In 2023, Chanelle Brown was an Assistant Researcher for the renovation project, Real Rooms. For a 6-month period, she worked alongside the curatorial team at the Museum of the Home to re-design and research new immersive period-rooms, and diverse stories for a more inclusive visitor experience. Brown worked on the beloved 1970s Front Room by Michael McMillan, focusing on incorporating a garden space.
Auntie Hillary, a long-time family friend and avid grower, shared her stories of learning agriculture whilst harvesting yams on her aunt’s farm, and planting fruit and vegetables during horticulture classes at school in Jamaica. Hillary moved to London in the seventies, now she keeps her own garden in Chingford; she calls it her ‘sanctuary’, and it reminds her of life in the West Indies.