At Home in London, 1600-1800
At Home in London, 1600 – 1800:
New 17th and 18th century galleries opened on 14 November 2006
A major programme of refurbishment has reached completion and over half of the Geffrye’s galleries have re-opened to the public, completely re-thought and re-presented. The At Home project includes four brand new period rooms, dated 1630, 1695, 1745 and 1790, a series of new interpretive galleries, two new audio guides and a specially devised education and events programme.
This is a significant development, as the old displays had been largely unchanged for nearly 50 years and museum practice, scholarship and society have moved on considerably. “Opportunities to completely overhaul our permanent displays are relatively rare”, says the museum’s director, David Dewing. “In 1998, as part of our Branson Coates-designed extension, we had the good fortune to be able to create new 20th century period rooms, and the 19th century period rooms were refreshed in 1995. But a serious re-think of the early displays has not been possible until now”, says Dewing.
Dewing highlights both the importance and the sensitivity of the project: “The Geffrye’s challenge has been to ensure that these displays are not simply evocative and, occasionally, nostalgic; they must accurately represent the changing homes of London’s middle classes. This has only been achieved after years of intensive research. We recognise that history changes as evidence is discovered, knowledge is enhanced and fresh interpretations are reached; the new displays have been conceived for an audience which is diverse, demanding, engaged and questioning.”
Several important objects have been acquired for the At Home project, including a set of six oak ‘joint’ stools from about 1620, the only set of its type in a publicly accessible collection. Another exciting addition to the collection is a pair of walnut chairs dating from around 1725. These are the only known chairs to bear a label from one of the workshops in the St Paul’s Churchyard area, which was the main centre for the furniture trades in the late-17th and early-18th centuries. The Old and Ody label makes them very significant in terms of furniture history and considerably enhances the standing of the museum's collection. Several key acquisitions of domestic technology, ephemera and books have also been made, including The New London Family Cook, a recipe book from 1807 with information on household management which was directed at the London market. It includes listings of London trades people and markets as well as domestic cleaning advice.
The Geffrye is well known for its chronological series of period rooms, which span from 1600 to 2000. This contextual approach is both compelling and accessible; it enables visitors of all ages and interests to engage with the museum’s collections in an intimate and direct way. Visitors often remark that the period rooms enable them to “walk through time”, glimpsing the changing homes of Londoners over 400 years, and that they “bring history to life”.
The interiors and domestic lives of the urban middle classes have had comparatively little scholarly attention but the Geffrye has made this its primary focus; the refurbished galleries reflect recent ideas and observations on this area of our cultural history. As Dewing observes “there is much to discover about the urban middle classes, how they lived, how their tastes and aspirations were formed, how they expressed their identity through the rooms they furnished. They rose from being a relatively tiny group in society in the seventeenth century to the dominant group today. They have been an increasingly powerful and influential force and in many ways they are closer to what we mean by ‘English’ than the royalty and aristocracy.”
Detailed Information
Background to the research
Our approach in creating these new displays has been to start with the evidence. We have combed through original material in the form of inventories, contemporary accounts and diaries, and we have studied recently published historical research of relevance. This work coincided with our special exhibition in 2003 and ‘04, Home and Garden, in which we examined representations of the middle classes in paintings and drawings from 1675 to 1914 (see Notes to Editors, below). We have worked with a number of specialist historians advising on, for example, domestic architecture, paint finishes, textiles and plasterwork. Using all of this information we gradually arrived at decisions on the key dates for our new period rooms, the architectural ‘shells’ of which have been based on existing examples wherever possible. The dates we have chosen for the new period rooms (1630, 1695, 1745 and 1790) allow us to demonstrate significant shifts in middle-class domestic conditions and behaviours, in notions of propriety and good taste, and in the choices of materials, decorative finishes and styles which were available and affordable to the middle classes.
Room 1, 1630
A hall in a timber-framed house in the City of London
Inventories indicate that the hall was the main living space at this time, used for daily household activities such as dining, leisure (gaming, reading and music-making), receiving guests and probably some aspects of work. The walls are panelled from floor to ceiling in new oak, lightly stained and polished. The brick-lined fireplace has andirons and a fireback suitable for a log fire. The ceiling is plastered, with a lime-wash finish. The room includes two leaded casement windows.
The choice of furniture, all original to the period, is based on information from inventories and other accounts. Replica curtains are made from green ‘saye’, a fine woollen cloth. Floorboards are covered with a woven rush mat. The main furnishings, all of oak, include a court cupboard inlaid with fruitwood; a rare set of joined (or ‘joint’) stools; a draw-leaf table and an armchair (or ‘great chair’). Examples of this type of house are now rare; Staple’s Inn in Holborn provides a good reference as does the Merchant’s House in Marlborough.
Room 2, 1695
A parlour in a post-Fire-of-London house
The parlour at this time was often the front room on the first floor, usually occupying the full width of the house, with three sash windows looking onto the street. Rooms were generally panelled from floor to ceiling and often painted in a single colour, in this case, a stone colour. The Geffrye’s layout includes a fireplace with a marble surround and hearth, furnished with a basket grate suitable for a coal fire. The floor consists of plain boards with no covering.
The parlour was used for receiving visitors, which often involved serving food and drink, but was also an important space for daily household activity. The Geffrye’s room reflects these different functions. Inventories of this period mark the introduction of the caned chair and writing desks also appear in middle-class households of the time, in line with the rise of literacy. Other new types of furniture and decorative arts become increasingly common in domestic interiors: mirrors, clocks (a reflection of the increasing importance of time-keeping), drinking glasses, china and delftware. The main furnishings in the Geffrye’s period room include: a walnut-veneered fall-front desk on chest, by John Guilbaud, a London maker, c1695; an oval gate-leg table, c1685; a set of seven walnut caned chairs, c1690; a mirror with olive wood veneer c1690; replica curtains of green wool, called ‘camlet’, and a selection of prints. Examples of this type of house survive in Denmark Street, Soho.
Room 3, 1745
A parlour in a mid-18th century house
The parlour continued to be the main living space, the focus for daily activities. This room shows the evidence of the influence of 'politeness' as an appropriate mode of behaviour for the middle classes. This advocated restraint over opulent display. The acquisition of necessary ‘social accomplishments’ became increasingly important. Being able to take tea correctly, sustain polite conversation, play card games competently and enjoy music were seen as valuable, indeed necessary, social skills.
Key stylistic shifts are evidenced in the furniture and decoration of the room. These include the taste for flatter panelling, here painted a sage green colour. The fireplace has a marble surround and hearth. The room includes the following furnishings: a matching set of four walnut, India-back side chairs, c1735; a mahogany tripod table, c1735; a blue japanned corner cupboard, c1740; an ebonised bracket clock, c1735; replica curtains of crimson moiré (wool a with ‘watered’ or waved pattern, called ‘marine’ at the time) and a portrait of a woman by Arthur Devis, 1742. Examples of this type of house survive in Spitalfields and Soho.
Room 4, 1790
A parlour at the end of the 18th century
Although the same basic architectural shell as the preceding room, the treatment of the walls in this space has changed. They are noticeably smoother and a taste for ‘neater’, cleaner and lighter effects is evident. The scheme includes a plaster frieze taken from a house in Islington. Instead of panelling, the walls are papered above the dado, in a pearly grey ground with floral pattern and a neo-classical border, the design of which was based on fragments, probably dating from the 1780s, and reproduced using block printing by hand. A replica cut-pile carpet, known as Wilton, has a pale cream ground and a sprigs and stripes design of the 1790s covers most of the floor; replica ‘festoon’ curtains are of white cotton with a ‘dimity’ print in the weave and a green fringe. The fireplace has a wooden surround with a cast-iron fitted hob grate.
As well as being the setting for the usual daily activities, the parlour would also be used for informal evening entertaining such as card parties, at which punch or other light refreshments would be served. Furniture, now often with flatter decorative surfaces, includes a bureau with a sloping top for writing c1780; card table, c1780; Pembroke table, c1780; a set of mahogany carved back chairs, based on a pattern by Thomas Chippendale (with horsehair seats), c1770; a pier glass, c1780 and a selection of paintings and prints. Examples of this type of house survive in Goodge Street and Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1) For further information and images please contact Ruth Somerville, Press Officer, on 020 7739 9893 or rsomerville@geffrye-museum.org.uk
2) The At Home in London project has been generously supported by The National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Support has also been received from the DCMS/Wolfson Fund and the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) via the Renaissance in the Regions initiative through the London Museums’ Hub. The Art Fund, the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The Friends of the Geffrye have provided vital support for the purchase of objects. Period paint colours have been supplied by The Little Greene Paint Company whose ‘history at home’ initiative aims to bring accurate, historic paint colours to the public.
3) The museum’s guidebook will be re-written to reflect the new displays; publication is scheduled for early 2007.
4) Forthcoming Special Exhibition
HOME AND GARDEN
PART 3 (1914-1960): 20 February – 24 June 2007
PART 4 (1960-present): 16 October 2007 – 4 February 2008
This major exhibition will explore the representation of urban domestic interiors and gardens in paintings during the twentieth century. It will pick up where the Geffrye’s acclaimed exhibitions of the same name, which covered the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, left off. Again, the focus will be on the homes of the middle classes rather than those of Royalty or the aristocracy. It will bring together pieces from collections across the UK to be shown not simply as works of art, but interpreted as historical documents with detailed evidence for understanding the nature of middle-class domestic interiors and gardens. Works by both famous artists, including Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, Carel Weight, Paul Nash and Patrick Caulfield, and those who are less well-known, such as John Pearce and Stuart Pearson Wright, will be displayed in two groups of about 40 paintings and drawings. Accompanied by a full-colour catalogue.
6) The Geffrye Museum presents the quintessential style of English urban middle-class interiors from 1600 to the present day through a chronological sequence of period rooms. The museum is set in the former almshouses of the Ironmongers' Company, elegant 18th century buildings surrounded by tranquil gardens, including an award-winning walled herb garden and a series of period gardens in Shoreditch, East London.
7) Admission: FREE
Address: 136 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8EA
Tel No: 020 7739 9893
Web Address: www.geffrye-museum.org.uk
Email Address: info@geffrye-museum.org.uk
Opening Hours: Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun and Bank Holiday Mons 12 - 5pm
Travel: Buses: 149, 242, 243,67, 394
Tube: Liverpool St, then bus 149 or 242/Old St (exit 2), then bus 243
15 March 2007
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