Josie Long's investigative study of London's charity shops continues apace, with another dispatch from Hackney...

Well Street in Hackney is a really brilliant place to visit. There are lots of good small independent shops (good greengrocers, newsagents, Turkish supermarket) plus a good number of the Miscellaneous Value Stores (MVS’s) which can be found all around the better parts of London.

You know an MVS because it seems like a pound shop, but has larger, inexplicable items around the £20 mark (Eric Cantona fur rug, wicker table). There are also a couple of very cool businesses – a father/son graffiti art bike repair outlet, for example, and some nice old shop fronts.

But its charity shops are the main draw…

Paragon Trust, 223 Well St, E9 6RG**

This place is my favourite find in Hackney so far. It’s marvellous! The shop is full to bursting and new stuff is coming in all of the time. There’s a back room with furniture and electricals (mainly 90s Aiwa hi-fis with stickers attached saying “TAPE DOESN'T WORK”) and a fantastic mini-library with some brilliant academic and old-fashioned steals. I bought several 30s and 40s books about architecture and classical composers. It made me feel a full step closer to being sophisticated, enigmatic and informed, for a pound. I’ve also bought two lovely dining chairs for a tenner, and some fine mismatched crockery.

The shop boasts a large library of generic videos, recorded by one ardent film fan and bad speller in RAGING CAPITALS and hysteric punctuation (FRIENS!!, DEEP INPACT!!!!). They look almost as if they’re protesting too much, that if you actually bought any of them you’d unearth only the worst kind of Japanese pornography.

The two women inside are formidable, friendly middle -aged east London ladies. The man who minds the furniture outside, I saw having a fiery row with someone the other day, but sat with me in a pretend tea party to test out my dining chairs, so it depends on when you catch him I suppose.

Granny treasure – 4.5.
Hipster steal potential – 3.5. There’s a high chance they’ll have stolen the good stuff but there’s still a good amount of stock.
Price – 5. Great value.
Range – 3.5. Not many good clothes but otherwise superb.

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Hackney Scouts, 9 Terrace Road (just off Well St), E9 7ES**

Like Cassland Crescent, the beautiful row of houses round the corner, this shop could easily be in Hampstead or Ladbroke Grove or some other sickeningly pretty place that I will never be able to afford. It looks like a chichi second-hand boutique from the outside. And like those boutiques and houses it’s closed to me all of the bloody time: the sign on the door says “open Wed-Sat 11-4, Sun “are you joking!?”.

Every time I’ve tried to review it it’s been closed, but I am certain it’s a good shop as it has a huge Welsh dresser full of crockery and a nicely displayed selection of clothes. I wouldn’t be surprised if it also housed a macrobiotic café.

STOP PRESS! I went in! And to be honest it is great for plates, but a little less exciting for everything else. And the back room has only got sideboards and not those noodles they make out of pumpkin. So do go if you need nice plates or those bowls that were very popular in the 1980s with different soup recipes on them as there are loads!
Granny treasure – 3.5.
Hipster steal potential – 1. It’s not open often enough for them to get at it.
Price – Unsure, but didn’t seem bad.
Range – 3.