Dolled up: Hospital gives toys makeover

Lifeless little celluloid faces peer out vacantly from glass cabinets. Limbs are piled upon mismatched limbs. Eyeballs meticulously stacked according to size and colour.

This is no ghoulish catacomb or Frankenstein-style body-part laboratory. Far from the stuff of nightmares, it is where people come to rekindle their warmest memories and breathe new life into their most cherished of creature comforts.

Nestled into a centuries-old cobblestone square in Lisbon is no ordinary hospital. The Hospital de Bonecas — or Doll Hospital — has been repairing the most-beloved toys of children, young and old, for nearly 200 years. Founded in 1830, when the owner used to sit at the entrance of a herb shop making cloth dolls, and showing passing children how to repair their own, it is claimed to be the oldest business of its kind in the world.