Royal Doll Houses

One of the good things about London is that all (well most of the) museums are free! So even if you have NOMONEYATALL cause your wallet got stolen, there's still things to do on your day off.

When I came to London first I had NOMONEYATALL as well, and also I thought I had 3 days to see as much stuff as possible, cause who knows if I'll ever come back to London! That was in August 2009 and in those 3 days back then I managed to pay a visit to the Tate Modern, the British Museum, the Museum of London, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Natural History and the V&A. Quite impressive, seeing as I had no money for buses or tubes and walked from one museum to the next on my own two blistered feet...

So yesterday I decided to add another London Museum to that list and walked to Bethnal Green where the Museum of Childhood is to be found. Megan, the American, came with me to make it a bit more fun.

The Museum of Childhood is full of children and art students. The exhibits are mostly toys, contemporary ones as well as medieval ones. It doesn't sound very exciting and it probably really isn't, but there's some treasures to be found, that might well light up your day. Like "Dusty", a "Fashion Action Doll" a la Barbie from the 70s, which was displayed in her softball costume. "Dusty the Softball Champion! - the favourite of every little lesbian!

And then all the toys you played with yourself when you were little and have long forgotten about!

I personally enjoyed the massive doll houses that used to belong to princesses and other spoilt little brats. They're about as big as my bedroom when I was a child, but very, very beautiful.

It reminded me of all the old doll houses my mum still has standing around in the basement that we've been meaning to clean, fix and decorate for years. We have boxes full of gift wrap which we were going to use as wallpaper and old cloths which were going to be carpets. Maybe one day, ey... When finished we could probably sell them for a tenner on a flea market, so it's well worth giving it a try!

Anyway, the toys were followed by beers, first a couple of pints with Megan in a scruffy old men pub on Bethnal Green Rd, which apparently is now one of Megan's favourites, cause "if it didn't look like an old English pub it could be American!", and then a couple of more pints with Eva in the Oak. Was really nice catching up with both of them, but now I have a headache.