Squatter Years

A burglary in 1988 led to significant losses to the collection and in the mid-1990s much of what remained was sold at a series of auctions. As a consequence, the vast extent of this collection has not been researched or made public until now.

When Dorich House was acquired by Kingston University in the mid-1990s, it required substantial renovation, which was entrusted to the architectural practice David Brown and Partners. The practice has donated its architectural plans and records from the renovation to the Dorich House Museum archive and, with training by our project archivist, Nancy Lyons, our volunteers have photographed and catalogued many of the architectural plans. Through oral-history interviews, volunteers have also recorded the memories of those involved in the renovation and the changes and interventions made to the house and garden since it was built in the 1930s.

The occupation of Dorich House by different people after Gordine’s death in December 1991 has long been the subject of myth and rumour. Newspaper reports and a few photographs in the museum archive reveal that the house was squatted, but what was the squat like? There were rumours of parties and raves at the house, but who came and what were they like? Dorich House was also used by the BBC as a set for the Nicolas Roeg film Two Deaths (1995), but what do we know about the use of the house as its location?