A gem of a museum complete with nostalgia

 

Museum of Brands, Packaging and
Advertising - The garden looking back
towards the cafe.

Yesterday a friend and I went on one of our little jaunts in London. We chose the Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising in West London. What a gem of a find! We both love the nostalgia of such museums but this also had the most wonderful garden. No sooner had we arrived we were out there drinking tea under the blossom. The garden is sheltered and a little sun trap. We were soon stripping off jackets and relaxing. Eventually we managed to prize bums off seats and explored the garden which had a small pool and colour was everywhere. We were impressed with the Lemon tree which made me think of my holiday in Italy and Sicily. Men were busy planting out and watering. It was a hive of activity in this out of the way corner of London off Ladbroke Grove.

We ambled into the museum and relived our childhood as we spotted tins of Andrews, Brasso and Vim, the sweets from our past (some of which have survived and some with names changed). There were games, magazines, books, household cleaning items, beverages, vinyl records, TV's - my friend was impressed that I could spot a Roberts radio from across the other side of the room! They had my old Spectrum ZX computer and the first Amstrad  I owned (who remembers 'start of the day' disk?).

Midway through our travels we ordered lunch and found another nice spot in the garden. On re-entering the museum we did what we often do (because we are crazy like that) and went the wrong way round starting in the 2000's and working back to 1800's. Other people were quick to point this out (You do know you are going the wrong way round? Yes, we are working backwards in our childhood). We laughed with others as we discovered things we had forgotten in our lives and the comments made me think about our age! I said 'I'm now starting to sound like my mother!' Like the older generation compare their operations, medication and illnesses we were there comparing our childhoods and got to the hilarious point of 'when I was young we didn't have a fridge. We kept the milk in a bucket of water in the front room because it was north facing.' At that point I just dissolved into tears of laughter. It was a wonderful day.

We ended up with a tea break. The sun was shining but a heavy shower had made all the benches wet so we sat inside. I would urge you to visit this little museum if you are in London and enjoy all things nostalgic. The garden alone is worth going for (and their loos are great too!). We had a wonderful day.