From tin soldiers to Muffin the Mule: financial crisis may close 'hidden treasure' of childhood

Devoid of a single Tamagotchi, GameBoy or Scalextric kit, Pollock's Toy Museum holds the fruits of more than a century of toy-making tradition: regiments of French tin soldiers, Russian folk dolls, Muffin the Mule and rocking horses.

The museum, housed in small adjoining Georgian and Victorian townhouses resembling a doll's house, attracts 28,000 visitors a year, but despite that success, and a recent description by Lonely Planet of "one of the hidden treasures of London", it faces closure because of a financial crisis.

The existing tenancy agreement expires at the end of next month and the museum's private owners face either a drastic increase in rent or a bill of up to £500,000 to buy the freehold of the historic property in a West End back street.

An appeal to benefactors has produced only a pledge of £25,000 and the owners, who have resisted grants from the public purse to preserve their independence, are already contemplating putting the unique collection in storage.

Apart from the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, which is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this is the only dedicated toy museum in the capital and one of a rapidly dwindling number nationwide. Financial pressures recently forced the closure of Automata, the specialist museum for moving toys in York.

The Pollock's shop manager, Gabrielle Warden, said that its appeal was as much to children, who marvel at the multicoloured displays, as to their parents, for whom the exhibits take them back to an age of innocence.

She said: "We are run off our feet at the moment because it is half-term. You see parents come in here who are just as engrossed as their children. One lady came in recently and was moved to tears by the memories that some of the toys provoked."

The museum has made ends meet until now on an "unrealistically" low rent which was offset by sales of tickets priced £3 and receipts from the museum shop.

Some exhibits have been rented out to stage production and Pollock's toys featured in the Channel 4 series Regency House Party, but that is increasingly problematic as the toys become more fragile with age. Mrs Warden said: "We have remained a traditional museum and have decided not to go along the interactive route, not that there would be any room for that. It is hard for a toy museum to survive because there are so many demands on people's time and money. A theme park may advertise a lowish entry fee but there are hidden costs."

Although the museum cannot afford to advertise, it has become known around the world through world of mouth. "We came to London four years ago and when we went back to the States someone asked if we had gone to the toy museum," said Susan Higgins, a visitor from Charlotte, North Carolina. "This time they said we had to go."

The museum is named after Benjamin Pollock, the original curator from Hoxton in east London. He sold Victorian theatre prints and toy theatres from his shop in Hoxton for 60 years until 1940.

The shop was praised by Robert Louis Stevenson, who urged a visit "if you love art, folly or the bright eyes of children". The collection was saved in 1956 by Marguerite Fawdry, who housed it in Monmouth Street before it was moved 13 years later to its current home in Scala Street.