Home Destinations Europe England London Sights Dennis Severs's House

Dennis Severs's House Review

Read our London sights reviews. Or post your own.

Dennis Severs's House

Address: 18 Folgate St., East End, London, E1 6BX | Map It
Phone: 020/7247-4013
www.dennissevershouse.co.uk

Category: Houses/Mansions
Location: East End

Write a review

Fodor's Review:

Enter this extraordinary time machine of a house with your imagination primed to take part in the plot. The Georgian terraced house belonged to the eponymous performer-designer-scholar from Escondido, California, who dedicated his life not only to restoring his house but also to raising the ghosts of a fictitious Jervis family that might have inhabited it over the course of two centuries. Dennis Severs (1944-1999) created a replica of Georgian life, without electricity but with a butler in full 18th-century livery to light the candles and lay the fires—for the Jervises. The ten rooms are shadowy set pieces of rose-laden Victorian wallpapers, Jacobean paneling, Georgian wing chairs, baroque carved ornaments, "Protestant" colors (upstairs), and "Catholic" shades (downstairs). The "Silent Night" candlelight tours, each Monday, are the most theatrical and memorable way to "feel" the house, a magical experience relished by both Londoners and out-of-towners.

Cost: £8 for Sun., £5 for Mon. open house; £12 for candlelight Mon. evening
Open: 1st and 3rd Sun. of month 2-5, 1st and 3rd Mon. noon-2. Call for hrs for "Silent Night" Mon., reservations essential
Tube: Liverpool St.

Find more sights in London »