If you want to immerse yourself in the Spirit of Christmas Past this year the most evocative and inspiring place to visit in London, if not the world, is the wonderful 18 Folgate Street in Spitalfields. This 18th Century house, originally occupied by real Huguenot silk weavers, became the imaginative canvas of Dennis Severs on his arrival from California in the 1970’s and he spent the next 30 years filling it with Georgian objects and weaving a story around a fictional Huguenot family. At Christmas the house is at its most beautiful and intriguing – peaceful, candle-lit and filled with the scents of wood-smoke, spices, oranges and evergreens. Every surface is adorned with fascinating objects – half-drunk glasses of wine, jewelery, pipes lie around in sumptuous rooms - there is even a real cat warming itself by the fire. Best of all there are no silken ropes to hold you back from exploring to your heart’s content and imagining yourself being at home here on Christmas Eve 200 years ago…..
