Victoriana in front of a real Victorian terrace

Victoriana is a detached late Victorian dolls house, circa 1900, and is the work of Jose Aleson. Here we take a peek inside this exceptional doll house and learn a little about it's creator. The dolls house hobby means different things for all of us. For Jose, collecting miniatures is a way of looking into the past to see how poeple lived and carried out their lives.

Jose was born in Santander, northern Spain, and came to live and work in the UK just seven years ago. He is young man who has been interested in miniatures since the age of 13. Antiques, restoration, and collecting are his passions, and he was immdiately intrigued by London architecture. Amazed by the diversity of house styles, with Georgian, Victorian and 20th Century often all in the same street.

The exterior and the interior of Victoriana

These days, Jose is quite an authority on miniatures in his native Spain, writing a regular column for the Spanish magazine 'Miniaturas'. He also travels to dolls house shows around the world reporting for the magazine and translating interviews into Spanish for their readers.

Victoriana came about when Jose was reading a book about the Victorians, and about this time the first series of Downton Abbey was shown on the television. His house came from the Dolls House Emporium, and many of the beautiful items inside came from the Alexandra Palace and Kensington Dolls House Festival shows. Victoriana took only one year to build from flat pack to the finished house you see in the photos below. It is meticulously decorated and furnished inside and out, with beautiful clean lines, lovely furniture and it is accessorised to perfection.

Now feast your eyes, starting at the top of the house and working down:

On the top floor is the study with the maid's rather austere room beside it

On the 1st floor is the lady of the house's bedroom

Next door with the upper landing between is the single gentleman's bedroom with bathroom at the rear of the room. Above the bed is a painting of Jose's Spanish childhood home, in miniature of course.

On the ground floor is the beautiful dining room

Beside this is the main hallway and staircase of the house, and to the right the kitchen.

To the left of the house, and in a separate building is the addition of a conservatory.

This feature was originally published in Dolls House & Miniature Scene magazine. If you like reading about miniatures, why not buy yourself a copy of the magazine, better still, take out a subscription so you never miss an exciting issue. For fans of Facebook and Twitter, please use the buttons at the top of the page to share this feature with your miniature loving friends.