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Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA; Tel: 020 7739 9893
The Historic Almshouses/Buildings
The museum is set in 18th century almshouses, today grade 1 listed buildings. Built in 1714 by the Ironmongers' Company with a bequest from Sir Robert Geffrye, twice Master of the Company and former Lord Mayor of London, the almshouses provided shelter for around fifty pensioners for almost two hundred years.
By the early 20th century, Shoreditch had become one of the most overcrowded and unsavoury parts of London, and the Company decided to sell the property in order to relocate the almshouses to a healthier area.
Following a petition to prevent the demolition of the almshouses, mainly to provide a public open space in such a densely populated area of London, the almshouses were converted to a museum.
One of the almshouses has been restored and was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London in October 2002. It still has most of its internal joinery intact, including its staircase, upper floors, closets and panelling. Two rooms have been furnished to show the living conditions of pensioners in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Visitors are able to compare the sparse furnishings and few personal possessions of the generally poor inmates of the 18th century with the rather more comfortable surroundings of the better-off pensioners of the late 19th century. The two remaining rooms and the basement contain displays on the history of the almshouses and on the kind of people who lived there, in the context of philanthropic and social housing in East London.
In 2005 the Geffrye published A History of the Geffrye Almshouses by Dr Kathy Haslam which is available from the museum shop.
The museum houses a major new extension, which opened in November 1998.
The museum is now equipped with new galleries for 20th century displays and temporary exhibitions, expanded education facilities, a Design Centre for contemporary design and craft, and a new restaurant and shop.
