Fan Museum

The Fan Museum has been attracting visitors to its handsome Greenwich home since 1991, with the museum recently celebrating its 25th anniversary. But the story of the UK’s first and only museum dedicated to fans begins much earlier. Founder and Director Hélène Alexander, inspired by her numismatist father, began collecting fans in the 1970s. By the end of the 1970s, she had more than 1000 fans and fan leaves.

In 1985, Alexander set up the Fan Museum Trust, with the intention of creating the world’s first museum devoted to fans, fan-making technique and the artistic and social influences behind their creation. It took some time for her to acquire the perfect site for the venture, and even then the Grade II-listed Greenwich property Alexander purchased was in need of serious renovations, to resolve structural problems with the long-neglected building and convert it from a residence into a unified museum space.

It was in 1991 that the Fan Museum finally opened to the public. Like the pieces it displays, it is a place possessing great charm, character and elegance. Alexander wished it to feel homely, intimate and welcoming, and this has been achieved through the sensitive restoration of the 1721 buildings, along with the addition of the orangery tea room and the tranquil Japanese garden it overlooks. The volunteers and staff who run it are helpful, knowledgeable and kindly, many of them good friends of Alexander and sharers in her passion.

The museum possesses an atmosphere that reminds one of times past, and it certainly cherishes this aspect. But the Fan Museum has been increasingly aware that it must look to the future if it is to help reverse the decline in fan-making practices across the world. Recent exhibitions have looked at fan making in the modern world and showcased those artisans who still appreciate and practice the art form, while also reaching out to those new to the craft.