Researchers in east London are looking in to how people imagine the lives of those who lived in their homes before them.

A new exhibition opened today at the Geffrye Museum, staged by a team from London University’s Queen Mary Mile End campus, which explores the hidden history of the home.

Their research is about people’s understanding and attitudes to the past history of where they live, from the physical things they inherit such as messages on the walls or a child’s height chart on a doorframe, to their knowledge of previous inhabitants’ class or culture.

Dr Caron Lipman, one of four researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Geography, said: “Our exhibition looks at how the stories were uncovered and the complex ways people reflect on the significance of these former residents to get a sense of their past.”

The free exhibition, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of a ‘living with the past’ project, is on the Lower Concourse of the Geffrye Museum in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, 10am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday, and runs till February 9. Overground East London Line to Hoxton.