Our next outing is to the Museum of the Home on Kingsland Road. This was previously known as the Geffrye Museum. It started as a collection of almshouses which were repurposed to become a series of rooms reflecting the historical furnishings of the ages. It has had two major refurbishments and extensions. One was more than twenty years ago when the architect Branson Coates introduced a new cafe in a central atrium and revamped one of the almshouse wings to include some more recent rooms, as well as a spiral stair down to some new community rooms. The next refurbishment was by Wright and Wright when the Museum was extended by creating and refurbishing the basement, again with extra rooms.
There is also a lovely historic garden at the back of the Museum. The Museum is free and they are expecting us and even have stools. Their website is www.museumofthehome.org.uk and their address is 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA. Hoxton Overground Station (trains from Highbury and Dalston) is almost adjacent to the museum, Old Street Station is not far away and Liverpool Street is a short bus ride or walk away.
The Museum has some quite tight spaces as the rooms and corridors in the old almshouses are very small and they have asked that we spread out to avoid blocking through routes for other visitors. No easels.
There is a Museum cafe but we thought we should visit Song Que at 134 Kingsland Road, which is a popular and reasonably priced local Vietnamese restaurant, very close to the Museum on Kingsland Road. I will reserve a table, but at lunch time they should be able to accommodate us.
Meet in the entrance to the Museum at 11 am
And finally a late image from St Mary le Strand from Audrey Rapier
