Queensgate Market in Huddersfield is in the Yorkshire and The Humber region of England, its rectangular building on a steeply sloping site downhill from the town centre to the west towards the ring road. It is the place everyone passes by every day as it is situated right beside the University of Huddersfield and we need to walk past the Market to be able to go to the town centre.
It is an indoor market with a vast range of good restaurants and another shop such as nail salon, book shops and other fresh meats, fruit and vegetables as well as freshly ground coffees as available as well. The market is also for comfortable shopping with clean and pleasant surroundings with well-maintained public facilities. Almost every activity is available inside this indoor market.
Due to the new shopping centre called ‘Kingsgate’ shopping centre, mostly only older people can be seen in the Queensgate Market as it is an old market constructed in the mid-1970.
Seeing Queensgate Market every day became my daily pattern and the building looks normal as I see it often. However, looking it clearly, this rectangular building has a unique roof constructed within a particular roof structure with 21 asymmetric curved shells. The roofs design allows for enough natural light into the market and from the time 1960s and 1970s, it is said to be the best still standing of a retail market.
It is just like an architecture Adrian Evans said ‘A spectacular combination of architecture, engineering and art’. The design of the exterior wall consists of several art relief panels all separately sculpted by the artist Fritz Steller as well as natural stone with concrete underneath.
I frequently go to the market for buying things which are only available in the market and to have lunch at the Thai restaurant located inside of the Queensgate Market. In my opinion, it was the best restaurant I have eaten in Huddersfield and many University students as well as many older people also goes there to have lunch or breakfast. The restaurant is pack with many customers during lunch as the shop is quite popular among international students. I did not notice the unique roof of the market as it does not show if I look from the ground level.
Nevertheless, going there frequently I became curious about how this market was built and the architecture design of the building. Then, I started to do some research about the market which I found a lot of much interesting information. Afterwards, my tutor told me about the roof which makes me even more interested about the building as it is a big market building located on the steeply sloping site and many other shops outsides of the market are also connected to the building such as Boots, and many other small shops located beside the market.
The reason why the roof is construed in the shape of umbrella-like is that the architect Gwyn Roberts who design this building’s concept was to have an interesting but economical roof structure.