I may not be done with my history or at least industrial history but I'm always eager to learn new…read morethings. Maybe pole dancing excluded, although I am an open minded person so bring it on. Now the Piece Hall is a little nugget of history right on our doorsteps. Dating from 1779, the unique Grade 1 listed Piece Hall in the centre of Halifax is the sole survivor of the great 18th century northern cloth halls. What a stunning site it is too. It'd be worth a visit alone to find out about its history and have a look at it's expanse of pillars and brick but it is also home to many shops on the ground and first floor. You'll find clothes shops selling urban street and also second hand vintage. I like to loose myself to the big kid in me and explore the comic store. For gifts, try the Silver Shop and there is even a stamp place for all you budding collectors out there. Oh and don't get me started on the chocolate and sweet shops or else I may implode. For some double trouble of history and shopping it's an obvious choice.

Full of history and quirky shops, great for finding that unique gift for relatives and friends…read more Always something new to see.

TL;DR - A truly unique venue combining art, food and shopping…read more One of Sparky's colleagues tipped us off about this place, and I'm amazed we'd never heard of it before. In case you don't know (I didn't!), Saltaire was built by industrialist Titus Salt (amazing name!) alongside the river Aire to bring all aspects of his textiles business onto one enormous site. He also built a town for the workers, and the whole area is now a world heritage site. The mill has now been converted into an amazing and huge venue spanning several floors. There's so much here it's hard to take in, but I'll try and summarise. The ground floor is a mixture of books on art, stationery and arts supplies, postcards and the like but interspersed with huge art displays. At first I wasn't sure if I was in an art gallery or a shop, but the answer is both. As with the rest of the mill, David Hockney features strongly throughout. There's a basement level which we didn't explore in detail, but it sells rugs and wallpapers and is just as big as the ground floor. The first floor houses the most. One end is a gorgeous bookshop, where the focus seems to be on unusual titles rather than breadth - I saw many, many books in the recipe section which I'd never seen or heard of anywhere else. The other end of the building is devoted to homewares - kitchen supplies, furniture, clocks and more. A lot of it is very expensive, but it's a beautifully curated selection of objects for sale. Between these two wings is Salt's Diner. It's a separate venue on Yelp but suffice it to say we had lunch here and it was great.Through the restaurant you can access a further wing of the building which is split into an outdoor clothing shop, a jewellers, an art exhibit, a treasure trove of an antique store and a small coffee shop. Finally, the top floor is split into three: an exhibit on the history of the mill, a major exhibition of work by David Hockney, and a further cafe/restaurant. On top of all these, parking is free on site and it's right next to the Saltaire train station, so there's really no excuse for not visiting.

Its easy to spend the best part of a day wandering round the amazing Salts Mill with its extensive…read morecollection of David Hockney's work and its eclectic selection of "shops" which include an excellent book shop, the wonderful home section with its stunning array of furnishings and kitchen porn, and the antique/collectables area. At some point you are going to need to get some fuel on board and Salts Diner is not a bad option. Its situated on the 1st floor of this wonderful labyrinthine industrial building in a large area between the book shop and the home shop. It was very busy on our visit between Christmas and New Year but we managed to get a table for 6 without much difficulty. The young waiting girls were all very helpful and attentive and we soon settled down with a reasonably priced bottle of Merlot to have a look at the menu. There is fairly wide choice of available, and while there is no real theme to the menu, there is enough to satisfy all the generations of family visitors that Salts Mill attracts. There are lots of ankle biters about so be careful in your choice of seating if you want a peaceful lunch. I had the roast butternut squash and lentil soup from the daily specials board which was tasty and wholesome, obviously a popular selection as it was soon rubbed off the board. B and I both went down the pizza route for our main and shared a bowl of nicely cooked crispy fries; nothing to complain about but pretty bog standard. The most successful main seemed to be Danny's beef meatballs and pasta in a rich tomato sauce, again from daily specials board, although the other boys were quite complimentary about their beef and ale pies which came in a nice white dish topped with puff pastry. All in all while this was nothing to write home about it was a pretty decent lunch in a great building. Salts Diner itself its not somewhere I would go out of my way to visit but works well a part of a visit to the Mill (I would particularly recommended a visit at the moment to see the amazing "Flowers" show on the top floor of work created by Mr Hockney on his iPad - just stunning). 3 for Salts Diner and 5 for the Mill.

This is a great little venue, good for people watching. The cafe has a nice contemporary menu, all…read morefood made fresh and home-made soup and cakes. I get all my picture framing done downstairs in The Gallery (which has a different feel to the upstairs) as Chris gives discount to artists. He is one of the best in the business and has a real flair for presenting your picture in the most eye-catching way and is not afraid to advise you on what will look best which I find really helpful. While I was there he was framing a football shirt and claims he can frame anything! There is some fantastic original art and prints down there too and frequent new exhibitions. It is worth a look even if you do not need any pictures framing and Saltaire has a good vibe, it is worth a visit anytime.