Empty Havant and Leigh Park shops to be opened up for art
113195-6101 LEIGH PARK SHOPS (JT) MRW Many of the shops at both The Greywell Shopping Centre and Park Parade shops at Leigh Park near Havant have shut-down and closed Picture: Malcolm Wells (113195-6101)
EMPTY shops will be filled with art exhibitions and poetry as part of a bid to kickstart the regeneration of the high streets in Leigh Park and Havant.
Landlords have decided to open their buildings for free for one weekend next month.
The spaces will be filled with paintings, crafts, poetry, cinema and history exhibits – created by local people – for the public to view.
One person getting very excited about the scheme, being piloted by Havant Borough Council, is literary fanatic Anne Jenkins.
Mrs Jenkins, who runs Havant-based charity Wordsouth, which promotes the written and spoken word, will deck out an empty shop in the Meridian Centre.
The space, called B Creative, will have dozens of poems in the shop window about Havant.
Inside there will be an opportunity for the public to create their own modern art by going wild with paint.
Mrs Jenkins, from Chichester, is now urging people to put pen to paper and write a poem about the town.
She said: ‘This scheme is fantastic.
‘Hastings has done a brilliant job with its empty shops by giving them to artists longer-term, not just over a weekend.
‘What happens is people come into town to see what the artists are doing.
‘It generates more business for the town. It’s a nice way to regenerate.’
The initiative, called Creative Days, will take place on March 9, 10, and 11. Ten shop spaces will be open.
The project is the brainchild of Lea Guzzo, the council’s cultural officer.
She said: ‘There are lots of creative talent in Havant and I thought it would be great to link empty shops with creative people.’
She said depending on its success, the scheme could be rolled out further.
‘We will be evaluating the response in the street and what Havant residents want to see happening in their empty shops,’ she added.
‘People thinking about opening a shop may be able to see the space in a different light.’
The exact location of all 10 shops will be revealed nearer the time. The finale will be a variety show at 2.30pm on Sunday, March 11 at Havant Leisure Centre, showcasing the creative talents of young people. Tickets are available at The Spring.
Anyone wishing to write a poem about Havant can email info@wordsouth.org.uk. Poems can also be dropped off at The News office in West Street, Havant.
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Comments
There are 25 comments to this article
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MikeK220
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:00 AM@The Watcher - I take it then that you are the brains of Britain? It maybe okay for you to sit in your ivory tower looking down on all the Leigh Park illiterates as you call them but not everyone is as bad as you make out. I too have had to interview people for jobs and I too have come across "less than appropriate" people, coming from all areas, not too many from Leigh Park actually. It annoys me when people like you post comments like yours when you probably don't even come from the area.
BrigitteB
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:53 PMMy first job was at Mr Butch (1984) I didn't last long... but wish there was somewhere online that had photos of Greywell and Park Parade from the 70's and 80's! - I remember my Nan buying me those huge Navy Blue and Bottle Green knickers in Woolworths! (I refused to wear them ha ha)
The Watcher....
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 09:37 AM@22 - believe me, you wouldn't want some of the people I interview working for your company! I'm not talking of looking for 'the brain of Britain', just basic life skills!
griffon
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:47 AM@21 should consider a name change. In this Dickens celebration year and the comments made. Gradgrind would fit perfectly. Youth unemployment is not confined to Leigh Park I't's everywhere and affects people with good degrees from so- called middle class families as as much as everybody. The generationl prejudice spouted by @21 really ought to be applied in the opposite direction.My generation,the baby boomers, had it made. Free university, subsidized mortgages, jobs galore. That all changed in the eighties. We gave our real economy away to China for cheaper goodies and eventually paid for it all with our jobs.I run a business and wouldn't want @21 interviewing anybody for my company
The Watcher....
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:10 AM@16 - The main reason that there are so many unemployed in the Leigh Park area is because many of them are illiterate and unable to adequately conduct themselves in a work environment! It has nothing to do with the current Government as these people were the same under Labour! I regularly have to interview applicants for a variety of situations and you would be shocked at the appalling level of literacy and numeracy. The majority cannot even complete the application form correctly and many turn up having not bothered to look in the mirror before leaving home! I see no quick fix as the current 'lost' generation is but a product of similar generations that failed in life, except the ability to procreate unfortunately!! Those who do 'make it' in life are not there by fortune but by hard, hard graft and self fulfilment. Further education is out there for everyone!
daver
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 08:41 PMpretty simple really freeze rates 6 months for new tenants. if the buisness is going to work then they will stay and pay the rates. if its gonna fail at least the shop where open for a while ,which will encourage other buisness to move in.As for having artist in for a while thats great.its something for the locals to either enjoy or laugh at. you never know it may inspire some local people to get into art.as we know art transends all class barriers.charles dickens was born just up the road you dont you know.
0k
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:58 PMPark parade was killed by HBC by bringing in parking charges, simple as that. Fat cats..
snapdog
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:31 PMBig shops bring big jobs though!
wozzer38
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:26 PMi still think the powers that be should push all the shops into one area i.e. the greywell and the central part and open up park parade for housing and a through road...the shops are now outdated and habits have changed...they will never be full again like they were in the 60's and 70's those days are long gone.
Budgie One
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:25 PMOnce again there are comments slating and ridiculing Leigh Park, which is the biggest ,underfunded area in Europe. No local jobs being created because the torie led council have built on all the spare land... houses and flats... not factories with jobs. So all you winers out there, remember what you voted for in the last election.. and by jiminy you got it. Anyone managed to get out MP of his butt? We dont need art, poetry or pretty window pictures for empty shops we need cheaper shop rates to get business HERE.. We need jobs for local people who then spend money in local shops... we dont need anymore mcdonalds, tescos, asdas or the like. A gentlemens outfitters would be nice..
Cozy12
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 04:40 PM@13....'i wandered lonely thru' Leigh park shops, a pound coin in my sock, when all at once a yob jumped out, and kicked me in the nether regions' Vincent Van Shelly
snapdog
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 04:11 PMHardly the cultural epicentre of Hampshire eh!
Anonymous Coward
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 03:47 PM@5 There once was a bloke from Havant Who swam a mile down the Lavant When asked "Did you freeze?" He said "Just my knees" Then he wished that he hadn't.
danieldjbrown
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:39 PMHavant council are a joke i would compare them to zombies (life sucking animals) with a on going joke with parking in parkparade especially the new parking bays they have put in, just be careful when parking in them as some are disabled only, i watched a man park his car in a bay and watched the ticket warden watch him go into tesco and she pratically ran to his car and put a ticket on his car and walked away as quick as she could. what happened to a bit of decency and aprotch the gentleman and ask him to move his car!!!!, these parking bays are there only to genarate revenue in what i would class as a poor area.cars still double park especially taxis who seam to get away with anything if the bingo hall had adaquate parking it would make that area alot safer. with very hight rent for the shops (gready landlords) there is no insentive for anyone to move to parkparade and the state of parkparade only reflex on how out of touch and what a terrable job havant council are doing.. just a idea why not have parkparade as free parking for a year to see if this gets more people shopping there.
iota
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:11 PMToo late now.... the horse has bolted! Havant Council has been sucking the life out of the shops and businesses in the town centres for years with parking charges, high rates, bad environmental planning and large multi product out of centre super shops. Havant has got a £13 million overhauled civic office. The chief executive of the council was quoted in the Journal this week, 'The whole vision is on one side of the railway line you have a commercial centre and on the other side you have the public service centre and the two should complement each other and hopefully regenerate the area'. Well that would be wonderful, but how would that or the artwork in shops in a stagnated shopping centre help bring businesses into the area? At least we know where all the money has gone to.
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