The repair team preserving an 18th Century home in Spitalfields: From the BBC

For the first time since it opened for tours forty years ago, Dennis Severs’ 18th Century house in Spitalfields, east London, has been closed to the public but, behind the scenes, a small army has been working to renew the house for reopening to visitors this summer, as the BBC reports.

image: Dennis Severs’ House website

… house reflects the life of an imaginary Huguenot family…

… a powerful evocation of the past rather than an attempt at its literal recreation…

BBC News writes:

For the first time since it opened for tours forty years ago, Dennis Severs’ 18th Century house in Spitalfields, east London, has been closed to the public but, behind the scenes, a small army has been working to renew the house for reopening to visitors this summer.

From 1979 to 1999 it was lived in by Dennis Severs, who gradually recreated the rooms as a time capsule. The house reflects the life of an imaginary Huguenot family, who had lived there since it was built in 1724.

The Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life blog has reimagined the immersive tours that Dennis Severs gave when he first opened the house for guests….

Dan Cruickshank, Friend of Dennis Severs and Trustee

“Dennis believed you have to be open-minded and ‘innocent’ to really see the world he created, which is a powerful evocation of the past rather than an attempt at its literal recreation.

“As he said, ‘you either see it or you don’t’, and over twenty years after Dennis Severs’ death his house continues to weave its spell and remains a place where – invisible to sceptics – ghosts walk in splendid array.”….

Orlando Spurling: Painter and plasterer

“Over the years I have patched bits and pieces of Dennis Severs’ House. It’s finishing I do, the plastering and the painting.

“It’s lime plaster I use, I learned on the job. I fell into it 25 years ago while helping renovate a derelict house in Brushfield Street. I don’t use rollers or sprays in Georgian houses.

“I prefer old houses. I love the history and character, it makes you wonder who’s been there before you. You get a sense that people have lived there and had a life and moved on. It’s like a continuous living thing and it gives me real satisfaction to repair something to bring it more life.”

Read more….

For more background see the Dennis Severs’ House website

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