|
When William Hamley first opened a toy shop in London, Westminster Bridge had just opened to traffic - horses
and carts. Even gas lights would not illuminate the city's streets for another half a century. The year was 1760,
but William Hamley, a Cornishman from Bodmin, was not put off.
He filled his cramped Holborn shop with every toy he could find; rag dolls and tin soldiers, hoops and wooden
horses, because he wanted the finest toy shop in the world. He even called it the 'Noah's Ark'.
So when Henry Charles Harrod opened a small grocer's in Knightsbridge in 1849, Hamleys was already a vastly
successful 'Joy Emporium'. To celebrate, in 1881, William Hamley's grandsons opened a new branch in Regent
Street, not far from Piccadilly Circus. Hamleys was here 11 years before Eros.
By the end of Queen Victoria's reign, croquet sets, cricket bats and 'footballs for playing on the sands',
jostled with marionettes, magic lanterns and model sailing boats on the shop's packed shelves.
So great had the shop's reputation now become that Jean Jacques and Sons asked if they could launch their new
'Gossima' exclusively through Hamleys.
The public immediately took to the game which they christened 'ping pong' after the noise made by the bouncing
of its hollow white celluloid ball. Not until 1921 did it officially become Table Tennis.
In the same year, Hamleys reopened on six floors. Now toy theatres, Punch and Judy puppets, pedal cars and
miniature railway trains helped to fill what was 'the largest toy shop in the world'.
Ironically, this desire to provide the world's best selection of toys and games finally threatened to close
Hamleys altogether. Its fleet of horse drawn delivery vans were still at work each day when the economic
depression across Europe forced the shop into liquidation in 1931.
Hamleys was saved by a man who had ridden on the delivery vans as a boy, Walter Lines chairman of the Tri-Ang
company, who bought it and rebuilt its reputation.
In 1938 he was rewarded with the Royal Warrant from Queen Mary. Her granddaughters, the young Princesses
Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, both had Hamleys toys in their nursery.
Even being bombed five times in the blitz did not stop Hamleys. The staff wearing tin hats served at the front
door, rushing in to collect the toys, and hand them over at the door. After the War it was business as usual; the
Festival of Britain in 1951 brought a Grand Doll's Salon as well as a vast model railway to hypnotise children of
any age.
The new Queen Elizabeth II had not forgotten her own childhood companions. Both Prince Charles and Princess
Anne received toys from Hamleys and, in 1955, her Majesty honoured Walter Lines with his second Royal Warrant as
a Toys and Sports Merchant.
Hamleys became as much a London attraction as Buckingham Palace or The British Museum. Nowhere was the magic
of childhood so precisely captured. And as toys changed, so did Hamleys; in 1981 it moved to 188 -196 Regent
Street, still the biggest toy shop in the world.
In 1994 Hamleys of London Ltd was listed on the London Stock Exchange and became Hamleys plc. It remained a
public company for 9 years until 2003 when, with the support of Baugur, the Iceland based retail group, Hamleys
management team took the company private.
Over the years Hamleys has developed an international reputation for choice, quality and innovation. The
magical flagship store on Regent Street has over 7 floors packed full of toys and games, with live and
interactive demonstrations.
Today, Hamleys is an internationally recognised toy retailer with ambitious plans to further grow the brand.
The Hamleys Own collection, a branded range of toys and games will continue the tradition of the finest toys in
the world. With plans for international stores and the launch of an exciting, new user friendly website will
enable Hamleys magic to be delivered throughout the world.
|
