Halifax grew rich on wool, and the town in the steep Calder valley still shows it: stone mills, chapels, a Victorian town hall by Charles Barry and, at its heart, the Piece Hall. Opened in 1779, it is a huge colonnaded square where handloom weavers once sold their "pieces" of cloth from 315 small rooms. It is the only cloth hall of its kind to survive. Restored in 2017, it now holds independent shops, cafés and bars around a courtyard that hosts concerts in summer.
Close to the Piece Hall are the Minster, with its 15th-century woodwork, and Square Chapel arts centre. Dean Clough, a vast former carpet mill, has been turned into galleries, a theatre and offices. Shibden Hall, a timber-framed house in a park east of the centre, was the home of the diarist Anne Lister, whose coded journals inspired the series Gentleman Jack.
Halifax is the gateway to the upper Calder valley and the South Pennines: Hebden Bridge and Todmorden are short train rides up the line towards Manchester.