Spitting distance from Brighton’s fabulous Victorian train station and at the top end of the North Laines are the ‘porte-cochere’ of the magnificent LBSC railway terminus in Trafalgar Street. One of these archways hides the ghostly long disused cobbled cab road up to platform level, the other four, which were used as wine cellars and the stabling for some of the many horses needed in those distant times, are now home to a wondrous display of old toys and models.
The Brighton Toy & Model Museum has been open for 12 years and houses as it’s centre-piece a priceless tin-plate O-Gauge working railway. The trains on this exhibit are run continuously for 2 – 2 1/2 hours, with many changes of rare engines and rolling stock on open evenings (twice yearly), refreshments are available on these informal social gatherings.
Visitors can explore the many cabinets showing beautiful Victorian dolls, their houses and furnishings, construction toys of many ages, tin-plate boats and ships by some of the world’s finest toy makers, panoramas of farms and country scenes, enormous scale model aeroplanes and many more rare and valuable toys from all over the world.
The Museum is also a centre for research and restoration, with advice and help readily available to assist with your own interests. The Museum’s Director, Chris Littledale, is internationally renowned as a collector and restorer of fine toys and is retained by Christies of London as one of their experts.
The Brighton Toy & Model Museum has been created by a group of people who are the owners of what is collectively, the finest accumulation of models and toys in the U.K. Their aim was to bring together and preserve these many beautiful and rare items so that they can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. When you view this museum you will have to agree that this aim has been achieved.