Museum History

The Geffrye Museum opened in 1914. The London County Council had been persuaded by leading members of the Arts and Crafts movement to convert the 18^th century buildings into a museum related to the local furniture industry. Its purpose was to provide a reference collection of furniture of a 'fine standard of technical and artistic excellence' to educate and inspire the local workforce. Its initial collections of furniture and panelled rooms have been added to over the years and now are complemented by decorative art, paintings, personalia and archives relating to English domestic interiors. Since becoming an independent charitable trust in 1991, we have embarked on an ambitious programme of developments, including refurbishing all of the period rooms and building a major new extension, which opened in November 1998.

Period Rooms

The Geffrye Museum shows the changing style of English domestic interiors from 1600 to the present day. Its focus is on the urban, and particularly the London middle classes, a relatively prosperous sector of society, not as rich as the landed gentry and aristocracy, but wealthy enough to have a comfortable town house with good quality furniture and possessions. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, they would typically have been merchants, financiers, doctors and lawyers. By the 19^th century, as the middle classes expanded, they would have included people engaged in business and manufacturing, and in our own times we might be thinking also of accountants, architects and media people.

The museum's collections are presented in the context of period rooms. These are not the actual rooms of actual people. Their purpose is to show the changing styles and tastes of this urban middle class at different periods of history. They represent living rooms, known in the past as parlours, and later, drawing rooms, and show examples of the furniture, textiles and decorative styles which were current in a particular period. Clearly there were always a number of designs, colours and patterns to choose from, and these displays can only show a limited selection.

The period rooms are presented chronologically, starting in 1600 and ending at the present day. Each century is introduced with a short display showing the typical town house of the period, the type of furniture made at the time and the main changes in style which affected the appearance of the English domestic interior. In each of these four introductory displays you will also find a replica chair on which you are invited to sit. They get more comfortable with each century!