Pollock’s Toy Museum, a quirky museum of old playthings is housed in a pair of wonderfully creaky, unrestored Georgian townhouses. Pollock’s is named after Benjamin Pollock, the last of the Victorian toy theatre printers. The Pollock’s Toy Museum collection includes board games, marbles, money-boxes, puppets, wax dolls, toy theatres, dolls houses and wonderful, intricately detailed model shops, as well as the world’s oldest surviving teddy (see video below) and a 4,000 year-old mouse made from Nile clay. By turns beguiling and creepy, it’s fascinating for adults but less so for children, for whom the displays may seem a bit static – describing a pile of painted woodblocks stuffed in a cardboard box as a ‘Build a skyscraper’ kit may only make them feel lucky to be going home to a PlayStation.
