There’s a crowd of new creatures joining the whale skeletons, taxidermied polar bears and animatronic dinosaurs of the Natural History Museum this year... Pokémon. To celebrate it’s 30th birthday, Pokémon is bringing a three month pop-up shop to the NHM’s Cranborne Boutique, selling a huge range of exclusive souvenirs inspired by Pikachu and co.
The theme of the event is ‘Pokécology: An Illustrated Guide to Pokémon Ecology’, and items have been designed to fit that concept. You’ll find a notebook adorned with a chart of the ‘ancient species of Pokémon’, art prints detailing the evolution of water and grass-type Pokémon, and even some long overdue love for Tropius, who looks like a cross between a dino and a banana trew. On top of all that, a range of t-shirts, water bottles, backpacks, and even more notebooks will also be available, as well as an exclusive plush toy of Pikachu hugging the Natural History Museum building.
Now you see them, now you don’t – the best thing about the rise of pop-up shops in London is that the capital’s shopping landscape is always changing, the worst is that you don’t get long to take advantage of the offering at these blink-and-you’ll-miss-them retailers. From six-month Mayfair boutiques for designers testing out a new location before they buy into it, to snappy weekend pop-ups for young labels being given a free space to try on for size, each week brings a new batch of temporary stores.