From the very start in January 2017, the look and shape of Linehan Vale's administration building and central block was to be chiefly directed by the style and dimensions of the first dolls' house I had bought. This ex-children's toy was in great condition and appeared to be an un-finished project.
After Googling dolls' houses however, I discovered that my one was actually a standard Early Learning Centre budget model, intentionally left un-varnished and with no wallpaper or realistic detailing (presumably so the family that bought it could have customised it if they wished). Usually they retail for around £30 - £40. After the disappointment that it wasn't some unique home-made one-off or a priceless experiment by some master toy-maker (yes I was VERY naive!), I became excited to think that I could buy more of these if I could find them, and so expand the size of the hospital!
Before this, the original intention was to create quite a modest slice of abandonment using just this first dolls' house and simply adding a surrounding section of board to create some over-grown grass and discarded debris as context to where the building was meant to be sited. However, after discovering an identical house on Ebay going cheap, I decided to snap it up, and so began the expansion of the idea and the scope of the project.
However, the first major concern involved deciding on a suitable scale for the project, so that we'd know how big not just our doors and windows would be, but also how big our world would be, from chairs and discarded books to the blades of unkempt grass. Mass-produced dolls houses are mostly of the overh-whelmingly popular 1:12 size, as are the corresponding furniture and fixtures, etc.
These ELC dolls-houses are roughly of that scale as well, however, during the designing and planning stage, we felt that a smaller scale would be needed to convey key aspects to such mammoth hospital sites - such as long high-ceilinged corridors and large rooms with bay windows. After some investigating, we chose the 1:24th scale, which is more common among architect's models. This scale would still allow for much rich detailing while also providing more scope for creating large spaces iconic to old asylums.
An added bonus is that 1:24 scale is similar to "G Gauge" (approx: 1:22nd scale), which is very common in miniature outdoor railway layouts. This would allow us to incorporate a track and carefully selected rolling-stock into the hospital's history and into the miniature itself, further enhancing the authenticity and visual interest of the model.
Much more information on model scales, the process of building Linehan Vale and the history of various real-life UK institutions is provided in the pages detailing the progress of constructing this project.
DOLLS' HOUSES 101
Ahh, the warm and fuzzy Christmas of 2016. This was how the first dolls' house looked after we got it back home and dressed it up for some snowy festivities, while producing the very first designs and sketches for some abandoned model we'd make from it. The furniture and figures included with the dolls' house were quite charming and have been kept. These playsets by the Early Learning Centre are quite lovely, and the houses are a perfect canvas to modify, so they seem like really good presents for young kids.
I assumed that the house due to it's size, little architectural flourishes and included furniture that it might be worth around £50 - £100, due to how expensive even small and basic dolls' houses sell for. But, after Googling dolls' houses, I discovered that my one was actually a standard Early Learning Centre budget model, intentionally left un-varnished and with no wallpaper or realistic detailing (presumably so the family that bought it could have customised it if they wished). Usually they retail for around £30 - £40. I was disappointed at first that it wasn't some unique home-made one-off or a priceless experiment by some lost master toy-maker, but then I realised that this dolls' house was a great project waiting to come to life! I became excited to think that I could do with the 'house, and that led to the idea of Banterbury.
Over the next year we purchased more such houses, gobbling up bargains on Ebay and going to pick them up across the UK either on my 125 scooter or (less ridiculously) with the family car. The following dolls' houses which we purchased had all been decorated by their former owners in some way, and it did feel a shame to strip back all that. It seems that most kids outgrow them at around 8 years of age, according to the parents who were selling them. Here are some more close-ups of the customisation of the dolls' houses which were bought from families off of Ebay.
