Building    From 1851 

Pollock's toy theatre shop

Categories: Children, Commerce, Theatre

This was started by John Redington, selling printed sheets of characters and scenery for toy theatres. He ran it until his death when his family took over. 1877 his daughter Eliza married Benjamin Pollock (1856–1937) and they ran the shop, changing its name to Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop and selling the theatres as well as the sheets, until 1944 when the stock was sold and the business reopened as Benjamin Pollock Limited under new management at 1 John Adam Street in the Adelphi Building.

1950 it moved to smaller premises at 16 Little Russell Street but the business failed in 1951. 1955 it restarted at 44 Monmouth Street, and here in 1956 it also opened Pollock's Toy Museum. 1969 it moved to 1 Scala Street where the Museum remains (2019). 1980 a shop was opened at 44 The Market, Covent Garden.

Spitalfield's Life has a good post about this business.

January 2023: Ian Visits reported "Pollock’s Toy Museum forced to close", that's the Scala Street operation.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Pollock's toy theatre shop

Commemorated ati

Pollock's toy theatre shop

The business had just moved out when the building was destroyed by a WW2 bomb.

Read More

Other Subjects

Jacob Sebastian Holstein

Jacob Sebastian Holstein

From The Peerage: Jacob was the son of Alison Margaret Worsley (b.1963) and Christian Holstein. They married in 1992 and divorced 1996. Alison married again in 1997 and her married name became McIn...

Person, Children

1 memorial
Thompson James Filmer

Thompson James Filmer

Thompson James Filmer is the 1st on the left of the seven boys sitting in the photograph of the scout troop. He was born on 28 January 1900, the eighth of the eleven children of John Apps Budds Fi...

Person, Children, Community / Clubs, Tragedy

2 memorials
Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter

Artist, writer and sheep breeder. Born Helen Beatrix Potter at 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington where she lived in the third floor nursery until she was in her thirties. She used her second name ...

Person, Art, Children, Animals, Literature, Seriously Famous

1 memorial
National Schools / St John's Highbury Vale Primary School

National Schools / St John's Highbury Vale Primary School

We have decoded the following from British History On-line Opened 1836 as Highbury Vale School with 102 middle school pupils. 1864 the site was enlarged and the school rebuilt as Christ Church Nati...

Building, Children, Education

1 memorial
Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh

Children's storybook character. The creation of A.A. Milne, inspired by the teddy bear, made in Acton, belonging to his son Christopher Robin. The toy was named 'Winnie' after a Canadian black bear...

Fiction, Children, Fictional, Literature

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Joseph Lister bust

Joseph Lister bust

W1, Portland Place

This bust is sited close to Lister's home at 12, Park Crescent.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Charterhouse

Charterhouse

EC1, Charterhouse Square

Various spots in London are touted as "plaque pits" on little or no evidence but skeletons and archaeology have proved that Charterhouse ...

6 subjects commemorated
Joyce Salter

Joyce Salter

Daughter of Doctor Alfred and Ada Salter. She contracted a virulent form of scarlet fever and died at the age of eight.

Person, Friend / family

2 memorials
John Leech

John Leech

Humorous artist and illustrator, was born at 28 Bennett Street, Stamford Street. Died at home at 6 The Terrace, Kensington.

Person, Art

1 memorial