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Our link to Pollock’s Toy Museum in Fitzrovia is through it’s founder Marguerite Fawdry. Growing up in London, I was a frequent visitor to the Museum and sometimes my parents would pack me off to stay with my surrogate grandparents Marguerite & Kenneth in Fitzrovia. Me at Pollock’s Toy Museum in the 1970s Marguerite was…
Do you think Fairy Tales are only book stories ? Are you one of those who believe that Fairy Tales can be seen only in movies or in theatre plays ? Do you really believe those characters are unreachable and very distant from you ? Well… you might have to rethink all that. Benjamin…
I smile to myself when I think how ONLY Pollock’s customers would literally hold up the queue by dressing up as a 18th century society lady and turning up to Trafalgar Square. In 2015 we were running a workshop (for 20,000 people) at West End Live’s annual theatrical showcase. Artist Olia Manizer, who came to Pollocks…
1st June is International Children’s Day and to mark this whilst the shop is closed during the health crisis we asked all our podcast guests to allow us to make a print of their favourite image and offer exclusive sales to raise money for The TOY Project, a charity based in North London that recycles…
Working for an enterprise with such enthralling history behind it, I every so often find myself speculating how those heroes of the past felt…. Whenever I explore the history of Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop, I see it as a vivid theatrical work divided into dramatic acts. Raphael Pinheiro Gonçalves March 2020 The History of Benjamin Pollock…
Working for an enterprise with such enthralling history behind it, I every so often find myself speculating how those heroes of the past felt whilst working through wars and personal tragedy. I try to transport myself to the mid-19th century, more accurately to 1851, as an attempt to imagine what it was like, when a…
An exhibition by Viola Ann Seddon With titles by Simon Seddon Copyright Viola Ann Seddon & Simon Seddon Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop Easter 2020
Toy theatre friends The best thing about running in a shop is meeting all your customers. Some who become friends, podcast guests, artistic collaborators. At the end of last year I was trying to source a toy theatre. The ballet in a box ‘Swan Lake’ by Jean Mahoney and Viola Ann Seddon, published by Walker…
Theatre designer Christopher Oram is next in the queue joining Simon and author & illustrator Brian Selznick in part 2 of episode 5 From childhood influences to a stellar career designing for the theatre, Christopher discusses how he has come full circle. Creating imaginary worlds as a kid dreaming of Star Wars to creating the…
Hugo Cabret: ‘Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn’t able to do what it was meant to do… Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose… it’s like you’re broken.’ I’m a technician with a special interest in the very early days of motion…
Writer and illustrator Brian Selznick talks to Simon about the art of piecing together a page turner and how children’s books can be a guide and friend in navigating life as a child. Brian’s black and white illustrations set the scene for the reader to dream in colour. His 2007 book ‘The Invention of Hugo…
Here is a beguiling story I once read about Franz Kafka who in 1923, a year before his death, was walking through a park in Berlin when he across a small girl in a state of distress. The child was inconsolable as she had lost her favourite doll. Not missing a beat, Kafka immediately informed…
“To me it’s normal now, being out and about taking pictures, it looks really crazy but to me it’s perfectly normal. I guess I do express myself” This is not a quote from luminary female photographer Cindy Sherman with a current retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery on until the 15th September, but the doll…
The Doll: The original influencer, a companion, confidante and co-conspirator, what is the role now for the doll in this age when playthings are replaced by avatars on screens? As the popularity of the doll wanes, is she lost or are we? Holding Up The Queue with Simon in this the 4th episode of the podcast…
FOLK TOYS Much has been written about folk art, popular art, naive art …. but where is the history of British folk toys? Whenever we think of folk toys we recognise those from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Japan, Russia and India – books have been published on the folk toys from these countries. The toys are…
Annie Montgomerie at Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop In Christmas 2018, Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop played host to a fantastical cast of characters created by Annie Montgomerie. Anthropomorphism & Toys Her anthropomorphic storybook beings are part toy, part sculpture and each individual piece is unique, being made from 100% wool felt, up-cycled fabrics and vintage charms and jewellery….