Growth spurt for Children's museum

Showcasing exhibits ranging-from a 17th century doll's house to rare Star Wars memorabilia, the V&A Museum of Childhood re-opens tomorrow after a £4.7million refurbishment.

The museum, in Bethnal Green, has been closed for a year while the work was carried out. It now has a revamped entrance, a new 900sq ft gallery and an education centre to cater for the 40,000 children who visit every year.

The museum, which received £3.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help pay for the transformation, also has a new shop selling traditional childhood gifts such as a model of a singing bird in a cage and a roll-up pocket flying disc.

But it is the new displays that should really captivate children.

Alongside 200 teddy bears and more than 8,000 dolls, there is a rocking horse believed to have been ridden by King Charles I, a pogo stick from the Twenties and a Nuremberg doll's house dating from 1673, one of the museum's greatest treasures.

More modern artefacts include figurines and souvenirs from the Star Wars films, a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Michaelangelo magnifying glass that was given away with a Burger King meal in 1990 and the late artist Sarah Raphael's Childhood Cube sculpture, originally made for the Millennium Dome.

Diane Lees, director of the museum, said: "We have been working towards the museum's re-opening since 2000. With the collection we now have, adults and children can come five or six times a year and still have a fresh experience."

The museum will host a series of rolling temporary exhibitions, beginning with onemarking 50 years of cartoon character Miffy, the second most popular Dutch export. Only Carlsberg has a greater following. Future shows include Lost In Space, an exhibition exploring our fascination with outer galaxies and a show devoted to Picasso's prints of animals, birds and insects.

The museum will be re-opened by author Jacqueline Wilson, who writes the Tracey Beaker series and has been made Children's Laureate this year with a brief to enthuse children about reading.

www.museumofchildhood.org.uk