People’s Dispensary For Sick Animals

This branch of PDSA charity shop is located on Hawthorne Road in Kingstanding and is one of the best charity shops in the area I think.
It’s not the tidiest shop I’ve ever been in, but there are some real gems to be found if you’re prepared to rummage and the prices are excellent! The shop is laid out very higgledy piggledy but this is partly because it’s such a small shop and they want to obviously get as much stuff in it as possible.
The selection of ladies clothes is excellent and I always find something to buy whenever I go in. The sizes are always mixed up and not clearly marked, but again it’s worth having a sort through the clothes because they generally have a good range of sizes in most of the items. Clothes are grouped in dresses, tops, trousers, tracksuits etc but again garments are often in the wrong place so you really do have to have a proper look around.
The mens selection is usually rubbish, but mens clothes are so cheap to buy brand new these days (unlike womens clothes!) that I wouldn’t really buy my fella anything from any charity shop unless it was something special.
There is a small range of childrens clothes, mainly baby clothes but these are usually in near perfect condition so I often buy my seventeen month old daughter bits and pieces from PDSA. My recent bargain was five Next tops for her which only cost 75p each and two of them were brand new as they still had the tags on. There is sometimes somthing for my nine year old, but not often as the shop seems to stock mainly younger childrens clothes. I’m lucky I have girls’ because the selection for lads is nowhere near as good, males just are not lucky in this shop at all!
I always browse the books in PDSA and usually buy a couple as they are well priced at 75p — 99p for a paperback, there are always lots of books to choose from from older dusty tomes to brand new thrillers and chick-​lit. There are the usual soft toys for sale from around 20p, but it’s usually a load of rubbish so I don’t tend to buy them unless my daughter is miserable in her pram and then I may get one to keep her entertained. Likewise the homewares, there isn’t often anything to interest me as I find the ornaments a little old fashioned but occasionally I will see something I like and buy it for about £1.
The staff are really nice in this branch of PDSA, they are usually older ladies who are happy to chat and are so polite to their customers. They always seem so grateful for your purchase, which is a breath of fresh air when you consider most shops take your money with a grunt these days!
I know the way I’ve described parts of the PDSA sound like criticisms, but really they’re not. I love rummaging through the clothes to find my size and have found some lovely surprise items, I think it’s the thrill of the chase which leads me to shop in here as I never quite know where the next gem is going to come from!