The Piece Hall celebrates fifth anniversary with news that it has welcomed over 10 million visitors

Today (Yorkshire Day 2022), The Piece Hall is marking the fifth anniversary of its 2017 re-opening following a multi-million pound refurbishment with the news that the venue has now welcomed over 10 million visitors (10,500,300) despite being affected for over a year of this by lockdowns and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past five years, this unique visitor attraction has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people to its makers markets and more than 140,000 music fans to its live shows, with almost 60,000 people attending Live at The Piece Hall 2022 alone.

Offering a safe, free-to-enter space to support community and visitor wellbeing, The Piece Hall has entertained and engaged with more than 26,000 children and adults with arts, craft and community workshops and worked with almost 4,500 school children on various heritage projects.

CEO of The Piece Hall Trust, Nicky Chance-Thompson DL, said: “We are all so proud of what we’ve achieved in the last five years, in some incredibly challenging circumstances. Global pandemics seemed like the stuff of Hollywood movies when our beautiful building reopened in 2017 and who could have imagined what we have all lived through since then.”

As well as attracting visitors from across Yorkshire and beyond to an array of world-class art exhibitions, A-list pop and rock and dance concerts, large-scale theatrical spectacles and major sporting and community events, the venue has also drawn an abundance of visitors to its unique shops and boutiques and outstanding bars and restaurants housed at the edges of its stunning 66,000 sq ft courtyard.

Chair of The Piece Hall Trust, Sir Roger Marsh OBE DL, said: “These results are testament to the hard work of Nicky and the team and proof that heritage can successfully be used as the currency of the future, bringing big benefits regionally and nationally. Taking lockdown into account, The Piece Hall is averaging 3 million visitors a year.

“The Piece Hall will continue to play a role in regeneration and these solid foundations mean it can carry on supporting local people and the local economy while enabling us to preserve and protect this precious international asset which just happens to be in Halifax.”

Word about The Piece Hall is now spreading far and wide, with the team celebrating a combined social media following of beyond 100,000 and significant increases in the number of people signing up for a Piece Hall membership card.

The Piece Hall is incredibly grateful to the Government which has heavily supported its recent success via the Culture Recovery Fund. The organisation received a generous award from the record-breaking £35m emergency pot set up to help the culture sector overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has become increasingly clear that heritage and culture both play a vital role in supporting both emotional and economic well-being, and this funding has helped the venue to thrive post lockdowns.