Museum of Brands — Attraction in London

As you might expect from a museum that started from a private collection, there was very little restraint exercised in putting it all together. This is not a coherent story about brands or advertising, but the contents of someone’s attic. It trades heavily on nostalgia and novelty, so if you didn’t grow up in the UK you will find very little of interest here.

It might also be called the Museum of Queueing as you have to make your way through very narrow corridors as you shuffle past displays filled with literally everything because after all, everything has a brand name on it, doesn’t it? So you'll be looking at a stack of fifty nearly identical cans of coffee, or some tinned peaches, or the QI board game. It feels more like a supermarket with out of date stock than a museum, really.

Meanwhile you're waiting for the people ahead to stop telling each other anecdotes about how they had this or that in their house when they were young, so they finally move on for about three metres while you're staring at a VIC-20 on display for some reason because everything is fair game for this museum. Absolutely anything and everything that has some writing on it, indicating who made it.

I also found a display of shopping notes, which (inadvertently perhaps) taught me one thing: people don't care about brand names, unless they become generic names. Everyone writes 'sugar' or 'coffee', not the brand. Oh look, ten practically identical bottles of Johnny Walker on a shelf, with no information about the evolution of the logo or the brand or anything. How riveting.

There was ONE display case that had the sort of contents I'd expect from a proper museum on brands, namely a display about how brands deal with themes such as Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter, such as Skittles going black and white during pride week (or month) and two tea brands giving a racist hell on Twitter. And that's what I expected to see more of, frankly.

Unless you recognise your old toys or stuff from your mother's kitchen cupboards, it all becomes a blur very quickly. I knew about a few UK brands, but nothing resonated with me. Anyone under the age of fifty has no business here and neither do foreigners...

Where do I start with the brand museum it’s immersive You start in 1900’s and there are things that you recognise being in a great grandma or grandma’s houses but also things that strike you like HMV dog then you go round and see things that you sort of like you know like heniz as an example then you go to things that you do know but not necessarily your era example blue Peter or wombals but as went as group your all different generations so each era you looking at something else that is a memory excitement for them to show you then you going in to a part that is your childhood and then it’s you that is the host even low they lived through it it’s the presenting of the childlike excitement that each person has been the narrator to there memory’s to others it’s floor to ceiling and as walk round the more you go or look and hear a chorus of things like what cabury’s wasn’t purple? Or you can tell when plastic came in words of disapproval come from each corner then back to the oh oh look look being thrown round like confetti and as your surfing on the high of nostalgia boom in comes the gift shop and money is burning a whole in your pocket and there so much to choose from you buy your pocket memories , and with the booklet in your hand you go out and be there biggest advocate how brilliant it was and it that moment the museum...

I grew up with Robert Opie's Scrapbooks and remember going to this museum as a kid when it was in Gloucester Docks and loving it. Opie's collection is second to none and it's a miracle some of his items have survived when you think how much we throw away as a consumer society. I have nothing negative to say about this place, it's unique, beautifully displayed and an absolute joy. My personal favourite era is roughly 1950s - 1980s, however it was delightful to overhear two elderly gentlemen reminiscing together as they were reunited with products from their youth in the 1940s. Likewise, there was also a group of young school kids on a field trip who bypassed pretty much every exhibit until they reached the 2010s section and then spent twenty minutes cooing over the One Direction display, so there really is something for every generation!

To be honest, the 'brand' element is somewhat broadly defined, as there are also displays of toys, technology and current affairs throughout the Time Tunnel. My memory of the Gloucester museum was that it was solely packaging-based, so it's great to have a broader context for each decade. And for a very reasonable £10 entry fee, you really can't complain. I will be...