Finding Sladers Yard

After a walk at Hive beach we arrived at West Bay around four o’clock on a winter afternoon, and drove around hoping for tea and cake.  We parked and dashed to a café we’d spotted, just as they turned the sign to closed. I asked the staff member if there was another café nearby and she grunted that we could try across the road. Thank goodness they were closing, because ‘across the road’ was perfect.

She had directed us to Sladers Yard, a historic rope warehouse from the early nineteenth century, that supplied rope to the whole of the British Navy. Since 2006 it has been a café, and judging by the lemon polenta cake, the food is excellent. Here is the main café area.

IMG_0452_

There is a further multi purpose space,  and the building is used as a party and wedding venue and for poetry and musical performance. Notice the building? IMG_0456_

IMG_0450_edited-1

It is beautifully done, with a perfect balance of restoration and  rawness, and as a contemporary gallery it is a stunning backdrop for the art displayed.

Sladers is run by Petter Southall a furniture designer craftsman, and his wife Anna Powell. Petter’s work is the stuff of dreams, the kind of wood that makes you want to stroke it and inhale the fragrance.

IMG_0442_
IMG_0440_
IMG_0437

IMG_0446_

The upstairs gallery
The upstairs gallery

Goodbye Sladers, I’ll be back in summer with enough time for lunch, outside in the yard.

IMG_0454_

 

Checking for the date of the building, I came across . . .

https://sladersyard.wordpress.com/  where you will find photos that are much better than mine, do have a peep.

 

Posted on Posted in Art and DesignTagged , , , , ,

47 thoughts on “Finding Sladers Yard”

  5. What a great way to spend the day. I can almost taste that cake and smell that lovely wood. Would love to go there, but, alas, it’s just too expensive to make the trip all the way across the Atlantic. Next time you go, have an extra piece of cake and cup of tea for me.

    I really like your newest header photo. You capture some of the best shots.

    Reply

  6. It is amazing how some of these posts touch so readily in our own lives regardless of our origins.

    Your post puts me in mind of an old Ironworks warehouse in Petersburg, Virginia, USA, that was around prior to our Civil War (1861-1865) Later, the historical old building was converted to a restaurant—The French Betsy, I ate there quite often when I worked in the neighborhood. In 1992 a tornado ripped through the area and destroyed the building altogether (along with many others on the street), and with it/them a valuable piece of Peterburg’s early history.

    Reply

      1. I honestly don’t know, Gilly. I haven’t been in that part of Petersburg in several years. I know they were restoring some of the old buildings in the area, spared by the tornado, turning them into housing units. But I’m not sure they have built anything where The French Betsy used to be. If I get down that way, I’ll have to look, now that you’ve asked.

      1. well I bet it will be fun – and ahhhh – you mention spring and now summer – thanks for reminding me it is on the way!! ❤ ❤

      5. never had it – but sounds summery 🙂 – ah – well thanks for bringing a little sunshine into my day today – (as I sit here with the heat on brrrr…. ;))
        ❤

  13. That furniture is brilliant as is the whole building, love visiting places like that! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

Leave a reply to rommel Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.