Hamleys on Regent Street is the toy shop everyone has heard of: loud, crowded, full of demonstrators throwing foam gliders down the stairwell, and free to walk into. Many children love it for twenty minutes and then want to leave. London's smaller toy shops and museum shops are calmer, cheaper and often better for an actual present.
This page covers both: how to survive Hamleys and get something out of it, and where else to buy toys in London. If you are planning a family day around it, our guide to London with children has the wider itinerary, and Regent Street covers the rest of the street it stands on.
One thing to be clear about first. Hamleys is a shop, not an attraction. There is no ticket, no queue to get in on a normal day, and nothing inside that you have to pay to see. Treat it as a free half-hour rather than a paid outing and it is much better value.
Hamleys, Regent Street
- Address
- 188-196 Regent Street, London W1B 5BT
- Monday to Friday
- 10:00-21:00
- Saturday
- 09:00-21:00
- Sunday and public holidays
- 12:00-18:00
- Nearest stations
- Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, both about five minutes away
- Entry
- Free
- Quietest
- Weekday mornings in term time, before about 11:00
What it is actually like inside
The building is tall and narrow, and the toys are arranged floor by floor rather than spread across one level: soft toys and the demonstration area low down, construction and games in the middle, hobby and collectable items higher up. Departments move, so read the board inside the main door rather than trusting any list you read in advance, including ours.
Staff demonstrate products in the aisles, which is the thing people either love or hate. Bubble machines, remote-control toys and flying gliders are set off continuously, and the noise level on a Saturday afternoon is genuinely high. Children who are sensitive to noise or crowds will find it overwhelming, and there is nowhere quiet to retreat to on the busy floors.
The staircase is the centre of the experience. If the lifts are queuing, walk, because most of what there is to see happens on the way between floors.
Go on a weekday morning in term time if you possibly can. The doors open at 10:00 from Monday to Friday and the first hour is the only time the shop is calm enough to look at anything properly. By early afternoon on a Saturday, and on any day during the school holidays, it is shoulder to shoulder from the entrance upwards.
Managing the money conversation
The shop is designed to produce requests, and it works. Three approaches that parents find useful:
- Set the budget outside on the pavement, before you go through the door, and say what happens to anything above it.
- Go up first, choose on the way down. Walking to the top, then deciding as you descend, avoids the situation where the first thing seen becomes the only thing wanted.
- Watch the demonstrations without buying the demonstrated item. The things being flown and spun in the aisles are usually the impulse products, and the same money goes much further on the shelves.
Prices are what you would expect from a flagship on Regent Street, and are not generally lower than a supermarket or a high street toy shop at home. What you are buying, for the most part, is the bag and the experience.
The quieter shops children often prefer
A smaller shop where a child can look at everything without being pushed from behind frequently produces a happier afternoon and a better present.
Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop, on the first floor of the Market Building in Covent Garden, has been selling toys for more than a century and specialises in paper theatres, the Victorian cut-out stages children assembled and performed on. It also sells traditional wooden and paper toys, puppets and games. Paper theatre kits start at around £25 and go up to about £45 (September 2026). It opens 10:30 to 18:00 daily, from 11:00 on Sundays, and it is tiny, quiet and completely unlike Hamleys. Our guide to shopping in Covent Garden and Seven Dials covers what else is in the same building.
Independent neighbourhood toy shops survive in areas where families live rather than where tourists go: Notting Hill, Marylebone, Islington, Blackheath, Dulwich and Wimbledon Village all have them. If you are staying in one of those areas, ask at your hotel; these shops stock the things London children actually get for birthdays.
Museum shops: the best-value toys in London
This is the recommendation most visitors have not thought of. The national museums are free to enter, so you can walk straight to the shop, and several of them sell better science and construction toys than any general toy shop in the city.
| Shop | Good for |
|---|---|
| Science Museum | Experiment kits, optical toys, space and engineering models |
| Natural History Museum | Dinosaurs, fossils, minerals, animal models |
| London Transport Museum | Model buses and Tube trains, moquette fabric items, maps |
| British Museum and the galleries | Craft kits, puzzles, books, things that pack flat |
The London Transport Museum shop in Covent Garden is the one visitors come back for, because the things in it exist nowhere else: cushions and bags made from the actual seat fabric used on the Underground, and model buses in the right liveries. Our list of souvenirs worth buying in London puts the museum shops in context with the markets.
Film, football and character shops
A large part of what children want in London is tied to something they have seen. The Harry Potter shops near King's Cross and in the West End, the club shops at the Premier League grounds and the big character stores around Leicester Square and Covent Garden all do a brisk trade.
Two things worth knowing. First, the same merchandise is usually available at the attraction itself, and the shop at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour is far bigger than any of the central London branches. Second, the queues at the small themed shops near stations can be longer than the queues at genuine attractions, for goods you could buy online. Our guide to Harry Potter locations in London explains which stops are worth the detour.
Fitting a toy shop into a family day
Hamleys works best as a twenty-minute stop inside a bigger plan, not as the plan. It sits between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, so it slots naturally into a walk down Oxford Street or a visit to Liberty, which is three minutes away and has enough carved wooden animals hidden in its staircases to keep a child hunting.
Be realistic about timing. Combining Hamleys with a museum, a park and a meal in one day is too much for most children under ten. Our pages on rainy day activities for children and London in the school holidays have days that are paced properly, and older children have their own guide in London with teenagers.
The Sunday and bank holiday window is only six hours. Hamleys opens 12:00 to 18:00 on Sundays and on public holidays, because English law limits large shops to six hours of Sunday trading. It closes on Christmas Day. Plan Sunday mornings around something else; our page on public holiday closures has the full list of dates.
December, and whether to bother
In the weeks before Christmas, Regent Street has its lights on, the shop is at its most theatrical and the queues are at their worst. If the point of the visit is the atmosphere, December is when to come, ideally on a weekday evening rather than a weekend afternoon. If the point is to buy a specific present, December is the worst possible time and you should do it anywhere else. Our guide to Christmas shopping in London covers the markets and late openings.
Our honest assessment: Hamleys is worth doing once, free, briefly, early in the day. The shop that produces the present the child still has in a year is more likely to be Pollock's, a museum shop or a small local toy shop in the neighbourhood where you are staying. Families travelling with very young children will find the practical side covered in London with a baby.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hamleys free to enter?
Yes. It is a shop, so there is no admission charge and no booking. Demonstrations in the aisles are free to watch, and nobody expects you to buy. The only cost is what you choose to spend, and the shop is designed to encourage that, so agree a budget before you go in.
How many floors does Hamleys have?
The Regent Street shop occupies several floors of a tall building, with a different type of toy on each. The arrangement changes, so the directory board just inside the main entrance is the reliable guide. Walking up the stairs and choosing on the way down is the best way to see it all.
When is Hamleys least busy?
Weekday mornings during school term, in the first hour after it opens at 10:00. Saturdays, the school holidays and the whole of December are extremely busy from late morning onwards. Sundays are compressed into six trading hours, which makes them crowded throughout.
Where else can I buy toys in London?
Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop in Covent Garden for traditional and paper theatre toys, the free museum shops at the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the London Transport Museum for the best value, and independent toy shops in residential areas such as Notting Hill, Marylebone and Islington.
Is Hamleys suitable for a child who dislikes noise?
Probably not on a busy day. Demonstrations run continuously, the music is loud and the aisles are narrow. A weekday morning is much calmer. If your child finds crowds difficult, the smaller toy shops and the museum shops give the same pleasure without the volume.
Sources
- The Crown Estate, Regent Street - Hamleys: address and opening hours (checked September 2026)
- Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop - Covent Garden shop, hours and paper theatres (checked September 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Sunday Trading Act 1994, Schedule 1 (checked September 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004, section 1 (checked September 2026)