18 Folgate Street: The Tale of a House in Spitalfields

Introduction by Peter Ackroyd. An enchanted time capsule transports us back to the 18th century and brings an old house to life. Growing up in California, Dennis Severs fell in love with the England he saw in old black and white movies. In 1979 he bought a run-down house in Spitalfields and over the next twenty years he filled it with objects and furniture found in local markets. He wanted his visitors to feel they were stepping through time, into an old master painting. He invented a family to live in it, the Jervis family, Huguenot silk-weavers who arrived from Nantes in 1725. Before Dennis died in 1999 he put the stories of the house, the Jervis family and his own life into this book. It is illustrated throughout by photographs taken by his niece, Stacey Shaffer, using the natural light that Dennis loved. The Dennis Severs House is run by the Spitalfields Trust and is open to visitors. "From the Hardcover edition.