An artist who came close to throwing in the towel after a fire destroyed his Haworth studio has bounced back, creating a new line of furniture for sale at a London tourist attraction.

When a storage heater caused a fire at Damside Mill in December, leaving it blackened and unusable, artist Anthony Hartley considered packing it in. It was at the converted mill in Haworth where he created his artistic furniture and ran several art and craft classes.

His colourful furniture designs recently caught the eye of staff at the London Transport Museum, and he was asked to produce a range of chairs for the museum’s gift shop.

Mr Hartley said: “They asked me to produce some furniture with colours that correspond with he colours of the tube lines. It is great that my work is in that shop because they get tourists from Japan, China and the US.”

While waiting for his gallery to be fixed he has worked out of Stapleton Joinery in Silsden. The process of waiting for his insurance to come through means the mill is not yet ready to re-open, and will not be a part of this year’s Haworth Festival like it was last year.