Wednesday 11 March 2015

A day in Saltaire


Up at my mum and step-mum's house this weekend, Thomas and I had a day to ourselves and decided to take ourselves off to Saltaire to explore. I love Saltaire; it was a regular haunt of mine as a teenager, when my little gang of friends and I would convince a parent to take us to visit the art gallery and bookshop in Salt's Mill.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Saltaire is a model village built by Sir Titus Salt in 1851 to provide homes for the workers in his wool mills (revolutionary at the time for their huge windows, the natural light therefore providing a safer working environment). Beautiful streets of Victorian worker's cottages lead down to the canal and a huge park, and the mill complex has been redeveloped to house businesses , shops and the world-famous David Hockney gallery.

It's fitting, then, that Saltaire Canteen are doing something equally revolutionary in the town. Their mission is to reduce food waste by using what they call 'intercepted' food: surplus food that would otherwise be thrown out by local supermarkets and food producers. The food is cooked on-site to provide an ever-changing vegetarian menu for which customers can then 'Pay As You Feel' after eating. In other words, pay what you can afford and what you think the meal was worth. Even better, if you can't afford to pay anything, you don't have to. As their mission statement says, "Spending time in a cafe, eating a good meal, watching the world go by, is a simple thing, but it's often outside the means of many people we live in community with." All profits are fed back into the parent company, Shipley Food Project, which runs the local foodbank and healthy food initiatives in the area. Pretty awesome, right? The food was great, too, and there was a lovely atmosphere in the light-filled space.



After stuffing ourselves with pizza, stew and cake, we went for a wander round the many lovely independent shops that the village has to offer. I particularly love the Saltaire Vintage Shop, which is an absolute treasure trove stuffed full of homewares, records and books. We picked up the perfect vintage 60s magazine rack for our living room, and I was sorely tempted by the printing blocks, until I realised that the last thing my house needs is more letters. Finally, a quick wander around the art gallery before we drove home rounded off a lovely afternoon out.

 

14 comments:

  1. Saltaire is indeed lovely! That cafe sounds like a brilliant ideas as well x

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    1. I'd go for a visit on every trip home, if I could, I love it!

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  2. That's a great idea for a cafe! I'd have picked the pizza too, looks delish :)

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    1. It's such a genius idea, isn't it?! Great food too.

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  3. Oh that looks like my kind of place - great food and a gorgeous little vintage store! I love the idea about the cafe, certainly need more like minded places and people like that in the world!

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    1. The vintage store was ace - really fair prices too, which was nice.

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  4. Absolutely love the idea of that cafe. And the vintage shop looks wonderful! Never even heard of Saltaire before but I think I'd like it there :)

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  5. Thats a great idea. That cafe was not there last time I visited Saltaire, so something to look for next time. :)

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  6. I love Saltaire - my one visit was great but sadly followed by getting lost in Bradford which was a traumatic experience and the anti-thesis of the peace and calm we felt in Saltaire.

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  7. The cafe is fantastic, I've not heard anything like it before but it's such a good idea! Also, your description of Saltaire makes me want to see it for myself, sounds lovely.

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  8. What a brilliant place that sounds!!!! Wow, I love the innovation and compassion. x

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  9. duck in a dress19 March 2015 at 22:33

    That's a brilliant idea for a café and definitely something more places should think of doing. I think I'd be inclined to pay more money if I knew it was all surplus food that'd been saved, rather than somewhere trying to flog overpriced "new" food. The vintage shop looks fab as well, I particularly like the turquoise and orange tin in the bottom right of the top photo :-) xx

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  10. There've been studies done that show that a Pay What You Will model actually does result in more being paid! People are generally inclined to err on the side of paying too much rather than too little, especially when - like here - the organisation is not-for-profit and clearly working for a good cause.

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