Toy Museum (Brussels)
Interactive fullscreen map | |
| Established | 4 November 1990 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1 July 2018 |
| Location | Rue de l'Association / Verenigingstraat 24, 1000 City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium |
| Coordinates | 50°51′07″N 4°21′57″E / 50.851944°N 4.365833°E |
| Type | Children's museum |
| Collections | Toys, Games |
| Collection size | 25,000 |
The Toy Museum (French: Musée du jouet; Dutch: Speelgoedmuseum) was a museum of toys and games in Brussels, Belgium. It was opened on 14 November 1990. The core collection was amassed by a family of amateur toy enthusiasts and has grown through donations by the public as well as purchases.[1]
The museum was housed in a former mansion with 1,000 m2 (11,000 sq ft) of exhibition space on three floors, located at 24, rue de l'Association / Verenigingstraat 24, in the City of Brussels. It housed over 25,000 historic toys and games, mostly from the 1950s to the 1980s, with the oldest dating back to 1830.[1][2][3] It was owned and operated by the late André Raemdonck.[4]
The museum closed at the beginning of July 2018[5], after a negative advice of the fire brigade, the Service d'Incendie et d'Aide Médicale Urgente de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale (Siamu), stating the building was no longer safe for visitors[6].
It never reopened. During the Covid-19 pandemic, in June 2020, the museum's director André Raemdonck passed away[7], leaving his daughter Dominique to try and find solutions[8]. Equally in 2020 the owner of the building, the Commission communautaire française (Cocof) in Brussels, ended subsidising the museum because they wanted the msueum to move, in order to be able to renovate their building.[9] In January 2026 the Raemdonck family started a clearout sale to empty the building.[10]
See also
References
- ^ a b "History". Musée du jouet. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ^ "Toy Museum". Brussels' Museums. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ^ "Toy Museum Brussels". Brussels.info. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ^ "hobbyDB Advisory Council Members". hobbyDB, March 28, 2017
- ^ "Arts & Publics: Attention, depuis le début du mois de juillet 2018, le musée est fermé.". Artsetpublics.be s.d.
- ^ "Le Musée du jouet en danger" BX1, 2020-12-11.
- ^ "Le Musée du Jouet, menacé de disparition" BX1, 2020-12-09, updated 2020-12-10.
- ^ "Bruxelles: le musée du jouet menacé de fermeture" Eva Seker, RTBF.be, 2020-12-11.
- ^ "Sluiting dreigt voor speelgoedmuseum door conflict met Franse Gemeenschap". Bruzz, 2020-12-10.
- ^ "Speelgoedmuseum houdt grote uitverkoop: van houten vliegtuigen tot tinnen soldaatjes". Bruzz, 2026-01-15, updated 2026-01-16.
External links
Media related to Toy Museum, Brussels at Wikimedia Commons- Les tribulations du Musée du Jouet - undated article by François Samin for the Cercle d'Histoire de Bruxelles, featuring 4 images
- Article in The Bulletin about the clearout sale (2026-01-18)