Looking forward to the Saltaire Festival!

The tenth annual Saltaire festival kicks off today, with a fantastic programme of events scheduled over the next ten days, culminating in the finale weekend on the 15th and 16th September. With tens of thousands of visitors to the village over the period, Saltaire will be buzzing so this is a perfect time to visit Shimu and to enjoy a great day out at the same time.

The programme includes exhibitions of art and photography, film and theatre, street acts, a continental food market, a funfair, kids’ entertainment and various musicians taking to the stage in the centre of the village. It promises to be a week filled with energy, vibrancy and noise!

If you can’t make it over the next ten days, then make sure you plan a visit soon. Saltaire is a Victorian model village founded in 1851 by the industrialist Sir Titus Salt (the village named after him and the river Aire that runs through it). Sir Titus moved his business from Bradford, building what at the time was the world’s largest mill and establishing the village to house his workers as well as a school, hospital, church, library and alms houses. Almost all of these buildings still remain, including the mill itself (now converted to house a permanent exhibition of local artist David Hockney’s work along with shops and restaurants) and the beautiful United Reformed Church.

The village was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and is now one of the UK’s top tourist destinations with hundreds of thousands of visitors flocking to see its magnificent architecture and to enjoy the peaceful tranquility of the recently restored Roberts Park across the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The village is also a great shopping destination, with a varied and interesting parade of independent shops in the centre of the village as well as in the mill itself.

Among these you will find the Shimu showroom, set on two floors and displaying a wide range of our handcrafted oriental furniture as well as a selection of our current Chinese antique furniture collection. We also have a huge array of smaller accessories, most of which we source direct from China and much of which is not available to order elsewhere. We try to hold as much as possible at the showroom, but if there is a particular piece you would like to see please contact us before your visit and we will make every effort to have it available to view when you come.

 

Here’s looking forward to a great ten days and we hope you can make the trip to join in the festivities!