Starting in a single attic room on Monmouth Street in 1956, Pollock’s Toy Museum flourished and by 1969 it had outgrown the building, relocating to the corner of 41 Whitfield Street and 1 Scala Street in Fitzrovia. The proposal aims to extend the ambitions of this platform of curiosity, focusing on experiential aspects of play, and embodying playfulness and vibrancy architecturally.

The materiality and mechanics of the museum’s vintage toys served as design precedents. As well as having rooms of play, programmes include the pre-existing toy shop, a workshop, a toy renting library, and a café. The workshop highlights the importance of toy restoration, offering woodworking skills and knowledge to the community. The library provides low-income families access to toys for their children, whilst decreasing the number of toys going to landfills. The café is open to the public, linking the spaces of play where people of all ages can experience jollification. In contrast to the surrounding commercial buildings, which are driven by profit, this project centres itself around playfulness and a sense of community, bringing colour into the urban landscape.