MY LIFE

CO-EDITOR RACHEL MITCHELL

BEACH STREET INTERVIEW

BY SOPHIE DEBENHAM

Supporting local small businesses always brings a community together. But summer being over isn’t stopping this local business from doing just that all year round! Beach Street based in Felixstowe in Suffolk supports many small businesses in the hospitality and retail industries. Based near the Mannings arcade this place has everything you could possibly need and a great day out too! I spoke with Charlie Manning who owns Beach Street and asked him a few questions.

How did the idea of Beach Street come about?

We were investigating the various uses of the space we have on site – for the arcade, crazy golf, market and events etc. The space for Beach Street was being used previously for a few rides – waltzers, dodgems and a small carousel. This brought in the fewest visitors, and lowest amount of rent being paid by the ride owners. We needed to update and develop the site with a concept that created more appeal for visitors and boost the visual impact and business overall.

We looked into a multi storey commercial building, but the cost was prohibitive. So we thought about small spaces, creative use of space etc and decided to visit Box park and other similar destinations in London to see how feasible it would be due to the limited amount of space we had available.

The more we considered and discussed the site, the more excited we became realising the potential of how it could work and be suitable for us.

We loved the different box park concepts and decided we had to be creative and innovative in terms of the layout and design to maximise the number of units

we could install. So we used various sizes and combinations to maximise the number of businesses we could have on site, but also maintain plenty of space for visitors to walk, sit, eat and hang out.

It’s still a work in progress, with much more to come. We are now working with a sail repair company to create some upcycled sail shades from used sails to provide weatherproof covered areas.

What impact has Beach Street had on the community?

We have created our own mini community of 16 businesses who bounce off each other for work, as well as creating a really fun place for the locals to visit. All the businesses are local and small, so it’s reinvesting in the local economy whilst letting people follow their dreams of running their own business and being their own bosses. So far locals and visitors alike have been very supportive and complimentary. They love the relaxed family vibe, individuality of each of the shops, all the delicious food and drinks! Beach Street has provided a destination unlike any other in the region.

Did you expect the opening weekend of Beach street to go so well?

We HOPED it would go as well as it did, and were very lucky that the weather was amazing. The live music, happy crowds, blue skies and hot sun really created a festival-like atmosphere that showcased Beach Street in the way we’d hoped. We feel really fortunate with how well the event went.

How did you come up with the name Beach Street?

We had a few ideas with the word box in it, but we essentially had created a street scene of shops and street food. “Beach Street” was initially used just to refer to the project but was quickly adopted as it fits the concept so well.

IMAGE BY SOPHIE DEBENHAM

Cosy Aromas

Wax melts, scents and accessories

Tinx Boutique

Ladies & menswear, fashion & accessories

Crystal Eclipse

Crystals, hippie / witchy items, crafts & American confectionary & candies (from Miss Quirky Kicks in Ipswich)

SusieSparkles

Ladies Italian wear & occasionwear

The Gallery Box

Art gallery, supplies & gifts

Puzzle

Ladies Scandinavian inspired fashion

Hanks Dirty Vegan Takeaway The View Smokehouse

Balcony bar & restaurant

Shore Coffee

Specialty coffees, cakes & seasonal drinks

Simply Lovely Jubbly

A treasure trove of crafts & gifts

Patty Macs

Gourmet burgers

Four Three Pizza

New York style pizza by the slice or whole

The Waffle Shack

Crepes and waffles with overfilled options

Hazel Baldwin Yoga

Yoga studio & mindfulness

The Viet Street Food Company

South Asian street food

Hopsters Bar

Cold drinks & craft ales plus more

4 more units coming in 2022

We have regular events including: Artisan markets, next one is a Christmas market on Sat 27th Nov

The Sunday market all year round Car and bike shows

Live music events

Oktoberfest

Beer / cider / sausage / food festivals

All events are listed on our FB page

IMAGE BY SOPHIE DEBENHAM

Do you feel that having Beach Street gives opportunities to people in the creative industry like photographers and singers?

Beach Street is all about creativity and supporting creative people, we’re actually considering a specialised photography unit on site in the near future, and are in the process of setting up regular live music on site. So any one who is interested just needs to send us a message on the FB page.

Where can people find your location and social media?

We are on the Felixstowe South Seafront next to Mannings Amusements, IP11 2DN

Beach Street Felixstowe

@beachstreetfelixstowe

Introduction to

THE NEW PRESIDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SUFFOLK STUDENTS’ UNION

Each year, the Students’ Union hold an election, where students can nominate themselves and campaign for a role in the Student Officer Team. Among those elected are two Presidents who spearhead the Students’ Union and act as representatives on behalf of the student body. In this first interview of a series, the new Presidents introduce themselves and their campaigns for the year ahead.

IMAGE BY SOPHIE DEBENHAM

HEY!

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF

I’m Alex Gooch. I’m in my third and final year of Special Educational Needs and Disability Studies and I successfully have been elected as President of Education.

I’m Meg Wright and I’m in my third and final year of Psychology and I have successfully been elected as President of Activities and Wellbeing.

ALEX: In my second year, I started as a student trustee and the other student trustee at the time gave me the confidence boost to think that I could actually run for a role in the SU. I started thinking that I like the idea of President of Education, then, from the boost that he gave me, I felt confident enough to run. For the last year or so I’ve been pretty serious about actually going for it. Sleep has been lost!!

Mine and Meg’s paths kind of crossed early on, in our first year, because we both have mutual friends in Georgia and Amy (former Officers). But we never really spoke to each other because I was doing a lot of things to do with course reps and student council whereas Meg was doing more sports and societies, which is kind of perfect for our roles.

MEG: In my first year, I was quite nervous to come to Uni. You know, leaving a job, a stable job to then come to Uni was a bit nerve-wracking. But I really wanted to, not just for the academic side of things but I really wanted to get involved with everything I could like sports and societies. So that’s where I then made my friendship with Georgia and Amy because I went to the early induction. They told me to come to netball and then that’s where that all started watching them through their two years. I was like ‘Oh, I’d like to get involved in this’.

In my third year, I’ve been getting involved with lots of wellbeing related projects through the SU and through my course as well. Then like Alex said, we decided that we would be a good pairing. ALEX: So my first one is ‘Ready to Graduate skills’ and the University already does have a lot of things for CV writing, finance, accounting degree. But it was about honing it in and making it more accessible to all students because some people had issues with that and maybe doing some extra curricular activities for people to get involved with.

My second one was a nod towards a more sustainable campus, through second-hand clothes fairs, and eco refills in Shop SU. And then my third manifesto point was, after the tough year a lot of students have had, it was about getting a familiar face more clued up on mental health. So I want to get more mental health training for personal tutors. We also have one where we’ve teamed up. Through elections, we were saying, if we get in together, we will also have course networks and we have, so we’re going to team up on that. It’s essentially a society for people’s courses so that third years will be able to speak to first years and get research participants and sell their books and first and second years, will be able to buy the books and be able to ask for tips and hints and who to talk to.

MEG: My first one is a student wellbeing button. I am aware that there is lots of help through the uni and SU with regards to wellbeing support, but I want it to be all in one space, so people don’t have to trawl through every website, every email to

PHOTO BY PHIL GRAYSTON courtesy of BOND BRYAN ARCHITECTS

find all the help and support in one space. With that I also want to prioritise a budget to make sure that we’ve got enough trained staff and counsellors because wait times can be a bit longer than expected.

My second one is I want to renovate the courtyard near the SU shop into a nice garden space, because at the moment, it’s just concrete so I want to fill it with plants and trees and benches. I want to open up that space, so students have somewhere they can relax and chill, with events like yoga being held in that space.

Alongside that one, I also want to get secure bike racks with CCTV and a pin code, because at the moment, there isn’t anywhere you can put your bike. So somewhere that only students and staff can access, and it will be secure.

Then my third one is collaborations with local businesses and just wanting to get more discounts and more events. I know this campus has got a lot of mature students and a lot of students with caring responsibilities, so I want to get more events and aim them at different groups.

Alongside more collaboration would be the access for students to have more work experience placements, in different working fields.

Lastly, I want to work with the SU to introduce a home for UOS sports, where our sports teams can train and play every week and proudly represent UOS in matches at the same location. So, all teams are together building a sense of community.

Keep up to date with Alex and Meg’s first couple of months in office by heading over to the Students’ Union social media pages. Search ‘uosunion’ Instagram and ‘uossu’ on Facebook More from Alex and Meg in the next issue of My Life.