The V&A Museum of Childhood houses the UK’s national collection of childhood objects, ranging in date from the 1600s to the present day. As well as toys, dolls, dolls’ houses, games and puzzles, the Museum also has a wealth of objects relating to many other aspects of childhood, including home and childcare, play and learning, clothing, representations of childhood, archival collections and ephemera.
In the Museum, rare hand-crafted objects such as the earliest surviving English rocking horse (from around 1605) sit alongside well-loved toys from the 20th century. Together, these objects allow us an insight into how different children might have lived, thought and felt, through the objects they were surrounded by throughout their childhood.
British Toy Making project
We are currently working on a major project to digitise the archives of four 20th century British toy manufacturers.
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Collecting Childhood Blog
Assistant Curator Alice Sage blogs about some of the discoveries the collections team make in the course of researching the collection.
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Construction toys
The Museum’s collection includes bricks and construction sets produced by many of the leading toy manufacturers.
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Dolls' houses and miniatures
We can learn a lot about how people used to live through looking into the Museum’s collection of around 100 dolls’ houses.
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Early years
Objects from the crucial first months and years of a child’s life, including bottles, swaddling clothes and walkers from the 1700s to today.
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Learning and development
A unique collection of toys to help growing children walk, read, spell and prepare for the adult world.
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Mechanical toys
Automata, wind-up vehicles and battery powered robots that reflect contemporary events such as war and space travel.
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Optical toys
The Museum’s collection ranges from zoetropes and magic lanterns to Sega and Nintendo games consoles.
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Puppets and toy theatres
The Museum’s puppet collection includes beautiful examples from around the world and toy versions of popular television characters.
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Toy figures
The Museum has over 1000 action figures, including famous characters as well as soldiers and civilians from Britains, Airfix and others.
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Teddy bears and soft toys
The Museum’s collection of teddy bears and soft toys includes big names and famous characters like Paddington and the Care Bears.
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Shop online...
The V&A online shop stocks a distinctive and refreshingly different range for children, big and little, then and now, including toys, games, books and accessories.
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