The Auld Toy Shop
A place for play, ideas & collective imagination.
A new home for creativity, food, music, making and community in the heart of Ayr.
A place for play, ideas & collective imagination.
A new home for creativity, food, music, making and community in the heart of Ayr.
For generations, The Auld Toy Shop was one of Ayr’s most-loved places — a shop full of wonder, excitement and imagination. Before standing empty for more than twelve years, the building was home to three different toy shops over around three decades, becoming a familiar part of the town centre and a place of childhood memories for generations of local families.
Now, this much-loved building is getting a new chapter.
We’re bringing The Auld Toy Shop back to life as a living community arts space — a place for people to come together, make things, share ideas, eat, play, learn and imagine what’s possible and we’re building it with the community.
We want to capture that feeling.
There’s something special about seeing the doors and windows of a place that has been closed for so long begin to open again — people stopping to peer through the windows, wondering what’s happening inside and getting excited about what might be possible.
The excitement of seeing a familiar building breathe new life into the town centre. Of people looking in, coming in, getting involved and making it their own.
The Auld Toy Shop is opening up again — and this time, we want to discover together what it can become.
What could Ayr become?
As part of Creative Scotland’s Culture Collective programme, Narture is bringing artists, makers, musicians, writers, cooks and local people together to explore one big question:
What does Ayr need to thrive creatively?
Ayr’s town centre has faced its challenges, with empty shops, changing high streets and a loss of activity affecting the way people experience the town.
But we don’t want to focus on what’s been lost. We want to explore what could be created next.
The Auld Toy Shop is part of that bigger conversation — about how creativity, culture, food and community can help bring energy, confidence and possibility back into our town centre.
We’re not arriving with a
finished programme.
Over the next year, the building will become a place for workshops, exhibitions, performances, creative conversations, shared meals, artist residencies and events.
Instead, we’re creating space for ideas to grow.
An idea might become an exhibition, a workshop, a meal, a gig, a community garden, a print project, a repair session — or something none of us have thought of yet.
That’s the exciting part.
We want to take a building that has been empty for more than a decade and fill it with people, ideas, creativity and possibility.
To us, regeneration isn’t just about buildings. It’s about what happens inside them — and who gets to shape what happens next.
A place to play,
make & connect
The Auld Toy Shop builds on Narture’s belief that everyone is an artist.
We believe creativity, food and community can bring life, confidence and possibility back into our town centres.
At the heart of the project is an idea from Brian Eno:
“Children learn through play, but adults play through art.”
The building was once a place built around play. We want to carry that spirit forward — creating a space where children and adults can play, experiment, make, learn, share and imagine together.
More than an arts space
The Auld Toy Shop is part of a bigger vision for Ayr.
Alongside arts and culture, we’re exploring ideas around food, repair, reuse, green skills and low-carbon living. The space could become home to:
Art & Exhibitions
A place for artists and communities to show, share and develop work.
Making & Learning
Workshops, skills-sharing, creative projects and opportunities to try something new.
Food & Community
Shared meals, food projects and in time, a new home for our KNEAD bakery, deli and bread shop.
Music & Performance
A space for gigs, performances, gatherings and new ideas.
Repair & Reuse
Exploring circular making, repair, sustainable skills and ways of using what we already have.
Growing & Green Skills
Developing ideas around food growing, sustainability and potentially a rooftop growing space.
A People’s Art School for Ayr
Our longer-term ambition is for The Auld Toy Shop to become a permanent People’s Art School and community hub.
A welcoming place where people can:
Learn. Make. Share. Meet. Eat. Create.
A place where artists can develop their practice, people can learn new skills, communities can connect and new ideas can take shape.
We’re developing partnerships and exploring opportunities to restore the historic building permanently and create a lasting cultural space for Ayr.
The programme is taking shape
70 people applied.
We recently opened an open call for socially engaged creative practitioners to join us in delivering the Culture Collective programme.
We’re now shortlisting practitioners who will work alongside local communities to help shape the programme and bring new ideas into the building.
We’re incredibly excited about what’s beginning to emerge.
The programme will be announced soon. Follow along to find out what’s happening and how you can get involved.
The future is ours to imagine
The future of The Auld Toy Shop is still being written — and we want the people of Ayr to help write it.
What was once a place where generations discovered the joy of play can become a place where a new generation discovers the joy of creating, connecting and imagining what’s possible.