Thrift stores & markets

There are shops run by charities of all kinds: national ones such as Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, Age UK, Cancer Research etc plus local organisations often hospices.

You can search for them at the Charity Retail Association website, at least those who are members.

http://www.capitalcarboot.com

Portobello Road Market is NOT ALL antiques. Check out the area between Westway to Golbourne Road for clothing if that's what ur seeking.

I'd check out Old Spitafields and Haynes Lane Markets.

Neighborhoods with good charity shops Highgate, Holloway Road, Shepard's Bush, Streatham High Road and Putney High Street.

Charity shops to peruse are OxFam, SaveTheChildren, Cancer Reasearch, All Aboard, Traid

The high street of any London suburb (and indeed any town outside of London) will have a good number of charity shops. But you won't find many in central London.

Oxfam have a few "vintage" ones where they cherry-pick some of the most stylish clothes. They also have a number of bookshops.

But most charity shops will have a mixed selection of clothes, books & bric-a-brac and make for excellent browsing.

Go to Portobello on Friday. It's far less busy than Saturday, which is the big antiques market day. As you walk along Portobello Road, you'll actually pass a couple of charity shops (Oxfam, British Red Cross, Cancer,) and you'll be able to pop in and see their stock too.

Six Great Charity Shop Crawls in London

I've bookmarked this article ^^^ as a resource for my next London trip, in October. I'll probably just keep an eye out for charity shops as I roam around London on my way to other places. Or, I might set out on a charity shop crawl of my own. I get kinda spontaneous like that on my solo trips. :-)

I hope you will check in after your trip, and tell us if you got to any charity shops and if so, how it went.

Happy hunting!

We stayed in Walthamstow, one of the outer areas of east London, for about 5 weeks one summer on a home exchange. It's an extremely ethnically/culturally diverse community with an INCREDIBLE street market. It's the longest one in England and has been going since the 1800s. Because of the makeup of the town it's a very interesting market to go to. Part farmer's market, part flea market, with things for sale from all over the world and more. Not a lot of tourists....just local people doing their thing.
Walthamstow is at the northernmost end of the Victoria Line. Get off at Walthamstow Central and go left at the top of the escalator, up the stairs, across the bus lanes, past the barber shop, and you'll be in the market. It's going Tues - Saturday but the best day, IMO, is Saturday.

Thank you so much for all of the great suggestions. I absolutely cannot wait to see what treasures we can find. Will let you know how it went.
Happy travels!