Please help save our well loved, small independent art shop.

Hi, my name is Aleysha and I have a beautiful art shop on Finchley road, a small business that has been on the high street since 1992.

My dad started this wonderful shop, an Aladdins cave for creatives, and I have worked there over the years and absolutely fell in love with it. We sell art supplies, craft items, display local artists work and we run children's art classes.

When my dad sadly passed away, I took over the shop and have really experienced how valued we are in the community.

As hard as it is to own a small family business, we have fought every challenge and have survived recessions, the opening of chain art stores, covid, amazon, a cost of living crisis and have remained a staple of the local community.

Over the years we have suffered many leaks in the shop which were not fully repaired, but in November 2022 we had a huge leak which damaged the shop so much that we had to close completely.

Since then we have been battling with our landlord to fix the building, but after 2 years, insurance timing out and having to fund so much of it ourselves, we have now run out of money.

We are just about at the finish line with most of the damaged furniture and appliances replaced but there is still electrical work to do. We would hate to be defeated this close to the finish line and after hanging on for two years!

I would really appreciate any help you could give no matter how small in order to try and keep one of the last independent art shops in London open. This would mean the world to us and to the local community who are really missing their local arts & crafts shop.