The V&A Musueum of Childhood is a charming laid back space that's free to the public and teaming with kids – one of which was even in head to toe Oshkosh which made my co-worker and I very excited. We met up with my friend Dana and her beautiful baby Bea, who enjoyed the flashing lights and bright colors. For us adults, there's also much to enjoy.
The main exhibit areas are filled with cases of toys through the decades and seeing some of them like this weird E.T doll we had that erroneously featured a glow up condom on it's finger, the brain thing from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Care Bears, these Indian puppets that we had as kids and the totally square Heart Family filled me with happy nostalgia.
Others amazed me with their packaging like this mechanical marionette theater or this arrow copter. Some things wowed me with their strangeness or grossness while still more made me envious of little British kids. I mean, really why couldn't we have grown up with Playsacks??!! I ended up taking hundreds of photos (that you can view here).
Currently they have a retrospective of children's fashion called Tip to Toe (open til April19th)?that features the exquisite, the fun, and the sometimes strange in children's fashion through the ages.
The book store is a good one, and you're likely to walk away with a fun souvenir, whether a book based on the Top to Toe exhibit or a He-Man toy postcard.
But what do you think?