Dickson House Cultural Centre

Kuwait City


A modest white building with blue trim, Beit Dickson was the home of former British political agent Colonel Harold Dickson and his wife, Violet, whose love of and contribution to Kuwait are documented in the various archives inside the house. Highlights include a collection of photographs taken during Kuwait’s British protectorate era, a replica museum of the Dicksons’ living quarters and an archive of Kuwaiti-British relations that dates from the 19th century to the 1960s when Kuwait became independent.

Anglo-Italian explorer Freya Stark spent most of March 1937 in the house and, while she adored Kuwait, she described the house as a ‘big ugly box’.