British Toy Making project

The V&A Museum of Childhood is currently working on the exciting British Toy Making project. 

Toy making is an international industry and Britain was at the forefront of toy design and production for much of the 20th century. Our aim is to better document the history of British toy manufacturing. We're making the archive material at the Museum more accessible, collecting new oral histories from individuals who have worked in the industry, and are also involved in other exciting activities and events.

Archives and oral history

The Museum holds a fascinating range of archive material relating to a wide variety of toy manufacturers and distributors. We are currently in the process of cataloguing, conserving and digitising this material which, together with the Museum's object collection, provides a fascinating record of British toy-making.

Paper archives can only reveal part of the history of British toy-making. To supplement our archive collections, we've been collecting oral history interviews from a wide range of individuals involved behind the scenes in the industry. These interviews are currently being transcribed, but will be made available to researchers as soon as possible.
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Exhibitions, community and learning

We'll be using archive material in both the permanent galleries and in temporary exhibitions, and archive material is also contributing to community and learning programmes in a variety of ways.
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Makers' Day, Study Day and conference

We've been involved in, and are planning for, a range of exciting events to promote access to the archive material to a wider audience.
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British Toy Making blog

Toy manufacturers