Last week my sister and I went Christmas shopping one evening. “Let’s go to that nice place near the Grand Theatre that had all the handmade stuff” said my sister. She was talking about Handpicked Hall, a shop housing various independent shops in the Grand Arcade: we’d visited around this time last year and bought a few Christmas gifts there. When we got there we were sad to see that Handpicked Hall itself has closed down, but, looking around some of the units in the Grand Arcade looked familiar and one of these was Our Handmade Collective.
We went in and realised it was indeed one of the businesses that had been part of Handpicked Hall. I spoke to the lady running the shop and asked what had happened to Handpicked Hall. She explained that the parent company had gone into administration, but that many of the independent retailers were able to secure leases of units within the Grand Arcade. The vintage tea room is there, several of the other cafes and another shop selling handmade home ware.
If you’ve never visited the Grand Arcade (and part of its problem is that it’s just a little out of the city centre and people (myself included) tend to forget it’s there) it’s well worth a trip, if for no other reason than to see the fabulous clock with figure that rotate out of it on the hour (although the cakes in the vintage tea room looked pretty delicious too).
Our Handmade Collective is having a Mistletoe, Mince Pies and Mulled Wine event on 4th December from 4pm to 8pm, including 10% off everything in the shop, a raffle and free mulled wine and mince pies. The shop’s regular opening hours are 10.30am-6pm Tuesday to Saturday and 10.30am-4.30pm on Sundays.
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