Public Speaking

He Beehive Story

The Beehive began in 2017, as a pop-up shop in Ashford town centre for the month of October. The idea was that we wanted to offer a beautiful shopping experience with good quality second-hand clothing, donated from the community; for the community.

But, The Beehive is not just any shop. At the very heart of our shop is a place where women who can’t afford clothing can be referred by local services to come and get clothes for free.

We are not a ‘charity’ shop, we are a place of dignity and beauty where paying customers and referred women, share the very same boutique experience. The only difference is that when the clothes are scanned into the till, our referred women’s total clocks up to £0.

Our aim from our pop-up shop through to being a permanent fixture in the town, has always been that every person who enters our shop is made to feel beautiful, valued, and that they matter.

We are staffed mainly by volunteers and are passionate about training people and giving them new skills- whether that’s to build confidence, or to get them back into employment.

The Beehive is a shop and a cafe, all rolled into one, both for the general public and for our referred clients. We also have a Beehive Hub which offers workshops from a Public Speaking Course, to Body Confidence Workshops. We want to create spaces for people to thrive and to be their best possible selves, and we're so honoured that we get to be a part of people's stories, and legacy.

As of April 2021 The Beehive is now located at 1-3 North Street in the heart of Ashford’s town centre. Why not pop in and see us for a browse, or a cup of coffee?