[58530] York : Castle Museum - Toy Dealers & Fancy Repository

Castle Museum, Tower Street, York.

Kirkgate - The Victorian Street.

Kendrick’s Toy Dealers & Fancy Repository.

 

This shop is for wealthier children; poorer children would have had toys made for them by friends and family or have bought cheap toys such as basic skipping ropes and spinning tops for a penny from a street trader. Parents saw toys as educational. Girls were taught domestic skills with toys including irons and mangles whilst boys were given scientific toys. A Noah’s Ark was a popular toy to be played with on a Sunday as it was religious.

 

Kirkgate is the oldest recreated street in any museum. This Victorian street explores what life was like for people in York between 1870 and 1901. The artefacts are original, as are most of the shop fronts.

 

York Castle Museum was founded by John Lamplugh Kirk in 1938 and is housed in prison buildings which were built on the site of the castle in the 18th century, the debtors' prison (built 1701-05) and the female prison (built 1780-85).

Done