Revitalise - 11 July 2019

There is an intended irony in the content and title of this picture. A retail cancer is spreading through our towns and cities and the vectors are the business models of the 21st century, the greed and intransigence of landlords, the indolence of local authorities and their failure to set business rates at a level which nurtures small businesses.

In Lee on Solent, which has hitherto fared better than some other south coast locations, the disease has spread from High Street to the nearby Marine Parade West. Beneath the faded Marine Court Mansions sits a terrace of a shops in which these three at the east end stand empty or useless. The optimistically named Revitalise is no more than yet another charity shop sandwiched between the vacant Waves of Inspiration, provocatively located where there are none and another empty store, a corner plot with substantial floor space. It is notable that the managing agents invariably have phone numbers with distant STD codes so that they have, in all probability, little or no knowledge of the location or the potential of the property.

A rare geotagging fail for ipernity. The Didi Berry Physiotherapy Clinic is along the length of (the perpendicular) Pier Street and on the opposite side.

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