The Armoury of St James’s
A GLORIOUS TOYBOX for boys of all ages, The Armoury of St James’s is strategically situated between Savile Row and Jermyn Street. Few of the prospective punters who swing by en route from one to the other leave without falling under the spell of its chok-a-blok wares: military antiques and royal memorabilia redolent of the days of tropical legations and cigar-scented messes. Toby Pennington, the friendly and knowledgeable front-of-house, has compared the ambience to that of John Steed’s flat in The Avengers. To that recondite reference (what can I say? If you know, you know), I could just as easily add The Charge of the Light Brigade, Oh! What a Lovely War and Carry On Up the Khyber.
On walls and in cabinets, signed presentation portraits of kings and viceroys jostle for room with regimental brooches and porcelain figurines of Seaforth Highlanders. Between them snake long lines of British, Indian and Napoleonic toy soldiers, hand-painted and available for purchase singly or in boxed sets. With prices starting at £12 and reaching to upwards of £10,000, it’s remarkably – in fact, dangerously – easy to alchemise a casual interest into a lifelong collecting passion. Among an international clientele hailing from as far afield as Australia and the US, Toby tells me that Nelson is more popular than Wellington, but that the appeal of Churchill is evergreen. I find that curiously reassuring.
See also: Abbott And Holder, Bentleys
