The Fan Museum

Name

The Fan Museum

Legal name

The Fan Museum Trust

Website

https://thefanmuseum.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Heritage Museum

NAICS

Museums (71211), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990), Retail-Jewelry Stores (5944)

akta.pro primary industry

Specialty Museums (e.g., Maritime, Aviation, Sports, Music, Film) (THAJADAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Performing Arts & Cultural Event Venues (Theaters, Museums) (THAHAAAG), Museum, Zoo & Attraction Gift Shops (CRALAJAG)

Keywords

• Cultural museum exhibits
• Decorative arts collection
• Fan making workshops
• Heritage venue hire
• Museum gift shop

Headquarters

HQ city

Greenwich

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission: Ticketed entry to the museum with tiered pricing for adults, children, concessions, and families. Also offers special free entry days for seniors and specific visitor categories.
2. Orangery Hire: The museum's painted Orangery is available for private hire events including afternoon teas, functions, and cultural events. This represents a venue rental revenue stream.
3. Gift Shop and Publications: Online shop selling fan-themed merchandise, publications, catalogues, stationery, decorative ornaments, and jewellery. Ships internationally with tracking.
4. Special Events and Workshops: Revenue from ticketed events including private views, talks, performances, fan making workshops, and cultural experiences like the Amitabha Garden tea ceremony.
5. Group Visits and Guided Tours: Special pricing and services for group bookings including guided tours, with group bookings mentioned in the pricing structure.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Fan Museum is a non-profit museum in Greenwich, London that preserves, exhibits, and educates the public about the history, culture, and craft of fans. It operates a physical museum with rotating exhibitions and permanent displays of its 2,500+ item collection, supplemented by ticketed fan making workshops, special cultural events, a gift shop, venue hire in its Orangery, and digital programmes including virtual exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture.

Product overview

The Fan Museum operates as a physical museum and visitor attraction dedicated to the history, culture, and craft of the fan, supplemented by digital programmes. The core visitor experience includes paid museum admissions (adults £5, concessions £3) to view rotating temporary exhibitions and permanent displays in Grade II* listed Georgian townhouses. The product portfolio includes: Fan Collections (the UK's largest fan collection spanning 1,000+ years), Exhibitions (temporary themed shows and permanent displays), Fan Making Workshops (hands-on craft sessions), Events Programme (performances, talks, private views), Digital Programmes (online Talks via Zoom, virtual exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture), Orangery Hire (venue rental), Museum Gift Shop (online retail), and Publications (books, catalogues, memoirs). Revenue streams include admissions, venue hire, retail sales, donations, and workshop fees.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Fan Museum Trust Collection: The museum's primary collection of fans and fan-related artefacts held in trust
• Hélène Alexander Collection
• Alexander Room
• Adda Gallery

Products and services

• Museum Admissions & Ticketing Pre-booked admission tickets for general museum entry and museum-run events, available online through Venpos or purchased in person.
• Exhibitions (Temporary & Permanent Displays) Rotating programme of themed temporary exhibitions and permanent gallery displays exploring fan history, culture, and artistry.
• Fan Making Workshops Regular hands-on workshops where participants learn to craft fans under guidance of expert facilitators, held on selected Saturdays.
• Orangery Hire Venue hire service for private events in the Georgian replica Orangery with trompe l'œil murals, including afternoon teas, functions, and celebrations.
• Museum Gift Shop Online and in-person retail store offering fan-themed merchandise including bespoke jewellery, reference books, catalogues, stationery, and decorative ornaments, with international shipping.
• Group Visits & Guided Tours Organised visits for groups with optional guided tours of exhibitions and permanent displays, with special group pricing.
• Digital Programmes (Talking Fans) Online presentations and lectures delivered via Zoom covering the multi-layered history, culture, and artistry of fans.
• Curator in Residence Talks Free-to-attend programme of short talks and fan handling sessions delivered by museum curators on selected dates.
• Tea Ceremony and Fan Talk Cultural collaboration with Amitabha Garden offering immersive 2.5-hour experiences combining guided fan talks, traditional Chinese tea ceremonies, and museum exhibition tours at £75.00 per ticket.
• Fan Collections The UK's largest collection of fans, fan leaves, and fan-related artefacts spanning 1,000+ years of fan history and culture.

Quantifiable outcome

• Opened 1991, celebrating 30+ years of operation
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Art UKcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 February 2022The Fan Museum launched a new partnership with Art UK, the online showcase for art in every UK public collection. The project facilitates broader digital access to the Museum's outstanding collections and spotlights treasures on a platform which attracts a global audience of art, history and culture enthusiasts. Features over 70 fans from Hélène Alexander's private collection and The Fan Museum Trust Collection.
• Layers of LondonminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 September 2021Launch of 'Mapping London's Fan Makers' interactive map on the Layers of London website. The map features the names and locations of 200+ fan makers, fan painters and associate workers active in London in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Google Arts & CulturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVirtual fan exhibitions specifically curated for the Google Arts & Culture Platform. Exhibitions are themed around different periods or fan genres and combine dynamic texts with fine quality imagery designed to invite closer inspection.
• Amitabha GardenminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCultural collaboration bringing tea ceremony and fan talk experiences to The Fan Museum. Amitabha Garden provides traditional Chinese tea ceremony expertise for special cultural events.
• Royal Collection TrustcoreTechnology or IntegrationProvided loans of royal fans for the 'Monarchy: An Exhibition of Royal Fans' exhibition including iconic Queen Victoria photograph and fans from the Queen's personal collection.
• Worshipful Company of Fan MakerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLivery company providing loans for exhibitions including items from HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone's collection. Both The Queen and The Duchess of Gloucester are members. The company commissioned a Coronation Fan for HM The Queen.
• Art-LinkminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCompany that helped sponsor the royal visit event in May 2026.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves2 records

Others

• Fan Circle International: An international society of fan collectors and enthusiasts — the principal organized community for the Fan Museum's specialist audience, useful as a peer to gauge depth of niche demand and engagement.
• The Royal Collection Trust: Manages the British Royal Collection and lends royal fans to The Fan Museum's exhibitions — comparable as a heritage/curatorial organization with overlapping content (royal fans, decorative arts) though broader mandate and vastly larger scale.
• Worshipful Company of Fan Makers: A City of London livery company whose mission is promoting the craft of fan making — the closest sectoral peer to The Fan Museum in terms of subject-matter focus, although it operates as a charitable/livery body rather than a public museum; relevant given that HM The Queen and HRH The Duchess of Gloucester are members of both.

Broad incumbents

• Wallace Collection: A national museum in central London with significant decorative arts holdings (furniture, paintings, objets d'art) — comparable as a free-admission London heritage collection with shop, events, and grants funding, though with a much broader decorative arts focus than fan-specific.
• Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A): The UK's leading museum of decorative arts and design, holding many fan-related items — a broader incumbent whose collections overlap with fan history and craft; useful as a comparator for collections programming and curatorial depth, though orders of magnitude larger.

Regional players

• National Maritime Museum (Greenwich): Located in the same Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site as The Fan Museum — a much larger cultural heritage attraction whose visitor flow and tourism ecosystem directly affects The Fan Museum's catchment, and which offers reciprocal concessionary pricing.

Direct peers

• The Foundling Museum: A small London specialty museum in Bloomsbury dedicated to the history of the Foundling Hospital and 18th-century art — comparable in being a niche, independently funded cultural institution of similar size offering admission, gift shop, venue hire, and educational programming.
• Geffrye Museum (Museum of the Home predecessor): Listed separately to note its previous iteration — a small London specialty museum that has scaled into The Museum of the Home, providing a precedent for a small specialty museum expanding thematic scope and revenue.
• Sir John Soane's Museum: A small, independent specialty museum in central London housed in a Grade I listed townhouse, focused on a single collector's decorative arts and antiquities — directly comparable in scale, governance model (independent, no public funding), pricing structure (free/low-cost admission), and revenue diversification through events, shop, and donations.
• The Museum of the Home: A London museum focused on the history of home life and domestic interiors — comparable as a thematically focused decorative arts and cultural heritage museum relying on grants, donations, retail, and venue hire for revenue.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/TheFanMuseum
• Instagraminstagram.com/thefanmuseum
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-fan-museum-trust

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Fan Museum