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BUSINESS NEWS<br />
One wet Wednesday in mid-April I decide to<br />
take a walk around <strong>Lewes</strong> town centre to see<br />
how many shop premises – including restaurants<br />
– are currently empty, whether that means up to<br />
let, or awaiting change of use. Is it my imagination,<br />
or are there a few more gaps in the High<br />
Street’s set of teeth?<br />
The final figure is a sobering twenty.<br />
That doesn’t include two familiar faces who<br />
are leaving us soon. Stephanie, after nine years<br />
selling women’s fair-trade clothing and accessories<br />
at Shimalin, on School Hill, is moving<br />
her business elsewhere in town at the end of the<br />
summer; Tina Deubert is closing down Tina’s<br />
Kitchen on the High Street to concentrate on<br />
the non-retail side of healthy eating.<br />
Still, things are going the other way, too. The<br />
Council have given change of use permission to<br />
the building that used to be Big Daddy’s (and<br />
previously The Beefeater) burger bar on Fisher<br />
Street, which will become a workshop. I’ve been<br />
reliably informed that the builders inside the<br />
vast shell of what used to be the Post Office are<br />
converting it into the offices for an educational<br />
publisher.<br />
At the top of the Riverside, Organica have<br />
moved their plant and flower shop into one<br />
unit (that’s owner Yago, from Barcelona, in the<br />
picture), and by the time you read this, Hunter<br />
Lettings & Estate Agents should have moved<br />
from Albion House to the space next door. Oh,<br />
and Tom Homewood, that fine artist, has set<br />
up a smart-fronted studio next to Cuttlefish, on<br />
Fisher Street.<br />
Watch this space as far as (what-was) Hartley’s<br />
and nearby Prezzo’s are concerned. Word on the<br />
street is that both of them have been bagsied:<br />
we did spot a step-ladder inside the former<br />
pizzeria, which is a sign of progress. And, while<br />
talking closed-down eateries, as we go to press<br />
The Lamb and Bus Club stand empty. The<br />
former establishment’s gin bar experiment failed<br />
to capture the public imagination; the fabulous<br />
pizzas (and smiley waiters) of the latter joint<br />
will be badly missed, as will the organic bread<br />
downstairs.<br />
On a more salutary note, Pells Pool fans will be<br />
pleased that the autumn season at the pool is to<br />
be extended by two weeks, until October 27th,<br />
meaning that the country’s oldest lido will be<br />
open for more than five months, from <strong>May</strong> 25th,<br />
when it celebrates its official opening event.<br />
Season tickets are already on sale.<br />
And finally… those of you who prefer to spend<br />
your leisure time on drier land can again make<br />
the most of Southover Grange Gardens, since<br />
(and this is always a sign that summer is on its<br />
way) the hole-in-the-wall café opens on <strong>May</strong> 1st.<br />
Make mine a Cornetto.<br />
Alex Leith<br />
101
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