we live now, with the museum's director Sonia Solicari stating that: "“Interestingly, the almshouses are beginning to look like a viable model for 21st-century housing ... Each person had the essentials, a bed and a table, and relied on itinerant food sellers, bakehouses and bathhouses. People are thinking about pod living now, and how we can make these smaller homes work. There’s an idea where our home is just a base and we get everything else we need from outside the home in shared and communal spaces. There are new artists’ homes in Barking and Dagenham like this — made with communal and shared spaces as an integral part of the plan. The home of the future is looking a lot like the past.” In 2022, the museum held a Festival of Sleep and a Winter Festival, and the BBC series Antiques Roadshow filmed a toys and childhood special at the museum. In 2023 the museum began to host exhibitions exploring the meaning of home to diverse communities, with disability rights activist Paul Darke curating an exhibition displaying toys that represent disability including characters from Ironside, The Simpsons and the Barbie collection. Architecture Several structures connected with the museum are listed on the National Heritage List for England. The main museum building is Grade I listed and the niche in the northwest corner of the forecourt of the museum is listed Grade II*. The forecourt wall, gates and railings to the museum are also Grade II* listed, and the two K6 telephone boxes on Kingsland Road outside the museum are listed Grade II. In 2021 the museum reopened following an extensive rebuilding programme. Statue of Robert Geffrye Above the Museum's former entrance is a statue of the benefactor who financed the initial almshouses (not the museum which now occupies those buildings), Robert Geffrye. Geffrye was a merchant whose wealth was partly derived from the forced labour and trading of enslaved Africans. The statue is a replica replacing the 1723 original which was moved to the new almshouses in 1912 when the building was sold. Following the refurbishment of the museum and the reorientation of the site entrance towards Hoxton Station, the side of the building with the statue is now the back of the museum,. In July 2020 the museum held a consultation on the potential removal of the statue, with 79.4% of local people voting to take the statue