What time is this place?

"Have you been here long enough to be asking yourself as you walk around, "What time is this place?" If so, you might enjoy visiting the galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum (called "The V & A"). There some rooms are organized by century, so you walk through the 1500s then the 1600s then the 1800s, into the 1900s. In each one you are in a room or rooms from that time. These are reconstructed interior spaces with furniture, clothing, pictures, and other objects of personal usefulness and pleasure. Helpful wall descriptors help situate you in Britain in the epoch of the room. I find that while walking from, say, the 1770s to 1820s, I can get a sense of what it felt like. You, too, will discern the differences in taste as well as the development of ideas, technology, even comfort.

Armed with this sort of over-sight, visits to other museums or galleries with paintings from these decades have been clearer to me because I can remember that time, as it were, having visited those rooms at the V & A. I enjoy revisiting them -- and so would be delighted to go with you there (or other galleries) if you'd like. Let's do diaries."

- Dr Holt

* Photo by nick.garrod, used under Creative Commons.