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Places featuresYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > Places > Places features > "Not the most glamorous place in the world"? "Not the most glamorous place in the world"?What's it like to work, live and play in the area around Huddersfield's Open Market? That's the question which was asked by Chol Theatre in their production of 'Beast Market', looking at what it means to be British and in Huddersfield in 2008.  A day in the life of Huddersfield's Open Market Beast Market looks at the story of one day in the life of the area around Huddersfield Open Market. Once upon a time this is where cattle were bought and sold. Today, bordered on one side by the Parish Church and on the other by a supermarket, it includes opportunities for loft living and the gleaming new Media Centre, not to mention a 'sex' cinema. Some people believe this part of town has seen better days, just one of the points of view reflected in the drama whose words all came from people interviewed over an 18 month period as well as from people just passing by.  "A joyous celebration" of life... Co-writer and producer Susan Burns believes this one small part of Huddersfield says a lot about the world: "On just one day around the market we found people from something like 36 countries - students, visitors, migrant workers. It's just an amazing richness of life down there. We just started taping people's interviews because we wanted to create a play which celebrates what to some may be a more downbeat part of town and there's actually a rich and diverse mix of life in all its glory down there so we've really enjoyed this."
Help playing audio/video Photographer Amanda Crowther was with the project from the start, sometimes following the interviewers around the market but returning to photo not only the people but many of the fascinating goods on sale there. Her 'visual story' is an intrinsic part of Beast Market, some of which Amanda describes as "just joyful celebrations of life." She says: "I think Huddersfield is one of the most diversely cultural towns in the UK because you've got the Asian community with all their faiths - Hindu, Sikh, Islam. You've got Afro-Caribbean, Eastern European. That sort of ethnic mix is astonishing really and that's reflected in the market as well as your locals and then what might be called your dispossessed, your homeless people, your kind of poor." Amanda says she was very touched when one trader said they sometimes gave things away to people who obviously had no money: "That's rock solid working class...If people have got no money they don't have to steal. There's all these little stories and they are all included in the show."  A place to meet and to chat... Susan points out there was a darker side to what some of the people at the market said: "We did find right wing politics, very extreme right wing politics, reflected. Again some of the stallholders feel dispossessed and don't enjoy the diversity. Most people were just tolerant, welcoming the demographic changes that are affecting this town." There were also some surprises: "We found rather oddly that people from what might be classed as migrant immigrant communities were more loyal to the idea of Huddersfield than people whose families had been here for generations. The idea of citizenship which is very prevalent in the news at the moment came across really strongly. People were saying they love it [here] and that Huddersfield is like a village, how it's become a home for them...Obviously what's reflected down in the market is the demographic changes and shifts. A lot of Eastern European workers shop there because in their communities the market is very central because for a lot of people from rural communities who move here - from Pakistan or from Poland - the market has a really strong meaning. They go to the market and there's a sense of community down there with people talking and that reminds them of home."  "The market has a really strong meaning..." The market is very different on different days. Amanda says: "The traders on the secondhand market days come from all over the place and they reckon it's one of the best secondhand markets in the area. They say there's more things coming through for them to pick up and there's more trade going out so they are really very vibrant, very buoyant, very joking - all wanting to know what's going on. You go on a Monday and it's a totally different atmosphere. There's quite a lot of empty stalls, stallholders complaining about the lack of trade [saying], 'Photograph them empty stalls, love. That's what you want to be doing.' They are a different kind of breed. There's quite a lot of the Asian textiles in the market which to me signifies a change in what's being sold and the customers going there. Obviously some of the other traders are struggling with that." The production also suggested that the town itself has had problems finding its own identity. One character declares: "There's just a lot of ignorance towards Huddersfield because people don't know about Huddersfield so usually when people say, 'Where are you from?', sometimes I might say Liverpool or sometimes Sheffield because Huddersfield's not the most glamorous place in the world, is it?" Amanda agrees: "People call it a city, a town, and it's usually not recognised. We're a grey area in the north somewhere...People have never heard of Huddersfield so it's about getting the Huddersfield voice out there as well."  "There's quite a few characters" here... Beast Market got its world premiere at 2008's Huddersfield Literature Festival amid hopes it could also be staged in both Manchester and London. Susan Burns thinks it should mean something to audiences wherever it's shown: "We think the themes are pretty universal because the story is a human story about loss and change and moving, and people leaving their kids behind and having to move on, relationships breaking. What's happening in town centres, just being turned into shopping places, is happening all over the UK." All the images on this page have been taken by Amanda Crowther as part of the Beast Market project and can't be reused without her permission.last updated: 21/04/2008 at 15:57 SEE ALSOYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > Places > Places features > "Not the most glamorous place in the world"?
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