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 and Amman.
The flagship store is considered one of London's major tourist attractions, and receives about five million visitors a year.
Unlike many companies using possessive names, Hamleys intentionally forgoes the use of an apostrophe in its name.
History
Hamleys is named after William Hamley, who founded a toy shop called "Noah's Ark" at High Holborn in London in 1760. A branch in 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, gave Hamleys a Royal Warrant. During World War II, the Regent Street store was bombed five times. In 1955 Queen Elizabeth II gave the company a second Royal Warrant as a "Toys and Sports Merchant".
The business has survived in various forms to the present day, and at one time was the largest toy shop in the world. Hamleys moved its flagship store to its current address at 188–196 Regent Street in 1981.
The flagship London store has seven floors, all devoted to playthings, with different categories of toy on each floor.
In the late 90s, 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, and decked out with a remarkably diverse array of stuffed animals, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtles and dolphins, even to enormous life-sized giraffes and elephants.
- 5th floor: Boys — Action figures, vehicles, and an open cafe.
- 4th floor: Hobbies — Model kits, remote-controlled vehicles, model railways, Scalextric, etc.
- 3rd floor: Girls — Dolls, Arts & Crafts, Hello Kitty, Dress up etc.
- 2nd floor: Preschool — Toys for young children.
- 1st floor: Games — Board games, science, jigsaws; also a Build-A-Bear Workshop and Sweet Shop.
- Ground floor: Soft toys — a wide variety of stuffed animals, and also a Marvin's Magic section.
- Basement: Interactive — Lego, trading cards, gadgets, novelties and GAME (retailer).
In 1987 a second store was opened in York, however this was closed less than 12 months later.[6]
There is also an outlet store at Great Western Outlet Village in Swindon, offering a more limited range of products.
Hamleys run relatively smaller stores in London Heathrow Airport (Terminals 4 and 5), London Stansted Airport and Manchester Airport (Terminal 2). There is also a small store at St Pancras railway station.
Hamleys also has concessions in House of Fraser department stores in Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham and London Oxford Street.
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
Their recently updated online store offers 9000 toys and games delivered directly to your door. Postage is free for all orders of £50 and over.
