Geffrye Museum

I really enjoyed my visit to the Geffrye Museum.
You can’t miss it from Hoxton station (although you do have to walk right round the corner to the entrance) with the gardens visible from the platform.
The main museum itself is free with special exhibits at a nominal charge on the bottom floor.
It’s like nosing around your friends/​coworkers/​neighbors house — I wouldn’t choose that lamp — oh look at that great fathers clock. But of course rooms set in different eras.
There are a few interactive element which are interesting.
There’s also the gardens which are really very well laid out, maintained and very well signed.
A perfect alternative to some of the bigger and much busier suburban museums.
*top tip. if you want to eat in the café book ahead — no take away coffee offered. Bring some pennies for the gift shop.

Great small museum on Kingsland Road in an old almshouse. It’s theme is decorative arts in English home life through the centuries. It has a wonderful garden in the back and a nice tea room.

Hidden behind massive walls, and next to a peaceful garden, the Geffrye has a lot going for it. Not too big or too small, it makes for an hour very well spent. Also, it’s in Hackney, which means that few people make the trek, and you can expect to take your time, and read the wall text in silence. Unless of course, you’re me, and find yourself stranded in line the one day all the neighbourhood’s parents chose to bring the little family along. Arg.
You can expect a lovely succession of interiors from the 17^th century onwards, along with explanations and hypothetical schedules the house’s families would have followed. Every two interiors or so you’ll get a little corner focusing on specific objects, which you can interact with. Their various audio booth are inventive (a house-​master describing his day, or a selection of music from the time period) but not necessarily practical. The focus on a time period’s changing economy, and, of course, the repercussions on social classes are fascinating and a great insight into British society. A member of their staff invited us to an interactive game through which people discovered the history of London, it sounded great but we were quite shy, if that’s your thing, stay put. Tidbit: on your right, on the windowsill, are large fan-​like panels for you to consult: they highlight the use and origins of some items in the room.

My favourite museum in Hackney — it’s based in an old almshouse and takes you through the history of home interiors, from the 17^th century to now. It gives a lovely feeling that you are nosying into people’s homes, in a time travel-​like way. It’s really worth seeing the restored almshouse rooms too, one from the 1780s and one from the 1880s, lit with gaslight. Check the website tho cos these aren’t always open. The café is excellent, and you can lounge in the reading room/​gallery or catch the sun in the garden out back.

This little museum is absolutely different from the rest of London’s museums. Firstly its never as packed and its cosy feeling makes you feel like you in a different part of England.
If you are into interior design or you want to learn a bit more about history in a more interactive way are going to love this little gem. Each room is presenting a piece of history from the 1700’s right through to the 2000’s
Don’t forget to visit the back gardens, each of them displays a different period like the rooms.
The best time to visit is on December were they decorate all the rooms based on the traditions of the different periods.

Geffrye Museum, ou la petite perle culturelle excentrée.
Avide de découvrir l’évolution des pièces à vivre en Angleterre depuis 1600 à quasiment nos jours ?
Envie d’une sortie gratuite culturelle, botanique et artistique avec vos enfants ?
Quand on passé le portail extérieur du musée, on a déjà l’impression de voyager dans le temps et l’espace. Il est aménagé dans une bâtisse qui tout d’anglais ! (un ancien hospice, je crois)
Vous découvrirez les conditions de vie des anglais au fur et à mesure des siècles.
C’est très intéressant et… Intéractif !
Le public visé est les familles. Donc le vocabulaire est simple et des questions aux réponses souvent insolites sont posées tout au long du parcours,
Vous pouvez aussi tester les sièges de chaque période, toucher des objets, manipuler des tissus et même entendre les voix anglaises d’autrefois via des systèmes audio !
C’est le type de musée que j’adore: ludique mais très instructif.
Et ce n’est pas tout ! Il y a un jardin aromatique à l’arrière qui mérite le coup d’œil. Il est séparé en petites parties qui représentent chacune un siècle. Car après avoir l’évolution des intérieurs, voici l’évolution aromatique des extérieurs !
Il y a beaucoup de bancs, donc c’est l’idéal quand il fait beau: être entourée d’odeurs agréables et oublient qu’on est dans une capitale… Et puis, c’est toujours sympa de voir qu’on reconnaît les plantes alors que les noms sont différents.
Il y a un restaurant/​salon de thé, pas testé mais donc les baies vitrées donnent sur le jardin aromatique.
Petite note; Accès PMR et poussettes absolument partout.
Moyenne note: Il a plein d’activités artistiques pour les enfants, ainsi qu’une bibliothèque, et aussi pour les adultes.
Grosse note: La station de métro Hoxton est à deux pas du musée. Et quand je dis à deux pas, les fenêtres donnent même sur une partie du jardin aromatique (on n’entend pas le métro une fois dans le jardin).

I’ve lived a stones throw from this museum for the last 10 years and have alway thought to myself that I really must make the effort to do something cultural and walk round it one day.
To be honest, I’ve always been slightly put off by the droves of middle class families walking through the gates with perfectly turned out children who still address their parents as «mummy» and «daddy» when they’re 12 years old.
However, a few weeks back, I was meeting up with a friend in Shoreditch and being early, thought I’d take the plunge and pop in for a mooch about (truth be told, it was actually pouring with rain and I needed to use the loo somewhere that didn’t have a sign stating «toilets are only for paying customers»!)
However, once inside and having carefully negotiated my way through the cunningly situated gift shop en route to earlier mentioned facilities, I found myself in a number of different sitting rooms and parlours from different time periods.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no stranger to admiring art installations and appreciating their intent, it’s just that I have a very short attention span and get bored very quickly but by the time I arrived at the 1980’s room (a decade very close to my own heart) I realised that I was now not only late to meet my friend but if I didn’t find the facilities soon, there may be good reason to use the Laura Ashley themed bucket standing in the corner of the 80’s kitchen…
On a serious note though, the place here has an amazing and humble history. It’s interesting, has lots to look at — it’s free for goodness sake (even the use of the loos, which are very clean and nice) I didn’t have time to try the pleasant looking café but there were plenty of middle class families smiling whilst munching on what presumably was splendid carrot cake and herbal tea, so I don’t doubt the fare there is as good as its surroundings.

What a great find! We visited here following a recommendation on Emerald Street to see the Christmas Past exhibit — each room decorated according to how a typical middle class British family would have decorated/​celebrated. Donation based, you can choose how much your visit will cost.
You can spend as much or as little time walking through each room reading through all the information —
For lovers of history or design, it’s a great way to spend an afternoon wandering about and stopping for a tea/​bite at the café near the gift shoot. Towards the middle of the exhibit there is also a reading room, including an offshoot with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the estate — what looked like a nice way to spend a quiet afternoon and escape the bustle of kingsway. So glad we stopped over following a necessary Sunday excursion to the Columbia flower market.

one of the things i love best is houses, and how people choose to decorate their houses. i also adore history, and studied it to degree level at university. mix history + house interiors and you get one happy girl. add in the fact that it’s free to view and you get one even happier (scottish) girl. hey, the stereotype that we’re stingy has some basis in reality!
this museum is so great. it’s a little out of the way if you’re not intending being in this area anyway (but make a day of it… east london is the perfect sunday hang out), and it is small, so it won’t take you long to go around, but it’s so good. a collection of rooms which aim to show how the UK middle classes decorated their halls/​parlours throughout the ages. it’s all in a beautiful almshouse which used to be used to house the elderly poor. it’s so fascinating seeing how décor has changed over time, and you definitely get a good chuckle out of seeing the room-​styles that were in fashion in the not-​so-​distance past (how did our parents EVER think that looked good?!)
there is also a great museum shop, a lovely looking café, and beautiful gardens which would be just lovely on a sunny day. despite it not being an obvious museum to take kids to, the staff here have really made the effort to make it as kid friendly as possible with a «child trail» throughout offering fun facts and then an interactive kiddies area beside the café, with a staffed kiddy-​helper on hand to help encourage the fun.

With only one day left to view the herb garden until next april, and i won’t be here next april, i knew i had to get there the next day! After reading all these great reviews and having such a high expectation of this museum, i was a bit… disappointed. It was not that hard to find, just turn right when you exit Hoxton station and turn right again at the end of the street, when you reach the main street. I actually asked someone since I wasn’t sure which direction it was when I was on the main street, though their ads are literally everywhere, but with just no directions. The museum is a long long building, with many rooms. There is also a sort of porch that has windows (it’s an inside porch) where you can read and stuff, there are painting along the museum at certain parts, and I guess each «room» is portraying a specific year of old london. I looked, took pics and moved on. I was confused on how to get into the herb garden… you have to go back to where you entered and leave. the building. Walk straight down, like you are heading to the main street, then turn right before you actually make it. There’s a sign! It’s quite creepy, i think there are tombs when you enter the garden. I didn’t have the heart to really stay and look, just walked right past and hurried to the garden. It was just okay, the bonsai trees were the most interesting, there were a lot of plants, pretty much it. I wouldn’t go outta my way here unless you really want to see old rooms in life. It’s not like you can sit in those old rooms… not my cup of tea eh?
*also, there is a gift shop and a cafeteria in there.

Bisi Unilocal London Tour Three
I was in Shoreditch to pitch a potential client, when I passed by probably my favourite museum when I was a kid.
I can still remember that sunny afternoon when my class 4B of Shacklewell Lane Primary School, filed into the museum, holding the hands of our chosen friend and marvelled at that beautiful old building, set in elegantly manicured gardens. I felt so lucky just to be there.
What made it so different from the other school trip Museums I had endured, was the way it transported you back in time via lots of rooms from different time periods. It was just like being there.
This reality was reinforced by the excellent museum guide we had assigned to us, who didn’t just blurt out endless historical facts, but involved us by asking what we did and comparing it, with what would have happened in the past.
I am pretty sure that my curiousity for all things history and museums definitely stems from that one visit.
If you want to experience what I did, walk through the period gardens and around the rooms, then make your way over to Special Exhibitions. My favourite, At Home in Japan — Beyond the Minimal House, is on until 29^th August.
You get to view a collection of images and objects and through them learn about the lives and living arrangements of a modern day Japanese homes, along with the traditions that exist within them.
I defy you not to be captivated by it.
Exhibition admission: £5.00
Concessions: £3.00 and under 16s free

Not bad and not that great, I was slightly disappointed having to leave the museum with little knowledge about the houses in London. The museum is divided into 11 rooms with each exhibiting interiors and furnishing through the centuries. My favorite parts of the museum was the chapel, reading room and the garden area.

A few minutes from our home this tranquil hideaway has been a favourite spot for escaping the bustle of Shoreditch life. Anyway, great little museum with good café and shop, lovely gardens and friendly staff.
The star of the show is the range of activities for kids — all free — a staple of our plans for school holidays — based on themes from the museum — today we are busy decorating Japanese noodle bowls and clay chopstick holders. If you have kids this really is a must visit place

Perhaps not as spectacular or as instantly recognizable as the National Portrait Gallery or the Tate Modern, but the Geffrye is good at what it does. It’s a museum recording and celebrating London interior design and decoration through the ages. With displays from the 1700’s right through to the 2000’s, it’s a neat look at the evolution of the typical English home.
You’ll be hard pressed to spend more than an hour or two here and I recommend moving on if there are a school-​load of students. It can get very loud.
Do spend the £2 for the audio guide. It’s well worth getting the additional background and detail that isn’t mentioned on the display captions or the various postings.
I’m glad I went, but I don’t know that this is the sort of place you do a second time.

I don’t know what took me so long to go here. But I had seriously been meaning to go for the entire 2 years i have lived here.
From the outside you can’t really tell how big it is inside. Converted from old Almshouses they have knocked down all the walls and turned them into one long building with different «exhibits» showing a typical living room for a London house through out the centuries.
If you are into design at all then I would really suggest this museum. I think my favorite part was the section with living rooms from the 21^st century. The 70’s house looked JUST like my aunts place today! :p
I think they even have some kind of classes for adults, but don’t quote me on that! DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT! quote me on the aunt thing.

I’m going to skip saying too much about the actual museum itself here, as for me, this place is all about the gardens and life saving school holiday activities. For such a niche museum this place has the most amazing free kids workshops perhaps in the whole of Hackney.
They cater for all age groups all day long, it’s nuts really. I have dragged so many weird and wonderful ‘masterpieces’ back from here. It’s always educational and keeps the kids pretty wrapped for hours.
I have been taking the kids I nanny here for a long time and it deserves a massive thumbs up. A total 6 week holiday life jacket…

Existe o local pub, a local grocery shop, local newspaper agent… Esse eu considero meu local museum. Está fora da rota turística e ao contrário da maioria dos museus, esse tem um tamanho pequeno/​médio, o que não causa exaustão ao final da visita. O museu é sobre a evolução da decoração e moradia na Inglaterra (mais especificamente Londres) desde 1600 aos dias de hoje. A mostra consiste em reproduções das salas de estar de casas de famílias de classe média. Além disso, tem explicações sobre a evolução da decoração (introdução do carpete, papel de parede, mesa de jogos, etc) e a relação disso com a vida cotidiana de cada período. O museu também dispõe de um jardim que abre no verão. A entrada é gratuita, o café parece ser bom e a lojinha é bacana. É um ótimo passeio, mesmo se o dia estiver bonito, porque no final ainda sobra tempo e energia para fazer outra coisa.

I love this museum converted from old almshouses originally set up as a charity to house poor elderly people. The museum specialised in interiors and home design through the centuries.
The exhibits are displayed in room settings so you can see how design has evolved to reflect changes in ideas and technology. The museum also has extensive gardens to the front, sides and back. One garden is an attractive walled herb garden with shaded seating and a fountain bubbling away.
Currently there is an interesting exhibition by a photographer who took photos of all the lounges in his block. It’s intimate but interesting to see how people make their flat their home. Finally there is an attractive gift shop selling books, postcards and even ceramic plates from one of London coolest desgn teams (in my humble opinion) People will
always need plates.

Since «planned engineering works» put the kabosh on my Easter weekend plans, I was very happy that the Geffrye was open on Easter Sunday.
It’s a great little voyeuristic museum showing the living rooms of the middling classes. Starting in the 1600s, nearly every era is represented except the 40’s – hmm, no surprise there.
Currently (until 31 August 2009), there’s an exhibit called Ethelburgha Tower. Photographer Mark Cowper took a photo of the living room of every apartment in the Battersea tower block he lives in.
Forty six of the photos are on display. This is true voyeurism, and I love it. It’s the same room over and over again, but completely different. Unlike the life-​sized dioramas upstairs, we get to see real decour by real Londoners, not just the middling classes. Apparently, Cowper did not even allow the residents to clean their rooms before he took the photos.

This a museum for all interior design buffs. The museum takes you through Britain’s changing interiors from the 1700s right up to the present day. You start at the beginning and literally walk the museums length (so essentially going from the past to the future!).
I found the way in which each room was laid-​out, really interesting. The fact you are walking through each little time zone to end up in the present day was quite nice too, feels like you’re time traveling a bit!
I’d say, unless you are really interested in British history and /​or interior design then this might bore you a little. These aren’t my preferred subjects but I did enjoy myself. If you don’t want to spend ages reading each room explanation then you can walk through this place pretty quickly.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this place but if you’re around the east and fancy it, then you should check it out. It’s a gorgeous little building just beyond the hubbub of Hoxton and a little bit of calm amongst the bustle…

The ultimate museum for the middles classes! The Geffrye Museum exhibits the changing styles of the English Domestic interior from the last 400 years. How twee?! Basically it’s a great chance to go gawp at posh peoples living rooms and wish you had the cash to buy an intricate mirror the size of your room and sumptuous velvet curtains.
The best thing about this museum are the award winning gardens. They have benches, and a beautifully kept lawn so when Hoxton Square is crawling with people this is a welcome respite — somewhere to eat your sarnies in peace. Nice in the summer, I’d recommend a visit to go see how the other side live!

I haven’t been to this place for years, and I’ve been meaning to go back for ages! Somehow I always seem to end up walking past just as it closes at 5pm. Well, finally made it and glad I did.
Though not in a pretty area, the museum grounds are lovely. There’s open lawns and trees at the front, and a garden, including herb garden, at the back. This is closed during the winter, but can be seen through windows. The museum itself is a set of converted alms houses. As such the main part of the museum is a long line of rooms with household interiors from various periods from the 1600’s. There’s also displays of items to go with these, and sometimes interactive displays, such as material samples that you can feel. Halfway down the line you also come into what was the chapel for the almshouses (apparently attendance twice a day was compulsory).
Down at the end there’s a whole modern wing housing a café and the modern interior displays. It’s quite a contrast to the older parts of the museum, but fitting in a museum about building interiors that the building should also display different periods! The café has some amazing light fittings and lovely airy windows over the gardens.
I only made a quick visit, but there’s lots of stuff to read everywhere. Good labelling The museum also seems to encourage further study. There’s a reading room and library with books available (gardening, interiors, cooking, anything vaguely relevant!). In the modern wing there’s a room with recent design magazines available to read.
Only a small museum, but definitely worth a visit.

Un musée inintéressant
Un musée sur l’histoire de l’intérieur anglais à travers les ages mélangeant un salon aristocratique, un loft yuppie, enfin tout ce qui concerne l’habitat populaire. Une perte de temps. Gratuit.