One of the most popular exhibitions ever held at London’s Museum of the Home was ‘The West Indian Front Room’ in 2005. The exhibition centred around an immersive recreation of the front room found in many Caribbean homes in post-war Windrush Britain.
Its curator, Michael McMillan, lovingly recreated the front room of his childhood: swirling tropical-print carpet, a sofa topped with crochet doilies, a glass cabinet filled with tiny treasures and walls proudly displaying an art collection whose curation included family graduation photographs and images of the Last Supper.
Visitors were moved, delighted and sometimes brought to tears by the experience of stepping back into the homes of their childhoods. I should know, I was one of them. I was immediately reminded of the Bristol home of my Jamaican grandmother, Enid Thompson.