Celebrating Hackney’s past, shaping its future – since 1967
Celebrating Hackney’s past, shaping its future – since 1967
A historic toy shop and museum may be given a new life in a former primary school in Dalston if Hackney Council accepts community proposals.
The toy shop came to public attention back in 1936, when journalist Louise Morgan visited it in Hoxton. She later wrote, “If you are a collector of rare experiences… you may collect a rare one only for a penny tram ride from Holborn Bars. Turn up narrow Hoxton Street… until you come to No 73.”
The window display revealed “a brilliantly coloured toy theatre with wings seven-deep” which surmounted “a dusty sea of pencils, buttons, spectacle cases, marbles, knitting-needles and farthing sweets.” The shop’s name – Ben Pollock, Print Publisher – on the fascia board was hard to read yet actors, artists and writers were inspired to visit.
By the time Pollack died in 1937, while he was buried in a pauper’s grave, he was famous enough for an obituary in The Times.
The shop’s fascia board was formerly in Hackney Museum, and is now in the V&A.
After Pollock’s daughters sold the business in 1944, it thrived for a few years before going bust.
Another journalist, Marguerite Fawdry, rescued it, adding a toy museum to the toy theatre business. It became a well known attraction among children and adults enthralled by its world of cardboard drama.
The Pollock’s name is now shared between the long-established Benjamin Pollocks Toy Shop in Covent Garden Market – which was originally an offshoot of Fawdry’s museum shop – and Pollock’s Toy Museum, a charitable trust with a rich collection of toy theatre material and toys from various periods and countries.
In 2023, Pollock’s Toy Museum moved from its central London base to Croydon in south London.
However, its trustees hope to bring Pollock to Hackney. A consortium of social enterprises have made a bid to Hackney Council to take over Colvestone Primary School in Dalston, which sadly closed in 2024, to transform it into an educational, cultural and social hub for the local community – with plenty of toys, of course.
Discover more about Pollocks Toy Museum and the proposed transformation of Colvestone Primary School – and fill in this form to add your voice in support.