Christmas at the Geffrye museum in London

The Geffrye Museum in London is one of those local secrets that most visitors never hear about, but once you visit you’ll want to recommend it to all your friends. It’s probably because it’s tucked away in the slightly shabby neighbourhood of Shoreditch in East London, and requires a bit of a walk from the station. But don’t worry, you’ll be rewarded by a friendly, intimate museum with loads to see, and it’s all free.

After walking a while with my streetmap in hand, past nondescript shops, offices and under railway bridges, I finally found the large 18th century almshouse which is the home of the museum. The Geffrye museum takes you on a journey back in time through the domestic interiors of each century which reflect the preoccupations and aspirations of the period.

When I visited in December, all the rooms were decorated for Christmas in appropriate style, with evergreen branches in the earlier rooms, becoming more decorative and festive as we move nearer to the present day. Moving through the centuries from the 1630s, we see furniture and house decoration becoming more elaborate and and cosy, introducing new items from Britain’s trading and colonial past, until we get to the 1960s onwards when clean and simple lines become fashionable again.

In between each room-set is an information room, explaining how people lived in each era, with details of how a house would have been used. There is also information available in each room to read, and a kid’s trail through the museum. You can also hire an audioguide for a minimal amount (I think it was £2). At the end of the main room-displays the museum opens out into a larger space with gift shop, an airy cafe which overlooked the gardens and more room displays with a further downstairs exhibition area.

The formal gardens at the back have also been designed as a series of garden rooms, in styles from different centuries. The gardens are open in the summer, but in the winter you can see them from inside, especially if you sit on one of the window seats in the garden room where you can find a selection of books to look at. There’s also a large lawned garden in front of the almshouse to sit on sunny days.

In a separate part of the museum, you can see the old almshouse spaces, set out as they would have been when occupied in the 18th and 19th centuries. The almshouse section is only open on certain days when you can take a guided tour for £2 which must be booked on arrival. Unfortunately I ran out of time, but I’d love to see it on my next visit. I was at the museum for an hour or two but I felt I should have made a day of it, so I shall try and return another time to do it justice.

Take a virtual tour of the museum rooms
See my photos of the Geffrye museum on Flickr

Getting there
The Geffrye Museum
136 Kingsland Road
Shoreditch
London
E2 8EA
Nearest tube is Old St and then a 15 minute walk or Liverpool Street, then bus 149 or 242

Compare prices and book hotels in London through Hotels Combined

Other places to visit in East London
The Denis Severs’ House, Shoreditch

www.flickr.com   heatheronhertravels’ London – Geffrye Museum photoset

Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Reflections on a year of blogging

In December my blog celebrated it’s first birthday, and with the new year just around the corner, it seems the right time to reflect on my last year of blogging.

I was inspired to start my blog after a fantastic journey with two girlfirends for three weeks through Ecuador, in which I left the family behind and had a girl’s own adventure. While I was there, I used Flickr and e-mail as a way to keep in touch with family and friends and involve them in the journey. However, when I returned, I realised that a blog might be a better way to document future trips, and on the recommendation of one of my techie friends, I tentatively started with Blogger. It was all pretty user friendly, and so I started regularly writing about the places I was visiting, and in between about interesting things in and around my home town of Bristol.

One by-product of the blogging has been the development of my photography to illustrate the blog. I love images and colour and so photos are an important part of the travel tales I present. Where I used to take photos only of the family, I now take loads of photos of scenery, of myself in different places, of the local people and anything I find interesting or will help to tell the story.  The ones you see on the blog or on my flickr site are only the pick of the bunch. I’m especially choosy about the ones of myself I show you, although I haven’t yet resorted to photographic trickery to make myself look more gorgeous (just a hairbrush and lipstick).

Another aspect I’ve enjoyed is sharing the experience of travelling and blogging with people all around the world. I’ve got to know a new community of blogging friends, whose blogs I read and comment on and they do the same on mine. A blog is a reflection of your personality, and so it’s also been interesting to meet some of the bloggers in person – sometimes they’re not exactly as you expect. Our blogs are a polished version of ourselves we like to present to the world.

For most of last year I’ve been working in the world of Project Management and IT, so the blog has been a great creative outlet for me, and also made me realise I’d like to get back into a more creative working environment long term (I used to work in fashion). Most of my work colleagues and even my Bristol friends don’t have any idea or particular interest in my blog. It’s like a secret life I lead on the internet, though I won’t be baring my inner soul, like some bloggers do.

At it’s best, the blog has been expression of the travel experiences that inspired me, but other times it can seem like a hungry monster waiting to be fed. Sometimes I ask myself whether I blog about travel or whether I’m manufacturing travel experiences in order to have something to blog about. When travelling with family, my children can get really irritated if I spend too long taking photos, or drag them off to places so I can write about them. Sometimes the balance tipped over from pleasure into work.

That was why, towards the end of this year I started to consider where my blog was going. I was at a cross-roads which I think many bloggers experience once they get hooked. Should I blog purely for fun, as and when I was in the mood? Or should I try and develop the blog into a more commercial enterprise which would make a bit of money to subsidise my travel hobby? The entrepreneur in me won and so I’ve decided to take the latter course, hoping that over the next few years financial reward and exciting opportunities may lead from the effort I put in to the blog.

That’s why I decided to recently move my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress platform which will support a more professional approach for my blog. That in itself has been a big workload as well as a steep learning curve in setting up the new format. As I don’t want my hard won experience go to waste, I’ve been documenting some of the learning on a new blog page called My blogging journey.

So now I approach my second year of blogging with a firm foundation to go forward. I plan to build up my readership, learn lots of new things to enhance the blog and have a year filled with wonderful travel experiences that I can share with you. Here’s to a fantastic, well-travelled year ahead.

Related posts
My blogging journey

Friday Photo – community celebrations in India

Today I’m joining in with the Friday photo over at Delicious Baby to bring you a photo from my travels with a story behind it.

Through my church I’m involved in a charity project to support a rural community in India and a couple of years ago I visited the area and saw some of the work being done. Since then a much needed community centre has been built and my friend, the parish priest there, sent me these photos of the grand opening.

This was clearly the event of the year in the village, with church services and events, parades through the village and plenty of general feasting and enjoyment. I loved this photo of the kids doing their own little show – giving it all the energy and enthusiasm of a Pop Idol or X-factor performance.

Meanwhile their mums were also doing a performance of their own, although with a little more elegance and decorum in their colourful Sunday-best saris.

Check prices and book hotels in India through Hotels Combined

Related Posts
My Indian Sponor child
An old man’s funeral in India

Read all my articles on India
See my India photos on Flickr

See all the other Friday photos at Delicious Baby

Back to Travel Blog Home

Next Page »