Coutts Woman

Childs play

Alyssa Lovegrove has a problem that would daunt most people. The former management consultant has to raise between £12 million and £25 million over the next five years to turn the dream of establishing The London Children’s Museum into a reality.

But Lovegrove does not seem unduly perturbed. She relishes challenges. Indeed, shortly after the birth of her first son Lovegrove and a business partner founded The Great Little Trading Company, a mail order service for children’s toys and equipment.

They sold a majority shareholding last year to a private equity after taking the business, which now has an annual turnover of about £12 million, as far as possible with self-funding.

"It is not a museum in the conventional sense. It is a series of experiences rather than exhibitions."

‘I am very entrepreneurial,’ explains Lovegrove. ‘After I left GLTC I was interested in becoming an Angel investor and was involved in several small business launches. But I was also keen to find a not-for-profit organisation and to take my experience and apply it there. I was bouncing around looking for ideas when I came across The London Children’s Museum. Ironically I was not looking for something to do with children, or a start up but it seemed like destiny.’

London is one of the few major cities in the world that does not have a specific Children’s Museum. It is not, as some people think, a toy museum or even a celebration of children. ‘It is not a museum in the conventional sense,’ explains Lovegrove. ‘It is a series of experiences rather than exhibitions.’

A children’s museum might have a working high street, allowing visitors to play at being a bank teller, use a cash machine, work behind a shop counter or visit the post office.

‘The experience is very interactive,’ says Lovegrove. ‘It teaches children how to engage. It is quite a complex concept to explain. But it could become a useful teaching tool for schools. Children who perhaps don’t read, have learning difficulties or who don’t speak English as a first language could learn to communicate.’

Lovegrove likens it to the area in the Science Museum where visitors can press buttons, pull levers and get involved in the exhibition. ‘It is a lot like that, but a children’s museum is not just about science,’ she says.

The children’s museum in Copenhagen, for example, has an exhibition that allows visitors to try on dresses from the days when grandma was young or leather coats lined with chain mail from medieval times. The Boston one currently has a complete Japanese house, which it moved from Kyoto, and in the past allowed visitors to look at the city’s harbour from underneath the surface.

Lovegrove is visiting many of the existing children’s museums to discover the variety of content. As managing director, and currently the only paid employee, she has a ‘blank sheet of paper’ to fill the museum. ‘Clearly there are some things that work for everybody. Children love larger than life role-playing,’ she says. ‘They like to feel in charge of the world.’

Unlike other development projects, The London Children’s Museum is a registered charity and Lovegrove is also raising funds from private and corporate donors. Unfortunately, memories of the Dome fiasco are fresh and Lovegrove has had to convince potential donors that the museum will not turn into an expensive white elephant.

‘One of my strengths is that I am not from the charity sector,’ she explains. ‘I know where these City guys are coming from when I go to see them. I am very clear about investment and returns and explain the project in those terms. They want the comfort that this is not some black hole and will actually do good.’

Lovegrove has taken visuals from other museums to illustrate the concept, but adds: ‘Pictures help but they don’t do it justice. I also have to explain why a fun day out is a charity. This type of activity is crucial for early childhood development.’

However, she does have a site for the museum. The London’s Children Museum will be located in the Kings Cross development in a Grade 2 listed building that was once a goods shed for the Midland Railway.

‘It is a derelict building on a canal bank, which we can certainly play on. We are not constrained by layout. It is a very Dickensian area and, depending on the development’s progress, will be a very nice location.’ It is also an area now famous for Platform 9¾ and the Hogwarts’ Express, a connection Lovegrove is very excited about. Maybe Harry can cut the open day ribbon?