Brighton Hill Centre and Retail Areas
Brighton Hill Centre was built along with much of the housing development in the area. This consisted of shops and a supermarket, along with the Pig and Whistle public house. Plentiful car parking was provided, and in years gone by Brighton Hill Centre had the use of a traditional Greengrocers and a Butchers shop, a council office and the Unwins off licence. These are now long gone. When the supermarket was first opened, Sainsbury's traded there, closing the store when the Hatch Warren branch opened in 1988. Hatch Warren is a much bigger store, and provides more range than the Brighton Hill one did. After Sainsbury's moved on, Robert Grieg took over, running the shop until 1998. After this, the store closed and the building was left empty until its demolition. The local doctors surgery, the Gillies Health Centre, was provided within the centre complex, and the original building was demolished in 2002. Surgery continued in a temporary Portakabin structure until the new surgery was opened in 2004. The new one is on the site of the original.
A Post Office had always been provided at Brighton Hill Centre until its closure in June 2008.
Public toilets were provided adjacent to the doctors surgery, but these fell into disrepair and were taken out of use in the late 1980s. At present there are only eleven public conveniences in the Basingstoke and Deane area, and a considerable number are outside of the town.
Misselbrook and Weston opened a shop on Stanford Road in the 1980s, this is now under the One Stop brand.
Much retail development has taken around the estate, with the area by Brighton Hill Roundabout seeing much change. The former Smiths Industries site has become a retail park, featuring some quite large units. The largest is the Toys R Us shop, with Harveys Furniture and JJB Sports in large units. There is also a Pizza Hut and a McDonald's at the retail park. Nearby a development has taken place by the A30 Winchester Road, with Homebase and Allied Carpets as prominent features.
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