Known as the world’s largest toy store, Hamleys flagship on Regent Street receives over 5 million visitors a year. The famous London store is stocked over seven floors with 450,000 individual toys from over 10,000 different varieties of items. Hamleys is named for William Hamley, a Cornishman from Bodmin, Cornwall who set up his ‘Noah’s Ark’ toy-shop in Holborn in 1760. His shop, stocked with tin soldiers, hoops, wooden horses and rag dolls, attracted shoppers from the aristocratic western squares around Bloomsbury. By 1837 the toy-shop, now owned by his grandsons, became a London landmark, and a new branch opened in 1881 on London’s Regent Street. In 1938, Queen Mary gave Hamelys its first Royal Warrant, and in 1955, Queen Elizabeth II gave the company its second Royal Warrant as a ‘toys and sports merchant’. Through the years, Hamleys has seen new owners and opened several branches worldwide.
- Hamleys Flagship
- 188-196 Regent Street, London W1B 5BT
- www.hamleys.com
- Underground: Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus