The Metropolitan Museum of Art is known for its period rooms; an 18th century dining room from London and a living room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are just a few examples of the many rooms on display there. They’re meant to show “how people lived”, even though the rooms are usually empty of actual people (well, unless you count the museum visitors who sometimes get to step into them). These so-called “authentic” presentations of decorative arts and architecture are time capsules of a particular place and time, showing how society’s tastes have changed over the years. But what about a whole museum dedicated to them? London’s Geffrye Museum, which specialises in the history of the English domestic interior, has a permanent display of eleven period rooms from 1630 to the present. They are presented chronologically, with a short introduction summarising the typical town house of the time, the type of furniture and furnishings used, and the possible occupations of the owners. Visitors can see a parlour from 1745 and loft-style apartment from the 1990s. There are even some eighteenth and nineteenth-century almshouse rooms on display, showing the building that currently houses the museum in its original form, which was an accommodation for the poor.
London’s Geffrye Museum
