Shoppers in Romford have popping into a town centre store with a difference recently – it’s become a place to moan.

Two creative Havering College students have taken over an empty space and turned it into a live art exhibition.

Charlotte Trower, 26, from Hornchurch, and Emily Florish, 20, of Dagenham, aided by lecturer Lee Holden set up the exhibition to give shoppers the chance to have a good old moan.

When the South Street ‘shop’, opposite Halifax, is open, shoppers and passers-by have been invited to air their grievances about whatever they like.

The exhibition’s closing event is tonight (Friday) between 6-9pm.

Charlotte said that the group spent around a month preparing the space – making it look like a coffee shop, but with an old analogue TV recording equipment documenting what has taken place there.

She added: “Me and Emily have been interested in talking to people and we’ve never done anything like this so we came up with the idea of getting people in to moan.”

“But what have the people of Romford been moaning to them about?” the Recorder asked.

Charlotte said: “There’s been quite a range. Some have been moaning about council tax, one was moaning about cash machines. “It’s gone from serious issues like relationships to one person moaning about slugs, and one person was even moaning about people moaning.

“A lot of the women have been moaning about men. One man said to me ‘it’s only women that moan’ and I said ‘you do realise you’re talking to a woman don’t you?’”

The student added that they have had more male visitors than female.

She said: “It’s been really interesting hearing what people had to say. One guy said he came out off the busy high street into the space and it was a really chilled, unusual part of town.”