Hampstead and Belsize Park

Stripey Chairs, Hampstead Heath under Creative Commons, from the_amanda’s flickr photostream. Click pic for link.

There are whole swathes of London that are very pleasant indeed, but I just don’t bother going there. Why? You know very well why. Remember, three charity shops minimum. Sometimes it’s a shame, really, because these are nice enough places but there’s little to warrant actually going. Such is the case today, and so I’m linking together a few close locales to make a usable whole.

Tracing its roots back to beyond the Domesday Book, Hampstead is synonymous with cash; wonga; dollar. It’s home to the most millionaires in the country, it’s known for its musical, literary, artistic connections: Wikipedia’s list of past and former residents is startlingly impressive. So, rich pickings, right? Weeell… not really. There’s just a mere smattering in the region, even heading down past the bottom of the Heath towards Gospel Oak.

Nevertheless, it’s worth a poke. Oxfam in Hampstead itself is just down Gayton Road. One of the less interesting side streets in the Village, it’s good only for the Oxfam, but while you’re here, be sure to have a wander up the cobbled streets off the High Street, Flask Walk with its impenetrable bookshop, Perrin’s Lane at the bottom of which can be found the famous Hampstead crepe cart. I like Hampstead best at Christmas: mooch through the antiques markets, pop into the nice smelling coffee shops, browse the slightly-incongruous flea market, head to the Everyman for a festive showing of It’s A Wonderful Life (they didn’t show it this year, I was quite put out). Oxfam itself is narrow but windy – board games, ladies clothes and books are in good supply here.

Head down Rosslyn Hill, past the boutiques and the big houses, and you meet a fork in the road. It’s walking distance, if you’re fit. Turn left down Pond Street, and you’re pootling along the bottom of the wonderful Hampstead Heath. Here you’ll find The Charity Shop, a fairly standard rich person’s affair.

Wending your way around the vast Royal Free Hospital you can end up by Belsize Park tube station, and a small row of shops: boutiques, florists, gourmet burger restaurants, a tiny cinema. There’s a large and high-class Marie Curie here, from whence came one of my favourite charity shop buys: a cow-themed cappucino maker. Nice.

All in all, trawling around the charity shops of this part of North London is more effort than it’s worth, especially when you’ve Golders Green and West Hampstead nearby. Unless you’ve got some reason to come, you’re best off going for a hike on the heath.

Find: Hampstead & Belsize Park @ Google Maps
Transport: Hampstead or Belsize Park on the Northern Line, or Hampstead Heath on London Overground
Consume with: a crepe of course.
Visit: the many and varied delights of Hampstead Heath have to put it at first port of call
Overall Rating: two coffee machines

Windsor

photo by se71: click for se71’s photostream

The very regal home of the coincidentally-named Windsor family is, officially, a Money kind of a town. The station is named Royal Windsor, the cafe is Windsor Great Perk: you get the idea. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes not so good – it seems to depend on the level of the Money.

Fortunately, in Windsor, it’s a good thing – here we have a decent number of well-stocked charity shops, and a nice day out to boot. We parked in Victoria Street – don’t be tempted by the Park and Ride if you’re just here for the charity shops: £2.90 will get you three hours of multistorey, town centre joy. What more does one need?

The bulk of shopping action in Windsor takes places on Peascod Street, which descends from the castle down to Victoria Street. Diverting from the main drag will reveal a fancy market-type affair in the old station concourse, a large shopping centre, Waitrose, a Fenwicks, another, more Are You Being Served? style department store, and various fancy lady clothes shops. Needless to say, I was not found there.

First is a small PDSA, which complements its small selection of books and cds with a few decent clothes racks and, confusingly, dog beds. Almost nextdoor is Cancer Research, a confusingly laid-out branch this. Both these shops, like so many others, have gone down the route of augmenting traditional jumble-style produce with new things, gifts, sundries and the like. Normally, I’m not a fan – Cancer Research’s selection tends to be significantly naff, while PDSA’s is a bit more functional, but again, not so cool. Still, a cheap pair of slippers and gloves from the PDSA served a very useful function on this bitter New Years’ Eve.

Next up, an excellent Oxfam. The ground floor is a big old mix of Fair Trade, mens shoes and lady dresses, etc., but downstairs is an entire floor of books – this we like. Today it was locked (cruel fate mocks me again), but I’ve been before: good stuff. The shop is housed in a low-beamed old building, one of the cutest in town.

On the other side of the road is a rangy Hospice shop, and a large Save the Children (again, closed today, but it’s provided baskets in the past), then that leaves a sizeable British Heart Foundation: this isn’t vast, but it’s got a good stock – today it yielded up a novel by Italo Calvino for me, fruit based beverage for the lady; or at least, a very pretty frock.

All in all, Windsor’s well worth visiting, and makes a good base for some pootling around this part of Berkshire – we’ll be returning to Chertsey and Egham in future, for instance.

Find: Windsor @ Google Maps

Transport: two stations: Windsor & Eton Central (First Great Western), Windsor & Eton Riverside (South West Trains)

Consume with: Maud’s Ice Cream

Visit: Windsor Castle, of course

Overall rating: four chocolate fondue sets

Winchester

Winchester, by wolfiewolf

Winchester is my furthest venture south yet in the name of Charity Shop Tourism, yet it’s arrival has been a long time coming. Winchester’s my home town – and on a weekend exploring home towns, I can safely say it’s a posh place to call ones home. For Winchester is a genuinely historic city, full of ecclesiastic monuments and medieval remnants, Roman remains, grandiose edifices and cobbled streets. It’s curious how much I find that I took for granted when I lived here (for my first nineteen years) – showing a guest around now, it’s far more impressive than I took note of at the time.

Nevertheless, though sightseeing (or at least, sightshowing) was on the agenda, as always my constant companion and I were mosly on the trail of charity shop finds. We had high hopes – my memories of the subject were hazy, but positive, and the location would fit our theory of the more money, the better the bargain.

Well, it works in Essex, but Winchester is so much a Money kind of place, that the scales have tipped over the other side, and the charity shops end up expensive, and poorly-stocked. Commencing on the upper reaches of the High Street, Marie Curie and Age Concern sit opposite a butcher shops whose slogan is “meat for the millions, and the millionaires”. It speaks volumes. The shops are of standard size but the selection is poor – books and cds are particularly underrepresented across the city (with one notable exception, of which more later), and the tat shelves are not heaving.

We hoped for more joy in the cluster around the junction of Parchment Street and St Georges Street. Most notable here is the Oxfam bookshop, inwhich I spent many long hours as a younger man. Even then, Oxfam knew how to price things, but now they’re razor sharp: your average CD (e.g. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Fever To Tell clocks in at £4.99, a paperback (Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s noted The Leopard) at £3.99. There’s a vast selection, and on balance more interesting than Waterstones in the Brooks Centre – but a bargain you will nary find).

Better luck would be had in the two Cancer Research shops, one on each side of the busy road, or the Scope next door, or the Help The Aged (a black velvet skirt and a CS Lewis, £1.39, from here). Better still is the large and ramshackle Naomi House Hospice shop – excellent, I’m told, for toys, passable for clothes. Less luck would be had in the main Oxfam shop, on the High Street next to Cross Keys Passage – hardly a secondhand item in sight, just a small colour-coded selection of ladies clothes, and vast ranges of Fair Trade produce. Next door, the British Heart Foundation is better stocked.

Winchester scores well for sheer volume of charity shops. They’re not always well-stocked, and they’re certainly not too bargainous, but the quantity counts in Winchester’s favour – you’re almost sure to find something.

Find: Winchester at Google Maps
Transport: Winchester station, or the Megabus
Consume with: cappucino cake and a coffe in Cafe Centro
Visit: the Cathedral is an essential part of the day out, but also go to St Cross Hospital for your Wayfarer’s Dole of bread and beer.
Overall rating: three travel chess sets