Siesta - 40 Years In The City

In our local Guides, we love to introduce you to the people behind the counters at some of Canterbury’s most long-established businesses. In this edition, we’re visiting two local families who have been in the city for decades – and for whom Christmas is a very special time!

Siesta Crafts in Palace St has been in the city for 40 years next year. The shop is a riot of colour, textures and fabrics, selling everything from windchimes to clothing, and from jewellery to rugs – all with a distinctly South American feel, and is a key advocate of Fairtrade products. Siesta began almost by accident in the early 1980’s. One of its founders, Les Harper told us

❝I had qualified as a teacher in 1981. Out of desperation to escape returning to my home town of Grimsby, I got a job teaching in an English school in Mexico City, where I met another recently arrived teacher at the school who was from Canterbury. She (Chris) and I have now been married over 36 years!

We were paid in Mexican pesos - but the Mexican economy was precarious and during our two years there the currency devalued, which meant that our money was worthless outside of Mexico. We decided to buy local Central American handicrafts and ship them to the UK when we returned in 1983. We returned to Chris’s home town of Canterbury and called ourselves Siesta Crafts. Our first ever venture was at a new phenomena - a ‘boot fair’ at Canterbury Cricket ground - where we sold about 5 things and barely covered our pitch fee. Undeterred, we continued to try selling our Mexican and Guatemalan handicrafts and eventually found a weekly indoor market in Canterbury.

We returned to teaching, but the selling of our handicrafts slowly became our main driving force. By 1985 we found a very small (and, importantly, very cheap) shop in Northgate and then in 1987 we made the momentous decision to abandon teaching and go for the business full time by renting our own shop at 74 Northgate. The bank refused to lend us money as the manager felt our business had “no long term potential”

Over the years we expanded into the shops next door and grew our range of goods. This was helped by someone who wandered into our shop saying that they lived in Nepal and would we like to buy anything from there? Nepal became one of our main supplier countries (and still is).

We sold goods made by small family businesses and in many cases individuals whom we knew personally, so we joined the then small British Association for Fair Trade Shops and became more active in the fledgling FairTrade movement. We visited Nepal to source new products and see for ourselves the production conditions of our suppliers. We travelled with our very young children, who were a big hit with suppliers!

By 1996 we had outgrown the Northgate premises and moved to larger premises at 1 Palace Street. We have been there over 26 years now.

We still import from Mexico and Guatemala and some of the original products sell as well, if not better now, than in 1983 - for example hand knotted friendship bracelets made by indigenous Mayan women in the highlands of Guatemala. We now buy them in thousands.

Our Nepalese connection is stronger than ever. Soon after the devastating earthquake of 2015 we discovered that our main supplier, his wife and eldest son had been killed, leaving the youngest son, Ananta, to not only cope with his grief but also to take over the business. We did what we could to help and placed orders to provide work for the staff. At the time of the earthquake he was in his twenties and coincidentally so were our children - who are now both involved in Siesta. A deep friendship has grown between our children. Ananta is now an important supplier for us and an important member of Fair Trade Nepal. Both of our businesses continue to work together based on deep friendship and trust.

If anyone doesn’t know our shop - or hasn’t been in it, then I would urge them to come and have a look. As we are the importers there are no extra middle men, so prices stay lower. The world is full of amazing people from many cultures who are capable of making beautiful things. We try to bring some of these things to Canterbury!”

Siesta Crafts

1 Palace Street,Canterbury CT1 2DY Tel: 01227 464614 ➜ siestacrafts.co.uk