Rock stars and museum bosses unite to save “magical kingdom” built by imaginative pensioner in social housing

In the dead of night - or perhaps it was while everyone was out - the old man would set to work. Either way, Gerard Dalton, or Gerry, as he was known to neighbours, busied himself with building a secret world nestled within his social housing complex on the banks of the Grand Union Canal.

The 83-year-old Irish Catholic immigrant spent years building intricate replicas of Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth House, Buckingham Palace and more, along with hundreds of miniature concrete models of royal, military and popular history’s great and good.

Elizabeth I, Jonathan Swift and Hercules are among those who feature within the “magical kingdom” among the 350 sculptures, 170 wall mounts and a 50 metre-long mural.

However, following his death last month, artists, gallery and museum bosses and rock stars have united with Gerry’s neighbours in a campaign to save what has become known as ‘Gerry’s Pompeii’. They have become galvanized by the unique story of one man's obsession and imagination as well as the community he quietly inspired around him.

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, the former chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Charles Robert Saumarez Smith CBE, Louis Platman, curator at the Geffrye Museum of the Home, the artist Richard Wentworth CBE and the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA) have all backed calls to protect and preserve Gerry’s work as a museum.

Every spare wall and square metre of his social housing and garden in Westbourne Park, west London, is covered with his handmade treasures. To this day, no one knows when he managed to build such vast statues.

However this comes as Genesis, the housing association responsible for the property in Westbourne Park, west London, have issued notice for the property to be cleared and returned to their care by October 31.

Gerry’s Pompeii has been named as such after Gerry - who saw himself as a gardner as opposed to an artist - remarked to his neighbour, Roc Sandford, 61, the millionaire owner of the tiny Hebridean isle of Gometra: “I made Hampton Court Palace with a hammer and chisel and saw, that’s all the tools I had, that took quite a while, worked into the night...One thing is it kept me off the streets.

“They’ll be astonished what they’ll find in my garden in years to come.  It’ll be like Pompeii or something – Gerry’s Pompeii."

Since Gerry’s death Sasha Galitzine, a freelance curator and voluntary custodian of Gerry's Pompeii, has been running free tours for members of the public in a bid to garner support for the project.

Ms Galitzine is now working with Gerry’s sister, Kitty, his nephew, John, and his niece, Marilyn, to save his home and transform it into a museum with the help of a Just Giving campaign.

She has given tours to around 1,000 people, including Jarvis Cocker, who lent his support for the project after leaving a message in the visitor’s book saying: “A very important place! There is no other environment of this size and quality in the U.K."

Sir Charles Robert Saumarez Smith CBE has deemed it “a folk-version of the National Portrait Gallery”, “a hugely important task to preserve this remarkable home which is at once a vital piece of local history” and “a monumental artwork”.

Meanwhile the PMSA have written a public letter of support to protect “this irreplaceable heritage asset” and the Gerald Dalton collection “for the enjoyment of many generations to come”.

"Everyone I have shared 'Gerry's Pompeii' with over the last month has been completely overwhelmed and often deeply moved by walking around this brilliant man's beautiful imagination,” Ms Galitzine told The Telegraph.

“Museum curators, artists, writers, members of the local community and Gerry's friends have all encountered one another on this adventure.

“Strangers longing to have known him having left with the feeling of knowing him intimately through his work. Gerry was loved by all his whole road, every morning at 5.30am you would hear him sweeping the road and people's doorsteps.

“He took great pride and attention in his neighbourhood, keeping it pristine like the inside of his house. He would send thoughtful postcards to 'the smiling girls at number 24' or 'the kind man at number 11' and flowers when they were ill.

“He brought together the neighbourhood whilst alive and now is bringing even more people together as part of his precious legacy. If so many have been inspired in a month think what his world could do if it was preserved as a house museum.”

Gerry moved to London in 1959 becoming first a postal porter at Paddington station then a factory and café worker before busying himself with these works to “stop himself from being on the streets” and bored following his retirement.

Ms Galitzine said that “we must fight to save his masterpiece” and ready-made museum - “a magical kingdom fashioned using only his hands and pension and aiming to please no one but himself”.

“The final layer of wizardry is that no one even saw him produce any of it, all at night, all in secret...thank you Gerry."

The Telegraph has contacted Notting Hill Genesis and Westminster Council for comment.