Dennis Severs with Simon Pettet (standing)

Have you ever wondered about the lives of the people who lived at 18 Folgate St in the nineteen eighties – Dennis Severs and his circle – those who worked together, creating what is now known as Dennis Severs’ House? To me, their stories have always been a subject of at least as great interest as the tale of the fictional Huguenot family.

Two years ago, it was my great delight when the Spitalfields Trust invited me to reinvent Dennis Severs’ tours as part of renewal of the house after the pandemic. Now I am thrilled that they have invited me back to script and direct an entirely new tour, exploring the real lives of the residents of 18 Folgate St in the rooms where they lived and worked.

My new tour is SIMON’S STORY, focussing on Simon Pettet, a young and gifted ceramicist who met Dennis outside Heaven, the nightclub beneath Charing Cross Station, as an eighteen-year-old art student in 1983 and moved in with him shortly after.

Personally and creatively, Dennis and Spitalfields opened a whole new world of possibilities that allowed Simon’s work to develop in a unique way. He reimagined traditional blue-and-white pottery, employing vernacular techniques and historical references to create the pieces of delftware which enliven 18 Folgate St today.

Yet in 1984, at nineteen years old, Simon Pettet was diagnosed HIV+ as one of the earliest cases in this country and he died at the age of just twenty-eight in 1993, leaving ten years of work including tiles, profile pots, a barber’s bowl, a money box, a marriage plate, obelisks and mugs.

SIMON’S STORY is devised from interviews I undertook with Patrick Handscombe who lived at 18 Folgate St at that time and is performed by actor Joel Saxon who plays the role of ‘Paddy’, narrating the intimate tale of Simon and his relationship with Dennis Severs.

The new tour is launched to complement the exhibition MAKING HISTORY: THE CERAMIC WORK OF SIMON PETTET, opening on 4th May and running until 4th June, curated by Rupert Thomas, formerly editor of The World of Interiors.

Click here to book for both the exhibition and tour at Dennis Severs’ House

Simon Pettet’s self portrait tile at Dennis Severs’ House

Simon Pettet (1965-1993)

Dennis Severs’ House, 18 Folgate St, Spitalfields, E1 6BX