Inspired by the popular Facebook group ‘Charity Shop Sh*t’, I spent an afternoon charity shopping in Romford town centre in search of the quirkiest knick-knacks and most unusual donations.
The shops – including Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and Saint Francis Hospice – did not disappoint.
Arguably the biggest hidden gem I found was an Austin J40 pedal car, dating back to the 1960s, which featured in the window display of Haven House Children’s Hospice in South Street.
Iterations of the luxury toy car from the early 1960s are sold for as much as £13,000 on the official Austin pedal car website.
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The vintage Austin J40 has been “lovingly restored”, a volunteer at Haven House told me, and will be put up for auction.
It forms part of the World Book Day window display, which the volunteer said is “really important” for the shop given that it raises money for a children’s charity.
At the Saint Francis Hospice shop, also in South Street, a collection of posing pigs were dotted around one of the shelves, including one lounging with a party hat and another reading a book titled “Things that go grunt in the night”.
But Saint Francis Hospice area manager Clare Hunt said the most interesting donation they have had across their Havering shops recently was an antique enamel sign for Winalot dog food.
She said she assumed it was from a “man cave”, but the person who donated it told her it was once pinned up in an actual dog house.
Opposite in the Cancer Research UK shop there was another donation for dog lovers, in the form of a mug reading “everyone needs a pug mug”.
At British Heart Foundation in South Street, customers can bag themselves a “beer lovers” puzzle, a collection of Compare the Meerkat soft toys or miniature clay car collectibles.
However, volunteers at the Market Place branch told me about a much more unusual donation they received about six months ago: a Victorian toilet in a wooden box.
