Qualla: Museum of the Home https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Museum of the Home https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home Museum of the Home: Introduction https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home/ Photo credit Robin Sones, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1714, the widows of ironmongers moved into a row of 14 newly built four-room almshouses on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, funded by a bequest from Sir Robert Geffrye, a merchant who had served as Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers' Company. By 1911, the Ironmongers' Company decided the area had become too dangerous for pensioners and moved them to the country. The London County Council bought the buildings and opened a museum on the site in 1914, originally intended to serve the local furniture trade as a reference collection. Three hundred years after the widows moved in, the question of whose home gets remembered — and whose name the building should carry — remains unresolved.

Read more: Museum of the Home on Qualla

Image: Robin Sones | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/gcpv-museum-of-the-home-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Museum of the Home: From Almshouse to Museum https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home/ Photo credit Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, CC BY 2.0. The original almshouses were funded by Robert Geffrye's estate and designed to house up to 56 elderly women, widows of ironmongers, in modest but dignified four-room houses with a large shared garden. When the Ironmongers' Company sold the property to the London County Council in...

Read more: Museum of the Home on Qualla

Image: Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/gcpv-museum-of-the-home-from-almshouse-to-museum.mp3 0:06 2 full Museum of the Home: Four Centuries of Home https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home/ Photo credit Cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0. The museum's core achievement is a sequential walk through the history of the domestic interior. Period rooms represent living spaces from the 1600s through to a 1998 loft apartment — tracing not just changes in furniture and decoration, but in how people conceived of the home it...

Read more: Museum of the Home on Qualla

Image: Cmglee | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/gcpv-museum-of-the-home-four-centuries-of-home.mp3 0:06 3 full Museum of the Home: The Statue Question https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home/ Photo credit AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0. The museum's formal name was the Geffrye Museum until 2019, when it announced a name change to the Museum of the Home in anticipation of the renovation. Robert Geffrye's statue stands on the front of the building. His wealth — which funded the almshouses and, ultimately, the muse...

Read more: Museum of the Home on Qualla

Image: AndyScott | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/gcpv-museum-of-the-home-the-statue-question.mp3 0:06 4 full Museum of the Home: What Home Means https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-home/ Photo credit Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, CC BY 2.0. The Museum of the Home distinguishes itself from most history museums by its subject: not kings, battles, or great events, but the space where ordinary life happens. The collections and programming explore the psychological and emotional relationships people have with home — the ...

Read more: Museum of the Home on Qualla

Image: Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/museum-of-the-home-wp/gcpv-museum-of-the-home-what-home-means.mp3 0:06 5 full