Mixed bank holiday weather made for a mixed bag of fortunes for traders.

The downpour of April showers on Sunday kept shoppers away from Brighton and Hove’s independent retailers although a bright but not blazing Monday helped to put a smile on some traders’ faces.

With most residents having four days off work over the weekend, business owners and managers were keeping their fingers crossed for bumper sales.

Chelsea Mountney from Snoopers Paradise in Kensington Gardens in Brighton said: “It has been really busy.

“We usually are busy during the bank holiday, I would say it is probably worth a third more in terms of customers compared to a normal weekend.

“It was definitely busier on Monday than on Sunday.”

Staff at Bert’s Homestore in Blatchington Road in Hove were also reporting a “massively busy” weekend.

But for one staff member at male fashion store Cool Hand Luke in Gloucester Road the weekend was a washout.

He said: “On Sunday it was dead with the weather and I shouldn’t have bothered opening while Monday was so-so.

“The bank holiday should give us a boost if the weather is OK but it is the end of the month.

“Hopefully they will be back in once they get paid again.”

Andy Forrest, general manager at the newly-opened Al Campo Lounge in London Road, said it had been the bar’s quietest weekend since it had opened.

He said: “We don’t really have a quiet day, we have steady trade during the week and then it gets busy at the weekends.

“It has probably been our quietest weekend since we opened but hopefully we will be back on track next weekend.”

Gerry Fuller, sales assistant at I gigi in Church Road in Hove, said: “I think it has been generally slow from a retail point of view.

“We weren’t open on Sunday, which with the weather probably wasn’t a bad thing, but Friday and Saturday were quite quiet.”

Staff at clothing shop Jaba Yard in Bond Street said: “It has been a fairly average bank holiday for us, not amazing but not terrible.

“Bank holidays can be a good boost but it’s hard to predict and a lot of it is down to the weather and a few people stayed away on Sunday because it was raining.”