A Finchley Road charity shop raising money for a children’s hospice is skewing the traditional charity shop vibe in favour of high end products.

Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, based in Barnet, opened its second shop in Finchley Road last week selling quality clothes, books and bric-à-brac without fanfare after the success of its first store in Barnet.

Retail manager Nick Nicolaou had a stressful morning after a water pipe burst further down the road, closing Finchley Road Underground Station and disrupting traffic at around 7am.

Mr Nicolaou said: “They must have known I was coming! Thankfully by the time I got there it was fixed.

“We had no grand announcement. We just opened it up but lots of people came. They said how lovely the shop was and how it doesn’t look like a charity shop.

“That was what we tried to do with our first shop in Barnet. We made sure to get the feel right before we opened here.”