This Sunday our Leeds Jigsaw store hosted an exhibition and tea party to mark the 100th year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. A research project last year unearthed a direct link to the ship and our Leeds store, which was formally the Collinsons Café, where Wallace Hartley had played in the orchestra shortly before boarding the Titanic as Band Master.
Customers were treated to tea in vintage china and homemade cakes whilst viewing the exhibition detailing the history of the store from its birth as a tearoom to the Jigsaw store today. A solo violinist welcomed passers-by into the store with beautiful renditions of music that would have been played in the café during the era, and local Titanic enthusiasts kindly lent us some rare pieces to display including Wallace Hartley signatures, a silver cigarette case and a called card case that were made to commemorate the launch of the ship.
With the clinking of china, live music and chatter of all our customers from their ‘pop-up’ Collinsons Café tables, it felt like it could have been a hundred years ago…We would like to thank Karen Turner for her fantastic photography on the day.
