2021 Lecture Series
In 2021 Pollock’s Toy Museum Trust hosted a series of online lectures about the history of Pollock’s and the collection. These lectures are available to watch free on Pollock’s Toy Museum Vimeo channel.
Alan Powers – It was 50 Years Ago Today
On 31 March 1971, Pollock’s Toy Museum held a Grand Opening Ceremony for the joining up of its two buildings on a quiet corner in Fitzrovia, where it has remained ever since as one of London’s quirkiest museums.
Alan Powers, who was there on the occasion to help in a performance of Blackbeard the Pirate, will explain how that event was the culmination of Marguerite Fawdry’s efforts to save the English toy theatre tradition and to give it context through a museum collection and display. Who was Benjamin Pollock of Hoxton? Why did this humble East End shopkeeper become a national legend? How did Pollock’s survive bombs and bankruptcy in the years between?
Alan Powers is a historian of art and architecture, devoted to toy theatres since the age of eight. He writes on art and design, curates exhibitions and teaches at the University of Kent while also serving as Chairman of the Pollock’s Toy Museum Trust since 1999.
Watch It was 50 Years Ago Today on Vimeo
Debby Brown – Miniature Furnishings : Dolls Houses and Shops
There is a fascination about miniature worlds, which captivates many of us as adults; but is part of all of our childhoods. From stylish Art Nouveau furniture to little chairs and tables, home made from corks, feathers, matchboxes and the remains of Sunday lunch, former curator Debby Brown invites you to peep behind the lace curtains of Pollock’s collection of dolls’ houses, rooms and shops into the past of parlours, domestic life, furnishings and household equipment.
Debby Brown discovered Pollocks one summer aged 14, and over half a century later is still there; fascinated by what our childhood toys tell about our own upbringings, and those of previous generations. She was Curator at Pollock’s for many years, and now a Trustee.
‘I’m keen to uncover and tell the hidden stories of our toys; their makers, and their young owners. My “day job” as a college art textiles teacher frequently crosses over with museum themes, and starting this summer I’m running the first of a series of practical workshop collaborations between the Museum and Morley College, making rag dolls inspired by Pollock’s folk toy collections.’
Watch Miniature Furnishings : Dolls Houses and Shops on Vimeo
David Powell – A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured: Robert Louis Stevenson and the Toy Theatre
The most famous piece of writing about toy theatres came from Robert Louis Stevenson in 1884, drawing on his boyhood passion for cardboard melodrama encountered in a shop window in Edinburgh. David Powell has read Stevenson’s text closely for a forthcoming publication, bringing to light his references to current events and the reasons why the author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped chose to celebrate Benjamin Pollock in particular.
David Powell is a Librarian and toy theatre enthusiast, Trustee of Pollock’s Toy Museum and lead author of Printing the Toy Theatre (2009) and of the exhibition catalogues William West and the Regency Toy Theatre (2004) and William Webb and the Victorian Toy Theatre (2005)
Watch A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured: Robert Louis Stevenson and the Toy Theatre on Vimeo
Sarah Peasgood – From comic strips to fairy tales – an insight into the creative work of Sarah’s Paper Theatre
From the art of comic strips to the magic of fairy tales and historical music hall shows, this lecture provides a rare glimpse into the journey and performances of a modern-day creator of Paper Theatre. Sarah is among a handful of maker-performers of Paper & Toy theatre in the UK and specialises in live narration with atmospheric lighting and a musical soundtrack.
Self-taught and driven by a love of theatre and the dramatic illusion that can be created on the miniature stage, she has now become a specialist of her craft with a robust repertoire of shows in a colourful contemporary style having honed her skills since first performing in 2008.
Sarah Peasgood is Newsletter Editor and council member of the British Puppet & Model Theatre Guild, a Trustee of Pollock’s Toy Museum Trust and a member of the Hanau Paper Theatre Forum.
Mary Clare Martin – Multicultural Toys
In June 2013, an exhibition on Multi-Cultural Toys was held at the University of Greenwich, co-ordinated by Dr Mary Clare Martin, Head of the Centre (now Cluster) for the Study of Play and Recreation. The Trustees of Pollock’s Toy Museum, of whom Mary Clare is one, collaborated with organisation and loans for the display.
The exhibition and its associated conference led on to further research and publication, using oral history interviews, filming and writing about play in international perspective, including sessions with schoolchildren of different ages on “What makes a good toy?”
This lecture explores how toys and material objects for play, such as noise makers, dolls, construction toys, moving objects and natural objects, which have taken different formats throughout time and place, illustrate the exhibition themes of globalisation and sustainability in relation to the complex themes of multi-culturalism, exclusion and inclusion.