DENNIS SEVERS HOUSE
Dennis Severs House, is a Georgian Terraced house at No. 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields in the East End of London, England. It is not a museum. It wasn't intended to be one. It was intended to be a time capsule, where you can walk through the ten rooms of the house, each one of which is arranged as if they are still being used by their occupants who have just slipped out on some business errand or other. Severs purchased this once dilapidated property in Folgate Street near Spitalfields Market, after being drawn to London by what he called the "English light". The house is situated in what was then a very badly run down area in the East End of London He was born on 16th November 1948, at Escondido, California moving to London in 1967 having visited England two years earlier.
He began this new life in England by running tours around the West End of London in open, horse drawn carriages, stabling his horses in the vicinity of Gloucester Road. This enterprise finished however, when the site of his stables was aquired by developers, who demolished it to make way for their own grandiose schemes. As things tuned out, he aquired the property in Folgate Street at about the right time, for a body called the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, had commendably begun the fight to halt the seemingly unstopable decline and disintegration of this enigmatic area of the East End of London. Dennis Severs invented the Jervis family, originally Huguenot (French Protestant refugees) silk weavers, who were supposed to have lived at the house from 1725 to 1919. NOTE: (Huguenot refugees had flocked to Shoreditch in huge numbers after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 and the declaration of the Edict of Fontainebleau, that Protestantism was illegal. They established a major weaving industry around Petticoat Lane Spitalfields) Each of the ten rooms in the house, was refurbished by Severs. Each one of them in a different style, taken from different periods of the years between 1725 to 1919 during which the fictitional Jervis family had supposedly occupied them. The story of the house unfolds as you walk through the rooms. It is as if a member of the fictitious Jervis family had just a moment before, left the room, leaving an unfinished meal there on the table. All these items in the rooms are accompanied by different background sounds and smells belonging to the particular period of time that the Jervis family would have lived there. Severs always referred to it as "still life drama" and he wrote: "I worked inside out to create what turned out to be a collection of atmospheres: moods that harbour the light and spirit of various ages". David Hockney, who is considered to be one of the most influential British artists to come out of the twentieth century, wrote about Dennis Severs House, describing it as one of the world's greatest works of opera. Peter Ackroyd, English biographer, novelist and critic who had a very strong interest in the history and culture of London and who won several prestigious awards for his biographies, including among others, the biography of the great Charles Dickens himself, wrote: "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". Severs died in London on 27th December 1999. The Dennis Severs House, he bequeathed to the Spitalfields Trust shortly before he died and it is now open to the public, who are respectfully asked as they are met at the door, to try and maitain silence on their visit, in order to respect the intent of the creator and participate in an imaginary journey to another time. The motto of the Dennis Severs House is: Aut Visum Aut Non!: You Either See It Or You Don't. For visiting times, bus routes and the nearest London Underground tube station you are advised to contact them for up to date information: They can be reached at:Dennis Severs' House18 Folgate StreetSpitalfieldsLondon E1 6BX Tel: 020 7247 4013Email: info@dennissevershouse.co.uk
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