A SIGN from a bookshop which opened in the town almost 50 years ago has been revealed after another business vacated.

DVD and video game shop CEX has relocated from Wote Stret to The Malls; and when removing its sign from the Top of Town unit it has unveiled an old sign for Hammicks Bookshop.

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The bookshop first opened in Basingstoke in 1974 in London Street at the Top of Town.

Planning documents from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council suggest it moved to the unit in Wote Street in June 1985, when an application was granted giving the company permission to install a new shopfront on the premises.

Hammicks, which was founded in Farnham in 1968, was taken over by chain Ottakar’s in 2003 in a £3.3 million deal.

Ottakar’s took on 24 leasehold stores before it was later taken over by the HMV Group in 2006 and merged into the Waterstone’s brand.

It is not known what the now empty unit in Wote Street will be used for following the relocation of CEX.

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