A Day Out at the Museum of Brands

I feel that as an America, I have more of a connection to brands than most British people. I am brand loyal – once I like I brand I stick with it, no matter what. It’s just ingrained in my blood. When I saw the Museum of Brands in our National Trust membership book, I really wanted to go along! So when Dann surprised me with tickets to go, I was hyped! It’s worth mentioning that as apart of the National Trust, you get a discount on the price of the tickets – not free entry like several other places. But, the tickets are quite cheap anyway and well worth it.

The Museum of Brands has some really lovely murals of brands, some of which with slightly wrong names like Coolman’s mustard instead of Colman’s! This colorful exterior was really exciting, and as we entered, there was so much in store. The building is much larger than you’d think, as there is a sort of timeline walk through 200 years of brands – showcasing loads of different items and objects, all showing how brands changed, evolved, and adapted over time. From back when brands weren’t colorful and fun to basically now, filled with Frozen-themed items! One of the things that really stuck out to both Dann and I during our visit was just how these items were organised. I had previously been to the Toy Museum, which was just sort of randomly placed around a room, grouping together the same types of items. At the Museum of Brands, everything was placed out with more care, organizing them by when the brand was made and then further categorized by the type of item.

Along with the timeline listed at the top, many areas of the museum had little cards which gave further information – talking about how biscuit tins became popular due to advertising potentials when a specific artist starting making the tins to represent different businesses or the rise of super markets instead of local shops, where brands needed to be more eye-catching so that the consumer could make the decision to purchase them instead of relying on a shop person to source exactly what they needed of any random brand.

These little bits of information where interesting, but as was the vast amount of items and brands that there were. In England, I had never realized how much the monarchs are actually a brand – with their own sections of branded mugs, tins, post cards and more alongside Disney items and fun shampoo bottles. There were also so many brands I had never seen before – Fry’s – you know the Turkish Delight brand – use to sell all sorts of candy and chocolate! There were tons of really cute yogurt containers and board games that I never had seen before. Back in the day, puzzles were called “dissected maps” and what happened to picture blocks? I’ve never seen those in my entire life.

Going with Dann, who is both older than me and from the UK, he found so many old toys he remembered from his childhood and brands that he remembers seeing out and about. It was really fun hearing about the TV show he swears his mom use to watch and seeing that blow football, the game, had been around for ages. There also was a version of Hungry Hungry Hippos where the board itself stood up and you had to throw items into the board’s mouth. The board games were a major interest of Dann, of course, and I found a lot of the food items to be really interesting – from the A1 sauce that use to be here to the many, many bottles of mustard and meats you could have found in the past.

Though looking at brands does feel a bit like looking at old trash, it’s neat to see what brands stuck around and what items generally looked like, as time has changed. The Museum of Brands has a few temporary exhibitions, including an area where you can write what brand has really shined during Covid – the wall featured a lot of signs saying Netflix and Animal Crossing – which is interesting to see. Another exhibition showcased brands that have taken a stand, from Brew Dog asking people to vote, to Absolute Vodka doing pride bottles. In the same room as the exhibitions taking a stand, there was a bunch of glass cases that showed a big collection of one type of item, showing how the brands changed over time on that specific item.

There is a cafe in the Museum of Brands, which serves some small bites like quiches and sausage rolls as well as a beautiful garden. In this area, there is a display cabinet of the top 100 brands by purchases in the UK, in 2021, and a case of eco-friendly packaging, that I hope to see more of in the future. One cabinet, in one room, actually had some Christmas and Halloween branded items, all stacked up, and I think this sort of display would do wonders at the Museum of Brands. I would love to see how Halloween is depicted by brands over the years, as well as other holidays. It’s really neat to see their brands take on themed holidays!

I really enjoyed our time at the Museum of Brands – we ended up spending a few hours there, wondering around and then eating lunch at the cafe. It’s an interesting museum with a lot of nostalgia, which is fun to see and explore.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!