St Aubyns News

Situated in a lovely, art deco style building on Church Road, St Aubyns News is another handy newsagents where you can pick up broadsheets, magazines, periodicals, chocolate, sweets and cigarettes. Like the Connaught Store further up the road, they have transformed a corner of the shop into a computer terminal where you can go online and check your email.
You might imagine devices like the iPhone would render an internet café redundant but the close proximity to the EF Language School means there’s a steady stream of foreign students that still need somewhere to check their email and hook up with friends and family back at home through Skype. I’m unlikely to ever use it myself but if I did, I love the fact the computers are positioned in the curved window so you can bask in the sunshine whilst you type!

It’s also a newsagent. It also has internet facilities. It is also a newsagent with internet facilities! What is it with this current trend? Must be a Hove thing!
St Aubyn’s news has a slightly more professional operation when it comes to its internet access compared to Connaught News (though I kind of prefer the latter’s ramshackle set up). It is a favourite with the students of the nearby EF language school, which is probably the reason the owners thought of offering internet access in the first place. Language schools don’t always have internet access; the students are young and internet reliant; it is also the most common way to communicate with friends and family left behind.
The newsagent part of the shop is fine. It offers everything you’d expect from food to fags and everything in between.
Now I see why this trend is emerging. I think I might set up an internet café cum bookstore cum newsagent!