image credit Amy Shamblen/Unsplash, multicoloured paper ice cream decor
The old newsagents and mini-convenience store in the Eastbourne Road is currently closed.
The shop floor is marked by broken shop fittings, with wires and empty fridges on display inside. A crack on the front window is taped up and in the last few days the shop front has become the site for poster billboarders.
Responding to local concerns, owners said today (9 August), “something will be happening very soon”.
Bay LIfe suggested (21 July) “news that an arts and crafts shop is coming to Pevensey Bay appears to have been confirmed with an informed source suggesting, a builder is beginning work asap on the inside of the shop, this is definitely going to be an art shop“.
The opening of an arts and crafts shop in Pevensey Bay would mark another step change moment in the fortunes of the little shopping parade.
In the last year we have seen the arrival in the parade of shops of both the Belle En Soi beauty salon and Harper Hair co., two creative enterprises.
Both businesses have gone from strength to strength.
The arrival of an arts and crafts shop might be a natural creative fit for the location that is currently empty between the two enterprises.
The shop could become a complement for the growing arts profile of Pevensey Bay.
A pocket art gallery has sprung up at the Bay Hotel driven by a thriving local arts scene that includes the flagship group “Arts Crafts and Photographs”. They also meet at the Bay Hotel.
With something like eight arts groups ,fully functioning, in and around the Bay, an arts and crafts shop is likely to be welcomed with open arms by the established arts community here.
The Bay is well resourced with take-aways and hair salons.
One local government official who has lived here for many years has an emphatic view about the Bay and shops..
She has responsibilities linked to logistics. She told us. “look what Pevensey Bay needs is niche shops, niche shops would work here big time., This has worked elsewhere with small communities”.
We know of one other ‘niche shop’ ‘that is being considered for location here.
The extensive renovation of the Bay Hotel to the kind of shining glory that was seen in 1898, when the hotel was first built, is being cited as a possible reason for the increased interest in economic activity here and the potential arrival of some niche shops.
The hotel launched Pevensey Bay as a ‘health resort’.
