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COLUMN<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Out Loud<br />
Plenty more Henty<br />
These days I seem<br />
to do a lot of it.<br />
Shopping. Mostly<br />
in <strong>Lewes</strong>, of course,<br />
with the occasional<br />
sortie into Brighton<br />
or by train to Eastbourne.<br />
Walk out of<br />
Eastbourne Station<br />
currently and you<br />
are confronted by<br />
the vast Arndale<br />
Centre which has<br />
grown alarmingly<br />
in the past year.<br />
Where retail business is concerned, I happily<br />
confess to being small-minded. I like small shops<br />
– even ran one myself once – and here in eccentric<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong>, we do have our fair share of such enterprising<br />
endeavours.<br />
However, from recent evidence on these very<br />
pages, it is clear that some shops are struggling,<br />
with murmurs of unreasonable parking charges,<br />
rocketing rates and more and more competition<br />
from nationwide chains.<br />
Yet they survive. Thank goodness then for Si of<br />
the records on Station Street, Rick and his Ground<br />
coffee team in Lansdown Place and my favourite,<br />
Bonne Bouche, in St Martin’s Lane. Owner Gilda<br />
Frost (above) could argue that she’s literally ‘in<br />
the pink’ having taken over the tiny shop from<br />
Elizabeth Syrett who first opened it in 1987.<br />
“Friends advised me not to buy the shop” Gilda<br />
told me, “It’s down a side street and so small – how<br />
can you possibly make any money?” She ignored<br />
the friendly advice. “It’s true the shop didn’t make<br />
a huge profit but it has outstayed many other<br />
chocolate shops in the town so Elizabeth must have<br />
done something right.” The doubting friends are<br />
now some of Gilda’s best customers.<br />
I note the<br />
former Brats<br />
premises on<br />
School Hill has<br />
been re-opened<br />
as ‘Charlotte’s<br />
Dragon’ by a car<br />
boot friend of<br />
mine, Carol and<br />
her husband,<br />
Gordon. They<br />
are raising funds<br />
for the Teenage<br />
Cancer Trust, in<br />
memory of their<br />
daughter who, sadly, died from the disease.<br />
Moving from small shops to small talk. One or two<br />
brief encounters now, and where better to start<br />
than the Tuesday market in the Town Hall. Here I<br />
spotted Jean who once sold a gnome to me in the<br />
St Peter and St James Hospice shop. She reminds<br />
me of this whenever we meet. Jolly Jean was trying<br />
on what appeared to be a leopard skin skirt to<br />
match her snazzy cap and boots. I approved. She<br />
bought it.<br />
On the terraces at the Dripping Pan stood June,<br />
on her own. She travels to watch the Rooks from<br />
her home in Polegate. Sometimes with her son,<br />
John. They normally stand on the open banking,<br />
facing the main stand, but not on this occasion. I<br />
can rarely remember a worse afternoon for weather<br />
and I congratulated her on making the journey.<br />
Jean also travels to some away games she told me.<br />
Heading towards Station Street from a cinema<br />
visit in the early evening, I was approached by two<br />
young South London guys who were clearly lost.<br />
“Where is <strong>Lewes</strong> football club?” one of them asked<br />
hesitantly, “We’re down here for training.” “Follow<br />
me” I instructed. “You’re joining a great club. I’m<br />
one of the owners!” Joint disbelief! John Henty<br />
97