Company House

About this place

Company House preserves the former headquarters of Qatar's first oil company and tells the story of the workers who built the petroleum industry. Displays and filmed testimony follow the transition from a pearling and trading economy to oil production, including the labour, technology and new institutions involved. The modest historic building gives a human scale to a transformation that rapidly altered employment, settlement and public life throughout the country. A tourist can use the displays to connect individual objects with the larger changes that reshaped Qatar: pearling and maritime trade, family and domestic life, the arrival of oil, state formation and rapid urban growth. Allow time to read labels and compare materials, dates and provenances instead of viewing the collection only as decoration. Temporary exhibitions and access arrangements can change, so checking the venue before travelling is sensible.