If you are in the West End, POP and Rokit in Covent Garden are worth a look, tho' avoid Vintage Showroom if you're a bit skint.

We have charity shops where people donate stuff for good causes like The British Heart Foundation and it's sold to raise funds. It's also 99% crap but the sheer volume guarantees those amazing and occasional finds, in fact it's 99.9% crap. However if you were an American who loved a certain type of British clothes these places would be utterly fascinating.

I mainly go in them for the second hand books but now and then I turn up a bit of Brooks!

We have Op-Shops (Opportunity Shops) so we go Opshopping. Its about 99.9865% crap. It used to be mainly small badly organised shops run by a few volunteers for a local charity - like a lost dogs home, animal rescue, kids in wheelchairs, mental health halfway houses, hospitals  etc and various odd small places.

Years ago they were good - especially to pick up a second hand dinner suit - there were millions of them some very well cut and of course no one wears a dinner suit out. (now clearly people wear them out at night but not out as in wear them out - aaah you know what I mean). Now days theres no dinner suits much second hand because theres no dinner suits much new. They were also good for retro/modernist furniture - lamps etc - until hipsters discovered them. I mean those dreadful hipsters that aren't hip like me. I used to get great silk ties for $1 - $2. Cufflinks and etc.

In the old days they were good to pick up nice sports jackets etc when a few people wore quality. Also in the good old days - they were small and local - meaning you could easily look through your local ones regularly or target ones from better dressed areas. Now its all chains and very few small local ones left. In addition now the big corporate charities - Salvos are the worst - have corporatised their stores and jacked prices up to obscene levels - for absolute crap  - worn crap shirts for $15, silly shit suits for $40.

Theres still some good finds if you know the stores to go to - mainly the solid upper middle income areas. Lots of T M Lewin and Trywhitt shirts hardly worn - I suspect ordering wrong size online. A few good cheap overcoats and outerwear.

I've been lucky as my work has me travelling around and I'd note shops a do a quick run through - once you know materials etc you can stand and eye a rack and know if its even worth feeling stuff - then feel it with a hand and if ok look further. I can do a quickie in 5 mins. Had some good finds, by accident - no one knows much about this stuff here, Vintage BB shirts, Pal Zilera suits, real deal Barracuda - that is too small! -etc.

There are a couple of vintage warehouses here that buy up big from USA and resell here. Say jackets for $45, but mostly focus on 70s hipster stuff and rock n roll stuff -M65s etc  - although they do get the odd Ivy real thing - they also have a 4 times a year sale at their warehouse where everything is $10 or $5 - thats where I've picked up about 4 full monty ivy jackets that fit - natural shoulders, no dart, swelled edges etc. A few of Cloverly Duffles etc for $10. Thats where I got my favourite wool/linen Cricketeer jacket navy blue patch pockets etc swelled edges for $10 and some BB early BD shirts. Still you have to know what is good - refine technique and make quick judgments. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to get a prince.

The secret now is to have a small network of idiots like yourself who browse the shops and they have sizes etc on their mobile and then can txt if something might work. No good if they are your size. I now only accept male friends who are interested in clothes and one size bigger or smaller than me.

I was in a place in Memphis that claimed to be the largest thrift store in the US. It was bigger than most UK supermarkets and ridiculously cheap. Also full of complete crap. Did, however, find a few serviceable shirts as I was running out of clean clothes at that point.

The other thing was thatnearly everything was too big for my puny frame - you must have to wade through oceans of XXL to find anything that fits WM?

Yes.  It's rare I find stuff in my size, in good condition.  A favorite stop of mine is a place that lately has had lots of very old, I'm talking 1940s and 1950s, jackets and suits (where I found that nice Southwick suit).  From the looks of it a few would have fit me spot on, but they were way beyond repair.  This is often the case.  I have 3 large stores within 5 minutes of my house.  I'll breeze through them about once every two weeks, but it's rare that I find anything.  Majority crap for sure.  But there's just enough chance that I'll find that one piece that keeps me looking.  It's gotten harder over the past few years to find really decent vintage.  Same with nice mid-century furniture.  You used to see that stuff in thrift stores, but not anymore, at least around me.  One of my first jobs in high school was working in one of these large thrift stores.  Although I was into vintage clothes, I didn't have an ivy eye back then, and I often wonder how much excellent stuff was right under my nose.  Had I the foresight of things like ebay and etsy, I could probably be retiring about now.

What is the over priced one near slam city called?

Not popped my head that way for a while Bop.....note to self Cap'n...

Last time I went in Beyond Retro on Great Marlborough Street it had been overfilled with stock and was hard to get around.  I believe there is a cluster of vintage clothing shops nowmin Stoke Newington for some reason, Mint and others located there.