Come and see The Solent’s newly refurbished restuarant, spa, event space and bedrooms on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd February. The famous Shire Horses will also be in town on the Sunday for some amazing photo opportunities! 

This exclusive offer is only available on the 2nd and 3rd February, so don’t miss your chance to access all areas. They’ll also have compliementary food and drink tasters, free spa treatments and interactive talks plus a voucher booklet for visitors- worth over £100 each. 

There will also be a prize draw on the day, where five lucky winners will be in with the chance of winning one of the following prizes: 

• An annual Spa Membership
• Weekend for two at the Solent Hotel and spa including dinner, spa treatments, and champagne
• Sunday lunch for two for every month for a year at the Solent Hotel and Spa
• A spa day for two, including lunch
• Five tickets to a tribute night of your choice in 2019. 

For further information, click here.

We welcome pre-booked visits from schools to Whiteley Shopping Centre.

Whiteley Shopping Centre is private property and a popular location for geography field trips – as such we require all schools to contact the centre in advance to arrange their visit. Please do contact the management team on the details below at least a week prior to your intended visit date to ensure the trip is able to be booked in.  

The team will be able to provide information on where to park safely, site rules and supply you with our centre fact sheet and sustainability documents.

Please call 01489 566000 or email [email protected]

Whilst we may be unusually quiet at the moment, we have been working alongside our local community. We thought you might like to know what we’re up to.

We want to let you know a little more about the people working in Whiteley right now. Whilst we may be unusually quiet at the moment, we thought you might like to know what we’re up to. These are the people working throughout this crisis to ensure our community gets what it needs and stays as safe as possible whilst doing it. They are our heroes.

This is Mark from Marks and Spencer. Mark is an in store trained baker and one of the people responsible for ensuring we all get enough bread throughout this pandemic.

Mark stepped up to keep working because he knows this gives someone else in the team the opportunity to step back and care for their dependants. As one of only a few trained bakers in store, the team have had to be flexible to ensure they are there to bake as often as possible to try and keep up with demand.

As well as bringing us our bread, Mark has also been taking care of his 81-year-old aunt in remission from cancer with regular food deliveries to her doorstep.

From us to you, thank you Mark.

We want to let you know a little more about the people working in Whiteley right now. Whilst we may be unusually quiet at the moment, we thought you might like to know what we’re up to. These are the people working throughout this crisis to ensure our community gets what it needs and stays as safe as possible whilst doing it. They are our heroes.

This is Chrissie from Holland & Barrett. Chrissie has been working round the clock to ensure her customers are able to still get their vital vitamins and specialist food during the pandemic. Many of her customers rely on the store for remedies to ease ailments such as arthritis and rheumatism.

Chrissie stepped up to keep working because even though she misses seeing her parents, her situation means she can allow other staff members to remain safe at home. 

Chrissie feels as though Holland and Barrett have taken great care of her whilst she works with extra screens, masks, gloves and sanitiser.

From us to you, thank you Chrissie.

We want to let you know a little more about the people working in Whiteley right now. Whilst we may be unusually quiet at the moment, we thought you might like to know what we’re up to. These are the people working throughout this crisis to ensure our community gets what it needs and stays as safe as possible whilst doing it. They are our heroes.

This is Justin from Boots. Before the pandemic, Justin worked in Whiteley store assisting customers with fragrance and electrical products. Since the pandemic, Justin’s role has changed completely.

As soon as Justin saw how busy the number of prescriptions coming into the company had become, he knew he had to help and immediately offered his services, requesting a redeployment to the driver hub.

This change of role now means that Justin supports the delivery team to keep the number of home prescription deliveries stable for customers and care home services. This obviously puts Justin at greater risk but he wanted to step up to support his community, colleagues and Boots.

Justin says he’s so proud of the team at Boots Whiteley and how they’ve all supported each other throughout this time.

From us to you, thank you Justin.

We want to let you know a little more about the people working in Whiteley right now. Whilst we may be unusually quiet at the moment, we thought you might like to know what we’re up to. These are the people working throughout this crisis to ensure our community gets what it needs and stays as safe as possible whilst doing it. They are our heroes.

This is Elliot from the Whiteley Service Team. Elliot is responsible for keeping our malls and back of house areas clean, safe and operational at all times. He’s part of a small team of people responsible for ensuring everyone that comes to Whiteley is a safe as possible.

Since the pandemic started Elliot has taken on an extra hours to support his colleagues. Elliot lives with his mum, dad and little sister who is asthmatic so is constantly worried about bringing the virus home to his family. He says he still comes to work though because he has a duty to maintain the centre and make sure everything is clean and safe for our retailers and our community. If he has one message for you, it’s to please only come out to Whiteley if it’s for essential shopping and remember to keep 2 metres away at all times.

From us to you, thank you Elliot.

One of the things myself and my colleagues have been researching is how contact with the natural world can help improve mental health and wellbeing. By nature we don’t necessarily mean the wilds of Dartmoor or the Peak District, nature can be your local park, a canal tow path, your garden, or even the flowers in your window box.

So why is going for a walk in the park, a jog on the beach, or a ride along the river good for mental health? First there is considerable evidence that physical activity in general can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety but this isn’t the only reason. Even sitting on a bench looking at the sunset, or listening to bird song also has beneficial effects.

As many people will know a significant aspect of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety is the tendency to worry and overthink things, getting caught in a spiral of negative thoughts about the world or oneself. With the uncertainty that has been around Covid19, this is perfectly understandable, but while some consideration is helpful, too much can undermine our mental health.

Nature works, at least in part, by cutting through those negative thoughts, encouraging people to focus instead on the natural world; repetitive pattern of waves, the play of squirrels, or the coconut smell of warm gorse flowers. Nature reminds us there is something much bigger than ourselves, natural cycles of growth and decay.

An obvious question is how much nature do people need? The sweet spot – for many – seems to be between 2-4 hours a week. Crucially it doesn’t matter how this 2-4 hours a week is achieved, one long Sunday walk or lots of shorter mini-breaks, whatever suits your lifestyle.

More recently we’ve also established that spending time in your own garden may have similar benefits, whether you’re actively gardening or just relaxing. A key feature though is that you have to be mindful of your environment, it’s no use sitting in the garden or in the park simply worrying about other things, the key is to allow your mind to wander to the sights and sounds and smells around you, and to re-establish that ‘connectedness’ many of us seem to feel towards the natural world intuitively.

One thing to remember is that none of us like to feel pressured into doing things we don’t want to, and the same is true of spending time in nature. Research suggests that if people feel pressured by well-meaning friends and family to get out in nature, it can undermine the experience for them as they become worried about whether they are meeting (or failing to meet) their loved one’s expectations.

The take home message if you are currently coping with something like anxiety or depression – is to be kind to yourself, if spending time focusing on the natural world helps you take your mind off things – do it. But take each day as it comes and don’t put any additional pressure on yourself.

We’re here to make sure anyone in our community experiencing a mental health issue has somewhere to turn to for advice, information and support. Visit Solent’s support for you web page to understand how Solent Mind can help you today.

WH Smith

 

 

 

 

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Holland & Barrett

 

 

 

 

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