So far £155,000 has been raised from grant-giving trusts towards the second phase of this £1.6m development project, aimed at creating a splendid home for the collection of Heath Robinson's work, assembled by his daughter, at West House in Pinner - still rural Middlesex when the artist moved there in 1908.
The next round of applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund will be considered in December. However, Geoffrey Beare of the William Heath Robinson Trust (WHRT), which has just been granted planning consent for the proposed development of West House, warns that the project will not succeed unless the trust can convince the Lottery Fund that they can raise the total required partnership funding of £430,000.
The trust are pioneers in this field as this is the first HLF project to launch a Crowdfunding campaign to raise funds.
Home for Archive
If the project is eventually successful, not only will West House provide a home for more than 500 pieces of original artwork as well as books and other published material and an archive of letters, it will also be able to throw more light on Heath Robinson's wider work.
Best known for those much-loved humorous drawings of bizarre machinery that so caught the public imagination, he also created illustrations and designs for Kipling, Shakespeare and others, as well as his own children's stories.
More details about the project and a link to their 'Kickstarter' page can be found on the trust's website.
