Riley Bros Halifax

The item that you see before you is an extract taken from a Halifax Shopping Festival handbook. The handbooks were designed to give visitors a flavour of the events that would be taking place as part of the festival week, as well as advertise local businesses. Within each handbook people could expect to find; adverts for local retailers, services and manufacturers, the names and photographs of the principle members of the Halifax Chamber of Trade, accounts of people's shopping memories, articles regarding issues such as health and education, a list of exhibitions and events that are due to take place as part of the festival and competitions for readers.


The Halifax Shopping Festival took place over the course of one week. Organised by the Halifax Chamber of Trade, its primary aim was to actively promote local traders, goods and services. Exhibitors and advertisers included all kinds of businesses, from woollen manufacturers to car dealerships.

Riley Bros. was a tailoring establishment based at Woolshops, central Halifax. When it was first established by Jubal Riley in 1855 it traded under the name J. Riley and Sons and was run from a modest wooden structure at Woolshops. The company continued to trade from these premises until 1860, when they moved into No 35 Woolshops. They would later expand into the premises next door. From here they moved to No 3 North Bridge. It is around this time that they opened new premises at No 13 Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge.

The company was run by the Riley family, until it was sold on in 1986. Although it principally specialised in men's tailoring, it also had a dress and formal hire department.

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