Geffrye Museum

Lonely Planet review

Definitely Shoreditch's most accessible sight, this 18th-century ivy-clad series of almshouses with a herb garden draws you in immediately. The museum is devoted to domestic interiors, with each recently renovated room of the main building furnished to show how the homes of the relatively affluent middle class would have looked from Elizabethan times right through to the end of the 19th century.

A postmodernist extension completed in 1998 contains several 20th-century rooms (a flat from the 1930s, a room in the contemporary style of the 1950s, a 1990s converted warehouse complete with Ikea furniture) as well as a lovely herb garden, gallery for temporary exhibits, design centre with works from the local community, shop and restaurant.

Another development has been the exquisite restoration of a historic almshouse interior (adult/under 16yr £2 /free). It's the absolute attention to detail that impresses, right down to the vintage newspaper left open on the breakfast table. The setting is so fragile, however, that this small almshouse is only open twice a month a month (usually on a Wednesday and Saturday).