Real Rooms Project
Museum of the Home brings to life the Rooms Through Time: 1878-2049, seven new period homes reflecting the stories of our East London community—past, present and future.
As part of Museum of the Home’s commitment to reveal and rethink how we live in order to live better together, the gallery - co-curated with our community partners and centring lived experiences - introduces a more diverse array of narratives to our renowned Rooms Through Time.
A Terraced House in 1978
The Real Rooms project is made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, by the industry-leading construction and development firm Innovo, and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.
Real stories
In 2021, Museum of the Home reopened as a place to reveal and rethink how we live, in order to live better together. Our public galleries doubled in size, introducing the Home Galleries, co-curated to be more representative of our local communities in Hackney and exploring the innumerable ways in which we make our lives in our homes.
The new gallery has been co-curated, using personal stories to speak to universal themes including home and belonging. These narratives are deeply intertwined with the complex histories of migration and identity that have shaped London for generations, resonating nationally and globally.
Organisations and groups including our local community, The London Irish Centre and Interactive Research Studio have been involved in various stages of the process such as design, analysis and interpretation.
A Room Upstairs in 1956
A Tenement Flat in 1913
The Rooms
The new rooms will include a Jewish tenement flat from 1913, an Irish couple's house in the 1950s, LGBTQ+ renters sharing an ex-council home in the 2005, a British-Vietnamese home in 2024, and the Innovo Room of the Future, which explores real homes amid challenges such as the climate crisis and technological advances. We will also expand the scope of our beloved 1870s Parlour and Front Room in 1976.
In response to audience feedback, visitors will now have the opportunity to step inside the spaces—from bedrooms and bathrooms to kitchens and gardens—and immerse themselves in each. From the aroma of lokshen soup wafting from the stove to changing the music on a record player to grabbing a mic and singing karaoke, guests will get hands-on in the spaces and be transported through time, encountering fragments of the stories that constitute our shared history.
Typeone has created an interactive network of things to see, hear, feel and activate. An audio tapestry of retrofitted vintage home entertainment and ambient immersive audio sings, gurgles and hums between the rooms as stories are brought to life.
An immersive film, together with a phone-based Augmented Reality experience, tells stories at the confluence of urban living and the natural world.
Now open
Jewish Tenement Flat mockup for Museum of the Home Real Rooms project, Fumo Studio
1990s Tower Block mock up for Museum of the Home Real Rooms project, Fumo Studio
Working with our Community Authors
In 2021 we launched the Room to Rethink, a space for visitors to reflect on the Rooms Through Time, and tell us what they would like to see happen to the displays.
As a result, the Community Authors - a group of eight people from a variety of professions and backgrounds - were recruited to play an active role in reshaping the Rooms Through Time.
The Community Authors share ideas, produce and suggest creative programming to challenge the ways we work to ensure that Museum of the Home is representative and inclusive.
The resulting Real Rooms Project comes from extensive work with the Community Authors, as well as continual outreach and engagement with visitors and our local communities.
- Julia Thanh
- Naima Hassan
- Drucilla Burrell
- Amy Peace Buzzard
- Priscilla Tagoe
- Lesley Dixon
- Joseph Callanan
- Afia Khatun
About Julia Thanh
Julia is a born and raised British Vietnamese (east) Londoner and has also lived in Senegal and Vietnam. She has worked in International Education for 9 years and is happiest when supporting people to fulfil their potential. Outside of work, Julia is involved in bringing and connecting communities together as Founder of Vietnamese Londoners, Advisor to 2-3 Degrees (Personal Development organisation for young people) and as a Community Author at the Museum of the Home.
"I became a Community Author with the Museum of the Home in September 2021 where I have attended monthly meetings with other Community Authors and occasional external meetings to discuss on how best to increase more visitor awareness and inclusivity within the museum via the Rooms through Time. Most meetings have involved an artist of the museum to learn more about the rationale behind their projects and to aid them in brainstorming what sort of outreach would work best within east London.
I’m most excited about seeing the future projects come to life with the ideas that the Community Authors as a collective have discussed within these meetings. It will be incredible to look back and see how this has positively shaped the museum through more visitors within the local community. It will be good to see the communities of Hackney somewhat reflected within the museum which will hopefully in turn inspire the community and younger generation".
About Naima Hassan
Naima Hassan is a researcher who works across shifting field sites, museums, and archives. Her work is often in dialogue with critical anthropology, curatorial practice, material culture and ecology. With an ongoing research focus on ethnographic collections formed in Italian Somaliland, she is interested in the dispersal of ethnographic collections and object/persons mobilities within Europe’s present visa-border regime. She is currently working on projects in the UK, Angola, Italy, and Slovenia.
"I have been a member of the Community Authors collective since September 2021. As a researcher working closely on colonial collections, engaging critical questions about the legacy of Robert Geffrye, and ongoing efforts to contextualise his statue on the grounds of the museum, has been particularly important to me. The constellation of different voices which make up the Community Authors collective, comprising researchers, museum practitioners, local residents and community activists has meant that we have dynamically explored local and migrant histories, how the museum can employ polyvocality, and ideas for community engagement for the Rooms Through Time redevelopment project.
Our monthly gatherings have provided an opportunity to consult on and discuss critical issues and upcoming programmes with invited guests, artists, and staff. This September, Community Authors were invited to present research explorations or ideas around objects which could tell migration stories in the period rooms. My presentation titled, 'Activating Memory through the Senses: The Somali Dabqaad (Incense)' explored the potential role of using scents to activate visitor's sensorial memories. I explored the Somali practices of incense burning in the home, and distributed frankincense during the presentation to introduce a conversation about migrant practices of homemaking which until recently, were not often represented within the museum. I am excited by ongoing efforts within the museum to diverse its collections, and to drive thinking around international collaboration and global practices of homemaking".
About Drucilla Burrell
Drucilla Burrell is a visual artist, contemporary dandy, and creator of Queer fantasia. She’s also an Art Director with the Adobe Studio team. Her photographic practice is rooted in the study of Classical techniques and their implementation and dissemination via digital technology. Her most recent commission for The National Gallery playfully re-imagining the power dynamics presented in traditional portraiture using contemporary digital methods.
"I’m extremely excited to be involved in the project as I adore helping to give previously hidden stories the platforms they deserve!"
Acknowledgements
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- National Lottery Heritage Fund
- DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund
- The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
- Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association
- Art Happens, Art Fund’s crowdfund platform
- Croft Architectural Hardware
- Penny Egan CBE
- Garfield Weston Foundation
- Andrew Hochhauser KC
- Mathmos UK
- Myceen
- Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
- Queen Mary University of London
- John Shakeshaft
- Shoresh Trust
- Todi & Boys
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