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.