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“Beyond the Dolls House”

Exhibition at Leonardslee lakes & gardens in Sussex
1 April – 31 October

Small Scale Role Model

Helen Holland is truly inspiring. At the young old age of 68 she is a self confessed workaholic and the envy of all her friends. At a point in life when most of her peers are settling into retirement Helen is fulfilling her childhood ambitions and has managed to combine all her dream jobs of architect, interior designer and garden planner into one very rewarding and demanding role.

Helen is the talented mastermind behind the “Beyond the Dolls House” exhibition at Leonardslee lakes & gardens in Sussex. The exhibition which occupies 140ft of specially built display gallery has been continually developed over the last 10 years.

Helen Holland depicts life in the 1900's

What began with the making of a 1/12th scale model of a potting shed as a birthday present has turned into the creation of a whole country estate and market town showing life as it would have been circa 1900. With sophisticated lighting, intricate detail and automata, it is the most unique display of its kind in the UK.

At the time it started Helen wasn’t aware of the fantastic opportunity she had been given by Robin Loder, the owner of Leonardslee. However, she now realises how lucky she is to be able to combine all her dreams and interests and have a job she enjoys.

She admits “It is the constant challenge of the whole project that has unleashed the workaholic in me that I never knew was there. The creativity, that is so essential to the success of the exhibition, gives me the biggest buzz imaginable”

In order to understand Helen’s passion and dedication you have to experience “Beyond the Dolls House” at first hand. Once you do you get drawn into the amazing detail and become quite entranced.

Her motivation is equally intoxicating, and is driven by a constant desire to improve and add to the display. Helen said “I have so many ideas that I think I’ll run out of space before I run out of new projects”

Helen has no plans to stop working and enjoys constantly learning new skills.

Tiny wires and over 1500 tiny pieces of wood

When she installed the new lighting system it took her a whole weekend just to decipher the instructions and lay out all the metres of tiny wires. The parquet floor in the drawing room of the town house took 10 days to lay with Helen having to juggle over 1500 small pieces of wood.

Helen not only works as a designer and builder but also as a researcher and historian.
The lifestyle of the 1900’s has been explored in great detail; even the clothes worn by the miniature characters are historically accurate. She has gone to painstaking trouble to make sure that everything from the furniture to the roof tops show suitable signs of wear and tear to ensure there is a convincing sense of reality.

Many of the buildings are modelled on full size examples that Helen remembers from her childhood in Scotland including the dovecot, gazebo and the game larder. Sussex, where she now lives, has also provided inspiration for the granary and threshing barn. The gardener’s cottage is based on real plans from a cottage in the grounds of Leonardslee and The National Trust provided photographs of a laundry from the era. Even the walled garden has been based on a fully restored Victorian walled garden near Chichester, all allowing for meticulous attention to detail.

The beautiful Emporium

The Emporium presented a great challenge due to the level of detail involved in it. After writing many letters to London stores Helen was fortunate enough to come across John Lewis’s archive department who allowed her access to amazing photographs of a number of their stores from the 1900’s.  This enabled her to recreate the beautiful Emporium with amazing accuracy.

For 2008 the majority of the display has been completely rewired. Major additions include a bakery and tea room, music shop, ballet school, artist’s studio, photographer’s studio, chemist, doctor’s surgery and a new shoe shop and luggage shop. All of this provided Helen with a great excuse to shop, “the shoes and hats, especially, are so exquisite it was pure retail therapy” she said.

Skill, craftsmanship and vision have certainly been a key to the success of this exceptional exhibition; however, it is Helen’s amazing memory, painstaking historical research and creativity that have truly made this an extraordinary miniature display.

Helen has been inspired by many people, including her father whose love of architecture rubbed off on her and the talented miniaturists she has met over the last 10 years at fairs all over the country. She hopes that her work to create “Beyond the Dolls House” will in turn inspire other people to take on new challenges regardless of their age.

Helen claims her secrets to success are having a constant variety of challenges and getting huge satisfaction from providing pleasure and fun to all the people who experience “Beyond the Dolls House”.

See "Beyond the Dolls House" Exhibition