Playtime Villa

The ‘Playtime Villa’ dolls’ house, was made by the donor’s father in around 1922 and is modelled on her family’s home in Upminster Garden Suburbs which the family bought as a newbuild in 1908. It is a gabled, double-fronted Edwardian-style house made from wood, with bay windows, balconies and blue stained-glass window elements; red-brick and roof tile paper details; four main rooms; entrance hall and landing and mock-Tudor beam and wooden roof finial details to the gables. Dolls’ house wallpapers, probably German, were purchased to appropriately decorate two bedrooms on the first floor and a drawing room and a dining room on the ground floor. Garden suburbs were smaller versions of the garden cities, advocated by Ebenezer Howard, which were being built at the time. They aimed to provide better housing within more rural surroundings than the often-crowded inner city.