Underneath Brighton station is a treasure trove of forgotten dreams.

Brighton Toy and Model Museum, once the Sussex Toy and Model Museum, specialises in “the golden age of British and European toymaking”, and there isn’t much in here beyond the 1970s.

Each of these four Victorian cellars is intensely packed with dolls, boats, trains, and even the occasional, anachronistic Dalek. Visiting reminded me of the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, in that the eye is drawn to a seeming infinity of tightly categorised wonders.

The museum has its own exhaustive wiki, which makes for a wonderful companion, as there simply isn’t enough physical room for a detailed explanation of every single item. [1]

I now, for example, know more than I’ll ever need to about Pelham’s Puppets, a British company which even made officially licensed Disney and Peanuts characters at its peak.

Mickey, Donald and the rest peer out malevolently from behind glass in Puppet Corner, stuff of a toddler’s nightmares.

I’ll be honest, as we always must, and say I was expecting this museum to be a bit rubbish, rather than utterly superb. It is so much bigger than it appears from the street – a bit like the Tardis – and the staff and volunteers are extremely kind, friendly and knowledgeable.

It’s clearly a very progressive institution, which doesn’t shy away from the wider cultural and socioeconomic contexts of the treasures contained within.

There are also, of course, a lot of trains. [2]

Its location, hidden behind Victorian arches amid the unwelcoming underpass of upper Trafalgar Street, can’t be helping them with footfall. A Regeneration Project to open more of the museum up to passers by is in the works, and you can donate if you have the means.

[1] And is just worth reading more generally. The entry on Star Wars is hilarious and very true.

[2] There is a display on the Brighton Belle, legendary Pullman train that ran til the late seventies. There are plans afoot for the train to return. When? “We’ve stopped asking them”, one volunteer told me.