QUEENSGATE MARKET, HUDDERSFIELD

In early July 2004 TACS was alerted to the possible demolition of Queensgate Market, as part of plans to redevelop the central area of Huddersfield. The following details have kindly been provided by Huddersfield Gem, a community group formed to promote interest in and the preservation of the Market Hall, which is currently being considered for listing by English Heritage.

Huddersfield Gem may be contacted on huddersfieldgem@hotmail.com

Our thanks to Adrian Evans of Leeds Metropolitan University for all the photographs. Click on the photos below to enlarge, then use your browser's back button to return to this page.

Queensgate Market, Huddersfield, opened in 1970, replacing the previous 1878 market building. The striking feature of the interior is its roof structure, based on 21 asymmetric hyperbolic paraboloids (hypar) which appear like giant mushrooms. On the exterior, facing the inner ring road, is a massive ceramic sculpture entitled 'Articulation in Movement' by Fritz Steller of Square One Studio, Stratford-upon-Avon. The work is about 4,500 square feet with nine large panels and a free-standing 32 foot-high sculpture that surrounds the Queensgate staircase to the market. The February 1969 commission for the sculptures was made by the market hall’s architects, the J. Seymour Harris Partnership.

The work was made from Stourbridge Clay. The sculpture was produced and fired between March and October 1969. A special kiln had to be built for the project at the Square One Studio in Snitterfield, Stratford Upon Avon. The firing temperature was 1250 -1300 Celsius to produce stoneware that would weather even better than Huddersfield’s local stone. The colouring of the panels comes from iron and manganese oxide. The sculptor Fritz Steller said “The sculptures are a reflection of the structure and use of the market hall. The forms of the mushroom shaped roofs are transformed and appear rotated in the panels with organic forms representing the produce market within. The sculptures have weathered very well and have matured with the growth of the trees on Queensgate.” Fritz Steller, born 1941, is a native of Dresden, Germany. He studied at Birmingham Schol of Art, taught in Kidderminster and then established Square One. He spent over 20 years in South Africa and is now living and working  as a sculptor in Germany. The only other known ceramic work by Steller in the UK is a mural in Tamworth Library.

For more details on the architecture of Queensgate Market, see the Twentieth Century Society's website; if you'd like more background information on postwar ceramic murals, see our Modern Murals page and Lynn Pearson's article in the TACS Journal (2004), volume 10, pp12-17, 'To Brighten the Environment: Ceramic Tile Murals in Britain, 1950-70'. Check our Publications page for details on how to obtain the TACS Journal.