Somerset House, Halifax (Document ID: 102242)
Exterior view of Somerset House, Halifax
Author: H P Kendall
Date: not dated
Location: Halifax
Format: Photograph - Mono
Document ID: 102242
Library ID:
Somerset House, previously known as Royds House, is sited between Rawson St and George St in Halifax town centre. Originally a vast 17 bay house and warehouse, it was designed by John Carr of York in the 1760s, for John Royd, a textile merchant. In the 1800s, the building was used as a bank by the Rawson family and later the Huddersfield & Halifax Union Banking Company. Between 1850 and 1857, rooms above the bank were used as a post office. The house was curtailed and renamed Somerset House in the late 19th century.
The house is a Grade II* listed building and, following restoration and the removal of a parade of shops on Rawson Street, which had obscured the view, it was reopened in 2008. Somerset House was used particularly for civil ceremonies and celebratory events. It is no longer available to host civil ceremonies.
The photographer, Hugh Percy Kendall, was a founder member of the Halifax Antiquarian Society in 1900 and a frequent contributor to their transactions. He was also a former president of the Halifax Photographic Society. He died in 1937 at the age of 62.
