The room is a riot of colours and textures- dark throws and
carpets clash with fresh flowers and pastel china. Despite the late evening
sunshine, thick drapes throw the room into shadow, only illuminated by
flickering candles. You are distracted by the far off sound of voices and
coaches as the cat rolls over lazily in a sagging chair. On the mantle, a
picture of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation clashes incongruously with a portrait of Queen Victoria. Does this sound like the beginning of a Victorian romance novel?
Nope, it’s just one of the rooms in the Dennis Severs House in Spitalfields.
As we discovered later, photography isn't allowed. Since we already had these... |
Not to be overly critical but the experience may have been
slightly improved without the artistic interventions of small bits of paper
with slightly bizarre comments strewn about the place. ‘Do you get it yet?’ and
other offbeat comments by Severs himself printed on standard A4 looking paper.
It also didn’t really help that the house was really quite busy on our visit.
If happen to be very rich and feel like doing something special/romantic for a
history nerd, I would suggest organizing a private visit to the house. If your
love interest is a specialist in the Georgians, you will almost certainly get
laid after this romantic gesture. Just a suggestion.
Despite having to shuffle around the crowds, all visitors in
our party agreed afterwards that they had experienced something quite emotional
at some point during their visit. Maybe it was a quiet moment in the kitchen,
or pondering in front of the fireplace, but for any true history lover there is
something genuinely moving about just for a moment feeling connected to the
past. Let’s face it, we all just want to be time travellers and the Dennis
Severs House may be the closest we are going to get. For now anyway.
The Dennis Severs House is open on Monday evenings and
Sunday afternoons. For more details on visiting and booking, visit: http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/
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