The Fan Museum

A fan can be a painted picture, a carefully engineered folding object and an advertisement carried in the hand. This small Greenwich museum gives those uses room to be examined closely. It is a rewarding companion to the grander maritime buildings, with the scale of a domestic visit and a subject that opens onto trade, fashion and skilled manufacture.

The museum opened in 1991 through the work of Hélène Alexander and her husband, Dickie Alexander. Their project made a specialist collection into a public institution devoted to the history and craft of fans. It remains independent, with collecting, conservation, research and fan making all part of its purpose.

The setting has a much longer history: two early Georgian townhouses built in 1721. Their domestic rooms give these small objects an appropriate scale. The ground-floor displays introduce materials, tools and construction, while changing exhibitions allow the museum to explore different makers and cultural settings.

The collection also reaches into the history of painting. Its catalogue includes Paul Gauguin’s Landscape in Martinique fan design, dated about 1887, and Walter Sickert’s Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford from the 1890s. These are collection examples; display selections change. A visit can begin with a maker’s practical problem—how to make something fold neatly—and end with an artist using that shape as a picture surface.

A few things to look for: The permanent-display guide identifies a rare late-sixteenth-century flag fan, a form quite different from the familiar folding fan. A printed fan designed for the Carlton Hotel and Restaurant around 1900 shows how the object could advertise a business as well as cool its user. The ground-floor displays include fan-making tools and explanations of technique, so the construction is part of the story. The museum offers a free audio guide for its ground-floor displays. Staff can advise if a particular collection object is on view.

Tip: Allow 45–60 minutes and start with the construction displays before looking at painted examples. Check the back and supporting sticks as well as the picture surface. Tuesday–Saturday is the normal visiting window. This is a separate must-see place and is not one of the 15 walk stops; add it before or after the walk only if you have time.