Restoring & Reimagining Dora House

The third phase of restoring Dora House, our Grade II listed home in London's South Kensington, focuses on completely reimagining our basement.

Our vision is to create a beautiful, self-contained one-bedroom flat and studio space to accommodate artists in residence, as well as space for our fascinating archive and community activities.   Inspired by Dora House's past residents, the welcoming space will continue the building's creative lineage.

Thanks to TiggColl, the fantastic architecture and design studio, we now have visualisations of the reimagined and restored space. 

Show your Support: Donate now

Exterior of Dora House

Visualising the Home for Sculptors

TiggColl the fantastic architecture and design studio, have created visualisations of the reimagined and restored space. 

Responding to the Challenge

The basement is currently a no-go area and a risk to the whole building. Extremely damp with poor wiring and plumbing, some rooms even have rotten flooring which has collapsed.

Creating a Home for Sculptors envisages a exciting new future for this space. It will welcome artists in residence and house the archive. 

The flexible studio space will also be available for the Society and the local community to use.  We'll run creative workshops, educational sessions, membership events and evening arts activities, as well as extending school holiday provision.

Restoring the basement will future-proof the Society financially, offering the option for short occasional lets should the need arise. The Society already has a long-term office tenant.

The project recalls & reinvents Dora House’s creative past as a home & studio space for sculptors, photographers and painters.

Join Our Supporters

We are working to raise £1m to complete this project and are hugely grateful to the funders already on board, including:

Garfield Weston Foundation
Mirisch & Lebenheim Charitable Foundation
Constance Fund
Foyle Foundation
Backstage Trust
Henry Moore Foundation
National Manuscripts Conservation Trust

Each and every donation makes the world of difference and is gratefully received. 

Final Phase of Restoration

This is the third and final phase of restoring Dora House. In 2022, we successfully raised £1m to enable the urgent repair of our unique building. Working from the top down, specialist craftspeople made Dora House safe, sound and structurally dry, whilst also restoring the façade to its original glory. Read more here.

In 2023, thanks to the City Bridge Foundation, we were pleased to install modern, accessible public toilets and baby-changing facilities.

The restoration will continue to be overseen by the Society’s building committee, alongside Purcell conservation architects and FOCUS consultants who have been working with us throughout. 

The 10gram Challenge Exhibition

In autumn 2024, a very special exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery helped raise funds for this important project. 

Over 40 leading artists responded to the challenge of creating a small scale sculpture from a 10gram block of wax. Participating artists include Antony Gormley RA, Cathie Pilkington RA, Conrad Shawcross, Grayson Perry RA, Laura Ford PRSS, Michael Craig-Martin RA, Peter Randall-Page RA FRSS, Polly Morgan MRSS, Rana Begum RA, Richard Deacon RA, Richard Wilson RA, and Sokari Douglas Camp CBE and many more.  

View the artwork here

With thanks to Alex Davies MRSS at Milwyn Foundry for his ongoing support and the original concept, and to Thomas Dane Gallery, Darbyshire and Artelium.

The 10gram Challenge Exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery