In the Belgravia/Chelsea/Notting Hill triangle, you can wander through a dimly-lit tunnel that is a private museum of advertising paraphenalia [entry £5.80 plus additional optional charitable donation] the MBPA. I liked these Victorian-era brands and advertising slogans: "Battles' Vermin Killer/Mice Eat It Readily & Die!", "The Aspirator/The DOOM of DUSTER, the BRUSH and the BROOM!"[a maid using a hand-cranked vacuum cleaner: this is an improvement?], and my favorite: "Pope & Sons/Families Removing or Warehousing" for a moving company. Back then, did they really warehouse their families?
The collection doesn't offer much in the way of identification tags, and moves haphazardly through the decades ending roughly in the year 2000. Another section of the museum documents the rebranding of various famous British products over time. There seems to be a preponderance of candy products here, followed by household cleaners and packaged food.
The display cases are jam-packed with truly odd items: everything from 1940s wartime propaganda to Beatles' wigs and Barbie dolls. Someone here was a really keen collector of ephemera. Consciously or not, they have gathered over 100 years of social history, and it's like a good rummage in your Grandma's attic. You don't need to go far if you want to start your own collection of strange advertising cuts. The famous flea market bins of Portobello Rd are quite literally one block away.
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