Museum of Childhood, London
By the beginning of last year excitement and anticipation among under-tens and their families in the East End of London had reached fever pitch. This wasn't caused by the usual pre-Christmas hysteria, but the much-awaited reopening of the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
I have to confess to being more than a little excited myself. I live around the corner from the museum and my daughter is an ardent fan. For the past year or so I have walked past it almost every day, monitoring progress, and at least once a week my five year old has asked me how long it will be before it reopens. In the end I'm sure my polite enquiries to staff began to sound a bit desperate.
So after 12 months and £4.7m, was it worth the cash and the wait? The bulk of the money has gone on a new entrance and visitor facilities. Caruso St John Architects have bravely moulded an extension onto the front of the existing building creating a bold new facade and additional gallery space, as well as room for a new education space in the basement and the inevitable buggy/scooter/trike park.
The imposing new entrance is in stark contrast to its flat and unprepossessing predecessor. Despite this, it manages to fit together well and complements the rest of the Victorian building. The rich colours of the stonework are knitted together in an intricate pattern and the large windows allow visitors a glimpse into the new gallery space, as well as casting light into the foyer.
This first gallery - the Front Room - will house community displays and interpretations of the collections. The opening exhibition, Bethnal Green Illuminations, is a sparkling display of chandeliers created using the collections as inspiration.
Moving into the main part of the museum, I was struck by how little seems to have changed. This is not necessarily a bad thing - the biggest changes happened in the first phase of the redevelopment in 2003, when the dark imposing displays that had dominated the central atrium were ripped out and the first floor was completely redisplayed.
This time it was the turn of the mezzanine floor to get a makeover. The main change is that the height of displays has been lowered - not an insignificant thing considering that the average visitor is probably only three feet tall. The new arrangement relieves the parental pain of having to continuously lift children up to see the interesting bits.
The display cases are laid out following a grid pattern, with plenty of space inbetween cases for through traffic, and are broadly grouped around the themes of Creativity and Moving Toys. These two themes are sub-divided into smaller areas.
For example: Make It Happen, Explore, Springs and Cogs, and Push and Pull. This helps navigation and would definitely make sense if you were systematically examining each display. As it is, most visitors are guided by small children with the attention spans of gnats who charge off to the next shiny thing that catches their eye, regardless of theme.
Each area has its own dedicated play space or activity area, which is a welcome addition. These are broadly based on the theme for that area, so Explore has a sensory pod with lots of touchy-feely bumps and lumps, coloured lights, and strobes, and Make It Happen has a building and making activity table.
Thankfully, old favourites have been retained. No doubt staff didn't want to invoke the wrath of the tiny Thomas tyrants by removing the model train display, and the rocking horses are still available for a quick canter, but they are now logically grouped in the Moving Toys area.
Overall though, the display feels safe and very traditional. This is not a groundbreaking redevelopment. The interpretation is conventional - labels follow a formula: name of object, when and where it was made and what it is made of. Longer pieces of text headlined Did You Know? are dry, too wordy and would turn off even the keenest child.
There are hardly any images showing children playing with the toys on display and the words do little to tell their stories. In fact, for a museum dedicated to childhood, there is very little storytelling - rarely do you find out who the toys were made for, who played with them and what their lives were like.
The whole of the interior has been given a lick of paint that adds to the opened-up feeling (although they should have gone the extra yard and painted or got rid of the mud-brown shop display, counter and cafe tables).
Mercifully, the franchise for the cafe has been taken over by caterer Benugo, and its fresh ingredients, decent coffee and licence to sell alcohol are a marked improvement on what went before - soggy sandwiches, stale scones and surly service.
The only downer is the price - the museum is in Tower Hamlets where more than 50 per cent of primary schoolchildren qualify for free school meals compared with the national average of 16 per cent. So £4.50 for a small (and it is small) portion of macaroni cheese is not going to win over the locals. (I am intrigued to know what the profit margin is on a £2.50 sausage roll.)
Upstairs the opening temporary exhibition is Happy Birthday Miffy - a well laid out and engaging exploration of the work of Dick Bruna, the illustrator and creator of the children's book character. Here there really is something for all visitors: young visitors can write or draw a postcard to Miffy and then send it; there's a reading area and plenty of context about Bruna's life and other work.
Ultimately, the museum probably suffers from the fact that although it's a museum of childhood, not a children's museum, the visitors don't always get that distinction. The revamp and introduction of themed play and activity areas will hopefully help to bridge that gap.
The Willy Wonka-esque Golden Tickets for the reopening party of the museum were a touch of creative genius - most of the kids who attended looked as if they couldn't have been happier if they were being shown around an actual chocolate factory.
This museum will remain a favourite with parents and children, but it's a shame that the same imagination and flair devoted to the opening party hasn't been extended to telling the stories of the toys.
Project data
Cost: £4.7m
Main funders: Heritage Lottery Fund £3.5m, Clore Duffield Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, DCMS/Wolfson Fund, Bridge House Trust
Architect: Caruso St John
Graphics and interpretation: Kerr Noble
Lighting: RG Ballards
Interactives: Paragon Creative and Mike Ayres Design
Display cases: Rothstein cases through Conservation by Design
By the beginning of last year excitement and anticipation among under-tens and their families in the East End of London had reached fever pitch. This wasn't caused by the usual pre-Christmas hysteria, but the much-awaited reopening of the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
I have to confess to being more than a little excited myself. I live around the corner from the museum and my daughter is an ardent fan. For the past year or so I have walked past it almost every day, monitoring progress, and at least once a week my five year old has asked me how long it will be before it reopens. In the end I'm sure my polite enquiries to staff began to sound a bit desperate.
So after 12 months and £4.7m, was it worth the cash and the wait? The bulk of the money has gone on a new entrance and visitor facilities. Caruso St John Architects have bravely moulded an extension onto the front of the existing building creating a bold new facade and additional gallery space, as well as room for a new education space in the basement and the inevitable buggy/scooter/trike park.
The imposing new entrance is in stark contrast to its flat and unprepossessing predecessor. Despite this, it manages to fit together well and complements the rest of the Victorian building. The rich colours of the stonework are knitted together in an intricate pattern and the large windows allow visitors a glimpse into the new gallery space, as well as casting light into the foyer.
This first gallery - the Front Room - will house community displays and interpretations of the collections. The opening exhibition, Bethnal Green Illuminations, is a sparkling display of chandeliers created using the collections as inspiration.
Moving into the main part of the museum, I was struck by how little seems to have changed. This is not necessarily a bad thing - the biggest changes happened in the first phase of the redevelopment in 2003, when the dark imposing displays that had dominated the central atrium were ripped out and the first floor was completely redisplayed.
This time it was the turn of the mezzanine floor to get a makeover. The main change is that the height of displays has been lowered - not an insignificant thing considering that the average visitor is probably only three feet tall. The new arrangement relieves the parental pain of having to continuously lift children up to see the interesting bits.
The display cases are laid out following a grid pattern, with plenty of space inbetween cases for through traffic, and are broadly grouped around the themes of Creativity and Moving Toys. These two themes are sub-divided into smaller areas.
For example: Make It Happen, Explore, Springs and Cogs, and Push and Pull. This helps navigation and would definitely make sense if you were systematically examining each display. As it is, most visitors are guided by small children with the attention spans of gnats who charge off to the next shiny thing that catches their eye, regardless of theme.
Each area has its own dedicated play space or activity area, which is a welcome addition. These are broadly based on the theme for that area, so Explore has a sensory pod with lots of touchy-feely bumps and lumps, coloured lights, and strobes, and Make It Happen has a building and making activity table.
Thankfully, old favourites have been retained. No doubt staff didn't want to invoke the wrath of the tiny Thomas tyrants by removing the model train display, and the rocking horses are still available for a quick canter, but they are now logically grouped in the Moving Toys area.
Overall though, the display feels safe and very traditional. This is not a groundbreaking redevelopment. The interpretation is conventional - labels follow a formula: name of object, when and where it was made and what it is made of. Longer pieces of text headlined Did You Know? are dry, too wordy and would turn off even the keenest child.
There are hardly any images showing children playing with the toys on display and the words do little to tell their stories. In fact, for a museum dedicated to childhood, there is very little storytelling - rarely do you find out who the toys were made for, who played with them and what their lives were like.
The whole of the interior has been given a lick of paint that adds to the opened-up feeling (although they should have gone the extra yard and painted or got rid of the mud-brown shop display, counter and cafe tables).
Mercifully, the franchise for the cafe has been taken over by caterer Benugo, and its fresh ingredients, decent coffee and licence to sell alcohol are a marked improvement on what went before - soggy sandwiches, stale scones and surly service.
The only downer is the price - the museum is in Tower Hamlets where more than 50 per cent of primary schoolchildren qualify for free school meals compared with the national average of 16 per cent. So £4.50 for a small (and it is small) portion of macaroni cheese is not going to win over the locals. (I am intrigued to know what the profit margin is on a £2.50 sausage roll.)
Upstairs the opening temporary exhibition is Happy Birthday Miffy - a well laid out and engaging exploration of the work of Dick Bruna, the illustrator and creator of the children's book character. Here there really is something for all visitors: young visitors can write or draw a postcard to Miffy and then send it; there's a reading area and plenty of context about Bruna's life and other work.
Ultimately, the museum probably suffers from the fact that although it's a museum of childhood, not a children's museum, the visitors don't always get that distinction. The revamp and introduction of themed play and activity areas will hopefully help to bridge that gap.
The Willy Wonka-esque Golden Tickets for the reopening party of the museum were a touch of creative genius - most of the kids who attended looked as if they couldn't have been happier if they were being shown around an actual chocolate factory.
This museum will remain a favourite with parents and children, but it's a shame that the same imagination and flair devoted to the opening party hasn't been extended to telling the stories of the toys.
Project data
Cost: £4.7m
Main funders: Heritage Lottery Fund £3.5m, Clore Duffield Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, DCMS/Wolfson Fund, Bridge House Trust
Architect: Caruso St John
Graphics and interpretation: Kerr Noble
Lighting: RG Ballards
Interactives: Paragon Creative and Mike Ayres Design
Display cases: Rothstein cases through Conservation by Design
