A fine three-storey house has amused inquisitive children for years, although it reaches no higher than their heads.
But when Burgh House museum in Hampstead opens again in September after its refurbishment, young visitors might be disappointed to find the popular, Victorian-style doll’s house has gone.
After nine years at the museum, it was returned on Tuesday to Kristin Baybars, owner of a toyshop in Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak, who says she takes it back “with some regret”.
Burgh House curator Marilyn Greene said: “We will really miss it and the children will really miss it but we can’t have temporary loans within a permanent exhibition.
“We were given it on loan for one year originally and the way things work with museums is you either have things given or they are bought. We are organising an exhibition based on Hampstead and if we had the money we would certainly purchase a doll’s house that was more similar to a Hampstead house.”
Mrs Baybars said: “The thing that most bemused me was the curator saying that it didn’t really represent Hampstead, but I don’t agree.
“There are really rich, really arty people in Hampstead and there are plenty of houses that look just like the inside of this beautiful house. It’s 1840s, early Victorian style is more like a Regent’s Park house but that is not a million miles from Hampstead.”
She said that anyone fond of the doll’s house, complete with four-poster bed, was welcome to view it at her shop.