The second strand of our NLHF The Squatter Years Project has now been published on our website. This strand focuses on the renovation of Dorich House and contains a short film by Ellie Laycock and a series of five essays that chart the building’s journey from studio home to museum, including the original plans, the […]
Situated on the southern edge of Richmond Park on the site of a former orchard, Dorich House provided the artist Dora Gordine and her husband, the Hon. Richard Hare with a home, studio, gallery and leafy idyll from 1936 until her death in 1991. On a plot of around two thirds of an acre, the […]
The short film Then and Now by photographer Ellie Laycock provides a powerful visual record of how Dorich House has changed over the decades. It skilfully blends historic images of the building in the 1930’s and later years with images from today, highlighting how Dorich House has transformed from a studio home to a museum. […]
The sensitive restoration of Dorich House commenced in 1994, following the appointment of the architects David Brown and Partners. When completed two years later, an article in the Surrey County Magazine in October 1996 concluded “The restoration aimed to recreate the atmosphere of the calm and focused lives of Dora and Richard’s heyday in the […]
The job of restoring Dorich House was entrusted to the architectural practice David Brown and Partners in mid-1994. David Brown was a member of the Institute of Architectural Conservation and had a strong interest in historic restoration. Pam McCleneghen, former Head of Property Services at Kingston University, recalls that the firm’s experience in renovating listed […]
Built in 1936 and acknowledged for its architectural significance through Grade II listing in 1983, Dorich House was in a state of dilapidation when Dora Gordine died in December 1991 at the age of 96. Following the premature death of her husband the Hon. Richard Hare in 1966, Gordine lived alone at Dorich House for […]
Designed by Gordine in 1935 as a home and workplace for herself and her husband, the Hon. Richard Hare, Dorich House was unique, not fitting neatly into any architectural style. In designing the house, Gordine drew on references from her previous homes and the countries in which she had lived – Latvia, Estonia, France, and […]
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