Cute op shops in England

Sadly I did not find any good treasure in my recent forage in English op-shops (sob sob!). I did have luck in the Scottish ones though (see this link for my post on that). In any case, I want to share some photos from the op-shops I visited. The ones pictured are located in the district around Warwick, a town near Coventry in England. Warwick is a pretty town with lovely parks and a huge castle which is very popular with tourists. One of my favourites was the 'Cats Protection' Op shop in Kenilworth which is a lovely little village right near Warwick. I am very much a dog person, but I thought the name of the shop was cute nevertheless!

The shop was fairly typical of many op-shops in England (and perhaps also Australia?) in that there was a lot of contemporary, second-hand clothing, but not a great deal of vintage clothes. It was still very nice to browse in though. What has struck me about English op-shops is that they are generally really immaculate and have great store window displays. The clothes also appear to have been washed, they definitely do not have that musty smell you can sometimes get with donated clothes.

Store window display, 'Cats Protection' Op shop, Kenilworth, England

There were actually a surprisingly high number of op-shops in the area I visited (Kenilworth, Leamington Spa and Warwick). I think I counted about 15 or so, which is a lot for the area's population.

Oxfam, which runs lots of op shops in the UK and Ireland did have some nice vintage treasure in its Kenilworth shop, but it was only clocks and bric-a-brac, which obviously doesn't travel well in luggage to Australia. 

 Oxfam Op Shop, Kenilworth, England - notice the lovely window display

This Oxfam shop had a lovely clock in its window, but it was well-above my budget at 65 pounds (which is currently about $110).

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into op-shops in England - stay tuned for more posts on my travels, including Paris and Dublin !!