87 LIBERTY CRAFT REPORT all out we ended up with a final rank for each city. When we looked closer at the data, we discovered a lot more. London ranked as the best city overall, which should come as no surprise given its close history with arts, design and fashion. On the other hand, the discovery that two Scottish cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, were the most popular cities for sewing and knitting respectively was a pleasant surprise. And would you have thought that both Oxford and Cambridge would make it into the top five thriftiest cities in the country? UK’S CRAFTIEST CITY: LONDON It should come as no surprise that London took the overall top spot in the survey. The nation’s capital is a global centre for design and creativity, so it makes perfect sense that this creative passion should filter down from the professional level. The capital ranked first across a range of categories, including search data and Instagram craft hashtags. We found 189 different fabric shops alone in London, more than 4 x the next most-stocked city of Birmingham. The city is also extremely well represented by the Craft Council, with 227 members here. That’s more than 11x Birmingham. Finally, London benefits from top universities such as Central Saint Martins, as well as a thriving arts scene; so its position here is well-deserved. Most popular craft activities in the UK We pulled this data from Google searches to identify which are the most popular crafting activities in each city on our list. Crochet: 31.1% Sewing: 17.9% Pottery: 12.1% Art: 7.3% Fabrics: 12.4% Knitting: 19.1% Most retail opportunities Online shopping is a fact of life today, but some goods lend themselves more readily to in-person shopping. When you are starting a new crafting project, getting to see and feel the materials you will be working with is ideal. You can always order online if you want to use the same materials in another project. For this section, we searched map and business directory data to identify which cities had the most shops per square mile. While you might have expected to find London at the top of the charts here; in fact, the most well-served city for craft shops of all kinds was Leicester. Brighton is an unsurprising entry on this list thanks to its thriving arts scene. For further information, visit: www.libertylondon.com/uk/craftiest-cities-report-uk.html CITIES WITH THE MOST CRAFT SHOPS NO. 1 2 3 4 5 CITY Leicester Brighton Walsall Newcastle under Lyme Cheltenham Thriftiest cities Thrift and charity shops can be a wonderful source of inspiration and sometimes an amazing place to find clothing and fabrics which can be reused in a new project. Accumulated stock can provide an eclectic mix of patterns and designs which you can use to bring your next creation to life. The big metropolitan centres again dominate this category because bigger populations will cycle through clothing more quickly than smaller cities, so more shops will naturally follow. Like the social results above, it’s possible the large student populations in these cities could have skewed the results. Regardless of the reason, there are certainly a lot of options here. Grimsby in Lincolnshire sits in last place here. THRIFTIEST - TOP 5 NO. 1 2 3 4 5 CITY Edinburgh Brighton Cambridge Manchester Oxford Crafting Education Crafting is a popular hobby for many of us, but some of us are fortunate enough to benefit from a formal education. Unsurprisingly, we found that university-level arts courses in fields like design, crafting and fabrics are limited to the nation’s bigger cities. London, of course, is home to more than one leading university in this field such as the London College of Fashion, and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. TOP 5 CITIES FOR CRAFTING EDUCATION NO. 1 2 3 4 5 CITY London Edinburgh Leicester (joint 3rd) Brighton (joint 3rd) Bradford (joint 3rd) SUMMARY Crafting remains an extremely popular hobby and pastime across the UK. This survey and analysis only touched on some of the more popular crafting activities, but the potential to learn, discover some new fabric, or develop your existing skills, has never been greater. There’s a wide range of shops and social support in most of the big cities so you’ll never be far from your next great discovery. If crafting, particularly dressmaking, is new to you then you will be delighted to learn that Liberty is starting a new series on crafting, and you can find the first article on how to cut a pattern below. Libery’s range of Tana Lawn Cotton is perfect for making your first dress. Visit: www.libertylondon.com/uk/features/craft/how-to-cut-a-pattern.html
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