Barnardo’s

This, in my eyes, is the best charity shop in Manchester. I only know of a few, but I have always liked this one for their wide variety of choice in both men’s and women’s wear and the nice addition of more interesting and retro items upstairs. One of the things I love about Manchester is shop variation and that’s why I love this Barnardos!

Barnardo’s does Deansgate and you can tell. This two floored charity shop is full to the brim of rails and rails of second hand goods but escaping that charity shop feel as Deansgate makes it’s mark.
You are bound to pick up some really good items in Barnardo’s and know you’re doing good. Toys, books, games and bags a plenty. This Barnardo’s is ready to deliver. Go in and hunt, you’ll find some designer pieces.

I only noticed this Barnados store when I walked past the other day, so it can’t have been there for long. But I was quite surprised to see a charity shop on the same street as House of Fraser and all Deansgate’s other fancy shops.
It’s a big store set across two floors. On the first floor, you’ll find general clothes, toys and a few books standard charity shop fare, really. But upstairs has the really good stuff! There’s a much nicer atmosphere up there, with exposed wooden floor boards, great records on the shelves and some fantastic vintage clothes. You’ll also find some designer labels hiding amongst the racks. So you should make sure you have a good look ’round! With it being a charity shop, everything is reasonably priced, too!

And so I go, to another charity shop. I love charity shops. I think it’s something to do with having grown up in a tiny town that had, ooooh, seven charity shops, which were my only hope (unless I fancied wrestling with the confusing particulars of provincial bus timetables to get to Newcastle) of getting anything near vintage. Add in the fact that Friend Since Birth’s mum runs a charity shop and I therefore know all the ins and outs, and you’ve got an ingrained adoration for all things second-​hand.
This Barnardo’s has the fortuity of being slappity bang on Deansgate, where all the posh shops are. It’s one of the most likely charity shops in town to get wealthy donators, and the distributors send a lot of decent clobber here too. Though obviously everything changes, my most recent visit threw up the following; a Whistles cardi for £10, an Upper 5^th skirt for £7 and a proper vintage M&S St Michael’s dress for £5. The amount of stock is really good, and it makes my heart verily sing when I see that so many people have given away perfectly decent stuff, all for charity (especially stuff like the Whistles cardi, which would easily have fetched £40 on eBay) O! the generosity of people!
OK, people, brass tacks. The downstairs is just regular clothes, and a toy section. The toy section has about 4 big fluffy bunnies (snap one up for Easter!) and the weirdest thing I ever did see: a Furby with ARMS. Pure creepery, but still, a jolly good retro gift. Upstairs is books and vintage. And the vintage corner is really good. There’s a definite lean towards cool retro fashion here, and the boyf had to bodily drag me away from a pair of gold Adidas hi-​tops, which were a size too small («I don’t mind limping, boyf! I like limping! Let me get the shoooooes!!!»). There’s also a pretty decent vintage homewares section, where you could pick up one of those beige and brown cooing pots (like nana used to have) for a couple of quid. Failing that, I did spot a SATC-​esque cocktail glass, complete with cosmo-​mix and… rimming sugar (MEGALOL!!!)
Also upstairs is the book and music section. It’s not great, but have a wee dig around and you could get something good. I picked up Alex Garland’s The Tesseract for £2. To be honest, it’s rare that a charity shop has a fantastic book section *and* fantastic clothes. This shop’s a destination for clothes, the book section is a nice extra.
The staff here are lovely, and I had a nice chat with the man behind the counter, who was just lovely. See, that’s the best thing about charity shops; the people behind them are so nice and they really care about the cause. Hilariously, he apologised for the ‘mess’, which was all caused by bags of just-​donated goodies. Bless.
All joking aside, peeps, charity shops are bloody great, and this one is fantastic. So, you know that skirt that you bought in the Toppy sale, and it’s too small anyway, but you can’t face throwing it away? Get over yerself, and pop it in a bag for Barnardo’s. For the kids!

This charity shop is actually spread out over two floors on Deansgate, with all charity shop staples on show like clothes, shoes, board games and soft toys.
They also have a range of greetings cards in Barnardo’s at very reasonable prices. Why go to Smith’s to get a card when you can get one from Barnardo’s and support a great charity at the same time?
The first floor of this shop is has lovely wooden floorboards which adds a bit of character to the place. This is where they stock the board games, CDs and a small «retro» section. Which actually has about ten garments in at most. But they’re trying at least.
Like all the best charity shops, Barnardo’s has colour coded all of their clothes, which I love. And you can of course by a baby animal calendar for 99p, if that’s your thing. Personally, I went for a great tartan scarf for a couple of quid.

While it’s nice to visit a vintage shop and pick up a bargain, it’s even nicer to know that the second-​hand item you’ve just yoinked is lining the pockets of a worthy charity. And so this brings me to Barnado’s, that charity for children famous for the controversial ad campaigns. Hard-​hitting TV is one thing, but it feels a lot better for the average human to pick up a prize pair of shoes and donate a little to those in need than get smacked in the face metaphorically by something disturbing in the middle of your favourite soap.
It’s important that we know this stuff, however. But back to the shop, and Barnado’s on Deansgate covers two floors of bric-​à-​brac, with frequent stock rotation as you’d imagine, so you can’t always find that elusive gem in there. I’ve managed to get a few lovely items from there though. The location is a very apt one, it’s nice to see a charity shop sandwiched between Market Street and the highbrow designers of the Barton Arcade area. Give it a try and support a great charity. Oh and check out my picture of the vinyl you can pick up in there too. Pure hilarity.