Geoffrey Walkley and his Rainham Hall Dolls House, a replica of the 18th-century merchants’ mansion found on DailyMail.com.

Rainham Hall Dolls House

Geoffrey Walkley took his time — 35 years — building the Rainham Hall Dolls House, a mammoth replica of a Queen Anne style merchants house. It has 13 rooms, working lights and smoking chimneys. The dolls house is based on the 18th century Rainham Hall, which took only 2 years to build.

Individually light switches are operated by remote control; six of the 14 chimneys are linked to a smoke generator; both front and back doors have a doorbell, while in a modern twist, the home includes an iPad Nano which powers the speaker in the music room.

Sarah Walkley, now aged 40, was five years old when she asked her father for the doll’s house on Christmas Eve 1978. The following is part of a feature story in the Daily Mail:

“My mum was tucking me in and I said I wanted a doll’s house from Father Christmas. She said he had packed his sleigh and left the Arctic but she went downstairs and mentioned it to my dad and he said he was going to build one.”

Devoted father Geoffrey came up with a blueprint so ambitious, Sarah says she began to lose hope of ever seeing it finished.

Click on the photograph for the full Daily Mail article, which includes pictures of the dollhouse interior. And here’s a link to images of the real Rainham Hall.

Patrick Owens