Dennis Severs' House, Art museum in Spitalfields, London, England
Dennis Severs' House is a museum in Spitalfields, London, presenting early Georgian and Victorian households across ten rooms on four floors. Each room has been furnished with period furniture, wall coverings, and personal belongings to recreate the daily life of different eras.
The house was built in 1724 in a district inhabited by Huguenot silk weavers. American artist Dennis Severs purchased it in 1979 and spent two decades transforming it into a walk-through artwork that reveals traces of this immigrant community.
The owner arranged the building as a living portrait of a Huguenot silk-weaver family called the Jervises, filling each room with authentic objects from their era. Upstairs rooms show the simpler quarters of servants, while the lower floors recreate the working and formal spaces of the craftsman household.
Visits take place only on selected weekdays, mostly in the late afternoon or Sunday midday. The house sits on Folgate Street and can be reached on foot from Liverpool Street Station.
The rooms remain in constant half-light, lit only by candles and gas lamps as in the 18th century. At certain moments you hear sounds from the kitchen or smell freshly baked bread, as though the family just stepped out briefly.
Location: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Inception: 1724
Address: 18 Folgate Street, London E1 6BX
Opening Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 17:00-21:00; Sunday 12:00-15:00
Phone: +442072474013
Website: http://dennissevershouse.co.uk
GPS coordinates: 51.52094,-0.07779
Latest update: December 5, 2025 22:26
London offers far more than Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. Away from the main attractions, numerous sites remain unfamiliar even to many locals. This selection includes the ruins of St Dunstan-in-the-East, where a medieval church has been transformed into a public garden, the Sir John Soane's Museum with its antiquities and architectural fragments, and Dennis Severs' House, a Georgian townhouse preserved as a lived-in time capsule. The collection features gardens such as Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park and Kyoto Garden in Holland Park, historic buildings like the 14th-century Charterhouse and St Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest parish church. It also covers unusual museums including the Old Operating Theatre, Europe's oldest surviving surgical theater, and industrial monuments like Crossness Pumping Station with its Victorian steam engines. Leadenhall Market displays Victorian architecture in the financial district, while God's Own Junkyard in Walthamstow exhibits thousands of neon signs. Other sites range from the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in Neasden to Wilton's Music Hall, London's oldest music hall, and the Victorian dinosaur sculptures at Crystal Palace Park. Little Venice presents canals lined with houseboats, the Freud Museum preserves the psychoanalyst's London home, and Keats House commemorates the Romantic poet. These locations provide insights into history, architecture, and culture beyond the standard tourist circuit.
Broadgate Tower
122 m
Principal Place
92 m
Commercial Tavern
163 m
Former Police Station
136 m
36, Elder Street E1
54 m
9-13 Elder Street
85 m
1 and 3, Elder Street E1
106 m
Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital
16 m
17-21, Folgate Street E1
23 m
6 And 8, Folgate Street E1
28 m
32 and 34 Elder Street
58 m
27, Folgate Street E1
47 m
The Central Foundation School For Girls
84 m
17, Elder Street E1
75 m
15, Elder Street E1
78 m
135-153, Commercial Street
162 m
28 And 30, Elder Street E1
65 m
Street Lamp Standard
78 m
2 Bollards (At Junction With Elder Street)
56 m
1, Elder Street E1
115 m
37 Spital Square including railings
85 m
24, Elder Street E1
61 m
23, Elder Street E1
69 m
Post At Corner Of Worship Street
89 m
Forecourt Wall And Gate Piers At The Central Foundation School For Girls
74 m
5 And 7, Elder Street E1
96 m
19 And 21, Elder Street E1
72 m
1A, Stothard Place Ec2
107 mReviews
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