Exhibition explores East End lives through the ages

Museum director Sonia Solicari said the idea for the exhibition came from requests from visitors to see "more diverse stories of home"

Family photos, velvet cushions and treasured ornaments are just some of the items on display as a new exhibition aims to reflect the lives of the multicultural east London community through the ages.

Rooms Through Time at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton takes visitors on a journey through seven rooms, across the decades from 1878 and into the future.

Museum director Sonia Solicari said the idea for the exhibition came from requests from visitors to see "more diverse stories of home".

"We start the story in a townhouse in 1878 belonging to a family who recently returned to the UK from Colonial India and end in 2049 in a converted flat," she said.

"It is very much an invention-led idea of the future, hopefully people will find it positive in the fact that there are solutions."

A room from a Jewish tenement flat in 1913 is another on display

One of the rooms, set in 1956, tells the story of newlyweds Kathleen and Jack who are getting ready for a big night out at the Galtymore dancehall in Cricklewood.

The dressing table has items on it that they would have packed up in suitcases back home in Ireland before they set out on a new life in London.

Meanwhile, a terraced house in 1978 depicts the living room of a family who have gathered around the television for the premiere of BBC drama series Empire Road.

The show depicted life for the African-Caribbean, East Indian and South Asian residents of an ethnically diverse street in Birmingham.

A room set in 1956 tells the story of newlyweds Kathleen and Jack who are getting ready for a big night out at the Galtymore dancehall in Cricklewood

In contrast to the 1970s furnishings and bright colours, the Innovo Room of the Future is bare and practical. It explores how we will live alongside technology and cope with changes in society.

Other rooms featured include ones from a Jewish tenement flat in 1913 and an ex-council house shared by LGBTQIA+ renters in 2005.

Rooms Through Time opens to the public on Tuesday 23 July and is free to enter.

The Innovo Room of the Future explores how we will live alongside technology and cope with changes in society