Dennis Severs' House
Location | 18 Folgate Street London, United Kingdom |
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Coordinates | 51°31′15″N 0°4′36″W / 51.52083°N 0.07667°W |
Website | Dennis Severs' House |
Dennis Severs' House is a historical tourist attraction in Folgate Street, London. Created by Dennis Severs, who owned and lived in the house until his death, it is intended as a "historical imagination" of what life would have been like inside for a family of
After closing due to the
The house
The house is on the south side of Folgate Street and dates from approximately 1724. It is one of a terrace of houses (No.s 6–18) built of brown brick with red-brick dressings, over four storeys and with a basement. The listing for the house, compiled in 1950, describes No. 18 as having a painted facade, and with first-floor window frames enriched with a trellis pattern.[3] By 1979 the house was very run-down; it was saved by the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity.[1]
History
Dennis Severs (16 November 1948, California, US – 27 December 1999, London) was drawn to London by what he called "English light", and bought the dilapidated property in Folgate Street from the Spitalfields Trust in 1979. This area of the
Severs started on a programme to refurbish the ten rooms of his house, each in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. The rooms are arranged as if they are in use and the occupants have only just left. The rooms contain objects either of the period, or made by Severs. An authentic-looking 17th-century
Woven through the house is the story of the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from
The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself.[6]
Cultural studies researcher Hedvig Mårdh writes that Dennis Severs' House is "admittedly difficult to categorize" and that it combines scenography and artwork. The art form practised by Severs has been described as "a type of theatre unique and rare"; in Severs' obituary, Gavin Stamp defined the house as "a three-dimensional historical novel, written in brick and candlelight".[5] Severs himself offered the term "still-life drama", which today is used in a number of notes that guide silent visitors around the house. He wrote, to describe his endeavour:
I worked inside out to create what turned out to be a collection of atmospheres: moods that harbour the light and the spirit of various ages.
Writer and illustrator
The writer Jeanette Winterson, who also restored a derelict house nearby to live in, observed, "Fashions come and go, but there are permanencies, vulnerable but not forgotten, that Dennis sought to communicate".[7] Painter David Hockney described the house as one of the world's greatest works of opera.
The house was bought by the Spitalfields Trust shortly before Severs, long
Television
Severs appeared as himself on an episode of Tell The Truth on Channel 4, dated 9 November 1984, discussing the house. Severs and the house also appeared in the 1985 BBC documentary Ours to Keep: Incomers.[8]
References
- ^ a b c "Dennis Severs' Tour - Reimagined by the gentle author". Dennis Severs' House. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ OCLC 60623878.
- ^ a b Historic England. "10-18 Folgate Street (Grade II) (1357829)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d Brown, Mark (25 July 2021). "Dennis Severs' House recreates his eccentric tours based on found tapes". The Observer.
- ^ doi:10.5617/nm.2998. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ Severs, Dennis 18 Folgate Street: The Tale of a House in Spitalfields, 2002, Vintage, p xi
- ^ Severs, Dennis 18 Folgate Street: The Tale of a House in Spitalfields, 2002, Vintage
- ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00t395h/episodes/guide Ours to Keep: Incomers
External links
- Official website
- Guardian Unlimited: Balconies and bedsteads
- "The repair team preserving an 18th Century home" BBC News, 26 July 2021
- "1685 (house description)". Tower Hamlets - radical actions then and now (PDF). p. 15.
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