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With hundreds of plastic legs, arms, and heads
stacked high in boxes, it looks like a haunting resting place for
hundreds of unwanted dolls discarded by girls who no longer want to play
with them.
But although Sydney's Famous Original Doll Hospital does have a cemetery
for doll parts that are beyond repair, many of the toy parts littering
the workshop are waiting to be given a new lease of life.
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For the company has been the saviour of hundreds of thousands of
Australian girls devastated when their beloved doll has lost a limb or
been damaged in an overly boisterous game and has revived millions of
childhood memories.
The workshop is about to mark 100 years of repairing dolls after it was
opened thanks to a shipping error in the Australian city back in 1913.
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And despite changing technology meaning that many modern children are
more interested in the latest gadgets or computer games, the business is
still going strong, with dolls sent from all over Australia and even
across the sea from New Zealand for repair.
The shop was founded by accident by Harold Chapman Snr in 1913.
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His brother was in the business of importing celluloid dolls from Japan
but the rubber bands that held them together would often disintegrate
and the dolls would be damaged.
Fortunately for his brother, Mr Chapman Snr found a way to fix the dolls
and set up a section dedicated to doll repair in his general store.
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But demand for doll repair grew as word spread and the business was soon
expanded.
It was taken over by Mr Chapman Snr's son, also called Harold, in the
1930s and expanded the type of product being fixed to leather goods,
toys and umbrellas.
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The start of World War Two really saw the doll hospital thrive however.
Restrictions on manufacturing and importing goods to Australia meant
that children and collectors had to make do with their old dolls instead
of buying new ones and more repairs were needed.
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At one point during the war the hospital had 70 'nurses' working in six
different repair rooms.
By its 95th birthday, the hospital had carried out a staggering
2.5mllion repairs.
Now, the hospital has been passed onto its third generation of the
Chapman family, with Harold Jnr's son Geoff now in charge.
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He said on the company's website: 'There is nothing more satisfying than
seeing the smile on a little girl's face when she comes to collect her
beloved doll.
'People often have tears in their eyes when they have to leave their
precious dolls, but tears of joy when they come to collect them and see
the transformation.' |