Photo: Alex Brown
Harding House Gallery on Steep Hill is celebrating the most successful year they have had at this years Lincoln Christmas Market during their 24-year history.
Although they are not ready to release their final figures of what was sold during the Christmas Market, Jane Wright who is one of eleven members who own the gallery says that the gallery has been “super busy” compared to other years and that it is already “clear” before releasing the figures that this is “the best year they have had as a business at the market.”
However before Lincoln’s Christmas Market, Mrs Wright wasn’t sure about how much of a success it would be for the gallery. She explained that one of the reason was all what was going on with the government with it being so close to Brexit and no full certainty of what is going to happen after the 29th of March. The other reasons that concerned her was the problems that high streets were facing with businesses closing down and the fact that the final day of the Christmas market was cancelled last year.
Mrs Wright said: ” We didn’t need to worry because in the end all of those worries didn’t effect the business during the Christmas Market and it’s made the gallery even more exciting for what is looking like a good 2019.”
A reason as to why Mrs Wright feels that Harding House has been successful this year is that even though the Christmas Market itself has a lot of handmade crafts, some of it is “brought in” according to Jane. She also added that the all the crafts in the gallery are “completely handmade” and she believes that it is a key reason as to why people visit the gallery over the Christmas market period.
One of the things the gallery does as well as most local businesses during the Christmas Market is that they adjust their opening hours for the Christmas Market. Across the four days they were open until 9pm with three to four people working in the shop when usually there is only one.
Harding House is also currently doing a Christmas exhibition called ‘A Christmas Cracker’, which went on during the Christmas Market and is still on until January 6.
The exhibition which is based on the upper floor of the gallery features ceramics, paintings, lino-prints, textiles, jewellery and much more made by local artists and artists based across the UK. Some of these artists include Matthew Read, Alison Read and Gill Vines.