Hamleys is opening more toy shops inside London travel hubs
Lego, teddy bears, and last-minute airport impulse buys
Hamleys is continuing its slow takeover of London’s transport hubs, with two new travel-focused stores set to open at Liverpool Street Station and Heathrow Terminal 2 over the next few weeks.
Which means your stressful airport dash or delayed train journey now has a much higher chance of ending with you impulse-buying slime, a teddy bear or a tiny Lego set.
The openings build on the retailer’s growing “travel estate”, which already includes shops at London Bridge station, St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Terminal 4 and London Stansted Airport. The idea is simple: catch people while they’re trapped in transit and tempt them with brightly coloured distractions before they board a train or flight.
The first of the new stores arrives this month inside Liverpool Street Station. The 500-square-foot pop-up will focus heavily on smaller, easy-to-carry products, including Hamleys’ signature plush toys, pocket-money gadgets, card games, sticker books and compact travel games designed to keep kids occupied for more than seven minutes on a train.
Then in mid-June, a larger 1,000-square-foot branch will open inside Heathrow Terminal 2, joining the retailer’s existing Terminal 4 store. Alongside the usual stuffed bears and novelty toys, the airport location will also stock tech toys, dolls, action figures and construction sets from LEGO and Playmobil.
Heathrow probably makes perfect sense for this kind of thing. The airport was recently named the best in the world for shopping, which means Hamleys will now be sharing terminal space with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Burberry and Harrods. Slightly surreal company for a place where you can also buy fake poo and a screaming rubber chicken, but that’s airport retail for you.
According to Hamleys UK head of retail Keane Herman, the company’s travel locations consistently perform well globally because they’re designed around “grab-and-go speed” and quick gifting ideas. Which is corporate language for “people panic-buy toys when they’re bored at airports.”
Still, the expansion says a lot about the continued strength of the brand. Despite first opening all the way back in 1760, Hamleys remains one of London’s most recognisable retail landmarks. The flagship Hamleys Regent Street store still pulls huge crowds thanks to its seven floors of organised chaos, costumed staff and aggressively enthusiastic toy demonstrations.
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