"Authenticity" is a curious thing. A Holy Grail of house museums, but an elusive quality. Some house museums take a very prescriptive, purist approach to their collection, and others end up being a random selection of flat irons, old cricket team photos, and dusty snake skins. Dennis Severs' House in Spitalfields is a unique house that subverts conventional museums, yet creates a sense of domesticity that is remarkable. Created by Dennis Severs over an extended period, he sought to create "still life drama" that taxed the viewers' imagination and immersed them in a total experience.
It lives in an 18th Century townhouse in a quiet street in Spitalfields, in the inner East End. We are met at the door and given a brief intro. Turn phones to silent; no photos; no touching; the tour proceeds in silence; the house is lit only by candles - don't set yourself on fire. The conceit behind the experience is that the house is that it is lived in by a family of Huguenot silk weavers - the Jervis family; each room is set as though the occupants have just stepped out. We hear them, but never quite see. Thus we proceed, in silence, through rooms from basement to attic, through set pieces - kitchen, where a pudding is in preparation and a loaf partly sliced; parlours for both the men and the women of the house, where both genteel and riotous behaviour is underway. Bedrooms for the family, servants, and, at the very top, lodgers - taken in when the family has fallen on hard times.
The rooms are a series of sets with detailed, intricate art direction. As well, each room has a distinct soundtrack - of muffled voices, pets, passing foot and horse traffic, clocks. Most unusual and involving is the "olfactory" landscape - the smells of cooking, fires, mould, damp, and dust, that change from room to room.
I loved this place. The soft candlelight seems gloomy at first, but our eyes soon adapted. We visited at twilight, and the soft, gentle dusk filtering in the windows was entrancing. The total experience was unlike any house museum I've visited before. The sense of habitation is palpable. Authentic? I can't say. Effective? Definitely.
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