Fred Aldous

mrsmollyc

18 Dec 2025

Amazing local craft shop

5

5

Date of visit: September 2025

I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.

I use or have experience of: disabled toilet, wheelchair

Overall Rating

Excellent

Fred Aldous was a craft shop that I passed and conveniently had something I’d been looking for! It was a really lovely shop and it seemed to have supplies to every type of craft you could think of! It also had sections with gifts and novelty items and a whole stationary section too. The shop is split across two floors and there isn’t any step-free access to the top floor. However, the staff were really happy to help me. I told them what I was looking for and they were able to look it up on their computer and then when it showed they had stock they went and got me the options and brought them back down for me to choose from.

Disabled Access In and Around

Average

The front door was quite a heavy door but people were quick to help me when I was entering and leaving which was great. The shop had shelves all around the edge of the shop which went up quite high. In the centre of the shop were some rows of shelving with lots of different items. These shelves were much lower so everything on these was within reach from a seated position. The floor was wooden so it was very smooth to navigate around the shop and I found there was plenty of space to move between the shelves. There was an upstairs area to this shop and while they didn’t have any step-free access, the staff were happy to help in any way they could. The counter to pay was at standing height so it was a little bit high for me but the staff were happy to help again.

Accessible facilities: Step-free entrance

Parking & Transport

The shop is located really close to the Fitzalan Square/Ponds Forge tram stop. It’s roughly 75 metres from the shop to the tram stop. From this stop, you can access all of the tram lines. The yellow services travel between Middlewood and Meadowhall. The blue services travel between Malin Bridge and Halfway. The black services travel between Cathedral and Parkgate. The purple services travel between Cathedral and Herdings Park. Just opposite the shop is a bus stop called Fitzalan Square/Flat Street where the SC2 stops. There aren’t many parking options nearby.

Accessible Toilets

There were no toilets at this location.

Staff

Excellent

The staff were so incredibly helpful and really went out of their way to make sure I left with what I needed.

Comments

clairey_fairy

14 Jan 2026

This looks like such a fun and colourful shop.