Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture facts for kids
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| Established | 2000 |
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| Location | 9 Boulevard Drive, London, NW9 5HF, United Kingdom |
| Public transit access |  Colindale |
The Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA) is a cool museum in North London, England. It holds one of the biggest collections of 19th and 20th-century decorative arts for homes. Think of it as a treasure chest of designs for things like wallpaper and fabrics!
This amazing collection is so special that Arts Council England says it's super important around the world. The museum has collections like the Silver Studio designs for wallpapers and fabrics. It also has the Charles Hasler collection and the Crown Wallpaper Archive.
MoDA is part of Middlesex University. The main collection center is in Beaufort Park in Colindale. This is near the university's Hendon campus in the London Borough of Barnet.
Contents
The Silver Studio Collection
The Silver Studio was a company that created designs. It was run by the Silver family in West London. From 1880 to 1963, they made over 20,000 designs. These were for things like curtains, wallpapers, tablecloths, and carpets. Many different designers worked there. Some were famous, while others stayed unknown.
The Silver Studio sold their designs to shops and factories. These places made wallpapers and fabrics for all kinds of homes. They sold to companies that made cheap wallpapers for everyone. They also sold to companies that made fancy products for expensive homes. Big British fabric makers like Stead McAlpin bought their designs. Even famous stores like Liberty were their customers.
Because most of their clients made products for many people, Silver Studio designs ended up in lots of British homes. You can see how much they influenced homes for a long time. This is because so many of their designs were actually made into products.
The Silver Studio closed in the early 1960s. All their designs were given to the Hornsey College of Art. This college later became part of Middlesex University.
This collection is very important because it's so complete. It covers the years 1880 to 1960. This was a key time for home furnishings made for many people. This period isn't as well shown in other collections.
In 1981, the Silver Studio got a special blue plaque. This plaque was put on their building at 84 Brook Green, Hammersmith. It showed how important the Silver Studio was as a design company.
Charles Hasler Collection
This collection belonged to Charles Hasler (1908-1992). He was a designer and typographer. A typographer is someone who designs how words look on a page. Hasler was very important in many big exhibitions and poster campaigns. He also helped with book publishing in Britain from the 1930s to the 1980s.
From 1942 to 1951, Hasler designed exhibitions for the government. He worked on displays like ‘Dig For Victory’ and ‘Make Do and Mend’. After the war, he became a top designer for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Hasler created a special book of display letters for the Festival designers. He also taught about typography and helped train new print and graphic designers.
Hasler was very interested in new ideas like packaging and branding. His collection shows his interest in all kinds of printed items. It includes postcards, playbills, sheet music, packaging, and posters from the 1800s onwards.
Sir James Richards Library
MoDA also has the Sir James Maude Richards Library. This is a collection of books and magazines about architecture. Sir JM Richards (1907-1992) was a leading expert on modern architecture in Britain.
Richards was the editor of The Architectural Review magazine from 1937 to 1971. He wrote important articles about architecture for both architects and the public.
The Architectural Review started in 1896. In the 1930s, it was a main place for talking about the Modern movement in Britain. It showed the best examples of modern architecture from around the world. As editor, Richards met all the top architects and thinkers of his time. His library shows this through the books he collected.
His most famous book is Castles on the Ground (1946). In this book, he wrote about why he liked suburbs. He also showed his appreciation for everyday buildings.
Sir JM Richards' Library has over 1500 books. It includes all his own published works. It also has books by famous artists and writers like John Betjeman and Nikolaus Pevsner.
Crown Wallpaper Archive
MoDA's Crown Wallpaper Collection has about 5,000 wallpaper albums and samples. These date from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. Crown Wallpapers gave them to the museum in 1989.
This collection, along with the Silver Studio wallpapers, is one of the best in the country. It shows wallpapers that were made for everyday people, not just for very rich ones. So, it helps us see what British homes looked like for a long time.
The Crown Wallpaper collection helps us understand how wallpapers were used in homes. It shows how people's tastes changed over time, especially in suburban areas.
MoDA also has some cool hand-printed wallpapers from the 1930s. These were made by artists like Edward Bawden and John Aldridge.
The Domestic Design Collection 1870–1960
This collection has over 4,000 books, magazines, and catalogs. They cover everything about home furnishings, managing a household, cooking, building houses, DIY, crafts, and gardening. It's a fantastic resource for anyone interested in how homes were decorated or how people lived. It's also great for seeing old typography and graphic design.
A very important part of this collection is about the growth of North London suburbs. This was between about 1900 and 1939. It includes posters, brochures, and other ads from property developers and builders. This material helps us understand how homes were decorated and furnished during that time.
About 2,000 books and catalogs were originally part of the Silver Studio Collection. The designers used them for ideas. Another 1,000 items were collected by the former Art and Design Librarian of Hornsey College of Art in the 1980s. The rest have been bought or given to the museum over many years.
