Shelter

Having been to this shop several times now, I’d call myself a fan. One whole half-​shop of lovely reasonably priced quality clothing, a wondrously well-​stocked and alphabetised DVD cavern and an entire shop next door just for books? Yes; yes please!
It is a near certainty that I’m going to spend money here when I stop by. The quality of stock is excellent and I really like the layout; the shop is spacious and the departments are clear. It’s just the kind of shop which lends itself to a good old fashioned browse. And I like that. — I’m not a ‘quick browse and move on’ kind of gal, I’m very much of the ‘rummage for hidden treasure’ variety, and, my oh my, could I lose track of time in here.
I’m pretty sure they’ve got two changing rooms which is a major bonus too. When in Edinburgh; when in Stockbridge; when on Raeburn Place, I can really see myself, firstly, in shop number one for a new frock, and, secondly, shop number two for a new book.
Likely there will be more temptations along the way, and resisting will be an impossible feat!

I can’t tell if having two phenomenal used bookshops within a stones throw of the house is a good thing… but I do know that I’ve managed to fill a bookshelf before buying other house essentials. Like glassware…
Can’t speak to the other half of this charity shop but oh lordy, if you’re a bookworm, pop yourself in here. It’s impeccably organized with an excellent paperback fiction section. Within 15 minutes, I had six books in hand and could have happily taken more but 1. didn’t have a bag to carry more home in and 2. it’s literally around the corner from my flat… future buying sprees are imminent.
Like Oxfam up the road, the selection is excellent and I picked up some rare finds of my favourite authors. What’s more, is it also has an excellent poetry section — which seems to be more of the norm here in the city, but i’m still delighted by it.
The prices are fair — a novel will set you back £2−3.
I’m bound to pop in again soon to take a boo at the antique collection — though they are understandably priced a little higher, there were a few leather bounds that caught my eye.
All in all, another delightful find for this bonefide bibliophile. Well worth a stop in and hey, if my crazy book habit helps fund a good charity? Bonus points!

A review of the Shelter bookshop:
The pricing system they operate with here is hard to fathom and it’s certainly not in line with the systems used elsewhere in Edinburgh. As far as I can tell the newer it is the more expensive it is with the result being that a paperback Bobby Charlton England Years (£6) is three times the price of a hardback Charles Dickens (£2). Don’t get me wrong I like Bobby Charlton and have his hardback Manchester United Years but that only cost me £2 from elsewhere.
The result of this is that you are likely to get some bargains that have simply been undervalued just so long as you are vigilant and know what you are looking for. Other than this though, the books here aren’t particularly cheap and for second hand books are very much overpriced. I personally am more likely to shop elsewhere.

I had to pry myself away from this place. With a lot of force and uncharacteristic self-​control. And it wasn’t because of the clothes or the shoes. It was because of their delicious record collection. I even had to stop myself from flicking through the whole collection. I found a record that made my heart stop a few times: «Elvis Sings Country Favourites.» Awesome? Awesome is an understatement. What a find! I had to put it down and run away. I’m probably gonna go back and flirt with the idea of buying it soon enough though.
The clothes looked standard, though I also didn’t allow myself to have much of a look through them, for the sake of the wallet I’d forgotten at home.
Stockbridge is, and if it isn’t it should be, renowned for its charity shops. I mean, the area is tiny, but it sometimes seems like there’re more charity shops than people there. Which works fine for me, as it means there’re less people to buy the things I covet from afar. I’m a hoarder. And Shelter nourishes this part of me when it should be starving.

Yesterday I paid another visit to another well known charity shop in Stockbridge, Shelter. Now, you must be thinking, not another ordinary charity shop! But stop right there! Stockbridge has a habit of throwing up some brilliant charity shops, and is, I think, the best area to go to in Edinburgh to have a wonder around some charity shops and pick up a bargain.
As, has already been stated, you are struck by the large size of this shop, from the outside you would not think that it would be that large. The shop stocks all sorts of items, a brilliant place to go to get lost within the many colour orientated clothes, the second hand books, the crazy amount of DVDs, the dodgy selection of Cd’s and much, much more!
This Shelter shop reminds me of a Woolies! It stocks almost everything and is great for finding that unusual, odd item that you have been looking for. The prices are great and the money all goes towards a great cause!
So, same old story really, another great charity shop in Stockbridge again!

Wow. This Shelter is a bit of a beast!
In entirely a positive light, of course! Split up into male and female selections, this shop continues to set the trend of high quality charity shops on Raeburn Place. With all clothing divided by colour and neatly displayed, it looks more like a high street clothing store than a charity shop. They sell everything, from a number of toys to a larger selection of LP’s, but its most lucrative area has to be its massive DVD collection! It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a charity shop and covered an entire wall! Usually you can hope to pick up a small number of knock off DVD’s from around the year 2000 (including some episode pilots from cancelled shows), but this Shelter knocked all other charity shop movie offerings out the ball park. With as many DVD’s than Vinyl Villains, there were a ton of newer releases (including Be Kind, Rewind!) for prices akin with Fopp’s. And when all is said and done, the money is going to a better cause.
For nostalgia (and those of you who still have video players) they also had a ton of old movies on tape — a dying trend, since a number of charity shops don’t accept videos anymore. I found some old Care Bears collections (daw) which would make good talking points for my future kids, who won’t know the magic of watching a crackling, lower quality video, or hear the hum of it as it manually rewinds in the machine. Brings back memories.
This Shelter was decked out nicely and I liked its style!

Next door to their general charity shop, Shelter have opened a fantastic little shop exclusively for some of their more valuable and specialised books. It’s crammed higgeldy piggeldy with thousands upon thousands of books, ranging from cheap paperbacks, first edition Harry Potters and Victorian sheet music. Prices are reasonable and the volunteer staff are friendly. Its crammed chock-​a-​block at the weekends, but the relaxing backgroung music makes it a pleasurable experience nonetheless.