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Growth spurt for Children's museum
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 08.12.06
Lost in a bigger space: a visitor meets a life-sized toy
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Showcasing exhibits ranging-from a 17th century doll's house to rare Star Wars memorabilia, the V&A Museum of Childhood re-opens tomorrow after a £4.7million refurbishment.
The museum, in Bethnal Green, has been closed for a year while the work was carried out. It now has a revamped entrance, a new 900sq ft gallery and an education centre to cater for the 40,000 children who visit every year.
The museum, which received £3.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help pay for the transformation, also has a new shop selling traditional childhood gifts such as a model of a singing bird in a cage and a roll-up pocket flying disc.
But it is the new displays that should really captivate children.
Alongside 200 teddy bears and more than 8,000 dolls, there is a rocking horse believed to have been ridden by King Charles I, a pogo stick from the Twenties and a Nuremberg doll's house dating from 1673, one of the museum's greatest treasures.
More modern artefacts include figurines and souvenirs from the Star Wars films, a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Michaelangelo magnifying glass that was given away with a Burger King meal in 1990 and the late artist Sarah Raphael's Childhood Cube sculpture, originally made for the Millennium Dome.
Diane Lees, director of the museum, said: "We have been working towards the museum's re-opening since 2000. With the collection we now have, adults and children can come five or six times a year and still have a fresh experience."
The museum will host a series of rolling temporary exhibitions, beginning with onemarking 50 years of cartoon character Miffy, the second most popular Dutch export. Only Carlsberg has a greater following. Future shows include Lost In Space, an exhibition exploring our fascination with outer galaxies and a show devoted to Picasso's prints of animals, birds and insects.
The museum will be re-opened by author Jacqueline Wilson, who writes the Tracey Beaker series and has been made Children's Laureate this year with a brief to enthuse children about reading.
www.museumofchildhood.org.uk
Reader views (1)
The Museum of Childhood has been one of my favourite places in London for as long as I can remember and it has been sorely missed during the time it was closed. Now that it's open again though it's even better than before. The care and love put into all the exhibits can't fail to awaken your inner child if you have one, and if you don't take a real one! It's a real Christmas treat at this time of year, this was like unwrapping allmy favourite toys again.
- T Ellis, London
