salts mill : saltaire : yorkshire

It turns out Christmas Eve was just about the most perfect time to visit Salts Mill, in Saltaire, on our way up to the North East for our festive break Now a Unesco World Heritage Site, like the very beautiful Port Sunlight on The Wirral, Saltaire was an industrial village, purpose-built in 1851, by philanthropic industrialist, Titus Salt. The village’s huge factory was once the largest in the world and Saltaire was created as a model village of neat, honey-coloured cottages, leading down to the River Aire, intended to create a close and upright community of workers. Its name is a combination of Titus’s surname and the nearby River Aire.

Now, Salts Mill is a bright and airy cathedral-like building which houses a permanent exhibition of works by Bradford-born artist David Hockney, as well as being a wonderful opportunity for some pretty amazing retail therapy, with an excellent and vast book shop, and a fabulous home-wares area, packed full of unique and exquisite furnishings, fabrics, accessories for the home and just general loveliness.

We didn’t have time to visit the Hockney exhibition, sadly, so made the decision to explore the bookshop and interiors areas and have a spot of lunch in Salts Diner, more of which later. The renovation of the mill has been extremely sympathetic, with many of the original features and much of the layout, retained. It is definitely cavernous – and amazing photographs illustrate what the mill would have been like in its heyday, full of people and noise. Today, it is a whole lot more tranquil – or at least it was on Christmas Eve. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to wander without throngs of frantic Xmas shoppers – most people seemed to be visiting on this particular day to have “a day out”.

Just look at those beautiful pillars. Tall and imposing, now looking almost delicate in crisp white, with the intricate detailing at the top picked out in a beautiful blue. And, because it was Christmas, complemented with subtle, colour co-ordinating decorations.

We rarely now get a chance to visit bookshops, so it was a sheer delight to just browse the shelves, leafing through books. It would have been very easy to spend a fortune, but I managed to just about restrain myself, justifying purchases on the fact that I couldn’t buy the books I wanted in Istria. And, because we are giving the big bedroom a complete make-over, I couldn’t resist three Scandinavian Swan mobiles and a butterfly pop-up. The homewares section is truly fantastic. From small tealight holders to incredibly expensive pieces of one-off, bespoke furniture, there is definitely something for everyone and I would defy you to make a visit here and not spend a few pennies. Again, because it was Christmas, it was exquisitely styled – and I have to say, I’ve returned with a heap of new ideas. As a well a few bits & bobs to help the make-over along.

Salts Diner reminded me very much of the lovely Tebay Services on the M6. Well thought out in terms of industrial design and interiors and with fresh food, largely made on the premises – the open kitchen is huge and you can see exactly what’s going on. Its reputation obviously precedes it, as it was very, very busy even with early closing on Christmas Eve.

The food was amazingly delicious – so much so that it was snaffled away before anything could be captured for posterity!

We absolutely loved our short, but sweet, visit to Salts Mill. There’s so much more to see than we experienced and so we will, on our next visit up north, take the opportunity to stop and get to know this wonderful place a little bit more.

Published on 26th January 2020