Jess Garfield-Doyle with some of the second-hand soft toys at The Toy Project’s new Rehoming Centre in Junction Road

THERE are thousands of teddy bears in Archway waiting to be loved again.

A bespectacled meerkat, a leopard pencil case and a blushing knitted lemon are among the second-hand soft toys spilling off shelves and out of baskets at The Toy Project’s new Rehoming Centre in Junction Road.

The centre officially launched yesterday (Thursday) – with a visit from the Teddy Bear Ladies from BBC’s The Repair Shop – but toy enthusiasts young and old have already been travelling to Islington from as far afield as Essex to get their hands on the pre-loved plushies.

Arts and education lead Jess Garfield-Doyle told the Tribune that the new shop is all about sustainability and equal opportunity; helping children understand the circular economy and raising money for The Toy Project’s free playroom a few doors down.

“I didn’t even know I liked teddies until we did this,” she joked, adding: “You find one and it sort of speaks to you. I heard one mum say to her child: ‘which one sings to your soul?’ I saw a rabbit the other day and I had to buy it – not for my children, for me.”

The Toy Project has four store fronts in Junction Road – its original toyshop, its playroom, a community gallery and now the Rehoming Centre, where children can pick any teddy of their choosing for £5 a pop or try to grab one from the funfair-style claw machine.

“Some kids have so many teddies that they don’t play with – think about how many of them are being mass-produced and thrown away,” said Ms Garfield-Doyle.

“That’s the other reason we’ve dedicated a space to soft toys – they’re harder for us to redistribute to hospitals, because they can’t take anything they can’t wipe clean between patients.

“Our toys go everywhere, they’re not just being resold – they go to the Whittington, to schools, hospices, they go all over the country. We just sent four barrels of toys to Grenada, where we set up a library for disabled children.”

Some toys come to the Rehoming Centre from families who drop them off in carloads, but The Toy Project has also partnered with Transport for London, who normally get rid of any lost property after 90 days, but can now drop teddies off at the Rehoming Centre.

It is also becoming a destination for school trips, where Key Stage 1 pupils – who learn about the concept of history via the history of toys – can come and feel the difference between an old teddy filled with straw and sawdust, and its modern plastic descendants.

And while there is one blanket price for almost everything on the shop floor, there are a couple of shelves – out of reach for little hands – that include collectible Jellycats or vintage toys for the adult toy fans among us.

“This back shelf is stuff from the 1980s – Bagpuss, Charlie Brown, Sooty – things people haven’t seen since they were children themselves,” Ms Garfield-Doyle added.

“One man came all the way from Essex because he saw in our Instagram video a penguin that was his childhood teddy. We have people coming in looking for specific toys – there’s one lady that collects bats, and some­one else who collects the Zodiac versions of TYs.

“I didn’t even know any of this existed three weeks ago, and now I’m going to call a woman about a bat that came in on Friday.”

The Rehoming Centre is at 101 Junction Road.