Why I love the Geffrye Museum, by Marie Wilkinson of Cutler and Gross

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Cutler and Gross Design Director Marie Wilkinson explains why East London’s Geffrye Museum has been a constant source of inspiration

Cutler and Gross, Geffrye Museum

Marie Wilkinson, Cutler and Gross

In my quest to be an optician, I used to commute by scooter to college each day into the City of London, along Kingsland Road and past the Geffrye Museum, set back from the main street and inside a row of converted almshouses.

Tony Gross first introduced me to the museum’s quiet charm after I moved to Shoreditch in 1984. I had just started working at Cutler and Gross, immersed in the world of hand made eyewear and style. Clients such as Ava Gardner and Grace Jones would commission their glasses from us, and as I learnt from watching Mr Cutler and Mr Gross, my interest in glasses design developed.

The Geffrye Museum may not seem to be the likeliest of places to inspire eyewear design, but my visits to it would soon become more frequent. It is a museum of the urban living room, with 11 rooms spanning four centuries, detailing how homes have been used and furnished, from the 1600s to the present day. It is a social history, reflecting changes in society and behaviour as well as style, fashion and taste.

The museum began life as an inspiration and education for those in the East End furniture trade. It opened in 1914 and was named after Sir Robert Geffrye, the former Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers’ Company. The almshouses were built in 1714 with a bequest from him.

Geffrye Museum

The Geffrye Museum

The rooms of the Geffrye Museum display furniture, wallpaper and fabric design made for specifically British tastes. I love to see how colours and colour combinations became fashionable during different eras. The craftsmanship of the often locally made furniture is honest and well executed. It’s the kind of furniture that is passed down through generations.

I have found a wealth of inspiration for acetates and finishes within its rooms. The Cutler and Gross “feathered” tortoiseshell from spring 2013 came from a display of marquetry. For me, glasses are a wearable art and a craft, just as these rooms were created to be lived in and to be stylish for their era.

I have visited the Geffrye Museum with my parents, who reminisced about their own parents’ and grandparents’ living rooms. By sharing stories of my family, it helped me to connect with my past. The museum also connects directly with my present: one of my favourite rooms features 1980 furniture designed and made by Jasper Morrison and Matthew Hilton, and I now own pieces from these designers myself and have them in my own home. C

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