White Rose menswear Ecclesall Road: Sheffield shop hoping to re-open soon after ram raid

Today, staff at the White Rose menswear charity shop on Ecclesall Road are working to build the shop back up again and say they are hoping to re-open before Christmas following the incident, which saw hundreds of items stolen from the premises.

The shop sells recycled fashion, and raises money for The Aegis Trust charity, which works to prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide.

Shop manager Abigail May said staff were shocked when they saw the damage, which happened in the early hours of Saturday, October 29, and repairs were still being done. She said the shop also had to raise enough stock through donations before it could re-open. But she has been moved by the reaction from customers and supporters since the break-in.

She said: “There were over 300 items of clothing stolen, and that is a big loss of income for the charity. It is a lot of money that won’t be made for The Aegis Trust. We’re still doing repairs on the men’s store, but it will re-open soon. Any donations are welcome. But the reaction from the community in Sheffield has been amazing, and we have been really touched by that. We opened in August last year and it’s amazing we’ve had such an impact.

“The first week after it happened, we had people offering to help with the clear-up, and offering to buy us drinks because we were so stressed, but we couldn't risk people coming in and hurting themselves. People have just been saying ‘why would this happen to a charity store, a second hand store? We plan to open again before Christmas, but we don’t have a date yet.”

In the meantime, the shop is running a crowdfunder online to raise money to cover some of the cash that will be lost to the charity. You can donate by logging onto https://whiterose.enthuse.com/cf/reverse-the-ramraid.

Meanwhile, donations of clothing can be made at present at the White Rose women’s wear shop, also on Ecclesall Road, which is currently selling a small selection of items for men until the damaged shop is able to re-open.

Anyone with information on the break-in can contact South Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting incident 210 of October 29, 2022.