Toyville Games – The Origin Story

It all started back in 2016 when we opened Toyville. Joel and I had been board game enthusiasts for a while (I say enthusiasts – we’d pretty much only played Carcassonne, Catan and Ticket to Ride Europe!), and though it seemed a bit strange to have a board game section in our new toy shop we went for it anyway. We had a small selection of games at the back of the shop but always found it tricky getting people to know they were there.

Customers really started noticing we sold board games when we moved across the road to number 9 North Street. At the time lots of people actually thought we were a whole new shop even though we’d been around for three years at that point. We expanded our selection and started getting more customers coming in specifically for games.

In 2020 the pandemic hit and we hired John (the weekend before lockdown!). John’s the guy who singlehandedly sold all six of our copies of Codenames Duet in a day. I think he likes the game.

Several lockdowns passed and that brings us to late 2021 when we found out that nearby Storysmith Books were moving to a bigger shop up the road. I’d like to say we did a detailed business plan at this point but it was barely a scribble on a napkin – most of our best work discussions take place at the Toast Room cafe. It ended up being one of those “you don’t know till you try” moments, but we decided to just go for it. And then we had to choose a name… Roll and Write (because we sell dice and pens you see)? Gamesville? Gateway Games (it’s next to a gate, of course!)? We’d actually settled on Gamesville and changed to Toyville Games at the very very last minute, much to the delight of our designer. You may have noticed when you pay by card your receipt / bank statement will say Gamesville… Oops!

And now we’re in our lovely new shop at number 49. Approximately 95% of our early customers came in looking for books but that hardly happens anymore! We’ve got absolutely tonnes of games, jigsaw puzzles, locally designed greetings cards and gifts, and a new staff member, Josh.

Now that we’re through the Christmas rush, and through the post Christmas weariness, we’re starting to think of more ways to make the shop more fun. There’s a big new table at the back of the shop where you can try any of the Demo games we have open and we’ll be organising more events. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram to stay up to date with all our news.

-Lindsay

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Toyville Games is a new board game shop based at number 49 North Street in Bedminster, Bristol.