26th April 2022
Fans of movies and all things retro, this one will be right up your street! Located in a small warehouse in Walthamstow, you’ll find an eclectic mix of new and salvaged neon signs, old movie props and retro displays, with much of the artwork carefully curated from discarded materials by artist Chris Bracey (a.k.a the Neon Man!).
This unusual little museum in Hackney proudly and simply displays everything (and we mean everything) that has caught the eye of its founder, Viktor Wynd. From rare and priceless marvels of the natural and scientific worlds, to the intriguing beauty of McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, pop art prints and even the doodles from prison inmates. By placing the rare and the beautiful on the same shelf as the commonplace, this museum ‘fills the vacuum between what the establishment elite believes is worthy of worship and what exists in the world’.
Established in 1827 by Robert Edmond Grant, the first Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in England, this fascinating museum in the Rockefeller Building of University College London has around 68,000 zoological specimens. Notable specimens include the world’s rarest skeleton, the quagga, thylacine specimens and dodo bones, just to name a few.
For over 30 years, artist Stephen Wright has worked as a designer, and in 1998 his attention focused in particular on outsider art, subsequently sparking the concept for the quirky House of Dreams museum that can be found in East Dulwich. Every surface inside and outside the museum has been covered entirely with a diverse mismatch of objects, including false teeth, broken dolls, bottle tops and wigs, accompanied by insightful and personal hand-written memory boards which recall meaningful events in Stephen’s life.
As the oldest toy museum in the UK, you can expect a truly captivating experience for all the family. An enchanting mix of curiosities await in the two atmospheric 18th and 19th century buildings that house the collection in Fitztrovia, with each room brimming with a jumble of unique toys from the past. Such trinkets include puppets, dolls houses, tin toys, teddy bears and optical toys and games from around the world. But the question is, what will you find?
While you’re in the area, why not join us for an overnight stay?
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