A fancy dress shop torched during the August riots has reopened nearly two years after its dramatic destruction.

The Party Superstore, by Clapham Junction was reduced to a burned out shell, and the site left unused after it was been looted and set alight on Monday August 8 2011.

Managing director of Party Superstores, Duncan Mundell, said: “For us, it’s important to be back in the same premises. We did consider moving, but this location is special to us- plus it shows those that did this that they haven’t won; we’re back and we’re open for business.”

Shortly after the fire in 2011, the fancy dress shop was able to begin trading again in a shop a few doors down from the original shop and Debenhams, itself hit by looters, helped out by offering floor-space to the business so it could continue to trade.

Now, over a year and nine months later, the shop is ready to stand on its own feet although the road hasn’t been a smooth one.

Mr Mundell said: “During the rebuilding, we’ve had fire, floods and now all we’re waiting for is the pestilence.

“During the rebuilding, the tanking in the basement was breached, causing water to flood in on four occasions.

"We’ve nearly got this sorted and will be ready to open- just in time for people to buy outfits for St Patrick’s Day on Sunday.”

The shop is a hub for Mundell’s charity HEAL Kids Foundation which helps impoverished and disabled children in south-east Asia and some of the shop’s profit is invested to the cause.

After the riots Mr Mundell had worries the incident would have an impact on the level of donation to the charity. The fears turned out to be baseless:.

He said: “The local community were brilliant though, in fact the level of donations for the HEAL Kids Foundation actually went up the more and more people heard about it.”