The Georgian House Museum

The Georgian House is a well-preserved late 18th century town house. I carefully opened the door, as if I was trying not to wake his ghost or maybe scare myself into an immediate interaction with the host. The door was black… faded…double.

Full video at the end of this story

Mr Pinney was born in 1740 and he died in 1818. He was a rich sugar plantation owner and slave owner from Bristol. John Frederick, his cousin, left land in the west country and several slave plantations on the small island of Nevis in the Caribbean— and Mr Pinney took over.

We were to look at the wall dressed in white paper, enlarged words with headings for our reading, interesting us with poetic persuasion and the genius of the town house layout. You would’ve guessed that we merely scanned it, finding it hard to hide our keenness to klunk our way through the house. We were given a laminated paper, explaining to us what were in each room.

As it was, there was a portrait of John Pinney and his second son Azariah. Though I don’t believe this was included in the video, we felt the scenes we would film would be too much in the open, so we only went where it was private just us and the ghost of John Pinney and his son.

We managed to capture two photos in the first room we enetered from the hallway.

This was the ceiling he would look up at, the walls that would hear him speak to those whom were seated. The floor that would hold the weight of his steps and breathe in the outsoles of leather and rubber under his feet.

Find the clip with the shadows of the chandelier (at the end of this story)… I wanted to step over that rope and bathe myself in the shadows; synergise my steps with the breath of the past and reintroduce to the home — laughing bodies and faces that were no longer 2 dimensional but 4D and present. But of course I did not do that off camera, the ropes do wonders at invoking obedience.

I do not hold any opinions on Mr Pinneys occupation, but the home was very interesting to walk through and that’s the view I hold throughout this story.

In this room you will find the painting John Pinney commissioned of the island Nevis. I lowered the camera, so that you could catch a glimpse 0.43 secs, but you can also see it peeping over the pink screen painting.

⬆️This room is a ladies painting room, or you can imagine it as yours. Cladded in dusty pink and the cushion of the chairs nodding knowingly but with flower patterns. I gave a bit of a scare with my zooming, that painting near the door- I hope you did not jump too far behind your skin.

Will it surprise you? If the piano in this room (seen in video) is signed and dated by Frederick Beck? How about John Pinney purchasing a harpsichord for his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, also known sweetly as Betsy- In the hopes that she would become mistress of music…

This was our favourite room. We filmed it from the window on the far right , revealing the rest of the room with all its beauty towards the left. See that shoe lying there on the wooden floor by the chair and chest of drawer? His feet were still in it— if you squint maybe you could see the invisible presence —the translucent or barely visible wispy shape in the form of him. If you look even closer, you could see a dent there in the bed.

Further photos below of what to expect if you haven’t yet watched the video, or solely for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you so much for reading