Hamleys Toy Store, London, UK – All The Toys Under One Roof

The first time I went to Hamleys I must have been no more than about 8 years old. I had gone there as part of a shopping trip to the west end with an Aunt and I apparently wanted everything in the store. From time to time I went to this store as I grew up. Just being in Hamleys as a child always gave off the impression that finding something magical was around the next corner.

In my teens I wen t to Hamleys for a very different reason than previously. I was sixteen and had just left school, I wanted to work in a record shop but after a long interview I was told to come back in two years when I would be eighteen. I was walking down Regents Street drowning in my sorrow over the non starter record shop job when I passed Hamleys and decided I may as well go in and look around (kind of nostalgic). As in those days there were no IPods or Xboxes it didn’t take long to look around. Somehow I ended up getting a job interview and worked there happily for the next year and a half.

It is now twenty one years since I worked at Hamleys and have gone full circle. I no longer wish to buy anything there but still enjoy the look of excitement my own children’s faces as they too want to buy everything in the store.