Vintage Shops in the North

Charlotte Rowland

When it comes to vintage shopping, browsing is key, and these stores, included for their wealth of paraphernalia as well as their individual keen eye for quality goods, know it. Some are spacious and minimal, but more often, they are havens of trinkets, treasures and tiny collectables, crammed into nooks and crannies, like at Vintage Village Stockport, or, spreading outdoors, as at The Makers Market, Northern Quarter. You’re asked, indirectly, to have a good rummage, getting hands-on with what could be your next wardrobe piece or antique. Not knowing what you could find is the fun of it, and, whether you leave loaded with an array of bits and pieces you didn’t know you needed, or empty-handed, you will feel that sense of having supported a tradition regardless, with many of these shops invested in retaining the reusability of individual items in particular.

They say what goes around comes around and, as far as vintage goes, it certainly, for better or worse, does. The other layer to shopping in shops like these, including Walk the Line Vintage, Nantwich, Thrifty Store, Sheffield and Blue Rinse, Leeds, is the satisfaction of knowing you’ve recycled an object which already has a story, adding to its history merely by picking it up. If you’ve never buried yourself in a second-hand bookstore and flicked through the hardbacks to find dedications and love notes scrawled into the front pages from fifty years ago, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s things like this that add real sentiment to a practical good, and remind us of the community we are part of, and what the act of buying, giving and receiving is really about. That’s what the shops gathered here cap on, with each knowing, in their own way, the true value of their product, and how to extend and prolong that within the realms of their own new, curated, modern-day spaces.

Our top picks

Blue Rinse

Blue Rinse, 9-11 Call Ln, Leeds, LS1 7DH - Visit now

Blue Rinse is famed for its vintage fashion, on sale for reasonable prices and in good, like-new condition. Nationwide, the stores are packed with clothing from vying eras, with alpaca knits, quirky, left-alone 70s pieces and tartan shirts left to sit with the likes of branded Levi’s, redesigned corduroy and skirts with the hems taken-up.

Blue Rinse Leeds
CT

Vintage Village in Stockport

Vintage Village in Stockport, Stockport Covered Market Hall, Market Place, Stockport, SK1 1EU - Visit now

Vintage Village, Stockport is a medley of stalls, bits and bobs and irregular set-ups housed inside the old Market Hall at the crown of Stockport town centre. You can expect the unexpected here, as the stalls range so much in their appearance, as well as in their stock.

Red Brick Vintage

Red Brick Vintage, Stanhope Street, Liverpool, L8 5XJ - Visit now

Red Brick Vintage, Liverpool is a total vintage cavern. Stock lines the walls, piled up high, odds on top of ends, to give the feel of a real topsy-turvy, curious, eclectic space. When we say the warehouse is full-to-the-brim, we mean it, and we don’t just mean with products either.

Red Brick Vintage, Cains Brewery, Liverpool

GB Antiques Centre

GB Antiques Centre, Lancaster Leisure Park, Wyresdale Road, Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 3LA - Visit now

Let’s not beat about the bush. GB Antiques Centre is the country’s biggest indoor antiques and furniture centre. It attracts 22,000 visitors every year, who come to stock up and trade with the 120 dealers hosted regularly. The stock is beautiful, with much of it erring on the traditional side of vintage, with pieces reflecting the best of their original times. Think elegant porcelain, pottery, glass, paintings, dolls, fine art, mahogany chairs, walnut frames, ornate gold clocks and glassware.

GB Antiques Centre, Lancaster
Courtesy of GB Antiques Centre

Northern Quarter Makers Market

Northern Quarter Makers Market, Stevenson Square, Manchester, M1 1DB - Visit now

The Makers Market, Northern Quarter is a hub of activity. On the second Sunday of each month the square, a routinely lively and active corner at any rate, fills, ever more, with traders, artists and designers eager to show-off their homemade produce or found goods to just-as-eager shoppers.

Image courtesy of The Makers Market

The Antiques Centre in York

The Antiques Centre in York, 41 Stonegate, York, Yorkshire, YO1 8AW - Visit now

Antiques Centre, York, and ACY Vintage earns its stripes by taking up space, quite literally. With five showrooms spread across three floors, the amount of stock in here is staggering, and trade operates consistently. With a nod to the city, the antiques here are truly historic, representing unique and traditional design periods.

The Antiques Centre in York
Courtesy of The Antiques Centre York

Charabanc

Charabanc, 1 Olympia Builiding, Coronation Street, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY1 4NY - Visit now

Charabanc, Blackpool is a homeware and gift shop that sells a changing cycle of locally made produce and vintage regularly. The special touch to this one is that it is situated by the world famous Winter Gardens (featuring a ballroom, no less), putting it on the path of any visitor or tourist.

Charabanc blackpool
Charabanc

COW Vintage Manchester

COW Vintage Manchester, 61 Church Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M4 1PD - Visit now

No vintage shopping list would be complete without COW, one of the biggest and best vintage shops in the UK. Their handpicked clothes and accessories are ethically sourced from around the world, and span a good fifty years, from 60s mod attire right through to 00s revival pieces.

Revival Vintage Clothing

Revival Vintage Clothing, The Railway Sawmills, Burbeary Road, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD1 3UN - Visit now

Revival Vintage Clothing, Huddersfield is the go-to shop for hitting the truly-vintage spot. It’s a space lined with clothing which has been collected, assembled and amassed into an eclectic array of fabrics, patterns and colours, with no real agenda or custom other than to show the best and most varied of real secondhand material.

Courtesy of Revival Vintage Clothing

Grey n Pink Records

Grey n Pink Records, 57 Brook Street, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 3DZ - Visit now

Grey n Pink Records, Chester sells vinyl, and vinyl only. It’s no secret that there’s been a real surge for this type of music-collecting as of late, but this shop has heritage to it and then some, with over thirty years in the business behind it giving it a clear view on today’s occurrences, and what to stock to cater to new interest.

Grey n Pink Records Chester
Courtesy of Grey n Pink Records

Revo Records

Revo Records, 26 Westgate, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1DJ - Visit now

Revo Records is Halifax’s best spot for vinyl trade. In place for over thirty years, the shop’s pride and joy is it’s stability, and the way it has built up a solid customer-base and extensive renown over the many interactions and sales that have crossed the countertops.

Revo Records, Halifax
Image courtesy of Revo Records

Wakefield Antiques

Wakefield Antiques, The Ridings Shopping Centre, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF11DS - Visit now

Wakefield Antiques, The Ridings is the hot-spot space for locals of Wakefield to deal, create and collect products, craft and heirlooms. It’s a hub, and visitors, regular and new alike, flock to find the best of the best when it comes to vintage homeware.

Wakefield Antiques, The Ridings

Retro Newcastle

Retro Newcastle, 2 High Bridge, Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1EN - Visit now

Retro is a popular, quirky vintage shop selling one-off, unique pieces in a slinky interior close to Newcastle town centre. It’s hard to say what you can expect to find here because, as is the way with proper, reliable vintage shops, the stock changes regularly, but a lot of the garments chosen do tend to have something noticeably different about them.

Retro Clothing, Newcastle
Image courtesy of Retro Clothing, Newcastle.

Flip Vintage American Clothing

Flip Vintage American Clothing, 104 Westgate Road, Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE14AF - Visit now

Flip Vintage American Clothing is Newcastle’s longest established vintage store, importing genuine American clothing since 1978. With such a specific outlook, the stock is as expected. Military field jackets, kimonos, baseball jerseys, evening dresses, trench coats and western wear fill the rails, all of which are well worth a raid if you’re looking for something in this style.

Flip Vintage American Clothing
Flip Vintage American Clothing

Dagfields Craft and Antiques Centre

Dagfields Craft and Antiques Centre, Walgherton, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 7LG - Visit now

Dagfields Craft and Antiques Centre, Nantwich truly lives up to its name. There’s crafts, and antiques, and it’s all housed in a centre which is open seven days a week, making it so easy to pop in and explore. The latter is, really, what this place is for. Shelves are full with ornaments, candlesticks, pottery, vases and plates, and to really assess and survey the goods, you’re going to need time, and a good eye for detail.

Dagfields Craft and Antiques Centre
Dagfields

Walk the Line Vintage

Walk the Line Vintage, 4 Cocoa Yard, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5BL - Visit now

Walk the Line Vintage, Nantwich, is an independent, quirky gathering of stylish, unusual pieces, selected for their prints with a difference and classics with a twist. You can tell there’s a real eye behind each item here.

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Ryan Vintage

Ryan Vintage, 13 Duncan Street, Leeds, Yorkshire, LS1 6DQ - Visit now

Ryan Vintage, Leeds, is dubbed as the longest running, best value vintage clothes shop in the town. We’re listening. It’s easy to see how loved it may be, given the accessibility and ease with which stock can be trawled through and picked up. It’s a big, centrally-placed spot, with lines of long surfaces full of piled-high clothing, including anything and everything, with no strict measure about what to include.

Ryan Vintage Leeds
Creative Tourist
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