The Dress Shop

At first glance the dress shop is exactly what you would expect, a shop which deals with the selling of and alteration of beautiful women’s dresses. However, on closer inspection of this Raddlebarn road business there is far more than meets the eye. Inside there are all sorts of strange knick knacks which appear to be the kind of things more akin to a charity shop or perhaps some sort of bric a brac sale. If you look hard enough there’s always something pleasing and the novelty of the whole experience makes a visit to the dress shop quite unforgettable. There can’t be too many stores around doubling up in this manner so for that reason alone this place is worth a look.

This is a strange little place, but it’s worth popping your head around the door to have a look. Essentially it’s a dress repair and alterations business, as the window display and name of the shop would suggest. You can see a seamstress or two working away at the back of the shop. I’ve never had a dress altered there since I don’t own or wear dresses, but what makes this shop interesting to visit is that recently it has started doubling up as an self-​titled ‘Indoor Car Boot Sale’. There is a baffling array of bric-​à-​brac, toys, books and clothes for sale that make it look like the store room of a charity shop. You’ll need to dig amongst the organised chaos to find anything, but it’s a nice place to go hunting for an oddity. My son likes to mooch about in here and often finds a small toy or some other thing that he likes the look of, and these can be picked up for a few pence.