Imagine that there was a place where you can find every toy you could ever want.
Imagine if such a place really exists?
Well, such a place really exists, the flagship store of this chain has seven floors and a staggering total of more that 50,000 toys on sale. One of London's prominent tourist attractions, it receives an estimated 5 million visitors each year. That's approximately 13k - 14k visitors a day, since they're open every day of the week.
Still haven't figured out what it is yet? Here's a hint.
That's right - Hamleys, pronounced Ham - lees, no other fancy pronunciation that I know of.
Hamleys is the oldest and largest toy shop in the world and one of the world's best-known retailers of toys. Let's have a short history lesson (Taken directly from Hamleys website)
Growing up in Cornwall, England, William Hamley might have become a tin miner. Or a fisherman. But William had other ideas. He dreamed of opening the best toy shop in the world. In 1760, he did, cramming 'Noah's Ark' with every kind of toy, from rag dolls to tin soldiers.
Over the street-sellers' calls and horses' hooves ringing on the cobbles, you could just make out the delighted cries of children as they approached the window. By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Hamleys was already a London landmark. Families flocked to William's 'Joy Emporium'.
So successful was the shop that in 1881 a new branch opened in Regent Street. To cope with the public's growing appetite for playthings.
Hamleys added a further five floors of toys!
We can only imagine the spectacle, as toy theatres, puppets, pedal cars and miniature railway trains jostled for space in the largest toy shop in the world.
Hamleys faced hard times in the late 1920s, along with everybody else. In 1931, the picture looked bleak. The shop was forced to close and its fleet of horse-drawn delivery vans was stilled.
But this story has a happy ending. Walter Lines, the Chairman of the Tri-Ang company, bought Hamleys and worked hard to bring customers back. In 1938, his efforts were rewarded.
Queen Mary gave Hamleys the Royal Warrant!
Even being bombed five times during World War II did not stop Hamleys. Wearing tin hats, staff served at the shop entrance, rushing in to collect the toys then handing them over at the door.
The Festival of Britain in 1951 brought a Grand Doll's Salon as well as a vast model railway to amaze children - and their mothers and fathers. When she came to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II showed she still remembered the toys her grandmother had given her. She in turn gave Hamleys toys to her own children.
In 1955, her Majesty honoured Walter Lines with a second Royal Warrant as a 'Toys and Sports Merchant'. But it was the children's smiles that truly rewarded Walter Lines and his staff.
Arriving back in the present, we find Hamleys in its famous location at 188-196 Regent Street, London, England. Step over the threshold and you enter a world of joy and wonder. Over the squeaking, bleeping, whizzing and chiming of toys, you hear children laughing excitedly as they goggle at the sheer choice over seven floors of toys and games.
The toys may have changed, but if he were here today, we're sure William Hamley would recognize the same delighted faces as he guided you round the shop he dreamt of as a boy.
And a little business background for the economically minded people -
Hamleys was bought in June 2003 by the Baugur Group, an Icelandic investment company. When Baugur collapsed, its stake in the toy store was taken over by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. In September 2012 Groupe Ludendo, a toy retailer based in France with shops also located in Belgium, Spain and Switzerland, bought Hamleys for a reported £60 million. In October 2015 it was reported that Groupe Ludendo was negotiating the sale of Hamleys, possibly to a Hong Kong company owned by a relative of the owner of department store House of Fraser. It was subsequently purchased by C.Banner, a large Chinese footwear and fashion wear conglomerate based in Nanking.
Since I have only visited their main flagship store (which after visiting it, why would you want to visit any other toyshop in the world), I can only talk about my experiences getting to the shop and in the shop itself. The ground floor is traditionally for stuffed toys (including Steiff), and is decked out with a diverse array of stuffed animals, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtles and dolphins, and enormous life-sized giraffes and elephants.
As you can see from their floor directory, it's a dizzying array of all the brands of toys that you knew and love growing up.
Being a tourist and restricted by a budget for my vacation trip and the sadly obvious minuscule suitcase allowance, I mournfully looked on at several of the toys I wished I could've bought. Yes - even at 30 years old there are many things in the store that it's not shameless for an adult to buy.
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| Can I take this home with me? |
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| Made entirely out of LEGO! |
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| BANANA! |
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| I blame the camera not the person using it for the blurry picture - :) |
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| Even the cashiers don't look like cashier's. Toys everywhere!!!!!! ahhhhhhh! |
I bought a couple tiny items from the shop but the things I really wanted, like life size swords from Lord of the Rings, huge models from Star Wars, transformers robots, sniff! I just gave it up as an unfortunate side effect of growing up and I had to leave them all behind.
Cause if I was a child, maybe, just maybe, it would've been bought for me and the person who bought it for me would've seen about carrying it back home, ah yes - adulting. Why do we have to grow up? So bummy isn't it?
Reaching to Hamleys is amazingly easy - there are three tube stations within walking distance - Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road. Car parking at Brewer Street (W1F 0LA), Grosvenor Hill (W1K 3QQ), Sanderson House (W1T 3NG).
These handy little six characters are something called a postcode which you stick into your GPS and yay! you can reach your destination via car easy peasy.
Mention should be made for the drivers - This store is located in the London congestion charge zone, more information is available here. The Congestion Charge is an £11.50 daily charge for driving a vehicle within the charging zone between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday. The easiest way to pay the charge is by registering for Congestion Charge Auto Pay. Transport for London's site has further information - Congestion Charge
Opening Times for this fabulous store - is from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. on Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. So there is absolutely no excuse for hardworking people like yourself to not pick up that much needed toy for that loved one.
Address
188-196 Regent Street London
Postcode - W1B 5BT
This is a snippet of Google Maps - but all you need to do is to punch in the postcode into your map finding app on your phone and whammo! You know where to go. You literally cannot miss it on Regent Street though, it's massive and there's always a crowd in-front of the building.
Being the oldest toyshop in the world, they have an extremely heavy social media presence
https://twitter.com/Hamleystoys
https://www.facebook.com/Hamleyslondon
https://www.youtube.com/user/HamleysTV
https://www.pinterest.com/hamleystoys/
https://www.instagram.com/hamleysofficial/
Oh to be a child again - there are many different ways - (if you have the money of course) to treat your child to an amazing and memorable birthday party, while I was there, the Hamleys staff broke out in song for the entire shop to sing Happy Birthday to a seven year old.
A final word on thoughtful shopping, 1) ensure that before you leave the store, whatever electronic stuff you bought it's actually working 2) any other toy doesn't have any defects 3) before you even purchase the item do a quick check on your phone to see if you can't find a better deal somewhere else.
Cause if it's one thing I have realized with England, there is always more than one deal to be had for the same item across different sellers.
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