Hidden Histories, the third and final strand of our NLHF Squatter Years project, is now live on our website. Hidden Histories covers the period following Gordine’s death in late 1991, before renovations to the house began in 1994, when Dorich House was inhabited by squatters and rumoured to be the site of raves and parties. […]
In 2019–20, a group of volunteers were trained in conducting oral histories for the ‘Squatter Years’ project. Here volunteer and MA Museum and Gallery Studies student Mengfei Liu reflects on her experience of interviewing five people who each had very different experiences of Dorich House. As an Asian international student, I knew very little about […]
In the summer of 1994, Isobel Porter, who was then campus manager at the Kingston Hill campus of Kingston University, first came to Dorich House after the university had acquired the site. She took photos of the house, which are now in the Dorich House Museum Archives. In 1992, Dorich House had been emptied of […]
Over 2019–20, students from Kingston University studying for an MA Museum and Gallery Studies undertook the module, ‘The Challenge of Change’, inspired by ‘The Squatter Years’ project. Led by senior lecturer and course director, Dr Helen Wickstead, students wrote and produced online exhibits reflecting on the occupation of Dorich House by squatters and ravers after Dora […]
An unforgettable night in the 1990s saw Amy Schofield find herself at a rave at Dorich House. Here she recounts memories of that incredible event. It was as if I was in a dream – I don’t remember how I got there or why I was there. But I always loved a party and this […]
Kingston University PhD researcher and volunteer for ‘The Squatter Years’, Peter Kirkpatrick, here goes through the archive of material at the BFI on Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Two Deaths’ (1995) to piece together what was said about its filming location, Dorich House, in contemporary film magazines and journals. Two Deaths (1995), directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring […]
The use of Dorich House in the 1990s as the site of squats and raves, prior to the building’s renovation, have long been subjects of local interest, myth and rumour. Prior to the Squatter Years project, only fragmentary evidence of these activities and events could be found in the Dorich House Museum archive and in […]
In 2019–20, a group of volunteers were trained in conducting oral histories for the ‘Squatter Years’ project. Here volunteer and MA Museum and Gallery Studies student Rebecca Rushton reflects on her experience of interviewing four people for the project. When I first walked through the doors of Dorich House Museum in November 2019 to train […]
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