This place is a blessing! Mike Eastwood who owns this…read morebusiness has been doing this for 20 years. It is coming froma very real place, if you know what I mean. AiristiA has a fantastic website as well and they sell a huge range of well chosen crystals, books, CD's and DVD's, cards and jewllery, insense, essential oils, etc. Ok, so there are many such shops around these days, but here's none like this one. And if you are interested in crystals, then this is an important place to be in touch with. Mike sources crystals from some special places - crystal skulls, Lemurians, new age crystals and his beautiful set of Nine Chakra Healing Crystals. These are absolutely amazing! Also they run interesting, worthwhile courses and there are practitioners who work from the shop as well.

This is a shop specialising in crystals and books of a spiritual and philosophical nature. If you…read moreare interested in crystals (and their healing properties) then unlike many other similar shops this is the place I would recommend as they seem very serious and knowledgeable about them. If you are not so deeply interested it is still a great place to visit as they also sell a lot of beautiful jewellery and you can find some lovely items that would make excellent gifts.

This makes me feel old, but I do remember when W H Smith used to be a proper bookstore; now it's…read moreessentially just a big newsagents. There's very few actual books (if you want that, go across the street to Waterstone's), but the shop does sell a good mix of gifts (especially around Christmas), chocolate, games, DVDs and magazines. There's sadly not a huge manga/comic section, and the few that they do have they shove in with the young kids' magazines, which is a bit inappropriate as some of them e.g. the not-quite-for-kids Deadpool do not exactly mesh well with Barbie or Disney-related kiddie mags. The staff here are really friendly and helpful, and they try to keep the queues under control on busy days. The only pain is their shopping bags - literally a pain - they're made of that kind of material that cuts through your hands after holding them too long!

The Works in the cascades closed a little while ago, but luckily the branch at the Gunwharf is…read morepretty good too. Lot's of great price books and art materials and bits for the kids. I recently made a special trip here to buy the Destination Portsmouth game as they were selling it for £4.99. the assistant was really friendly and we were discussing where to buy The Portsmouth Edition Monopoly too. The store is a little awkward to navigate if you have a wheel chair or buggy, as some of the displays are in the way a bit.

The Works I can't EVER go into this place without buying something! It has great books, crafting…read morematerials, cards, games and other little gems for great prices. Since the other branch of The Works shut down, this one has seemed busier, but nicely so. Not packed out, so you can still browse in relative peace. Books suitable from 1-100!

Reflex records is an independent record shop down opposite the Wedgewood rooms, so in a great…read morelocation. They also have a shop over in Gosport, and a web-store on eBay. They have quite a few signing days so worth keeping a look out for any bands you're into. As well as a shed load of CD'S, there's also vinyl and loads of clothes - goth, rock, punk, Indie that kinda stuff, and all the good names.