A treasure trove of second hand & vintage items!…read more This is a charity shop which funds the work of the Mustard Tree. They support vulnerable people across Greater Manchester in a variety of ways. This shop is a couple of minutes walk down Oldham Road, just out of the end of the Northern Quarter. They have a huge range of second hand items including furniture, white goods (but not cookers), clothing, bric a brac, electricals and entertainment items like vinyl. Everything is very reasonably priced as you would expect and they get some amazing vintage items in. They offer delivery for either £5 or £10 depending on the distance which is much cheaper than most other local charities. They also accept donations of items and can collect furniture for free on their vans. Call their office to book in a collection of you want to donate or you drop things like clothing off at their site. Check the website for opening times. It's well worth the extra small walk out of the main city centre to have a rummage in this hidden gem!

This place has furniture so laughably cheap I could, well, laugh. As the proud new owner of a small…read morehouse I visited here one Saturday to kit the place out. I left with: 1 double bed (frame) 1 single bed (frame) 1 double wardrobe 1 single wardrobe 1 chest of drawers 1 bookcase 4 kitchen chairs 1 hallway unit All look very nice, all very functional. Combined cost: £253. Add on a tenner and they delivered the whole lot, carried each piece into the correct room etc. NB: CASH ONLY. They know where the nearest ATM is, but don't get caught out.

What a name. The rehabilitation of retro garments... I'm SO there…read more Dinky? I'll say. There's a lot to be said for small vintage shops as you can do all your rummaging quick sharp, and this place is perfect for that very purpose. As previous Yelpers have confirmed the stock rotation is indeed frequent, so be sure to pop in any time you're in the Northern Quarter. One of the things I love about this titchy boutique is the shoes... the brunette and I were drooling over little red pixie boots for quite some time. There are plenty of customised one-offs and second hand garments to choose from, and no doubt anything you buy from there will attract envious attention from friends. Unfortunately it doesn't cater for men, however a great many high street fashion shops don't either, so I don't have a gargantuan issue with that. The staff are very friendly and appropriately quirky themselves, so if you're stuck for inspiration you can always have a gander at what they're wearing. Prices vary depending on the item but no label has made me gasp in agony thus far. And I had no idea about the buy one get one free sales, so thanks to Alexandra I'll certainly be looking out for those in the future! And who can resist aqua-marine, well, I can't. This store has done extremely well in making itself conspicuous amongst the many shabby chic boutiques along Oldham Street, and it has definitely earned its place as one of the shops that very much makes the Northern Quarter feel like the Camden of Manchester. Chin chin to you, Retro Rehab.

Great little vintage shop. Great place for if you want a real one off piece. There is no rummaging…read morethrough piles of old clothes here, all clothes are pressed and ready to wear straight from the shop. Sorry boys but you wont find much here but hey at least they put the most important people first! Very often this place puts on a sale which is 'buy one get one free' so keep an eye out girlie's :)

Great spot for shopping. Lots of treasures. We loved all of the different businesses in building…read moreacross 4 floors.

Back in the days of Madchester, Afflecks Palace was the place to go to get cool flares, psychadelic…read moreshirts, sunhats and all the right threads. Rumour has it Urban Splash founder Tom Bloxham even had a stall here selling bootleg Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays tees. These days, Afflecks is a bit of a ghost town. There are still dozens of stalls selling everything from vintage and secondhand clothes to military wear, drugs paraphanelia, henna tattoos, wind-chimes and furniture. Sadly, there aren't as many old goths, rockers, emo teens and ageing punks as there used to be and you can sometimes walk round the whole building without seeing anyone other than the staff!

It's a nice business and the staff are professional . They treat everybody equally. It's a good…read moreplace to shop. I will recommend them to all my friends too

If I was working at Pop Boutique I'd be tempted to turn off the neon sign that boldly encourages…read moreretro lovers to 'Come and worship'. Once the hippest vintage shop in the city, PB now looks like a ghost of it's former self. The window displays look tired and empty and the stock looks exactly the same as it did years ago. By this I mean, exactly the same flared and bootleg jeans, cords, psychadelic dresses and tracksuit tops. In short - the shop needs to get it's groove back and fast if it wants to hold on to it's Superfly reputation!

So there I was, wandering round the Northern Quarter looking for something new, and POOF it…read moreappeared! In a shadowy doorway near Leo's gross Fish Bar, is a little staircase, lined with cool music posters and a couple of outfits on hangers. To be honest, I didn't hold out much hope as I descended the stairs. The sign above the door isn't the best (though it gets kudos for being simple) and, let's face it, vintage shops are ten-a-penny nowadays, and Manchester's NQ selection is already so good, it'd be hard to live up to that. But, I am glad to report, Bratt's does it admirably. Located in a cellar, basically, Bratt's takes advantage of the exposed brick work and low ceilings, and the arched alcoves in the wall are used as features; one of them houses much of the homewares selection (more on that later) and the other has been curtained off as a fitting room, which is almost too cool for words. It's the best fitting room I've seen since Rags to Bitches' silky tent. In terms of stock, Bratt's has really got it. Endless racks of good quality, well-cared-for vintage merchandise line the tardis-like cellar, organised, by style and material. So you'll find all the cricket jumpers together, offset by a great collection of retro trackie-tops and a bunch of good-looking furs (faux, or no? I dunno.) There's a multitude of jolly good womenswear, from all eras and epochs, and a seriously decent selection of knitwear. There's also a fantastic array of upcycled dresses and skirts by Love Me Again. I love upcycling, and you should too! The homewares, though mainly concentrated in one area, are scattered round the shelves. The awesomeness is too much to list, and I'm sure it's changed since last week, but expect to see vintage telephones, Atari consoles, the odd coffee table and some very nice mirrors. The perfect addition to any bijous dwelling, and the sort of thing I yearn for, but cannot have, in my modernist gaff. Sigh. Anyway, if you've got a kitsch aesthetic going on, you could do a lot worse than to pop to Bratt's for a vintage milk jug. (£3!) Not only is the stock great, the people here are fab too. The manager was more than happy to have a wee chat about the place, and told me that originally he'd planned to open a bar there. Thank God he didn't; this vintage shop is far too good to miss out on. As well as Mr Bratt (j'assume) there's a lovely female shop assistant who wafted around being the epitome of vintaahhhge styyyyle, dahhhhling, making it look totally effortless. She's hard to hate, though, because she's so damn lovely. Considering the instant awesomeness of Bratt's, only two weeks after opening, I think this place is one that will go quickly from hidden gem to firm fave, and rightly so.

What a really cool vintage addition. Downstairs you go and explore and be fascinated and prepared…read moreto shell out on some very amazing pieces. Fancy a batman mobile telephone? A very old sewing machine? Listening to Rock FM and admiring the brickwork, the poster work and breathing in that vintage smell? Get yourself down to Bratts. Brilliance.

Unless you're off to the jobcentreplus next door, there is little reason why you would walk past…read morethis little charity shop located in Chorlton Place - the eyesore of a shopping centre some people want to knock down to build a supermarket and others want to preserve due to the independent shops it houses. The Red Cross shop is, however, worth a look, and is much better-stocked than the other Red Cross shop on Wilbraham Road, where they stock odd furniture items and the odd vinyl record. This shop is packed to the brim with clothes and books, and there are always bargains to be had - the cheapest items are often displayed outside the shop. I don't like the thought of paying over the odds for a greetings card, which is essentially a piece of card. I do make an exception when I buy them from charity shops and this one has a good selection (especially for old people). I went into this shop on Halloween and heard somebody asking if they had any wedding dresses which they could use as a costume. The friendly Red Cross lady said that they were out of wedding dresses but went out the back to check if they had any suitable bridesmaids dresses. You wouldn't even get that level of customer service in most high street shops!

This is like heaven for me! I love buying second hand clothes and I feel like charity shops are…read moregetting more expensive and I'm finding less good stuff, and most vintage shops are overpriced and seem to be stocking more and more 'reworked' stuff, ie. men's shirts cut into crop tops, which is not for me personally. There's a pretty clear pricing structure in here - if it has a black tag it's £4 or 3 for £10, if it has a blue tag it's £6 or 2 for £10, and if it has a pink tag it's £10. Most stuff seems to be blue tagged, and the only things I saw that were pink tagged were the coats. I'd say that's a pretty good deal for a decent wool coat though! The stock seems to be quite varied, some of it is high street stuff (H&M, Topshop, Primark etc) but a lot of it is actually older stuff that might be considered vintage. A lot of stuff has the tags cut out so you've no idea where it's come from so (as with everything) you will want to actually consider what it's worth. I managed to get a really cool dress and skirt both for £10 and they both look really unique and I think I got a pretty good deal. Losing one star because some of the stuff on the racks is crumpled and probably not as clean as it could be, and because it's cash only (no big deal as there's a cashpoint just a moment away I guess). Oh, and there's a sign up saying no refunds but I saw a woman managing to exchange something - I don't think that's a policy but it's worth a shot.

A total god send, to say I love this place would be an understatement! The Thrift Shop has helped…read moreme restock my wardrobe (and expand it..I literally have 2 wardrobes now..). The items are clearly marked and you can get 3 for £10, 2 for £10 or 1 for £10 dependant on the items e.g. shirts tend to be 3 for £10 while as coats can be £10 each. During the sale many items are £1! They stock a mix of second hand high street and vintage items. I've picked up some very unusual, high quality pieces of clothing here and I love that I can get such amazing pieces at such bargain prices, and they're usually a one off which I like. My gold ticket finds have to be a $385 designer dress with the label still on for £5, as well as a beautiful cord 50's maxi frock coat for £10. I mean COME ONE!

In need of a suitably colourful Hawaiian shirt for an event, it was thanks to 'ask Twitter' that I…read morebecame aware of Blue Rinse's existence. Their flagship store opened in Leeds in 1997 and they subsequently opened their Manchester one a few years later. Though technically they're in the NQ, they're just a stone's throw from Piccadilly Gardens so have a higher foot fall of customers passing by. Primarily selling vintage clothes and accessories (though they also have garments that they have cut up and restitched - their 'Remade in England' range) - we were bowled over at how much there was on offer. Racks, racks and more racks of stuff up to the ceiling. I think if we weren't running against the clock we could have spent a couple of hours rifling through the clobber and trying some of the many 80s shell suits, bum bags, sportswear and clothing our parents were probably rocking when Margaret Thatcher was in power. Shoulder pads galore, ladies. Come here if you want to look like your Dad from 1983, fellas. Having found a load of suitably gaudy (yet brilliant) Hawaiian shirts and by process of elimination getting to my preferred choice, it was just a case of paying up (they accept both cash and card) and I left a very happy customer - £15 for what is probably a unique item which will truly bedazzle all who see it at Caribbean parties for years to come ;) Tip: they have their own eBay store for online ordering http://stores.ebay.co.uk/bluerinsevintageleeds

Beautiful shop spread over two floors, I prefer this location to the old Piccadilly Gardens spot…read more The inside is quirky cool with lots of interesting fixtures and beautiful displays. The clothes are well organised and they have a decent bag collection downstairs. The prices vary but overall it's pretty inexpensive. I prefer The Thrift Store on Piccadilly Gardens simply for the prices but you can find some real gems in here.

I'm a huge fan of Cow. It's rare that I actually come out with clothes but I can easily waste time…read morehere, rummaging through the numerous racks of clothes, imagining a life where it would be okay to own more than two denim jackets.* It's smack bang in the middle of the Northern Quarter and, yes, not everything here is especially vintage. The reworked items are hugely popular, especially when co-ords were trending (they may well still be...) and the current passion for denim doesn't seem to be letting up. There's a whole wall dedicated to belts and bags, with shoes dotted throughout the store, so perfect for accessories lovers. Be sure to venture downstairs as a whole other treasure trove await and, although it's split between men / women, don't let that stop you from perusing both sections. Prices range massively but my most recent £12 Ralph Lauren denim top felt like a bit of a steal, especially considering the quality compared to most of my other items from the likes of H&M. One thing which is really, really great to see is their partnership with The Monthly Gift. You just donate a pack of sanitary items, which are then distributed to women in need, and you received 10% off your purchase. Doing good and feeling good. *This life is totally okay. Just not for my current bank balance.

Some fairy stories were dreamed up to comfort children, teach them about values and virtue and make…read morethem feel that all is well with the world. Others were written with the sole aim of scaring children into an early stroke, haunting their dreams forever more and terrifying them into submission (I'm looking at YOU, Hans Christian Anderssen). This tale is the former. Only it isn't just for children. And it's not just a tale. Okay, I might be gushing, but is it every day that you walk past a cute little charity shop with a sign outside that mentions tea, coffee and free wifi? Ohh, Withington. A place where strangers say good morning to you. *Melts* Intrigued, I hopped inside, laptop charged and raring to go, to discover the legend of Barnabus. Now, Barnabus is a charity which helps the homeless. All is explained on the wall of its little coffee corner, which is just too adorable for words. And just when you think it can't get any better, it does. I rocked up to the counter and asked for a green tea. I don't think I've ever encountered such a pleasant, chirpy, happy and chatty group of ladies than those who run Barnabus. They were niceness personified. The lady who served me engaged me in conversation about herbal teas and got the wifi passcode for me post-haste, and they let me put my laptop down while they brought the tea over to me which was only a tiny distance. Such a sweet gesture. Another huggable touch was the plate of Tesco's own Penguin biscuits, priced at 10p a pop if you want a snack. They serve up two herbal teas alongside normal English, and lattes, cappuccinos and hot chocolates as well as regular coffee. The soundtrack swung between Savage Garden, ABBA, Pet Shop Boys and The Bangles, and when I'd earned a break I took the opportunity to look around the shop. It wasn't long before I was back at the counter with a Judy Garland LP for 65p and a £1 vase. Er, keep the change much! I'll be back with frequency. Barnabus is a unique little gem, and I'm so happy to have it on my doorstep.