The V&A Museum of Childhood is located in Bethnal Green, in east London. It houses artefacts and memorabilia associated with children's daily lives dating from the last 400 years. It's fascinating for both adults and children. The space is open and highly accessible. When I visited it earlier today, whilst peering through these glass cases crammed with puppets, ragged glass eyed dolls and moth eaten teddy bears, the sound of the children in the museum was an almost ethereal din of the ghosts of the little ones who once created and played with many of the exhibits.
It's a really touching place, full of toys that were hand made by loving parents and friends for children whose imaginations must have thrived on the stimulating objects put before them. It traces how children learn from play, whether it's a doll that gives birth to a new baby, a specimen kit or a 17th century doll's house that teaches little girls good house keeping skills.
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| Noah's Arc |
The one question that did strike me as I left was that in this 'computer age', is our imagination being stimulated enough? Nowadays everything is produced using computer programs, before people made puppets and models by hand, children played with toys, created objects, experimented instead of sitting on a couch for hours playing computer games or watching TV. Play is such an important way of developing our creativity, everyone has that potential, and it's up to the child's parents to nurture it.
Because, in the past, toys were so expensive to buy, people appeared to be more inventive and resourceful making things instead from wood, leather or paper. Basically whatever was available at the time. Perhaps I am looking at my childhood through rose tinted glasses, but I do recall being overjoyed when my parents purchased a new washing machine because I could then make a house from the enormous cardboard box it was delivered in. I cut out windows, made curtains, painted bricks onto the outside and decorated the interior with a lamp, table and cloth; all very civilized. I was basically creating my own home from the only template I knew, my parent's home. The fact that so many of the exhibits were in fact doll's houses just illustrates the fact how important a home is to a child.
Photography by Alva
