Art and Hobby Store

The art and hobby shop doubles up as an arts and hobby place and a kids toy store.
If your kids are crafty you will get everything to sate their artistic appetite in here, crayons, glitter, colouring books, scrap books, markers, etc. And they’re all really good quality. I would have loved a place like this when I was a kid, I was always making and do-​ing elaborate cards or blue peter arts n crafts. Prices are pretty cheap too.
I think places like this are great for kids and far more educational and beneficial than buying them throw-​away toys. Well worth a look.

This place is kids heaven! It’s full of glitter, Plasticine, pains, cards and everything for making big big mess.
The stuff in here is perfect for stocking up on great gifts for birthday presents or Christmas! And they also have a whole range of costumes and toys in here too.
If you come n here with a child be prepared for a long stretch as the store is jam packed and kids just love it! It’s pretty cheap too which is always good as people do tend to rip the arse out of kids shops as they know tantrums could result in a child not getting what they want and parents looking for the easy life begrudgingly giving in. Ahh, the joys of what I have to look forward to.

I love these places! They are just full of little nostalgic toys and trinkets from my past which always excite some long lost memory in the back of my mind and forces me to pay the said trinket (I have like 5 slinkys). This is quite a busy store, I’m not sure if they are all actually looking for things for the same reason I do or they really do have a childrens hobby as a viable past time. A great place to go if you want to get a joke as a gift as part of a bigger present.

Art & Hobby I felt a bit like I was back in my childhood when I was in this shop. There were dressing up outfits galore! I think I’ll even come here for my Halloween outfit! Alongsides that, there’s the usual jumble of art supplies and goods as well as some amazing jigsaw puzzles. It’s quite like craft world but with a wide variation on stock. An interesting wee spot to visit, worth a look in anyway.

This is a pretty specialist art and hobby shop that also doubles up as a bit of a kids toy shop. Havng spent a bit of time in Dublin and the Republic of Ireland in general I was a little bit familiar with this store and wasn’t that surprised to see its first Northern Irish store opening in Victoria Square.
There is a wide range of arts and hobby stuff in here, from early learning aids to fine arts, kids crafts, games and gadgets, educational toys and aids and even some fashion items. The store has a great location in Victoria Square with plenty of parking around and other shops. The staff in here are polite, helpful and professional, well worth sticking your head round the corner.

This shop is, I think, aimed solely at children. You see it has a selection of children’s toys — scooters, helicopters and such like. You can understand with me coming to this conclusion.
But then it has quite expensive art equipment. It has delicate wooden easels, expensive writing sets, general things I wouldn’t even consider giving a child because it would be:
(a) broken
or
(b) end up lodged somewhere that it definitely should not go.
Having a shop which is dedicated purely to arts and crafts is perhaps difficult because there may not be a huge market for easels, so A & H must have a few other potential purchases in their locker.
But to me it is confusing because I don’t know if this shop is aimed at people my age. I know people that do art and they get a few bits and bobs out of here, but if it is to become a credible ART shop, then it has to get rid of the toys and the children and make it just that.
Instead it looks like a few pages random pages from an Argos book that have been given their own store. I get the ART part and I get the HOBBY part, but they don’t work as a store. It would be like having Kettles & Garden Equipment or Jewellery and Board Games. Toys and art equipment don’t work as a shop.
But like I said, I think it’s aimed at children… and I hate children

I like shops like this. I think the kid in me is just attracted to glitter!
I’m also a big fan of hand-​making cards for friends and family, so I do spend a good bit of time in shops like Art & Hobby, agonising over which thickness of card to get (seriously. I’ve been known to have to leave the shop to have a think before I buy!).
The Art & Hobby shop is in a great location, probably the best location of all the crafty shops in town, so I end up going in simply because I’m passing it. It’s not my favourite though. I find it a little more expensive than its rivals and it is a lot more focused on kids toys and crafts, which can make it hard when you want to make a card for someone over the age of 5!

Put me anywhere that sells paint, glitter, plasticine and coloured card and I will happily wallow in my surroundings. I absolutely LOVE craft stores and anything similar to be honest where I can lose myself in making some frivolous crafty-​homemade item and pretend I’m Kirsty Allsop. I didn’t even know the Art & Hobby Store existed in the Victoria Square centre until recently, and they got a good whack of purchases out of me. They have all sorts of craft supplies here — anything you might need, and a lot that you don’t, but want anyway — and the staff are polite. They also sell educational games and toys too, which I know I will start to want to buy when the kids start appearing!