For a while the toys were stored in the basement of the Treaty Hall (now the Treaty Centre). Each month someone would chaperone the parents down to the dark basement to change their toys!!!!!
1979 Luckily someone at the Youth Centre in Kingsley road, Hounslow heard of our plight and offered us the use of their garage for storing the toys and their large meeting room once a month. So we happily moved there and the membership grew again.
1981 Then we were offered a large room, an ex-lab in the old Smallberry Green School (which had been the even older Syon School for boys). At the time the school was being used as an intensive language school for secondary age children new to Hounslow. It was also the Music School. We settled in after much painting and decorating and the Toy Library began to flourish once again. it was here that a second session began on a Thursday afternoon. We also held a monthly evening session for older children.
1987 At Smallberry Green the Borough gave us our first grant for an Administrator, recognising the supportive and preventative work that was being done for families who had a disabled child.
Things were going from strength to strength but then the building was demolished and we were resettled in Hounslow Manor School. Unfazed, we once again redecorated and made ready a new lab and re-opened in style to be told only a few months later that the wing we occupied was to be demolished. By now we had realised the advantages of being in central Hounslow and so were determined to stay.
1993 Unable to find us any suitable accommodation, we moved into a small house in Holloway Street (that was condemned and on the demolition list!!!!). it was time to plan and take radical steps to secure a more permanent base for the Toy Library. So we set upon a major fund-raising initiative spearheaded by a parent. Over the next two years we raised around £200,000 and built the purpose built centre we are in today. We remain eternally grateful for the donations we received both great and small and the enthusiastic community involvement.
1996 It was with great pride and much excitement that we opened our own Toy Library in 1996.
The Toy Library has grown in so many ways. We now have over 200 members, 4,000 toys, hold sessions for groups from special schools and units, are well used by professionals working with disabled children, are included in the training of medical students, sit on various Borough Committees, help families, etc.
During the year we celebrate festivals, birthdays, hold social events, have a Christmas party, open all year round including the summer holidays.
To raise the £10,000+ we need each year is difficult but we will continue with this as we know the difference our service makes to the disabled children in Hounslow.
