Lee-On-The-Solent's high street shops

The News, Portsmouth

Lee-On-The-Solent's high street is often overlooked as visitors instead explore the seafront. Councillors John Gledhill and John Beavis would like to encourage more people to shop in the town - here is what it has to offer.

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, my name's John Gledhill. I'm a local councillor for Leon the Solon and

00:05 we're here today to try and promote shopping in our lovely little High Street.

00:10 We've got a fantastic High Street and what we want to try and do is get people to come off the seafront

00:16 when they're going for their long walks along our lovely seafront to actually

00:19 come and use our independent shops in the High Street and support the local

00:24 traders with their local businesses. I'm Councillor John Beavis, local councillor too for Leon the Solon.

00:32 We're quite lucky here, High Street is very, very active and what is really interesting, if a shop does close down,

00:43 it immediately gets someone else who's interested and another shop opens up here.

00:49 And it's really a very community-based High Street with very friendly traders all working together to achieve the best for the local people.

01:03 And the more people that we can get to come down to the High Street and shop here,

01:09 the better it will be for the High Street to remain open and to keep active the way it is right now.

01:18 Well we started in a small unit next door and then we suddenly recognised that we needed to be able to store much more range.

01:28 And also toys were going well so we've got a whole range of environmentally friendly toys as well, mainly wooden.

01:36 Everything we try to source is environmentally friendly, eco-sustainable.

01:41 These are made from recycled bottles so a lot of our toys are sustainable and made from recycled materials.

01:53 All of our cards are from FSC stockwood and our toys are as well.

02:01 My name is Jazz, I work at the bookshop in Leon Solon.

02:05 We are an almost completely family-run business. We have been in business since 1933.

02:17 Fantastic. And what is special about the bookshop?

02:21 So everything in the bookshop we kind of lovingly do ourselves.

02:25 All the decorating we have done ourselves, there's personal touches everywhere.

02:30 We go all over the place trying to find different things that we can do.

02:35 We make t-shirts. We just put every bit of love we have into this shop.

02:42 It's kind of our baby so everything is very personal.

02:46 Hi, I'm Liz and I'm the owner of So Sentimental in Millville Road, Leon Solon.

02:52 I opened the shop October 14th 2023 and I have to say business has been amazing.

03:01 Hi, I'm Leanne and I own Boutique by the Sea in Leon Solon High Street.

03:07 Great, and could you tell me a little bit about the shop?

03:09 I can. So we are predominantly a ladies and gents boutique here in Leon Solon High Street.

03:16 We sell lots of goods like clothing, handbags, accessories alongside some lovely giftware and cards and jewellery.

03:26 And bits and pieces like that, all very sort of coastal based.

03:30 We do tend to champion the UK independent artists and designers as well.

03:36 So we do like to support those by getting lots of their products in just to give something a little bit different to our lovely customers.

03:43 My name is Jason, I'm the manager here at Ridgway Exotics in Leon Solon.

03:47 We're down at the bottom of the high street.

03:49 It's a small business and we're passionate about keeping reptiles and other exotic animals here.

03:58 We're thankful to have a very good business owner who's about the animal quality and the care

04:05 than he is about the business and trying to make vast fortunes.

04:10 So we're all about the education here and entertainment and creating a nice environment for people to buy their first exotic pet.

04:19 Fantastic. What would you say makes this shop special?

04:22 I think it's the dedication that our staff put into the work.

04:31 Their passion for animals will certainly come across in any explanation that they give

04:36 or any answers that they give customers when they come in, whether they're buying something or not buying something.

04:41 Everyone's always going to be welcome here and all of their questions are all going to be treated with respect

04:48 and they're all going to find lots of detail from us as well.

04:52 It's not just going to be a simple case of, yeah, these animals need to be kept warm.

04:57 I'll tell you why they have to be kept warm and we'll lead on to all the other important aspects of how you keep these animals.

05:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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