"It’s with great sadness" - The Interior Port announces it's leaving Southsea with new location revealed in Drayton
A family-run gift shop has revealed it is moving from Southsea to open a new store in Drayton.
The Interior Port on Albert Road, run by mother and daughter Pauline Pierce and Heather Walters-Pierce, has announced it is closing its doors on Saturday, September 6. The pair opened the store just over two years ago in July 2023 (video embedded in this article), but in that time they have seen some prominent neighbouring stores close and experienced a drop in footfall.
As such, they have taken the decision to move the store to a new location on Havant Road in Drayton.
While sad to leave Southsea, Heather is excited for the new chapter and the possibilities it brings. She said: “There is no home and gift shop there, so we are not treading on anyone’s toes. You have a lot great home and gift shops in Southsea, like Southsea Rock which does all the cards, Stay Lucky which does novelty bits, and Coastal Remedy which is really good.
“Then you have places like Grounded Southsea which are great. We all know each other and we try not to step on each others toes, which is lovely but it can make it difficult.
“Moving here, it is bigger, we can branch out and expand some of our ranges and dip our toes into some areas we have not been able to before like plants, a kids section, and greeting cards.”
The opportunity arose when Heather was working one night at her partner’s bar, The Drayton Tavern. She noticed the bridal shop at 224G Havant Road was closed, and when later musing to her mum about how great a place it is for a shop, they thought ‘let’s do it’.
They are aiming to have the new shop up and running for September 19 but an official date has not yet been confirmed.
Heather and Pauline were looking to move away from Albert Road after they saw changes that seemed to reduce footfall on their end of the street. Heather said: “When we first opened we had a lovely little bookshop (Pigeon Books), we had Wines By The Sea, and it was lovely but they have gone now.
“No one is coming up our end of the street anymore, everyone seems to get to the middle bit and then maybe head to Palmerston Road.”
Heather said she would like to have stayed in Southsea, but a move to Palmerston Road proved to be too costly and the move to Drayton felt right with her partner and family living in the area.
She has not ruled out the possibility of opening another store in Southsea in the future. Heather said: “I love the idea of coming back to Southsea one day and just having a much smaller unit which is more nautical themed, as we do have a lot of nautical, Southsea and sea themed items.
“I like to think if this (new Drayton store) does well we can branch out again and build another one.”
The news of the move was announced on The Interior Port Facebook page. The post said: “It’s with great sadness that we announce that we are moving! We love this little shop but unfortunately the area around us has slowly declined. We’ve lost some great independents shops around us and continued anti social behaviour in the area has led us to this tough decision.”
The post added: “We’re very excited about this move. The new shop is bigger and will give us the opportunity to expand our home and gift ranges. More options in kitchen ware, a lot more throws, cushions, candle ranges, small home furnishings, and quadruple the amount of gift cards and wrapping that we do now! In the spring we’ll be introducing a kids section too.”