It is thought that the fine 1908 Edwardian building in East Street, Havant, pictured with its Romanesque fenestration and Palladium styled facade was built to house an International grocery store. It later became the Bentley’s ‘Lighthouse’ electrical goods shop.
After a period lying empty it was acquired and refurbished in 2001 by the Havant Housing Association to accommodate affordable homes whilst retaining the original East Street retail frontage.
Now owned by Vivid Housing Ltd., the retail unit is occupied by Havant Talking Newspapers charity who broadcast from there to their sight affected listeners unable to read by themselves.
A really worthwhile contribution bringing home comfort to many.
The shopfront had deteriorated over the twenty-three years since it was last refurbished and badly needed replacement.
Talking Newspapers had no funds to pay for this as their leasehold obligation.
Postcode Publications were approached to help achieve this and contacted Vivid who agreed to replace the shopfront which is now complete returning the attractive one hundred and sixteen year old building to its rightful place shining in the street scene.
Keeping the blind in touch
Blindness can mean a life of isolation for those who can’t see. Those who suffer from poor eyesight can also feel cut off from the details of life. But it doesn’t have to be like this.
Havant Talking News does its best to help with these problems by providing free audio recordings of what’s going on in the local area. News stories are taken from local newspapers.
How does it work? Put simply, a team of volunteers starts by picking out the best stories from the local press and editing them to cut out any unnecessary detail or repetition. The best ‘running order’ for these stories is determined and finally another team, those with good speaking voices, read out the chosen stories, which are recorded onto a USB stick. The USB sticks are then posted out to the listeners, who have a simple listening device which can be operated without having to see it. The USB sticks are then posted back to us and the whole process starts again.
We want to reach out to as many people as possible who might need our service. So, if you know of anyone who might benefit from our service, or if you would like to volunteer to be part of our friendly team, please contact Havant Talking News, either through the website http://www.hbtn.org.uk/index.html, or by calling the office on 023 9248 0101.