Halifax And Huddersfield Bank – Elland, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 41.259 W 001° 50.364
30U E 576643 N 5949395
The Britannia Buildings in Elland was designed by E W Johnson of Southport for the former Halifax and Huddersfield Bank in 1893.
Waymark Code: WMG6D7
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/19/2013
Views: 5
The building was erected during the reign of Queen Victoria and at the height of Britain’s industrial and maritime strength.
On top of the building is the allegorical figure of Britannia. She had been used to represented the island of Great Britain since the Roman times, but took on greater significance after 1707. This was the year of the Acts of Union which joined the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. The personification of the martial Britannia was used as an emblem of British imperial power and unity. She has appeared consistently on British coinage ever since.
This branch of the bank was erected during the Victorian era and both Halifax and Huddersfield had expanded quickly and become wealthy from the textile industry. It is an imposing bulding reflecting the era it was built in and is an English Heritage Grade II listed building. The left side of the building has a large stone coat of arms of Halifax and on the right hand side is the coat of arms of Huddersfield.
By 1910, the bank had merged with the Halifax Joint Stock Bank to form the West Yorkshire Bank and then in 1919 it amalgamated with the much larger Lloyds Bank.
These days the building has a very different use and houses a web design company, a type of company that could not have been envisaged in 1893. The company is called Fluid Creative Media and originally started in Huddersfield in 1999 before moving to this building in Elland in 2006.
The
company’s website has pictures of the inside of the building. Other pages on the website show some of the web pages they have designed for their clients..