Potters Bar Town Twinning Assocaition

Twinned with Viernheim & Franconville

Dennis Severs House 6th February 2006

On Monday the 6th of February 15 members of the Town Twinning Assiociation, Met on Platform 15 of Liverpool Street Station in London at 6.30 p.m. for a visit to Dennis Severs House, at 18 Folgate Street, Spittalfields.

Chris Gray had already circularized members with an extract from the website for Dennis Severs house which prepared them for a visit to a time capsule of Georgian living, and we were let into the house by Mr M.Pedroli the caretaker whose team had lit all the fires and candles to create an atmosphere of living in the past.

We were warned not to talk as we walked round the house, so that we would really get the atmosphere Dennis Severs (an American artist who previously owned the house) had created, by looking into paintings of the period and resurrecting a house of the period which had not changed.

Walking round I think I was most impressed by the first floor sitting room with its moulded plaster ceiling, and deep wing chairs, as well as the basement kitchen with its dresser stacked high with the daily household china, and washing up still in the sink.

At 8.00 p.m. as many people as wanted to adjourned to “The Shooting Star” pub, where those who wished ordered a meal after visiting Dennis Severs House, and the landlords very hospitably opened up their Function Room so we could all sit down together.

This function was a bit of a departure for the Association as the tickets for Dennis Severs House were £12.00 per visitor, and we thought that if we added food on top to that price many people would have been discouraged from coming. So although we did not make a profit on the event, we did not make a loss either. We must however try to equal our triumph of last year by making a profit on our social events, so it will be something of a one off affaire.

By Chris Morgan-Gray