New telephone number and email address for all donations
For all enquires about donations, please call 01424 223594 or email us with pictures of your items and contact details at donate@hfs.org.uk
HFS Bexhill Store to close end of January, but don’t worry HFS will be back!
After 16 years of dedicated service to the community, Hastings and Rother Furniture Service (HFS), a local independent furniture and reuse charity, we have made the difficult decision to close the Bexhill store located on London Road at the end of January. The decision has been made as the site maintenance costs have become increasingly burdensome. The entire site will be sold. Don’t worry though, HFS will be back to Bexhill very soon as soon when a suitable premises becomes available.
HFS has been actively combating furniture poverty since its establishment in 1988, providing low-cost, quality reused furniture and electrical goods to the residents of Bexhill and Rother as well as Hastings. Over the years, the London Road store has been a vital part of the community, supporting more than 19,000 residents and hosting various organizations and workshops.
Kate Davidson, CEO of HFS, expressed pride in being an integral part of the Bexhill and Rother district community. She stated, “During our time at London Road, we have supported over 19,000 residents by providing low-cost, quality second-hand furniture and essential white goods, along with numerous repair and reuse workshops and training. While it is a challenging decision to close this site, we believe it is necessary, given the increasing maintenance costs.”
Despite the closure, HFS reassures local residents that they will still have access to low-cost furniture and white goods through the organization’s sites in Hastings at 6-10 Dorset Place (TN34 1LG) and Priory Meadow, Town Square (TN34 1PH). Residents can contact HFS at 01424 44 11 12 or 01424 22 35 94.
Donations Welcome:
HFS will continue to collect quality furnishings and electrical items from both Bexhill and Rother. Individuals interested in making donations are encouraged to call 01424 22 35 94 to arrange pickups.
Looking Forward:
While bidding farewell to the London Road store, HFS has plans to return to Bexhill as soon as a suitable premises becomes available. The organization remains committed to serving the community and looks forward to continuing its mission in a more manageable space.
Our Priory Meadow store has now Reopened
Our Priory Meadow store is now open following the damage caused by the flood. The store has now been cleaned and restocked . Our Bexhill store and our Store in Dorset Place Hastings are open as usual. We still require more stock so donations of furniture will be gratefully received. We can be contacted as usual on 01424 441112 (Hastings) and 01424 223594 (Bexhill)
National poll reveals Britons are unaware that buying preloved or second-hand furniture is greener than buying new
45% are completely unaware that buying a new piece of furniture produces a higher carbon footprint than buying preloved or second-hand. When in fact, buying a new chest of drawers results in a carbon footprint 16 times higher than buying its classic antique equivalent. Click here to read the article in full
Paint less than 1/2 price
Thanks to Community RePaint and Dulux, we have a limited supply of brand new Dulux paint at less than 1/2 price!
Come and grab yourself a bargain at HFS 6-10 Dorset Place Hastings or HFS Bexhill 47 London Road Bexhill. Hurry they are flying out the door!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !
Join our team and make a difference in your local community
- Collect and deliver furniture, white goods and homewares with our van team
- Reduce the amount of furniture going to landfill
- Assist customers in our three stores, operate the till and answer the ‘phone
- Book in collections of donated goods and arrange delivery slots for purchased items
- Sell unusual/collectable items on eBay
- Assist with marketing, PR and social media
- Represent the charity at community events
- Run an HFS charity stall at local events
- PAT test donated electrical goods
- Join our Trustees Board
Click on the link to find out more about volunteering with HFS
Office Furniture Warehouse at the Dorset Place Store
Our Dorset Place Store now has a large amount of quality office furniture.
Our opening hour’s are Tuesday through to Saturday.
9:30 – 12:30 then 1:30 – 4:30
Our other stores in Priory Meadow and London Road Bexhill are also open.
Now even greener
We have partnered with a local community benefit co-op to get solar panels on the roof of our Dorset Place building in Hastings.
Energise Sussex Coast is a community co-operative, working to tackle the climate crisis and energy injustice. They raised over £400k through a community share offer to install solar panels on community buildings in the area.
The panels roof will generate renewable energy to power HFS, giving us greener, cheaper electricity. Energise will pass any surplus electricity on to the grid to power other local homes and businesses.
This brilliant scheme means that local charities and schools are able to benefit from solar energy without investing huge sums to install the panels.
Our Hastings store has relocated to temporary premises in Priory Meadow for a few months while the Dorset Place building is being refurbished, so this is the perfect time to fit in the works necessary to fit the panels.
As seen on TV!
Upcycled headboards feature in a station ident we made for ITV in partnership with local artist Hermione Allsopp
Some of the HFS team spent a day at a London TV studio helping Hermione put together the padded upcycled headboard structure and make the lampshade that features in the ident, used in-between programmes during February.
The structure is also on display in the shop window at our Bexhill store.
If you missed it live, you can see the film and more about the project on the ITV website here.
“A truly inspiring organisation”
Hastings MP Sally-Ann Hart visited HFS to find out more about furniture poverty on Saturday 11th January.
As we showed her around our Hastings store, we talked about how important it is for people’s dignity and independence to have a choice of affordable furniture and white goods, how providing furniture helps people recover from crises like domestic violence, homelessness or a home fire, and outlined our partnership work furnishing homes for resettling households.
We explained how the loss of LWA (Local Welfare Assistance) funds from the Government had removed the safety net for people setting up or maintaining homes after crisis.
Sally-Ann says “ HFS is a truly inspiring organisation!”
“It was great to hear from the staff about the work they are doing to help the lowest paid, but also support those individuals currently out of work by getting them the training and skills they need to gain employment.”
“I will be advocating for improved early intervention and prevention services, particularly for children, young people and families. Early intervention can prevent further problems from developing. As it is more effective to provide early help when problems first arise than to intervene later, we need to focus more closely on early intervention holistically, looking at the wider needs of an individual or family. This might require more funding initially, but will save money in the long term. More importantly, successful early intervention will give our local residents the best chance of thriving.”
