Brighton Toy and Model Museum

This museum has more than 10,000 toys, puppets and models from the past 100 years on display, and it’s a place where “I used to have one like that!” is a frequently heard cry.

There is a Punch and Judy display set up with all the main characters from the story.

Norwich Puppet Theatre

This centre, which opened in 1979, aims to get the public interested in puppetry. It is the only theatre in the region to have a year-round programme of family-centred entertainment, including puppet productions of much-loved fairytales and Shakespeare plays. The theatre works with lots of different puppetry methods, including rod, glove, shadow, objects, toys and masks.

You can also have a go at making them yourself at one of the many workshops.

British Cartoon Archive

A must for anybody who likes to see leading figures made fun of, this research centre and picture library is made up of an incredible 85,000 pieces of cartoon artwork. It also has a library of newspaper cuttings and books featuring cartoons.

Our favourite cheeky puppet Punch has long been linked with political mickey-taking, and the collection at the centre shows several cartoons, from the 1940s to now, with politicians replacing Punch and Judy in their booth – one even has Charles and Diana as the quarrelling pair.

The library holds runs of bound periodicals called Fun and another called Judy. These are in the style of Punch (a weekly British magazine of humour and satire - more about it here) and date back to 1866.

Wish Tower Puppet Museum

In the space of an hour, visitors can pass from mankind’s earliest experiments with shadow puppets through to the latest animatronic wizardry, and everything in between – including Punch and Judy and favourite film and television characters such as Muffin the Mule.

Japanese Bunraku figures and Wayang shadow puppets are also in the collection. Bunraku is the most developed form of puppetry in the world, closer in style to Punch and Judy than to Pinnochio as there are no strings.

Through these puppets, the folklore, religion, myth and ritual of different cultures can be explored.

The Puppet Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre

The centre holds a collection of puppets, a reference library of puppetry, plus puppets and books for sale.

British Library

Punch, the magazine of humour and satire, ran from 1841 until its closure in 2002. It was a very British institution, with an international reputation for its witty take on the world. It published the work of some of the greatest comic writers, including Thackeray, PG Wodehouse and PJ O’Rourke.

To show the magazine’s humorous intent, it used the puppet Mr Punch as inspiration for its title. The magazine gave us the cartoon as we know it today - its political cartoons swayed governments while its social cartoons captured life in the 19th and 20th centuries. The world’s finest cartoonists appeared in Punch: such great names as Tenniel, EH Shepard, Fougasse and Pont.

The British Library acquired the archive of Punch in 2004. It has sets of the magazine with all the advertisements, flyers and spin-offs like The Punch Pocket Books, issued between 1843 and 1880. There are 20 boxes of photographs and more than 1,000 cartoons and framed works of art. Also included are letters from contributors such as Charles Dickens and AA Milne.

The archive has a full bound set of the magazine, which is part of main library stock and not held by the Department of Manuscripts. The archive is available to view by readers in the manuscript reading room by emailing the department 48 hours in advance.

Covent Garden

Famous diary-writer Samuel Pepys saw a Punch and Judy show in Covent Garden as early as 1662. If you look on the portico of St Paul’s Church you will see a plaque that was put up in 1962. It marked the 300th anniversary of Pepys “discovering” Punchinello, as Punch was then called.

Little Angel Theatre

This magical children’s puppet theatre has been enchanting audiences since 1961. The Little Angel Theatre is respected worldwide for its puppetry productions. Every type of puppet is used, and themes, styles and stories are drawn from a wide range of cultural traditions.

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

Punch, Judy, the Policeman, the Crocodile and sausages are displayed together in a case in the museum’s Performance Gallery. A silhouette suggests the Professor (Punch and Judy operator), who brings Punch to noisy and bad-tempered life.

The Gallery also includes a full-size Punch and Judy booth, commissioned from long-serving Brighton Professor, Sergent Stone. The backdrop is inspired by a local theme, the Royal Pavilion. The booth is an interactive feature, designed for visitors to climb into and perform. It contains a set of handling puppets, scripts and instructions.

Also on show are water puppets from Vietnam, shadow puppets from India and marionettes from Burma.

Theatre Museum

The Theatre Museum is the national museum of the performing arts.  There is something for all budding thesps – families can participate in a daily programme of workshops, demonstrations and guided tours, operate puppets, try out make-up and costumes and walk on stage.  There are also regular exhibitions and the museum's collection includes a wide range of documents, artefacts and works of art which record the history of the performing arts in Britain from the 16th century to the present.