Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian
Once upon a time – well, only the other day, actually, a Monday morning during the summer holidays – in the beautiful city of Bath, there stood a building. Just across from the railway station. It was – still is – a grand, handsome building, built not so long ago but in a Georgian style befitting its historic surroundings. But it is not a happy building because its owners fell on hard times and left. Now the Debenhams building stands empty, haunted by the ghosts of sales assistants, a relic of a different, happier retail age.
Hold the violins, though, and walk round the corner to St Lawrence Street, where you will find a little pocket of life – joy even – occupying a unit within the same building. Here is a window filled with hot-air balloons, a red pedal car, mice, a huge fantasy wooden castle. It could be Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Toy Story 2, Big, Angela Carter even, if you want to go darker or classier: choose your own cultural comparison. This independent toy shop, called My Small World, is run by a woman called Dawn Burden and I’m spending the morning here.
