Geffrye Museum

My friend Kate told me that she really enjoyed her visit to the Geffrye Museum so last weekend I got my friend Lisa to go check it out with me. The museum is free and they have a special exhibit on homelessness that I wanted to see. 

The Geffrye Museum began as a museum dedicated to the East End furniture trade but the focus has evolved into the history of the home. It is also known as the museum of the middle class because it features rooms from homes of the middle classes throughout different time periods. The museum is set in the former almshouses of the Ironmongers' company which was built in 1714. 

The museum shows how both the home itself has changed but also how the concept of a home and social behaviours of families have changed throughout the past 400 years. This Hall (1630) would have been used for dining, recreation, entertaining, business, and childcare. 

This drawing room from the 1830s had the most amazing carpet. It is based on a terraced house in Clapham, south London. This room would have been used mostly by female family members for leisurely reading, painting, or playing music. 

This fireplace is from a drawing room in 1890 when people wanted to express a cultivated and artistic style. Central heating and televisions have made it so fireplaces are no longer the focal point of the room as it was here. It is a shame because the tile around this fireplace is beautiful.

This 1965 living room is modelled after a typical town-house in Highgate, north London. As with most living rooms today it is set up for homework, watching television, eating, and entertaining. 

The Geffrye Museum has a display on homelessness in the Victorian Era right now until mid-July. The exhibit was pretty good but was a lot smaller than I expected. I was also disappointed that there wasn't more information and photos about workhouses.

The exhibit said that children were often depicted in artwork and photographs because people were much more sympathetic toward homeless children than adults. 

"The Pinch of Poverty" by Thomas Benjamin Kennington in 1891

Below is a photo from meal time at a workhouse in 1900. Men and women were separated, even if they were from the same family. 

This wooden doll is dressed like an elderly workhouse inmate and was given to a member of the workhouse staff as a gift. 

Wooden boxes like these were provided by the Salvation Army as a bed. After crawling in one myself I can say that it was really uncomfortable and terribly small. The exhibit said that since these boxes would be set up in groups it became a very social atmosphere as you can see from the photo in the background. 

There were several maps throughout the exhibit showing where workhouses and hostels for the homeless were located throughout London. Two of those hostels are still in use today, serving as a reminder that homelessness is still prevalent today.