Salts Mill, Bradford

Its easy to spend the best part of a day wandering round the amazing Salts Mill with its extensive collection of David Hockney's work and its eclectic selection of "shops" which include an excellent book shop, the wonderful home section with its stunning array of furnishings and kitchen porn, and the antique/collectables area. At some point you are going to need to get some fuel on board and Salts Diner is not a bad option.

Its situated on the 1st floor of this wonderful labyrinthine industrial building in a large area between the book shop and the home shop. It was very busy on our visit between Christmas and New Year but we managed to get a table for 6 without much difficulty. The young waiting girls were all very helpful and attentive and we soon settled down with a reasonably priced bottle of Merlot to have a look at the menu.

There is fairly wide choice of available, and while there is no real theme to the menu, there is enough to satisfy all the generations of family visitors that Salts Mill attracts. There are lots of ankle biters about so be careful in your choice of seating if you want a peaceful lunch.

I had the roast butternut squash and lentil soup from the daily specials board which was tasty and wholesome, obviously a popular selection as it was soon rubbed off the board. B and I both went down the pizza route for our main and shared a bowl of nicely cooked crispy fries; nothing to complain about but pretty bog standard. The most successful main seemed to be Danny's beef meatballs and pasta in a rich tomato sauce, again from daily specials board, although the other boys were quite complimentary about their beef and ale pies which came in a nice white dish topped with puff pastry.

All in all while this was nothing to write home about it was a pretty decent lunch in a great building. Salts Diner itself its not somewhere I would go out of my way to visit but works well a part of a visit to the Mill (I would particularly recommended a visit at the moment to see the amazing "Flowers" show on the top floor of work created by Mr Hockney on his iPad - just stunning).

3 for Salts Diner and 5 for the Mill.

The restuarant is nice, a good place to chillax

But the rest of the place is a little dull to be honest

It needs better shops

Salts Mill is steeped in history and culture, and definitely worthwhile visiting (although your wallet might not think so!)

As well as the David Hockney art on display, there is an excellent book shop, a fancy cafe/restaurant, as well as custom jewelry and a large Home store selling designer items for any budget.

It’s not cheap, but you do get what you pay for - the food is great, the jewelry is one-of-a-kind, and the home items are from the top designers.

Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning!

I always enjoy a trip to Salts Mill - the large bookshop has a beautiful, carefully handpicked range of books for adults and children and there is a great range of art materials and books on the ground floor, and diverse artwork covers the walls.

I’m not so keen on the kitchenware shop and it’s many 'do not touch this or that’ signs all over the place - you feel like you should only enter it with your hands firmly stuffed into your pockets (and keep them there for this shop sells £120 colanders

Salt’s Diner has unfortunately been consistently disappointing - whilst the food is fine if a little pricey, the service is really, really atrocious and this doesn’t seem to be a one-off either, I’ve been three times in the past 2 months and every time it was poor. Incredibly slow (you can bank on a one course meal with coffee to take at least 1.5 hours!), totally inattentive and surly. A real shame as this lets down an otherwise good day out.

I just love this place. There is so much to do and see. The David Hockney works, and the history of the place intrigue me. I find it fascinating to go on my own actually (so sad!!)
Just to wander around in peace and look at at the vast array of books on offer is enough for me.
I am always surprised at how tranquil it seems and yet at one time this was a hive of industry with deafening machinery and hundreds of workers bustling about.
The cafe/restaurant on the top floor serves the most wonderful fish dishes and I love to go and chill out with a glass of wine and read yet another book I have bought from the shop.
Also love the Antique shop area to root in and always hope I can find that Antique Roadshow treasure.
Suitable for all ages, although I think younger children would get bored after a while. After a browse around there is still the rest of the village to walk around including nearby Shipley Glen.

The Old Bradford mill town of Saltaire and home of the infamous Sir Titus Salt and his Mill is the centre point of this lovely area of the Bradford district. It has a floor dedicated to David Hockney’s artwork and an art book store. There are some other stores and shops within the Mill and on the outer section is a great Bike Store called All Terrain. There’s the wonderful Salt’s Diner where you could try an amazing Salad Nicoise. The Mill is close to the Airedale line rail link which makes other local tourist attractions easy to reach and is also on the banks of the Leeds-Liverpool canal which is a great place to walk in the summer.

Wht draws me to Salts Mill over and over again is the amazing gallery of local artists David Hockney original creations. There is no where in the rest of the world where you can find them on such a perminant basis. The collection is backed up by a good selection of books, postcards and stationery which means everyone can take something away from their visit.

The rest of the mill has been transformed into a welcoming venue which you can easily spend a whole day exploring, especially as there is an onsite restaurant.

The views from the upper floors are amazing of the village which Sir Titus Salt created and just how big this factory was during the industrial revolution. A true part of our heritage.

A fabulous place offering something for everyone. The art galleries are unimposing but fabulous and a good way to get everyone talking about “art” - even those who wouldn’t normally go into a gallery.

The cafes are not cheap but offer wonderful food in a lovely open atmosphere. Each floor is open and roomy so mums with buggies don’t feel as though they are taking up too much space - something I am always conscious of.

The surrounding village is also beautiful and is served well by local transport.

Beautiful old mill now used as a few stores/gallery/cafe. It has a cook shop stocking quite expensive trendy items, a book/gallery section with a lot of Hockney items which is really good. There’s a restautant which is lively and pricey. Salts also houses Allan Austins walking shop which used to be on Manchester Road.

I love Salts Mill!! So much to browse round under one roof - there’s the galleries, the arts area (where you can look at different art books or art equipment), lots and lots of books to browse through, also the home area, jewellry etc. It’s a great place for buying presents so I would recommend going here before Christmas to get stocking fillers etc. There’s also a cafe and a nice top floor restaurant/ cafe. Lovely place to visit for locals and tourists alike!!

Saltaire,
Bradford
BD18 3LB

01274 531163

This is a good place to go wandering round on a cold, wet day.
Its open 7 days a week from 10am to 5.30pm. Admission is free so it really is a good day out. There is full disabled access.

There is a gallery downstairs full of David Hockney artwork from his early works to todays works which is very interesting. There is also a gallery of the history of Sir Titus Salt and Jonathon silver which are permanent features and well worth going for alone.

There is a huge gallery with the history of Saltaire which is also permanent and very interesting.

They also offer non-permanent exhibits which are forever changing - some in the past has been jewellery through the ages, costumes through the ages, etc.

The eating areas are quite unique that you can eat in the normal everyday diner or choose the cafe opera which is very nice - to the backdrop of opera music in the rich luxurious settings is a nice place to eat. The menus vary from each restaurant with the cafe being a bit dearer but, i do think the food is gorgeous but on the pricy side but, considering the place is free admission anyway this would be your only expense.

A nice place to take the kids but they do need to be quiet and not run around so as not to spoil other peoples enjoyment.

The grounds outside are very impressive and there is a picnic/play area for nice days.

A great way to spend an afternoon although since its founder Jonathan Silver died it’s lost some of its charm. The collection of Hockneys is said to be the largest anywhere - paintings, prints, posters etc. and there is always something to look at that you haven’t seen before.

The book shop is good but as it used to be housed downstairs and stretch the full length of the huge room it was a total delight to wander about in. It’s been separated so the art books on one level and other books on another floor which is a shame as it feels less cosy and more rigid as opposed to its casual feel of yesteryear.

There’s a nice diner too with mid-priced food available - I’ve always eaten welll here. Some of the shops are a little silly - the one with furniture in is a joke with normaly looking plastic chairs priced at several hundred pounds. My companion and I had a real giggle at some of the prices - a standard looking teaspoon for £9?

But all in all it’s a place full of charm and if you like Hockey (as I do) you are in for a treat.

Huge mill in a picturesque setting right next to the Leeds Liverpool canal and the River Aire. Plenty of shopping to be had in the myriad of different shops inside the mill. There is also the Hockney gallery displaying his work from the early days up to the present. The food is good but like many of these places it is quite pricey. Saltaire Village is a World Heritage site and deservedly so. Sir Titus Salt built the whole village to give his mill workers a better life knowing that this in turn would mean he had better workers. The village included a school, library and hospital and of course a church. His mausoleum is now part of this church.

A favourite of mine since my teens - loads of Hockney’s displayed well, the staff are a bit snooty, which is quite funny but the paintings are amazing, the cafe’s over priced with ideas above it’s station so try 'don’t tell titus’ just up the road for refreshments

This place is fab - they sell loads of different stuff from art, art suplies, material, home wares, designer stuff for the home and the defient bonus in my eyes is the book shop which is realy good with a fantastic array of subjects. The restaurant iupstiars is lovely and he staff are very helpful and the food is absolutely cracking. I would really recommend this to anyone visiting Saltaire.

went here on a school trip once, very educational & a great place for a picnic, not far from the mill itself, has some lovely little shops there also.

If you are in West Yorkshire I’d recommend visiting Salts mill. It is an old woolen mill - or rather it was. It now houses a very nice designer furniture store (kind of like the conran shop) a couple of restaurants, a bookshop and David Hockney’s gallery. It is really very interesting and along with the ‘estate’ if you can call in that behind the mill is a Unesco world heritage site. All of the streets near by are named after Titus Salt’s children and they were all cottages that his workers lived in and they really are lovely. You can get to it easily from Leeds or Bradford and in the summer I have seen a little craft market in the grounds.
Also the one thing missing from Salts village is a pub - Titus Salt was a staunch tee totaler, which is why I rather like the nice little bar up the road, aptly named “don’t tell Titus”!

very interesting history right on my door step

Built by Titus Salt in 1853, in fact he built the whole village of Sailtaire, with plentiful housing for his mill workers. The village is a world heritage site and the mill is now an art gallery/diner/bookshop. Well worth a visit, perfect Sunday afternoon territory. The diner serves really good food at reasonable prices and the chocolate milkshakes are nearly the best I've ever had. Beware, if you like books, you could easily get carried away here. Easily accessible by rail direct from Leeds, it's right next to the station.