Coffee and clothes shop heading to well-known Sunderland city centre spot

Menswear specialist Aphrodite was one of the city’s most popular independent retailers, bringing top name brands to the city centre for 30 years before closing its store in Vine Place last summer after Mike Ashley’s company, Frasers Group, bought the retail business.

Now, the former Aphrodite building has been bought by AutismAble, who are preparing to bring a new retail and hospitality offering to the city called Wear.

Work is ongoing at the site, which has been left in a good condition by the previous owners, with a view to opening at the end of September.

Upstairs at the building will be a Sunderland base for AutismAble, who are a specialist service and wellbeing centre for neurodivergent people across the region, where it will host employability training, as well as hosting workshops in photography, music, wellbeing, crafts and more.

Meanwhile, downstairs will house a coffee shop and bar on one side and a clothing store in the other half specialising in pre-loved clothes, from designer pieces to more independent brands, across a range of price points.

It will be a sister site to SeaChange in the Winter Gardens and South Shields, which is also run by AutismAble.

Sarah Farrell-Forster, CEO of AutismAble and SeaChange, said: “AutismAble was looking for a base in Sunderland because a lot of our referrals come from this area.

“My husband used to often shop in Aphrodite and I knew the shop from going in with him, so knew the site well and it seemed perfect.

“It’s such a great space and we thought it would be a waste not to do something for the public with the downstairs area, so we came up with the idea of having a shop.”

As well as speciality coffees, Wear will have a bar serving bottled craft beers, cans, wines and cocktails. There’s no kitchen at the site, but it will sell a range of items made at the kitchen at the Winter Gardens.

It will also be used as an events space with regular DJ nights and more.

“We already do regular DJ nights in Shields called Blossom Nights and they’re really popular so we thought it would be great to bring that offering to Vine Place,” added Sarah.

“It’s such a well-known site and when our joiners have been doing the work in loads of people asking when it’s opening and what it’s going to be. I think they’re glad clothes will be sold here again.”

As well as building a new bar at the site, accessible customer toilets are also being installed.

Another new addition to Vine Place has been Pied, which has relocated its pie shop from Fulwell Road to Emporium this month.

Elsewhere in the city centre, new bar The Vault Yard opened over the weekend after a major £600k transformation of the pub site well-known for its time as Baroque and Establishment.

More of a look around The Vault Yard here.