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To display a selection of Dining Room furniture by Edward Gimson from Leicester Museum's excellent collection, to satisfy and stimulate demand from visitors interested in Arts and Crafts furniture in general and Gimson furniture in particular.
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To respond to the School's Curriculum and also to encourage visitors interested in the late Victorian era and general history of the Hall.
To reorganise the cluttered, non period specific kitchen items by reallocating non Kitchen equipment associated with Laundry and brewing etc. to other parts of the Hall.
- To create a "living" Dining Room and realistic "working" Kitchen.
The Dining Room was supplied with antique objects and replicas by Replicawarehouse to create a room setting of c.1900. This date is selected as being the earliest date that the furniture could have been employed whilst still keeping in the "Victorian" era. The aim was to re-create the dessert or last course of a typical dinner for six people in the month of August. The number of places was determined by the number of chairs available and the desire to avoid over cluttering the table surface. August was chosen as a popular month for visitors to the Hall and to enable replica dishes to be created using apples, quinces and mulberries from the Belgrave Estate.
Certain items from the dessert menu were selected to be "in course of preparation" in the kitchen, whilst the finished dishes are shown on the table and sideboard in the dining room.
A William Morris design was selected and supplied for the curtains, which complemented the interior. William Morris was a particularly good choice for the textiles as he was both an inspiration and of practical assistance to the career of Ernest Gimson.
Replica floral and fern arrangements were created for the table and also the fireplace as a fire is unlikely to have been set or used in August. The fixed book case was fitted with faux books.
The kitchen, was refurbished to create the illusion that the dessert course as shown in the Dining Room is being prepared. In particular, the cook is making an apple and quince pie.
Jellies were an important part of the Victorian diet. A jelly stand and hand stitched bag were replicated to show how jellies needed to be strained free of impurities before the clear liquid jelly was poured into moulds. The fancy and decorated jelly can be seen on the dining table. The educational significance is to show how simple dishes we take for granted today would be laborious to make in Victorian times.
Wherever possible we prefer to utilise item relating to the House. With this in mind we replicated the 18th/19th century mousetrap long associated with Belgrave so that a working replica could be used to demonstrate how the original functioned.
The kitchen was arranged as if the staff have briefly left the room. As a piece of fun, we supplied a dish of replica Leicester cheese ready for the dining table, which a mouse has happily discovered having safely bypassed the mousetrap on the floor!
An interpretative booklet was supplied to aid staff and visitors. In addition, Replicawarehouse contributed copy on the refurbished rooms and other rooms for the audio tape available to visitors to the Hall.
Images courtesy of Belgrave Hall, Leicester City Council.
