Opening of Peachy Studios in Essenden Road, West St Leonards. The building was the the former Essenden Road Surgery.

Rebecca Perkins (front). L-R back row: Phil and Charlie Curran (PPC Property Development), Simon Brain, Robyn Lynch and Sophie Martin. SUS-210505-160608001Opening of Peachy Studios in Essenden Road, West St Leonards. The building was the the former Essenden Road Surgery.

Rebecca Perkins (front). L-R back row: Phil and Charlie Curran (PPC Property Development), Simon Brain, Robyn Lynch and Sophie Martin. SUS-210505-160608001
Opening of Peachy Studios in Essenden Road, West St Leonards. The building was the the former Essenden Road Surgery. Rebecca Perkins (front). L-R back row: Phil and Charlie Curran (PPC Property Development), Simon Brain, Robyn Lynch and Sophie Martin. SUS-210505-160608001

See inside new St Leonards beauty salon

A former GP surgery in St Leonards has been converted into a beauty salon.

Peachy Studios, owned by Rebecca Perkins, opened this week at the premises in Essenden Road.

The building was home to the Essenden Road Surgery for many years until 2017.

Rebecca said she had to overcome a number of obstacles, together with the effects of the ongoing pandemic, before she could launch her new business.

She said: “Attempting to get our first commercial mortgage before the start of the pandemic was challenging and the onset of Covid-19 and all the uncertainty around it meant it wasn’t an option for us.

“We were incredibly disappointed, as we had already overcome a number of obstacles relating to the property.

“Luckily for us, some good friends and family who knew how badly we wanted it stepped in as private investors. We have experienced delays with materials and fixtures and fittings due to Covid-19, which has certainly made things more difficult.”

She said the name Peachy came about, as pale peach is her favourite colour.

Rebecca added: “My partner (and business partner) Simon Brain and I brain-stormed ideas involving the word ‘peach.’ Stuart Taylor who designed the interior, heard our ideas and explained that one word would have more impact. It was him who suggested ‘Peachy’ and we both loved it right away.”

Rebecca owned an eyelash and eyebrow studio called Icons, set up in 2011, in a tiny room in St Andrews Market. That business, along with its three full-time employees, have been incorporated into Peachy as its Brow Bar and Lash Lounge studios, she said.

She added: “It is our goal to employ both a centre manager and a receptionist within the first year and hopefully provide many exciting career opportunities to local people in the future.

“We are in the process of renovating the other eight rooms which will serve as studios for self-employed professionals in the health and well-being sector.

“We also have a large ‘flexible space’ (the old reception area when it was a doctor’s surgery).

“Providing we are afforded permission from the council, we would like to offer up this space for yoga and pilates classes for the local community.

“We have had a very positive response to this from the residents we have mentioned the idea too. We always open to ideas of how that space might be used.”

Peachy Studios can be contacted on 07972 109667.