Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop is a shop selling vintage and retro toys in London's Covent Garden. One of the oldest toy shops in London, [1] it had its origins in Hoxton in 1851 before being taken over in 1877 by Benjamin Pollock, who ran it until his death in 1937. Coronation Street actor Peter Baldwin co-owned the shop from 1988 to his death in 2015. Located at 44 The Market Building, Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop specialises in Victorian toy theatres, both original and reproduction, in addition to books, puppets, music boxes and other traditional toys.
John Redington (1819–1876), who described himself as a "Printer, Bookbinder and Stationer; Tobacconist; and Dealer in miscellaneous articles", opened a theatrical print warehouse at 73 Hoxton Street in 1851. Redington was an agent for the toy theatre publisher John Kilby Green, and when Green died in 1860 Redington bought up his engraved copper plates. Redington ran the Hoxton Street business until his death in 1876, following which his widow, youngest son William, and daughter Eliza carried on with the business; but soon only Eliza Redington was left to run the print business. [2]
Eliza Redington married Benjamin Pollock (1856–1937) in 1877, following which they ran the shop together. [3] [4] The couple went on to have eight children – four sons and four daughters. The business that Benjamin Pollock had inherited consisted of the toy theatre sheets of both J. K. Green and J. Redington. The material subsequently sold by Pollock was therefore predominantly from these previous publishers, with the imprint changed to 'B. Pollock'. [5]
During the 1880s Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop, as it was now known, was still opposite the Britannia Theatre at 73 Hoxton Street in Hoxton. Benjamin Pollock became a maker of toy theatres – or the 'juvenile drama' as it was called at the time, selling toy theatre drops and characters from contemporary dramas for "a penny plain, twopence coloured". Pollock generally republished older plays by using existing plates, simply changing the names of the actors. His version of Cinderella , for example, which could be bought from Pollock in the 1880s, used plates from 1844. [6]
Pollock's business was not a success as tastes in the 1880s changed towards magic lantern shows and other innovations, but when Robert Louis Stevenson visited the shop in 1884 things considerably improved. [7] Stevenson wrote of the shop 'If you love art, folly or the bright eyes of children, speed to Pollock's'. [8] [9] Today a plaque marks the shop's original location on Hoxton Street. [7]
Following the death of Pollock's son William during World War I, his daughter Louise assisted in the business. [5] The theatre historian and writer George Speaight was first associated with Pollock's when he gave a toy theatre performance of The Corsican Brothers at The George Inn in Southwark for Pollock's 80th birthday in 1936. Speaight was already gaining a reputation for his juvenile drama performances using characters and settings obtained from Pollock's. [10]
Following Pollock's death in 1937 his daughters Louise and Selina managed the shop. In 1944 they sold the stock to the bookseller Alan Keen who, operating the business under the name of Benjamin Pollock Limited, moved it to 1 John Adam Street in the Adelphi Building off the Strand [7] just before the Hoxton premises were severely damaged by a bomb. [11]
In 1946 Keen appointed George Speaight as the manager of the shop. Speaight was to be associated with the shop and the museum that later grew from it for the rest of his life. [10] [12] Keen modernised the stock to appeal to a contemporary audience with a toy theatre version of the 1948 Laurence Olivier film of Hamlet devised by Speaight [13] among other innovations. A supporter of the shop at this time was the actor Ralph Richardson, who wrote introductions to the plays. [9] However, the business was a financial failure and in 1950 it moved to smaller premises at 16 Little Russell Street. In 1951 Benjamin Pollock Limited went into receivership. [5]
The bankrupt stock was purchased in 1955 by BBC journalist Marguerite Fawdry, [14] who obtained the shop and its entire stock when trying to buy wire character slides for her son’s toy theatre. She rented a shop at 44 Monmouth Street and moved the business into it. From 1956 it also operated as Pollock's Toy Museum, which today is a small private museum run by the founder's grandson, Eddy Fawdry. [9] In 1957 Benjamin Pollock Limited acquired all of the plates of the publisher George Skelt following his death the year before. A rent rise on the Monmouth Street premises in 1969 and the business passing out of receivership resulted in the museum and toy shop moving to 1 Scala Street, becoming a charitable trust and being renamed Pollock's Toy Theatres Limited. [5]
Under Marguerite Fawdry's ownership Pollock's became one of the first shops to open in the newly renovated Covent Garden Piazza building in 1980. In 1988 she sold the shop to Christopher Baldwin and his brother Peter Baldwin, a toy theatre collector and actor best known for his role of Derek Wilton in the UK soap opera Coronation Street , who had been the shop's manager between acting jobs. In 2008 Christopher Baldwin retired and Louise Heard, who had worked in the shop since the 1980s, became the co-owner with Peter Baldwin. [15] In 2010 they opened a second shop in Stable Yard at Hatfield House. [16] [17] Since Peter Baldwin's death in 2015 the shop has been run by Louise Heard. [3] Adult customers have included Charlie Chaplin [3] [9] and Joanna Lumley. [18]
Today the shop produces its own range of toy theatres by contemporary artists such as Kate Baylay and Clive Hicks-Jenkins [19] which have been displayed at Liberty, Fortnum & Mason and the Royal Opera House. It sells reproduction and original toy theatres from around the world in addition to books, puppets, music boxes and other traditional toys. [9]
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England, and is often considered to be part of the East End, the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It lies immediately north of the City of London financial district, and was once part of the civil parish and subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, prior to its incorporation into the London Borough of Hackney.
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1735.
William Charles Macready was an English stage actor.
Benjamin Webster was an English actor, the husband of the actress May Whitty, and father of the actress and director Margaret Webster. After a long career on the English stage, Webster, together with his wife, moved to Hollywood, where they made numerous films in their later years.
Weatherfield is a fictional town based on Salford, Greater Manchester, which has been the setting for the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street since its inception in 1960. Much of Weatherfield has been seen by viewers throughout the years, though the primary focus from the viewer's perspective is the eponymous Coronation Street, a cobbled street where many of the programme's characters live. Weatherfield areas are often shot on location around Salford and the neighbouring large city of Manchester, as its filming studios, the Granada Studios complex on Quay Street in Manchester city centre and its replacement set MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, only house the outdoor sets of Coronation Street and its immediate surrounding streets.
George Victor Speaight FRSA was a theatre historian, author and performer and the leading authority on 19th-century toy theatre.
Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater, is a form of miniature theater dating back to the early 19th century in Europe. Toy theaters were often printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. Toy theatres were assembled at home and performed for family members and guests, sometimes with live musical accompaniment. Toy theatre saw a drastic decline in popularity with a shift towards realism on the European stage in the late 19th century, and again with the arrival of television after World War II. Toy theatre has seen a resurgence in recent years among many puppeteers, authors and filmmakers and there are numerous international toy theatre festivals throughout the Americas and Europe.
Peter Francis Baldwin was an English actor. He was best known for his role as Derek Wilton in the British soap opera Coronation Street.
Pollock's Toy Museum is a small, currently closed, museum in London, England.
The Britannia Theatre (1841–1900) was located at 115/117 High Street, Hoxton, London. The theatre was badly damaged by a fire in 1900, forcing the sale of the lease. The site was reused as a Gaumont cinema from 1913 to 1940, before being demolished to make room for a more modern cinema which was never built. Housing has now been built on the site, which is marked by a London Borough of Hackney historic plaque.
Lewis Augustus Lavenu was a musician, music seller and publisher.
The Covent-Garden Tragedy is a play by Henry Fielding that first appeared on 1 June 1732 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane alongside The Old Debauchees. It is about a love triangle in a brothel involving two prostitutes. While they are portrayed satirically, they are imbued with sympathy as their relationship develops.
Ilkley Toy Museum in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, houses a private collection of toys dating from 350 BC to modern times, and is open to the public, schools, and groups.
Beecroft's Toys is an English online and mail order toy shop. Although founded in 1822 in Nottingham, it is now based in Hampshire. The company sources toys from around the world.
Gerald Charles Trentham Morice (1907-1986) was a journalist, theatre critic and collector of toy theatres and printed ephemera. He was the founder of the British branch of UNIMA, the international puppet organisation and a founder member of the British Model Theatre Guild.
Robert Sayer (1725–1794) was a leading publisher and seller of prints, maps and maritime charts in Georgian Britain. He was based near the Golden Buck on 53 Fleet Street in London.
Martin Powell, was an Irish master puppeteer and puppet show impresario, who put on a repertoire of satirical and parodical marionette shows that invariably featured the Punch character. He drew audiences first at provincial towns such as Bath, then moving his venue to London. His theatre established itself in early 1710 at its first location, at the north end of St. Martin's Street intersected by Litchfield St., not quite in Covent Garden. But by 1711 he relocated the theatre to the galleries of Covent Garden, at Little Piazza, opposite St. Paul's Church.
Chingford Mount Cemetery is a cemetery in Chingford Mount, in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Monmouth Street is a street in the Seven Dials district of Covent Garden, London, England.