Hamleys

Hamleys

Hamleys
188-196 Regent Street
Westminster
London
W1B 5BT

Tel: 0871 704 1977
E-Mail: hamleys@email.hamleys.com

Web: Hamleys

About Hamleys

Hamleys Of London is the world-famous toy store and sell a vast range of toys, teddy bears, games and puzzles.

Arguably the King of toy shops, stretched out over seven floors and all but guaranteeing to have something you want - whatever your age. If you are taking children be prepared, because you'll probably spend all day in there.

History of Hamleys

Hamleys is named after William Hamley, who founded a toy shop called 'Noah's Ark' at No. 231, High Holborn, in London in 1760. A branch at No. 200, Regent Street, was opened in 1881; the Holborn branch was destroyed by fire in 1901 and was relocated to Nos. 86–87, High Holborn.

In 1938, Queen Mary, the consort of King George V, gave Hamleys a royal warrant. During the Second World War, the Regent Street store was bombed five times. In 1955, Queen Elizabeth II gave the company a second royal warrant as a "toys and sports merchant".

Hamleys was bought in June 2003 by Baugur Group, an investment company in Iceland. When Baugur collapsed, its stake in the toy store was taken over by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. In September 2012 Groupe Ludendo, a toy retailer based in France with shops also located in Belgium, Spain and Switzerland, bought Hamleys for a reported £60 million.

Today

Hamleys' flagship store has seven floors covering 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2), all devoted to playthings, with different categories of toy on each floor. In the late 1990s, Hamleys opened a specific Spice Girls department, dedicating their aisles to everything from Spice Girls stationery to Spice Girls dolls. The ground floor is traditionally for soft toys (including Steiff), and decked out with a diverse array of stuffed animals, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtles and dolphins, and enormous life-sized giraffes and elephants.

5th floor: Boys — Action figures, vehicles, and an open cafe.

4th floor: Hobbies — Model kits, remote-controlled vehicles, model railways, Scalextric, etc.

3rd floor: Girls — Dolls, Arts & Crafts, Hello Kitty, Dress up etc.

2nd floor: Preschool — Toys for young children.

1st floor: Games — Board games, science, jigsaws; also a Build-A-Bear Workshop and Sweet Shop.

Ground floor: Soft toys — a wide variety of stuffed animals, and also a Marvin's Magic section.

Basement: Interactive — Lego, construction toys, Red 5, novelties and Game.