The 150th anniversary of Halifax Town Hall in 2013 provides an opportunity to explore the rich heritage of this Pennine town as did its first British royal visitor in 1863.

It was unusual for the national press to descend on Halifax, as they did on 3 and 4 August 1863, but The Times, the Illustrated London News and the Illustrated Times were determined to cover the first official visit to a northern mill town of the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales for the opening of Halifax's magnificent new Town Hall. This imposing neo-renaissance building had been designed by no less a figure than Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the reconstructed Palace of Westminster, but had been completed...