Shared Earth

A lovely shop that sells an assortment of fair trade items from around the world, fantastic for unusual presents and the staff are extremely polite and helpful.

Shared Earth an amazing little shop. All the items it sells are Fair Trade and ethical. They sell a huge range of gorgeous items such as candles, jewellery, bags, cards, rugs,.ceramicswooden ornaments, insence, clothing, notepads, purses, jewellery, toiletries and chocolate.
The shop is crammed full with beautiful tempting items and everything is of a very high quality. The items on sale are very reasonably priced compared to other gift shops in the city centre.
The staff are lovely and seem very dedicated to their jobs. They are very helpful and happy to have a chat to you. If you are buying a gift they will wrap it for you in lovely crêpe type paper free of charge.
An excellent shop

This is one of my favourite shops on Bold Street. I love the smell as much as I love what they sell.
Here you will find a whole lot of handmade products from foreign countries. And they are all fairly inexpensive even though they are handmade, and despite the fact that it’s all «fair trade.»
You’ll find recycled notebooks, carved wood animals, painted jewellery boxes, embroidered coin purses, incense, candles, massage oils, necklaces, shoulder bags, dresses, and so much more.
I almost can’t resist popping in here every time I’m on Bold Street. It’s so colourful, spicy, and enticing.

You can tell what type of shop this is by the smell. Woody and earthy, it’s like they’ve pumped the garden centre of B&Q into the air vents to make the place seem like the untamed jungle it so wants to be.
Although the cynical 104% of my being wants to sneer at this shop’s claim to be ecologically ethical, the other 19% (what I consider to be the more rational three-​quarters) just felt guilty looking at everything. Browsing the book spines I was confronted with words like ‘recycle’ and ‘carbon footprint’, reminding me that one day my surviving descendants will pile scorn on my shamed memory for not once helping our shattered, battered old Mother Earth.
I would say this spurned me on to at least buy something. but I was all out of cash. Still, nice gifts and that.

Bold Street is a hive of hippy-​dippy boutiques and this is both the hippiest and the dippiest of these establishments. Stocking a range of ethical bits and pieces from around the globe it is the perfect place for picking up a distinctive and different gift for your loved ones (particularly if your mum also happens to be as similarly impressed with terracotta fish tiles or wooden beaded jewellry as mine is).
There are my usual quibbles about fairtrade seeming to just equal pointless nic-​nacs rather than actual needful items (what is the point of being patronising about ethical shopping — I do enjoy handworked art but I can’t see that alone it’s honestly going to really start to even the playing field.) Anyway, I won’t be too vehment voicing these for fear of being shouted down as arch– sneerer. Also I do really like Shared Earth, it smells very good. They could do with turning a few more lights on though.

Shared Earth is a wonderful place full of quirky little necklaces and bracelets (30% off all of them at the moment!) and those money boxes that you’re supposed to smash to get your cash out of (I could never do that, the decoration on them is too pretty!)
Our main aim was to find a jewellery box for my friend’s birthday and we initially by-​passed Shared Earth under the impression that it was a) over-​priced and b) we couldn’t be bothered walking back up Bold Street, however after an hour of fruitless searching, we decided to chance it and found countless jewellery boxes from colourful cushioned ones to silver and gold gilt wooden ones. They ranged from £6 to £15 too so definitely had the wrong first impression!
I love the range of throws they have in a rainbow variety of colours, just what you need to give some vibrancy and character to a plain room!
And all for a good cause, you ethical saint you.

Deep breaths. And relax. Clear your head of all thought. Let your hand take your wallet from your inside pocket, that’s it, 20 should do it. Exhale you’ve done a good deed. On your way.
Ok, Ok, a little cynical but come on a shop’s a shop and any talk of ethical living and saving the planet is pretty much just there angle so let’s concentrate on what they do.
Well there’s certainly a lot of natural materials here — err I thought somehow this was an ethical shop so I do hope that these lovely, calm people behind the counter only found the necessary branches for their wooden goods lying on the ground — hand crafted into jewellery boxes — handy for my collection of blood diamonds — trinket boxes and box boxes.
There is also a selection of jewellery and bags and little items for children.

I actually really like coming into this store and just wandering away in my thoughts looking at the pretty things here, which sticking by its name do have a very earthy appeal to it.
They do a lot of hand-​made designs in etch it into various things like accessories, jewellery, little note pads, stationary, jute bags and cute toys for children which can also be doubled up as show pieces. Topping up, they’re all hand made and painted. I personally love the bangles and bracelets they have here, very artsy and beautiful.
Most of the products are made out of recycled material which gives you that inner pride about being maybe just about 0.0005% helpful to the environment!

If your budget can’t stretch to the stunning designs at the Display Centre, Shared Earth sells cute hand-​made jewellery, accessories and home furnishings that are easier on the wallet.
A fair trade company with a loyal customer base, they specialise in distinctive, hand-​made designs by artisan producers in India, Africa, Asia, South America and beyond. A lot of the products are made from recycled timber, plastic or tin and ranges from colourful cushions and picture frames to coffee tables. There’s also a big jewellery and accessories section in this branch though I have to admit most of it is too bead-​based for my taste.