‘A huge amount of nostalgia’: end of an era as London’s famed Sylvanian Families shop shuts

theguardian.com:

Nineteen-year-old Molly Bell arrived in London early last week from Brisbane. By Wednesday, she had found her way to a tiny toy emporium in a nondescript street in north London to fulfil a dream. She needed to move fast as the Sylvanian Families shop, selling the eponymous toy animals and their habitats, closes on 22 April after more than 30 years.

Since 1992, the charming Highbury shop has been a magnet for thousands of collectors of the anthropomorphic animals – a magical grotto reminiscent of a bygone idyll.

“We saw on TikTok in Australia that the shop was closing, so we bought air tickets even though that might seem absolutely mad,” says Bell. “I collect them, but they are hard to get in Australia. The look of this shop also seemed irresistible.”

Since its closure was announced in January, hundreds of collectors have made a final pilgrimage to the only independent shop in the world devoted to Sylvanian Families. Most have come from the UK, but many others have arrived from Europe and, in particular, from the Far East. Alisa Min, a Chinese national studying in Britain, came on behalf of her mother. “A friend here is going back soon to China and will take her some animals. Though they’re sold in China, there is nothing like this beautiful shop.”

Sylvanian Families were first made in Japan in 1985 by Epoch, which still produces the ranges and distributes them in Britain. The concept was to create a sylvan world of toy animals, including rabbits, bears and cats, for children in the high-rise flats of Japanese cities. This is partly why they have been so successful in other urbanised Far East countries such as China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

But in Britain, too, the appeal has been huge (more than 60 million Sylvanian