hood, which shattered. It's a bit poorly now... Although only the filter glass cracked (not the lens) and it still takes photos, the zoom mechanism is stiff and there are artefacts on the LCD screen. I've taken it to a camera shop in Leeds to get an estimate for repair. It may well not be worth it. (I have insurance but since the camera is quite an old model, it won't pay out enough to make it worth claiming.) Boo.

Never mind, that is only 'stuff' and can be replaced, even if at some cost. Thankfully, I've no broken bones, and just suffered some cuts, grazes and bruises. One of those times when you just wish you could turn the clock back two minutes!

And after all that, none of my photos turned out all that well anyway! These are the best of the bunch but don't give anything like a true idea of the lights, which are in reality very pretty, all strung through the trees.

Hebden Bridge central

The centre of Hebden Bridge is attractively pedestrianised, allowing the pubs and cafés to have outdoor seating. There is often some entertainment going on. As I passed through, the buskers must have been having a break, though their gear was still arranged around the sculpture. The artwork depicts a fustian cutter's blade, referencing the textile trade around which the town grew up. (Fustian is the generic term for corduroy and moleskin.)

The town sits at the confluence of Hebden Water and the River Calder, which is why it is susceptible to flooding. The earliest settlement was up on the hill at Heptonstall, which became a centre for handloom weaving.  The ancient packhorse bridge over Hebden Water, that was used to bring cloth down into the valley, still stands (below). As the Industrial Revolution took hold, Hebden Bridge expanded rapidly and many mills were built, using the readily available water and steam power to drive their machinery. 

Hebden Bridge

My daughter and her family are happily settled in Hebden Bridge, which is about a 45 minute drive from Saltaire, over the Pennine moors. It is in West Yorkshire, though not far from the Lancashire boundary, situated in the deep valley of the River Calder. It's a quirky place for all sorts of reasons. The steep valley sides led to unusual housing development, like the 'over and under dwellings': houses with four or five storeys, which are actually two homes one on top of another, the upper one facing uphill and the lower one with its back to the hillside. My photo shows some of these in the background. It's a town with a New Age vibe that has attracted artists and creative types. It's also very family and community oriented and won a 'Great British High Street' award in 2016 for its many independent shops, many with rather wonderful names, like the shoe shop Ruby Shoesday. (You perhaps have to be as old as me, or a Stones fan, to appreciate that one?) The devastating floods that the valley has periodically suffered (most recently in 2015) have in many ways only served to strengthen community ties.

Up and under

More photos of the new Sunbridge Wells retail complex in Bradford, a series of old tunnels under the city centre that have been opened up to house bars, restaurants and independent shops. The atmosphere is enhanced by all the Victorian ephemera displayed, including some interesting old signs. 

Sunbridge Wells

I went into Bradford recently to see an exhibition of photographs of Iceland, by Tim Rudman. It was stunning. I couldn't help but wish I'd seen it before I went to Iceland last autumn, as I think it would have inspired me to be more experimental in my approach. He does, however, use film and his darkroom skills as well as his compositional eye are amazing. It's difficult to capture digitally quite the atmosphere that prints of that quality evoke. It was well worth seeing, though they were very vehement about not allowing any photography in the gallery, sadly, so I have no pictures.

Whilst in Bradford, I also took the opportunity to explore the recently opened first phase of the Sunbridge Wells complex. This is an innovative development that is opening up underground tunnels (originally a quarry, later a nightclub, prison cells, an air raid shelter and a plumbers' yard!) under the city centre. It provides space for bars, independent shops and small traders' booths in an atmospheric Victorian-inspired maze that also reaches up four floors into surrounding buildings.

The Broadway

Because my usual workplace was flooded and is closed, I've had to travel into the nearby city of Bradford rather more often than usual. I haven't had much time to look around but I did manage to have a quick peek at the new shopping centre, The Broadway. Chiefly notable for being a project that has taken years and years to bring to fruition.... the developers mothballed it when the recession hit, leaving a literal hole in the centre of the city (see here). It has finally been finished. I (uncharitably) wonder why they bothered. It is functional rather than exciting, just an L-shaped mall with the usual high street shops, most of which already existed in the city anyway. Better than a hole perhaps, but only just! It does, however, frame a rather nice view of what was once the Post Office, a Victorian building that managed to survive the wholesale destruction of the 60s and 70s, which many feel ripped the heart out of the city.

Lacewater Vintage

I think this shop has been open since last September, but I haven't been along with my camera before. On the corner of George Street and Caroline Street, in Saltaire, Lacewater Vintage sells not only vintage clothing but homeware such as china and glassware, linens and lace. As well as the shop, Karen Birch and Ginny Winton have stalls at vintage fairs all over Yorkshire and sell online. They must be doing a good trade as it seems they have roped their daughters into the business too. The window display, with vintage wedding dresses and some really pretty china and glass, was very attractive.

I like the idea (and the look) of vintage but somehow it has never come together as a passion for me. I wish I had started collecting things at a much younger age. I do like the idea of having pretty mismatched china and I have kept one or two china teacups that my mum had. But I don't even use the extensive and perfectly matching Royal Doulton dinner service that I own. Since the 80s, when it was 'the done thing' to have OTT dinner parties in dining rooms with fancy curtains, swags and tails, things seem to have got a lot simpler!

Isn't it lovely to see one of the old 'corner shops' in Saltaire being used as a shop again? This one was once a grocery store, run in 1879 by James Parfitt and his son William Henry. It became a branch of Windhill Industrial Co-operative Society and was a shop until the mid-1960s. After that it had a spell as a launderette, and then a design consultancy. (Info from Roger Clarke's fascinating book: 'A Penny for Going'.)

Seeing double

A speculative shot through two windows produced some complicated reflections. This is at the entrance to the ArtParade Gallery on the corner of Victoria Road and Albert Terrace. It's a prime site in the village, opposite Salts Mill and beside the railway station, with a lovely view of the tower of Saltaire's church.

Christmas shopping

I've been invited by a friend and former colleague to join and small (very select!) online photography club. The idea is that we have a monthly theme, take photos around the theme during the month, select one to put on the club website at the month end and then each add our comments and constructive criticisms to each other's. The idea appeals as a way of breaking out of the creative box I've lately felt I've put myself in. (It's easy to end up taking photos 'to feed the blog' and nothing more.)

December's theme is 'Intersection' so I have been thinking about and looking for subjects that would interpret that. This is, for me, a new way of approaching photography. Though I can often find photos retrospectively that fit a theme, I rarely go out with a specific theme in mind.

Opportunities for photography being scarce at the moment, I ended up taking my DSLR with me when I went Christmas shopping in Leeds.  That was an 'intersection' in itself!  This photo of the new Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre could be one interpretation of the theme - both in the way the walkways criss-cross and in those complicated spider's web Christmas decorations.

If you're wondering what the horse is about, look here. (And that is another photo that could, I suppose, fit the 'Intersection' theme quite well.)

Love and peace

Don't ask me why the hairdresser in Saltaire always has a 'quote for the week' written up outside... Thankfully, the power of love seemed to be triumphing in the queue outside the bakery.

New kid on the block

One of the shops on Victoria Road in Saltaire has been reincarnated yet again. During the time I've lived in the village, it has been a gift shop and Saltaire's unofficial information centre, then it became Magic Number 3 - a delicatessen/café that later transformed itself into an ethical clothes shop. Since then it has sold vintage housewares and been a pop-up exhibition centre. Now it has reopened as Radstudio, selling bright, stylish, contemporary items, the kind of thing that wouldn't look out of place in my daughter's home but would look very odd in mine!

No 2 Victoria Road started life as Ellis Shaw's butchers in the 1860s. In 1880 it became a confectioner's, making wedding cakes amongst other delicacies. By 1935 it was a baker's shop, and the family that owned it expanded into No 3 as well and 'lived above the shop', eventually letting the shop itself to a variety of other businesses. It became the Information and Gift Centre in 1993, run by Roger and Anne Heald.  (Information gleaned, with thanks, from Roger Clarke's book about Saltaire's shops: 'A penny for going'.)

Craven Court, Skipton

One of the shoe shops I headed for - and found closed down - used to be in this glass-covered arcade: Craven Court in Skipton. It's a rather attractive area, I think. It has a good mix of cafés and shops (including clothes, gifts, cosmetics and a branch of Laura Ashley home furnishings), providing a pleasant place to browse. It looks older than it is: faux-Victorian style with all the cast-iron columns. However, I believe it was the site of a 16th century theatre and so some of the old stone walls are original.

Come in!

A modern-day Lowry view of the new Trinity Leeds centre, as shoppers hurry into the mall through one of its eight entrances. In the far background you can see one of the many very beautiful old red-brick buildings in Leeds city centre.

Holy Trinity Church and a horse

Trinity Leeds is named after the nearby Holy Trinity Church, whose distinctive 'wedding cake' tiered steeple can be seen through the shopping centre's glass roof.  The church is Georgian, dating back to 1727 and the worshipping congregation shares the church with a lively community arts centre, a successful partnership to ensure that the old building retains a valuable place in the heart of the city.

The sculpture inside the shopping mall is an enormous 15m high horse - Equus Altus (High Horse) - designed by Andy Scott. Gleaming silver (I'm not sure what it's made of... steel, presumably) it towers over the shopping area. It is inspired by the historic use of packhorses as transport within the city of Leeds, especially related to the textile industry.

I should have made clear that the new mall is not an 'out-of-town' shopping centre but is actually right in the heart of Leeds city centre. But that doesn't alter the fact that it skews the locus of shopping within the city and leaves other shops empty as stores have shifted to the new area. It may have an effect on those businesses located on the periphery.

The holy Trinity

Leeds has a new temple for those who like to shop til they drop. Trinity Leeds shopping centre opened at Easter, the only new shopping mall to be completed in Western Europe in 2013 and the first in the UK since 2011 when Westfield opened, adjacent to the London Olympic Park. It had 130,000 visitors on its first day and a week or so later, when I went, it was still very busy, despite it being a really cold day. In fact I thought it was freezing inside. The fancy glass roof doesn't completely seal the whole thing and there are large areas where the wind whistles through. Many of the new restaurants have 'outdoor' seating areas but they were not using them. I'm not an enthusiastic shopper and I was fairly underwhelmed.  The shops are just newer, smarter versions of the same old high street names, and indeed their former premises in the city are now empty so it seems to have merely shifted the locus of shopping within the city. (There is, however, a brand new Apple store.)

It means Leeds now ranks (reputedly) fourth in the UK as a shopping destination (after London, Glasgow and Birmingham). Yet another huge gulf is opening up between Leeds and nearby Bradford, which still has the infamous 'hole' where a shopping centre was going to be built.  There's no way back for Bradford, I fear.

8. The Bookshop, Salts Mill

Light, bright, full of wonderful books, cards and prints, all beautifully displayed for browsing, and lots of quirky bits - vintage furniture and relics from the mill's industrial past.

Santa's coming!

As a child, I would have loved this metal rocking horse. It's in the window of the vintage homewares shop on Saltaire's Victoria Road. Only the thought of the shortage of storage space at home prevented me from popping in to buy it for my granddaughter! Together with the traditionally decorated Christmas tree, it makes an attractive and nostalgic display, especially at night when the lights are on. It seemed an appropriate illustration for Christmas Eve, when every child in the country must be waiting with barely suppressed excitement to see what Santa brings and whether he read their wish list!

An urban forest

All of a sudden a little forest has sprung up in Saltaire! Christmas trees for sale, all lined up on the wet pavement outside the greengrocer's shop.  I didn't bring one home, as my sitting room is too small - I can't fit a proper tree in anywhere, much as I like the look (and smell) of them. So I have a little carved and painted wooden tree that I bought at the German Christkindelmarkt one year. It's decorated with tiny wooden snowmen and bells, quite pretty. It wasn't until I looked at this photo that I noticed the florist's shop (Bouquets) has closed down. Another victim of our recessionary times.