Living in the Past: The Geffrye Museum
Yesterday I made my first visit to the Geffrye Museum. Entrance is free.
One of the dozens of excellent specialist museums around town, the Geffrye is based in Hackney, about 10 minutes’ walk to the north of Shoreditch High Street. In a tightly built-up area that has enjoyed a more prosperous past and apparently brighter times to come, the museum is housed in a tranquil lawned square surrounded on three sides by historic two-storey terraced cottages along three sides. These were originally alms-houses for impoverished geriatrics, built in 1715 from a charitable endowment by Sir Robert Geffrye (d1704), a moderately successful ironmonger based in the City. Originally hailing from Cornwall he was a solid Anglican Tory, serving as an Alderman, Lord Mayor and numerous charitable institutions such as the Bethlehem Hostpital.
In 1910, the aged inmates of the alms houses were moved to lodgings in the countryside and their former homes became the Geffrye Museum. The museum specialises in the history of middle-class domestic interiors from 1600 to the present day. Specifically, it concentrates on the family living space, that is to say the parlour, the drawing-room, the living room, the lounge, the front room as it has variously been called down the years.
Room by room we are taken on a journey from the late Elizabethan period when everything happened in this living space: meals, business, relaxing, socialising. A time when Protestantism demanded modesty and practicality in furniture and decoration. As the middle-classes become both more numerous and successful as Britain grows as the leading world power, we are taken through the Georgian and Victorian period. We are shown how ostentation becomes more acceptable, how taste develops more rapidly, strongly influenced by far-flung Eastern styles in furniture, crockery and bric-a-brac; the taking of tea and coffee with one’s guests and the associated rituals. We learn about the Arts and Crafts reaction against Victorian decorative excess. An finally we meet 20th Century Modernism, the electric and electronic environment, and our journey ends with the home of the 1990s (scarily out-dated!).
The period rooms are all divided one from the next by a “link” room, which houses display cabinets of contemporary artefacts, crockery, cutlery, tea services, mirrors, clocks and so on with explanatory notes. One such had examples of contemporary magazines. I “lost” a good half hour reading early 18C copies of The Tatler, The Spectator, The London Gazette etc. This historian found the advertisements and government notices deeply absorbing.
In addition to the rooms, the Geffrye retains its original alms-house chapel, which you encounter about halfway through the exhibition. This is where the residents were obliged to attend church service. It also owns an impressive collection of paintings, most of which are appropriately hung in the period rooms themselves. The remainder are in two separate galleries. Most of them demonstrate interiors and fashion in some way.
Because of the structure of the building, the museum perforce is long and narrow. This helps, in a way, to reinforce the historical linearity of the displays and also allows the visitors to reacquaint themselves with their favourite bits on the return journey to the exit.
The museum has restored some of the almshouses to their original condition inside and out. These are open on selected days of the month, unfortunately not on the day of my visit. So I shall have to visit again soon. I recommend you do too.
Give yourself at least two hours to get the most from this delightful museum.
Front Room, that is a word I have not come across in years.
The Geffrye is a museum we like to visit from time to time. It has become surprisingly popular with the result that it is often crowded, especially at weekends. The long narrow configuration then makes circulating difficult. When you finally manage to push your way through to the end you have to push all the way back again in order to leave! There are often long queues for the cafe too.
Despite that, it’s still a good place to visit and the decor is modified from time to time. For example, in December the rooms are decorated as they would have been for Christmas.
I haven’t managed to see the lived-in state of the almshouse, either, but would very much like to. I find the almshouse idea very interesting. While it shows that the philanthropic principle has always been with us, I think I also in some cases see signs of competition between those who set them up along the lines of “I have built more and bigger almshouses than you!”
Chapel attendance once or even twice on Sunday was usually obligatory for the inmates of almshouses. How would that go down today, I wonder?
I can see what you mean if it were busy and why that could cause a major problem; very quiet for me. Perhaps they should have an exit at the end.
I think ostentatious philanthropy was a big thing in 18C and 19C, even for moderately wealthy types like Geffrye. In 20C this role has been taken over by – and consequently to a certain extent undermined – by the State. Although it is true to say that today certain wealthy people still shell out, but often through established charities, hence lower profile to them personally.
I had to go to chapel six days a week for six years, quite a small price to pay for a pretty decent education in retrospect, but a PITA at the time!
Though an atheist and opponent of religious interference in our daily life, I must admit I have asked myself whether, were I old and decrepit, I would accept a place in an almshouse or equivalent despite having to accept the church attendance clause. Needs must where the devil drives, I suppose.
An organization that continues the almshouse tradition, though with a modern slant, is the Huguenot Society, which still looks after descendants of the original families that first came to Britain. We visited the French Hospital Almshouses in Rochester and spoke to one of the inmates.
I didn’t even know this museum existed!
Where exactly is it?
See Web page (then visit it!).
Kingsland Road, Shoreditch. Abt 15 min walk from Old Street tube or half hour walk from Liverpool St (or hop on a bus). There’s a London overground station very close by but anything not Tube is a mystery to me.
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/visiting/map/