Not Just For Children

London / Go See
en af Henry Castiglione /  Henry Castiglione, 10. jan 2009

 

Oddly enough I first heard about this place in a novel 'What I Loved' by Norwegian-American writer, Siri Hustvedt. This novel is set entirely in New York apart from a passing mention of the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. I had to go.

This really is the perfect museum for the generation that never grew up. Here we can relive the toys of our youth and our forefather's. There are giant robots, 1960s meccano sets and wobbly mirrors from old-fashioned fairgrounds.The labelling of the exhibits is rudimentary but this just lets you make up things up – just like being a child again.

What children probably don't appreciate is the magnificence of the building in which all this is housed. It looks like part of an ornate railway station but was actually especially designed as a museum in Kensington and later dismantled and moved to Bethnal Green.

The inside is one enormous space with galleries on either side. The floor was laid by women from a local prison. It had a makeover a few years ago which meant that a vaguely, Moorish box was stuck on the front. I've no idea why they did this but it could have been done worse.

What interested Ms Hustvedt were the dolls and the doll's houses with their lavish attention for detail. One of the houses dates from the early 18th century and is only slightly smaller than my flat.

The dolls with their Victorian clothes and fixed grins look like mummified children. I was so frightened that there were nearly tears before bedtime but luckily i was distracted by the delicious smells emanating from the cafe on the ground floor. It's hard to throw a tantrum when you are eating a sausage roll and there is the promise of ice cream.

BETHNAL GREEN MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD, Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9PA

Udgivet af
Henry Castiglione