Hamleys
Encyclopedia
Hamleys is one of the world's largest toy
shops. Its flagship store is in Regent Street
, London
. Major stores worldwide are in Dublin, Dubai
, Amman
, Glasgow
, Mumbai
and Chennai
.
The flagship store is considered one of London's major tourist attractions, and receives about five million visitors a year.
It is often considered to be the London equivalent of FAO Schwarz in New York
.
Unlike many companies using possessive names, Hamleys intentionally forgoes the use of an apostrophe in its name.
, who founded a toy shop called "Noah's Ark
" at 231 High Holborn
in London in 1760. A branch at 200 Regent Street was opened in 1881, and the Holborn branch was destroyed by fire in 1901 and was relocated from 231 to 86– 87 High Holborn.
In 1938, Queen Mary
, consort of George V of the United Kingdom
, gave Hamleys a Royal Warrant
. During World War II
, the Regent Street store was bombed five times. In 1955 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gave the company a second Royal Warrant as a "Toys and Sports Merchant" .
in 1981, which is the largest toy shop in the world.
Hamleys flagship London store has seven floors covering 54000 square feet (5,016.8 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 Margarete Steiff GmbH), and decked out with a remarkably diverse array of stuffed animal
s, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtle
s and dolphin
s, even to enormous life-sized giraffe
s and elephant
s.
, however this was closed less than 12 months later. Hamleys had a store based in Sheffield towards the end of the late 1980s. Based in part of the old Robert Brothers Department Store that closed earlier in the 1980s, its address was 36–38 The Moor, Rockingham House, Sheffield. It closed after a few years due to high rates and lower than expected trade. Hamleys is also a holding company for several other toy companies in the United Kingdom. Most notably, Hamleys purchased The English Teddy Bear Company in 2004. Originally established by Dominic Richards, it failed to prove a success for Hamleys, and all eight stores were closed down within two years.
As a result of these large expansion failures under the previous management team, Hamleys most successful expansion efforts have been through running concession outlets at various UK airports. Hamleys run smaller stores in London Heathrow Airport
(Terminals 1), London Stansted Airport
, London Gatwick Airport
(North Terminal) and Manchester Airport (Terminal 2). There is also a small store at St Pancras railway station
.
On November 26, 2009, Hamleys opened a store in Glasgow
. The 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) outlet is part of a £100 million extension and redevelopment of the St Enoch Shopping Centre.
There was also an outlet store at Great Western Outlet Village
in Swindon
, offering a more limited range of products. This outlet store was closed by mid-February 2010.
(three small stores), and on 23 October 2008 it opened a 3250 square metres (34,982.7 sq ft) store in Pembroke Avenue, located adjacent to Town Square, Dundrum, Dublin
in the Republic of Ireland
.
Hamleys opened its first store outside Europe in Amman
, Jordan
on 18 June 2008. The three-storey store in Mecca Street is run by the group's franchisee
Jordan Centre. A Dubai
franchise opened on 4 November 2008.
Hamleys opened its first store in Asia in Mumbai
, India
on the 9th of April, 2010. The 22000 square feet (2,043.9 m²) store is located in an upmarket shopping district in the country's financial capital. The Second Store in India is located in the city of Chennai at the Express Avenue Mall. The 11,000 Sq. ft. store has a London Bus that one can walk up through.
, Turkey
and Serbia
(October 2010).
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
shops. Its flagship store is in Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Major stores worldwide are in Dublin, Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
and Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
.
The flagship store is considered one of London's major tourist attractions, and receives about five million visitors a year.
It is often considered to be the London equivalent of FAO Schwarz in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Unlike many companies using possessive names, Hamleys intentionally forgoes the use of an apostrophe in its name.
History
Hamleys is named after William HamleyWilliam Hamley
William Hamley in Bodmin, Cornwall, in England, founded what is today known as Hamleys, one of the largest toy stores in the world. The shop was originally called 'Noah's Ark' and opened at High Holborn in London in 1760. It was highly convenient for the wealthy families of Bloomsbury when buying...
, who founded a toy shop called "Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
" at 231 High Holborn
High Holborn
High Holborn is a road in Holborn in central London, England. It starts in the west near St Giles Circus, then goes east, past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, and continues east. The road becomes Holborn at the junction with Gray's Inn Road....
in London in 1760. A branch at 200 Regent Street was opened in 1881, and the Holborn branch was destroyed by fire in 1901 and was relocated from 231 to 86– 87 High Holborn.
In 1938, Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
, consort of George V of the United Kingdom
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, gave Hamleys a Royal Warrant
Royal Warrant
Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Regent Street store was bombed five times. In 1955 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gave the company a second Royal Warrant as a "Toys and Sports Merchant" .
Regent street
Hamleys moved its flagship store to its current address at 188–196 Regent StreetRegent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
in 1981, which is the largest toy shop in the world.
Hamleys flagship London store has seven floors covering 54000 square feet (5,016.8 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
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
stationery to Spice Girls Dolls. The ground floor is traditionally for soft toys (including Margarete Steiff GmbH), and decked out with a remarkably diverse array of stuffed animal
Stuffed animal
A stuffed toy is a toy sewn from cloth, plush, or other textiles, and stuffed with straw, beans, plastic pellets, cotton, synthetic fibres, or other similar materials. Stuffed toys are also known as plush toys A stuffed toy is a toy sewn from cloth, plush, or other textiles, and stuffed with straw,...
s, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s and dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s, even to enormous life-sized giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
s and elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s.
- 5th floor: Boys — Action figures, vehicles, and an open cafe.
- 4th floor: Hobbies — Model kits, remote-controlled vehicles, model railways, ScalextricScalextricScalextric is a toy brand for a range of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s, as a creation of British firm Minimodels. The brand is currently owned and distributed by Hornby.-History:...
, etc. - 3rd floor: Girls — Dolls, Arts & Crafts, Hello KittyHello Kittyis a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...
, Dress up etc. - 2nd floor: Preschool — Toys for young children.
- 1st floor: Games — Board games, science, jigsaws; also a Build-A-Bear WorkshopBuild-A-Bear WorkshopBuild-A-Bear Workshop is an American retailer headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri that sells teddy bears and other stuffed animals. Customers go through an interactive process in which the stuffed animal of their choice is assembled and customized during their visit to the store, and is the...
and Sweet Shop. - Ground floor: Soft toys — a wide variety of stuffed animals, and also a Marvin's MagicMarvin's MagicMarvin's Magic is a producer and dealer of magic products in the United Kingdom.It was founded in 1987 by Marvin Berglas, son of David Berglas, and is the world's largest magic company....
section. - Basement: Interactive — LegoLegoLego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
, construction toys, Red 5, novelties and GAME (retailer)GAME (retailer)The Game Group plc is a British video games retail company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index....
.
Other UK Locations
In 1987 a second store was opened in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, however this was closed less than 12 months later. Hamleys had a store based in Sheffield towards the end of the late 1980s. Based in part of the old Robert Brothers Department Store that closed earlier in the 1980s, its address was 36–38 The Moor, Rockingham House, Sheffield. It closed after a few years due to high rates and lower than expected trade. Hamleys is also a holding company for several other toy companies in the United Kingdom. Most notably, Hamleys purchased The English Teddy Bear Company in 2004. Originally established by Dominic Richards, it failed to prove a success for Hamleys, and all eight stores were closed down within two years.
As a result of these large expansion failures under the previous management team, Hamleys most successful expansion efforts have been through running concession outlets at various UK airports. Hamleys run smaller stores in London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
(Terminals 1), London Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
, London Gatwick Airport
London Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and south of Central London. Previously known as London Gatwick,In 2010, the name changed from London Gatwick Airport to Gatwick Airport...
(North Terminal) and Manchester Airport (Terminal 2). There is also a small store at St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...
.
On November 26, 2009, Hamleys opened a store in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. The 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) outlet is part of a £100 million extension and redevelopment of the St Enoch Shopping Centre.
There was also an outlet store at Great Western Outlet Village
Swindon Designer Outlet
thumb|right|Swindon Designer Outlet, a shopping complex built within the disused Swindon railway engine works.thumb|right|A Swindon-built locomotive on display in the eating area of the Outlet...
in Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, offering a more limited range of products. This outlet store was closed by mid-February 2010.
Global stores
Hamleys European footprint exists in DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
(three small stores), and on 23 October 2008 it opened a 3250 square metres (34,982.7 sq ft) store in Pembroke Avenue, located adjacent to Town Square, Dundrum, Dublin
Dundrum, Dublin
Dundrum , originally a town in its own right, is now a suburb of Dublin in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Ireland.The area is located in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16.-History:...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Hamleys opened its first store outside Europe in Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
on 18 June 2008. The three-storey store in Mecca Street is run by the group's franchisee
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
Jordan Centre. A Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
franchise opened on 4 November 2008.
Hamleys opened its first store in Asia in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on the 9th of April, 2010. The 22000 square feet (2,043.9 m²) store is located in an upmarket shopping district in the country's financial capital. The Second Store in India is located in the city of Chennai at the Express Avenue Mall. The 11,000 Sq. ft. store has a London Bus that one can walk up through.
Future expansion
Hamleys plans to open additional franchise stores in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
(October 2010).