Oad Street Craft Centre and the Arthouse Gallery - Sittingbourne
Alice Quarry first opened the Oad Street craft centre 29 years ago after realising a business opportunity. Alice had previously needed to find work from home due to having young children and had the idea of opening a small craft shop next to her house. She used her initiative and made the idea reality.
The shop was opened and Alice sold items from artists in Kent as well as being a base where upholsterers offered and displayed their work. The popularity of the shop increased very quickly and Alice realised that she would need to find bigger premises. She began to seek out land where she could build a unit for a new bigger and better craft shop and by coincidence a piece of land right next to her home became available.
Alice says "I remember on the day that we received planning permission to build the Oad Street centre the shop was especially busy, in fact customers were queuing to get in! I knew then that we had made the right decision to expand"
The Oad Street craft centre was purpose built and also had a tearoom. Alice who is qualified in hotel management was told that to have a tearoom she would also need to provide catering, and so now the tearoom also doubles up as a restaurant much to her joy.
It was later in time that the idea of an art gallery became very appealing and so 6 years ago the arthouse gallery was built. The gallery serves as a place for artists to display their work in an exhibition to sell to the general public.
Alice says " I was really inspired by my mum who had opened a gallery and worked in pottery, she gave me the courage to carry out my ambitions and I am glad I did!"
The arthouse gallery concentrates on displaying smaller affordable pieces of art and this is one of the things that makes the centre so popular. Originally the gallery concentrated on artists in Kent but has now expanded to selling and displaying work from artists worldwide.
So if you love art and afternoon tea and cake (and the cakes really are amazing!) I would highly recommend you pay the Oad Street craft centre a visit. To find out more please see the website:
