Walking down Liverpool Street on a bleak February Friday during a particularly gloomy London winter, it can be hard to conjure up any romantic notions about the city. But step away from the thoroughfare of chain restaurants and looming skyscrapers down a side street towards Spitalfields and you could stumble across a portal to the East End of old — or at least a fanciful version of it.
Dennis Severs’ House is like nothing else in London. Tucked away on Folgate Street, this Grade II-listed Georgian home is testament to the singular vision of its late owner. The young Dennis Severs relocated from sunny California, where his parents Earl and Helen Severs owned a gas station, in pursuit of his dreams of English nostalgia and a new life as an openly gay man.
