The later proposals were prompted by the 1853 Improvement Act, which allowed the borough to borrow £15,000 to build a town hall, courthouse and police station.

His son, Edward Middleton Barry, completed the design which was erected on a 148 x 90 ft plot on John Crossley's land.

This was followed by a service in the Piece Hall at which thousands of children sang hymns while 870 police controlled the crowd.

However, by 4 August, she was four months pregnant with the future Duke of Clarence, pleaded illness and did not join her husband for the opening, to much public disappointment.

The enthusiasm and almost unbounded devotion of a people to their future monarch has been symbolised in every form of decorative skill and beauty, by gay banners, many coloured flags and the ornamentations of the designers, vying with nature, ever profuse in her lovely gifts, to form floral designs of the most varied, chaste and unique description.

[6] When Edward arrived by royal train on 3 August, he was greeted with a salute by two guns on Beacon Hill, and a guard of honour comprising 300 soldiers.

When the town hall was opened to the public on 11 August, the mayor presented four marble busts of Victoria, Albert, Edward, and Alexandra.

[6] King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the town hall in October 1937 and met civic leaders.

[9] In 2006–07 the carved, wooden Overgate Hospice panel was presented to the town hall by local woodcarvers.

North America, above the tower portico, is a Native American with two small figures holding a paddle and a roll of tobacco.

Asia faces down Crossley Street, on the opposite side of the tower from the portico, and is a figure with a Chinese boy and tea chest and a child with flowers.

The bells have not rung at night since 1918 when Dame Nellie Melba complained that they disturbed her at Halifax's Princess Hotel.

[17] Inside there is a branching staircase; one wall painting is by Daniel Maclise who had previously worked with Charles Barry on the House of Commons, and two are by J. C. Worsley.

Between the tops of the doors and the glass ceiling coving are cherubs supporting devices for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

One wall is mirrored to make the hall look longer, and all the arches have carvings above, representing the industry, the arts and law.

The centre of the glass ceiling has the pre-1948 coat of arms and, round the edge, are the four parts of the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom.

[1] The art nouveau stained glass door panels feature the "holy face" motif, as on the balustrade ironwork in the Victoria Hall, but in this case the face is of Viking appearance, perhaps reflecting the 19th century Viking revival and the perceived local genetic legacy.

[18] Accessed from the Victoria Hall gallery, this was originally designed as a reception room, so it has a grand, pink-painted, coffered ceiling, last painted in 1997.

Some of the Calderdale official silver is displayed in this room, and it is carpeted by Sir John Crossley and Sons Ltd, because the company's namesake originally provided the land for the town hall, and financial backing.

These paintings, by J. C. Horsley and Daniel Maclise, were presented by Sir Savile Crossley in 1911, the coronation year of George V. The Maclise painting has an Arthurian theme, perhaps emphasising the moral connection made at the time between gothic revivalism and chivalry of local government.