Our Story
Situated on Carshalton’s High Street, Calladoodles’ home is a Grade 2 listed building close to the well known Carshalton Ponds and the Honeywood Museum. Now 13 years old Calladoodles continues to go from strength to strength.
The shop is owned by Liz Killick and run by Clare, her daughter, and all girl team Victoria and Jo with help from granddaughter Chloe!
Dave White was the inspiration behind Calladoodles, he was Clare’s husband who has sadly since passed away.
He always said Clare should run a shop as she loves people, and chatting, and had spent much time perusing the gift shops of the Laines in Brighton, where she had lived for many years whilst working with the homeless. Both of Clare’s grandmothers had dreamt of running a shop, that dream ran in the family!!
So the hunt for a premises began and one day Clare stumbled across Carshalton Village, she instantly fell in love with it.
Clare met Peter, the current shop’s landlord, who is a kind, community minded resident. Clare says ‘Without Peter we would not have got through the first years.’ However, with the support of Peter and Clare’s mum Liz, or ‘Mama Doodles’ as the team call her, Calladoodles soon became a firm favourite in Carshalton amongst the community that Clare and her team love so much.
Soon Clare met her now best friend Jessica, who quickly became Calladoodles’ greatest supporter. Jessica worked in the shop and ran the children’s section, before moving back into the world of education.
Clare met Victoria in Calladoodles, Vic as she is now known, was a customer who became another of Clare’s best friends, she also joined the team. With a passion for Visual Merchandising and window dressing, Vic had worked in Oasis and Warehouse before having her daughter Violet and was now looking for a job closer to home. Both Vic and Jess had children of the same age as Clare’s daughter Chloe, who is also a very amazing asset to the team! The 3 ladies became a strong unit and along with two new younger members Rebecca and Kate, the team became a bubbly, lively group!!
Later joined by Zoe, Emma and Clare’s step daughters Megan and Cait (who created the name ‘Calladoodles’) With 3 generations on board Calladoodles knows how to provide gifts and cards for all ages and family members.
When Clare had her second child Zak, Liz became much more involved in Calladoodles and needed an extra pair of hands to help her. This is when Jo arrived on the team. Jo has a marketing background, and became a close friend and integral part of of the team too. Jo is currently the brains behind this website! In the meantime Liz started to show her amazing talents in the card selecting and before any one knew it Calladoodles card selection was winning awards and became a very strong part of the business.
Clare’s passion for art and design was also starting to show, Calladoodles had always sold cards from local artists and Clare and the team had formed close friendships with many of the local artists, they were also Carshalton residents. The scene had been set and Calladoodles really took off as a local arts hub, you can find prints and framed pictures as well as many cards from a large selection of local artists in the shop.
More than anything, what shows in Calladoodles is the team’s love of the community. Calladoodles truly is at the heart of this beautiful village.
Clare and the team are more than excited about the future of Calladoodles! Clare says ‘There is so much energy in our little business, we love our products and are alway thrilled to introduce new product lines and ranges. The momentum continues to flow beautifully in Calladoodles and we can’t wait to see where that leads !!’
We’re here to help.
Clare
Victoria
Jess