The MUSEUM OF ADVERTISING AND PACKAGING

Gloucester is one of England’s famous ports with origins dating back to Roman times. Fourteen handsome Victorian warehouses still stand. Albert Warehouse, which houses the Collection, was constructed in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition.

The impressive result of one man’s enthusiasm, Britain’s first museum of advertising and packaging is the culmination of over 25 years’ research and collecting by Robert Opie. His Collection, the largest of its type in the world, now numbers some 300,000 items relating to the

history of the consumer society of the UK. It provides a fascinating insight into the British way of life over the past hundred years.

The museum contains the packs, tins and bottles which filled the larder and added flavour to family mealtimes, the posters which enlivened the corner shop, the popular cigarette brands, the favoured patent medicines, and the enamel signs which brought colour to shops and railway stations.

This colorful exhibition could be described as a Century of Shopping Basket History; these are the goods which, since Victorian times, have crowded the shelves of Britain’s grocers, confectioners, chemists, tobacconists, pubs, and the earliest supermarkets. One can follow the development of brands which have remained family favourites for generations, and be reminded of those other brands which have quietly disappeared from the shelves.

From the Collection a visitor can easily trace the changes in social tastes and tempo, the whims of style and fashion, the gradual emancipation of women, the jazz age, as well as the revolution in shopping habits- changes which are reflected in the everyday products bought during an age of growing affluence.

The evolution of graphic design and pack technology may be followed along with the development of advertising skills. But above all, the museum is a tribute to the vigor and inventiveness of British manufacturing industry.

The commercial television era is given coverage with the continual screening of advertisements which, for the last thirty years have informed, amused and influenced us. The early commercials, which refresh our memories of the 1950’s and 1960’s, are a popular attraction for the whole family to enjoy, together with all the other fascinating objects which make up the Robert Opie Collection.