Halifax - Toffee Town (2024)
Original media: Original media: Inks, gouache, acrylics, watercolour, coloured pencil, gold leaf and gold thread.
Painted for 'Engineers & Chocolatiers' - a solo exhibition to celebrate Calderdale at Bankfield Museum, 2024.
I think the only landmark I didn’t manage to get into this painting of Halifax was Shibden Hall - it was just a bit too far out. But I have hidden some of the strange creatures from the stained glass windows at Shibden in the tiles across the bottom of this picture.
I decided to start with the Piece Hall, with everything radiating out. From the top, working down, there’s Wainhouse Tower, Crossley Heath School, Bankfield Museum and All Souls Church. Then there’s the vast Dean Clough Mills and North Bridge. Directly behind the Piece Hall are two buildings from Queens Road. The Old Art School (which I’ve always thought was very beautiful, and what a pity it’s not an art school now!) and the second incarnation of the Mackintosh Chocolate Works (the first one burnt down) a red brick building with stone pediment. The words ‘Mackintosh’s Chocolate Works 1898’ carved into the stone can be seen there, if you look up. By 1911 production had moved to Albion Mills near the railway station.
To the left of the Piece Hall is Harvey’s Department Store, The Victoria Theatre, The Old Picture House (more recently a night club), The Square Congregational Church Spire and Square Chapel.
To the right of The Piece Hall is the beautiful Town Hall and McDonald’s, but if you know to look up then it’s the former Burton Building and is covered in Art Deco patterns and elephants (which I’ve added underneath as I love design elements like this and they need to be noticed). The Borough Market Building which opened in 1896 sits close by.
In front of the Piece Hall is The Calderdale Industrial Museum and the very Gothic Halifax Minster.
Above the railway arches is the new chocolate factory, (once Mackintosh, now Rowntree Nestle) in the former Flour Society building. Eureka, included to please my children. They are all too big for it now but have very fond memories of operating the digger and pushing around the little supermarket trolleys.
In the left arch is a little view of the Shay Stadium. My friend Mick was a Shayman to the last, and I think this would have made him smile.
The tiles at the bottom are all in the colours of Quality Street wrappers (the research was tough - the pink ones are my favourite). Quality Street was invented in Halifax - in fact toffee, as we now know it, was invented in Halifax. John and Violet Mackintosh were both employed in the textile mills. Her as a worsted spinner, him working on doubling machines twisting yarn into thread. From being a spinner, Violet began to work as a confectioners assistant and when she and John married they combined their savings to open a little shop on King Cross Lane selling sweet treats and pastries for the mill workers. In 1890, to set them apart from other confectioners, Violet developed a recipe combining traditional English toffee, which was brittle, with imported American soft caramel. In doing so, they could sell something special that would keep, and last all week. The toffees came in different flavours and were wrapped in different coloured papers. The business grew by necessity as John’s father suddenly died, leaving him with not only a wife to support, but also his mother and 6 siblings. Violet now ran the shop, John opened a stall on Halifax market. They began to supply wholesale and ‘Mackintosh’s Celebrated Toffee’ became available outside Halifax and within 6 years, across the North and the Midlands. By the beginning of WW1 the brand was established world wide with over 1,000 employees working at the factory in Halifax. Halifax and Toffee were synonymous, and the name ‘Toffee Town’ stuck.
I think the only landmark I didn’t manage to get into this painting of Halifax was Shibden Hall - it was just a bit too far out. But I have hidden some of the strange creatures from the stained glass windows at Shibden in the tiles across the bottom of this picture.
I decided to start with the Piece Hall, with everything radiating out. From the top, working down, there’s Wainhouse Tower, Crossley Heath School, Bankfield Museum and All Souls Church. Then there’s the vast Dean Clough Mills and North Bridge. Directly behind the Piece Hall are two buildings from Queens Road. The Old Art School (which I’ve always thought was very beautiful, and what a pity it’s not an art school now!) and the second incarnation of the Mackintosh Chocolate Works (the first one burnt down) a red brick building with stone pediment. The words ‘Mackintosh’s Chocolate Works 1898’ carved into the stone can be seen there, if you look up. By 1911 production had moved to Albion Mills near the railway station.
To the left of the Piece Hall is Harvey’s Department Store, The Victoria Theatre, The Old Picture House (more recently a night club), The Square Congregational Church Spire and Square Chapel.
To the right of The Piece Hall is the beautiful Town Hall and McDonald’s, but if you know to look up then it’s the former Burton Building and is covered in Art Deco patterns and elephants (which I’ve added underneath as I love design elements like this and they need to be noticed). The Borough Market Building which opened in 1896 sits close by.
In front of the Piece Hall is The Calderdale Industrial Museum and the very Gothic Halifax Minster.
Above the railway arches is the new chocolate factory, (once Mackintosh, now Rowntree Nestle) in the former Flour Society building. Eureka, included to please my children. They are all too big for it now but have very fond memories of operating the digger and pushing around the little supermarket trolleys.
In the left arch is a little view of the Shay Stadium. My friend Mick was a Shayman to the last, and I think this would have made him smile.
The tiles at the bottom are all in the colours of Quality Street wrappers (the research was tough - the pink ones are my favourite). Quality Street was invented in Halifax - in fact toffee, as we now know it, was invented in Halifax. John and Violet Mackintosh were both employed in the textile mills. Her as a worsted spinner, him working on doubling machines twisting yarn into thread. From being a spinner, Violet began to work as a confectioners assistant and when she and John married they combined their savings to open a little shop on King Cross Lane selling sweet treats and pastries for the mill workers. In 1890, to set them apart from other confectioners, Violet developed a recipe combining traditional English toffee, which was brittle, with imported American soft caramel. In doing so, they could sell something special that would keep, and last all week. The toffees came in different flavours and were wrapped in different coloured papers. The business grew by necessity as John’s father suddenly died, leaving him with not only a wife to support, but also his mother and 6 siblings. Violet now ran the shop, John opened a stall on Halifax market. They began to supply wholesale and ‘Mackintosh’s Celebrated Toffee’ became available outside Halifax and within 6 years, across the North and the Midlands. By the beginning of WW1 the brand was established world wide with over 1,000 employees working at the factory in Halifax. Halifax and Toffee were synonymous, and the name ‘Toffee Town’ stuck.
Available to buy as a mounted and signed limited edition print - unframed. Hand-finished with gold leaf and gold thread.
59cm x 75cm (including mount)
Limited print edition of 150
£290.00