A wholly unique experience with a  “reality museum” in a 1724 Georgian house in London’s ancient Spitalfields district. Mr. Severs has painstakingly returned the house to its state in the mid-eighteenth century, with all furnishings and contents of the period.  It is a philosophical stage setting for a tour led by Severs, who hopes you will realize that the original inhabitants of the house have merely stepped out for a moment and you the visitor have gone back in mental and spiritual time to experience a short time in another century—before electricity, plumbing, central heat, any of the essentials we believe we must have to exist.  There is even a ghostly soundtrack of voices and the clatter of household activity, just offstage, beyond sight.  The bedroom shows the remains of breakfast, and the drawing made ready for tea.  You hear hoof-beats in the street and the cries of vendors for foodstuffs and services.  It is a huge still life with an ambience built in.  From Mr. Severs’ narration, you learn all the details of the middle-class Jervis family and their aspirations.  Then you return, unwillingly, to the twenty-first century.  For details of visiting see:  www.dennissevershouse.co.uk

Representation of silhouettes in the upper windows of Dennis Severs’ House: