All language subtitles for If Walls Could Talk Episode 1_The Living Room

[Music]

we take an awful lot for granted about

life in a modern house it's full of

technology to make life more convenient

it's comfortable it's private but all

this has evolved over many many

centuries every single room in a modern

house has a really fascinating history

this time I'll be exploring the story

the living room the room that has gone

through more changes than any other in

the house it's pretty clear what goes on

in the kitchen in the bedroom in the

bathroom their functions are clearly

defined much harder to say what goes on

in the living room of the house in this

house the old slunt room has been

knocked into what used to be the dining

room making a big multi-purpose living

room space that that energy could be

lobbying out on this sofa watching

television and at this end you might be

dressed up entertaining your friends so

it's very very flexible and this has

gone on throughout history the living

rooms had all sorts of different names

it's been called the lounge the parlor

the reception room drawing room family

room television room but there's been

one thing that's always remain the same

it's been a place for families and

friends to come together it's a spacial

space that idea has always been at the

heart of the living room

and nowhere more so than in medieval

England today most people are lucky

enough to live in their own homes but in

the Middle Ages it was much more common

to live communally even in the home of

your employer and instead of living

rooms these houses had large open Hall

so to find out how this living space was

organized I've come to meet historian

John Goodall in a 15th century farmhouse

wow this is pretty impressive isn't it

yes holes are the oldest spaces in

English domestic architecture they've

been the centerpieces of houses really

from the Dark Ages to the present even

today in your house you may have a Lobby

that's called a hall and why did they

last such a long time and what's so

great about the Great Hall well very

laughs at some time because they embody

in the Middle Ages a very important

concept communal living the idea of a

household where people come together and

they live eat together and share

conversation together so it is an

architectural expression of a social

unit the household and that's what it's

always been and that concept is so

powerful in English social history the

household was the center of medieval

life from the palace of the King to the

humblest peasant running it was a

communal unit of workers servants

relatives all living in the same space

and it was in the open hall that they'd

eat gatherings on to the fire and sleep

safely behind bolted doors this is a

very interesting example of a building

some middling wealthy man of the

fifteenth century and the kind of space

that he would have created for his small

household of servant and his own family

but it's very hierarchical indeed to a

medieval eye there are lots of invisible

delineations in this hall there's a main

body of a hall a fireplace and what in a

grand house would be a raised step or

dais with a high table so if I were a

miserable lonely serf and I came in here

I would know that I really shouldn't go

up to that end that's not my place to is

it you wouldn't put your foot on the

line of the dais and you would just know

that instinctively in much the same way

that we know to cure at a bus stop they

yeah it's all these things which are

culturally ingrained in you and you

understand the space this hall might not

have a dais but it does have a top table

where even the furniture was arranged

according to hierarchy

I think the farmer would have been

sitting on this because it's not a

lonely stored it is a chair and he sits

here at his table which is called a

board because it is very literally a

board on top of trestles and because he

is the most important person in the

household he's sitting at a chair under

a board he is the chairman of the board

that's the origin of expression you

would also of course have been sitting

on that side facing down the hall

looking at everybody as they sat

together the chairman of the board would

have sat there and in the middle the

focal point of life in the hall was the

central half literally focused in Latin

but with no chimney the smoke could only

escape through the large open windows or

the tiled in the roof the problem with

these three central house was the

horrible black smelly smoke and here is

a medieval man's list of three reasons

to leave a house the first is a white

for the wicked tongue the second is a

leaky roof and the third perhaps the

most important other days when smoke and

smolder might in his eyes till he is

bleary-eyed or blind course in the

throat and he causeth and curseth in

fact it's so smoking here I'm still like

coughing and cursing and going together

the Thresher

by the late 16th century a new

phenomenon was entering domestic

architecture one that would transform

the living rooms in the smoky open Hall

of the past it looks like a classic

English country cottage it was built by

sheep farmers rice at the beginning of

the 17th century but although it looks

like traditional to us it actually

contains something revolutionary inside

and that's something was the chimney

this is the exciting new thing it's the

brick chimney breast it contains the

fire stopped the smoke going everywhere

and it splits the big open hall into

separate rooms for the first time so

this one here is a kitchen cooking

eating and through here we've got a

recognizable living room for the first

time you could sit here in front of the

fire enjoying yourself the other change

is that the big grassy masters of the

hall has been sealed off now there's a

whole extra story in there the bedrooms

are upset

so it's this technological breakthrough

as a chimney it allows the modern house

as we'd recognize it today to come into

existence

chimneys had been a feature of the

grandest manners in castle since the

12th century but they were expensive to

build when the open hearth remained a

powerful concept so chimneys wouldn't

reach middling homes until the late 16th

century now the house was subdivided and

it's fire was closed off with brick it

became a darker place peaceful so to

illustrate how living spaces were lit

lighting historian Maureen Dillon has

brought a collection of lights that

would have been used in a cottage just

like this one what's that funny-looking

thing there it's the rush light which

was first thought to have been used in

England before the Roman occupation made

from a common office rush dragged

through animal fat but this one's been

dipped in mutton but it was usually for

less offensive smells and less smoke for

sheeps now less than pigs when their fat

is burnt

yes the alternative to a rush light was

the tallow candle you make these by

repeatedly dipping widths of twisted

hemp or flax

into pots of boiling animal fat so that

was much browner and sort of dirty look

absolutely and what you've got there are

bits off the flesh from the animals bits

as hopeful it's a meat a meat flavours

candle flows with candle but but you'd

be very if you were starving to death

you would be quite happy to eat this oh

what a horrible thought before the

lights were lit the house has to be

sealed from drafts which burnt the

candles more quickly and wasted precious

money I'm using the shutter to shut the

wind I the I way the wind came in here

we go lighting the end of the rush light

oh it's melting and dripping fat you

know some people put a wet cloth

underneath to stop the grease down low

and can identity burning the candle at

both ends yes yes why not you just like

the other end like this lit rush lights

would last 20 minutes at most so burning

them at both ends was reserved only for

special occasions

so the advantage of this one is that

it's going to have less smoking it's

going to last a lot longer that is the

more you paid for the camphor you've got

a more like less smell less smoke so

this end of the market the very poor

they got the more smells the more smoke

and the less light so that's the third

candle out and we're just left with the

tiny cheap meat candle and you can see

how its Guses all the all these all the

fat is gushed down the side and it's

remaking very little right with lighting

so expensive rush lights were pulled

with the neighbors they'd take it in

terms to go round to each other's houses

not for measure but for work in the few

minutes of affordable artificial light

housewives would finish off vital

household tasks like spinning wool or

mending clothes now that I understand

just how hard it is to make rush light

and how quickly they burn I've got a

real new understanding just how valuable

they were and it also gives me a new

standing of how important the fire is

not only for once that sunlight in the

evening just potential and insight in

places like Cumbria the fire was so

important that they kept it burning for

generations it never went out this room

would be called the fire room rather

than the living room in comparison to

country cottages with their single

chimney the owners of grand houses and

palaces project it their wealth through

a profusion of chimney stacks by the

late 16th century there are two really

obvious stated symbols which marked out

the houses of the wealthier like Hampton

Court Palace here the chimneys and the

glass windows there's a huge number of

chimneys here at Hampton Court

the implication is a lot of fireplaces a

lot of woods being burnt a lot of land

to provide the wood glass had been

around since Roman times it was

prominent in medieval churches within

the 16th century makes a great leap out

of churches into people's houses and it

was very valuable but you might even

pick up your glass windows and take them

with you when you moved house

in order to see the impact that glass

had on the living room

I've come to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire

famously known as Hardwick Hall more

glass than wall this is a totally new

kind of house I think it's a litigation

England greatest architectural

achievement I just love it all those

windows send out beams of light and

culture across the countryside it's not

a house for defense or for farming it

doesn't have any function at all really

apartment to impress people and it's got

a new type of living room that's all

about expressing your status to get in

fact it's a house intended for showing

off Hardwick Hall was built by betters

Hardwick the counter to Shrewsbury and

the second richest woman in the land

finished in 1597 just three years before

the country cottage I visited this is

what money could buy instead of just one

living room this house had a whole suite

of them Hardwick Skeeter Andrew barber

is showing me round yep this is where

everyone would have come into Hardwick

for the first time through the front

door and this will be all a throng of

busy servants running hither and yon now

this is still a great hall but it's not

really the heart of the household

anymore is it

instead of the Great Hall a new room

called the Great Chamber was the focus

of houses like this one at Hardwick

guests reached it by climbing a

dizzyingly designed ceremonial banking

if you're standing here as we are you

just feel like you're a little dwarf and

here's this superhuman circus going out

to I don't know I feel that God might be

sitting at the top of it we can see the

Rays of his light coming down around the

corner yes great Lantern windows some of

the South Tower is what he's waiting for

you up there to prepare you to go into

the presence of best herself dearly dad

I don't know I think we ought to come on

[Music]

the whole household would have been

welcomed in the medieval Hall but now

only the most important visitors were

invited up into the Great Chamber David

Michael catch the look on it from Narnia

[Music]

and here it is a high-grade chamber Wow

bathed in lights and the enormous

windows this giant reception room was

used for parties and feasts and

entertaining on a lavish scale with the

smoke contained by the enormous

fireplace best Commission's on of

England's list striking interiors and

what are the key features that you need

then for a top-notch great chamber like

this one well you need to show off who

you are and how wealthy you are your

status and so you do that by your

furnishings and in this room there still

exists quite a bit of the furnishing and

decoration that Bess had the tapestries

they would have been very much more

highly colored they faded a lot there

were embroidered cushions on stools in

here which were embroidered with silver

and gold thread and then up above it is

wonderful allegorical frieze would have

been brilliantly colored I think that's

what one's got to bear in mind coming

into this great room your senses have

been assaulted by the amount of light

from these great lantern windows and

then the color and the gorgeous quality

of the textile after the glorious great

chamber there were two server rooms into

which guests might be invited first with

the semi-public

long gallery which ran the full length

of the house and was crammed with

extraordinary portraits and seconds of

the most exclusive room of all there was

drawing chamber you only came into this

room with drawing room if you were in

Betty's very intimate circle you were a

very close friend this was the Holy of

Holies of the house we've literally

withdrawn from the common herd into the

withdrawing room and the withdrawing

room over time will lose its width and

it will just become the drawing room

absolutely what intrigues me about rooms

like this all the very formal rules of

behavior and hierarchy that you can read

about in courtesy books from the 16th

and 17th centuries like the more

important person gets the better chair

and the less important person gets a

Western the more important person sits

near the fire the next person sits a

little bit further away and so on and so

on and so on and I've even read that

there's a portrait of an important

person on the wall you can't even turn

your back to it oh really

yes that really is something with their

progression of hierarchical rooms

Elizabethan houses were seen as

microcosms of society at large in which

everybody had their rightful place yet

better Hardwick cannot be born into her

high position

she prisoner through a series of

judicious marriages thinking about

others reasoning and was there was the

opportunity for people to rise it was

just starting to change and here is the

person who did it she started from

fairly low down the pecking order and

landed up at the very typical you know

Horace Walpole's famous poem about this

I he's a wonderful place to be gorgeous

it gave four times the bridal bed she

warmed and each time so well performed

but when death spoiled each husband's

billing he left the widow every shilling

it's true amazing thing it is true I

think it best realized today she would

be a very clever footballers wife move

away for the whole succession of men get

money off each one and then she build a

footballer's mansion like this with gold

taps absolutely that's how I'm afraid

other the decent towns grew into the

cities as a 17th century improved glass

making techniques much cheaper glass

flooded the market in the 17th century

the sash window was invented and will

become standard in most home leading

King William the third to have a flash

of inspiration

[Music]

nine-thirty I'm assessing the palace for

the window type it's a new tax that was

brought in in 1896 by William desert

who's this gentleman behind me

so your basic house has to pay two

shillings a year but if you've got more

than ten windows you have to pay six

shillings here you've got twenty windows

it goes up to ten shillings here and

every year they sort of Nod jobs about

the demands just a little bit more so by

1789 he had a certain window house

you're paid 30 shillings here which is

two and a half thousand pounds and it's

a tax on light essentially the more

light you let into your house and more

you got a place I call that daylight

robbery the king of course didn't pay a

penny for his palace of 200 windows but

by the 1740s it was easy to assess the

influence of his tax on the urban

landscape so what effect is this tax

have on all people's houses it explains

why you get these weird Glocks up

windows in Georgian cities in 1747 they

changed the rules about window tax and

if you had more than ten windows you had

to pay six that's the window from that

point on do any one with more than ten

windows bake 11 blocks a couple up so

here is this this family is clearly

God's Manning 11 windows down to nine

and this gets them in under the band and

that is saving them the equivalent of

several hundred pounds a year it's light

window tax the middle classes in Jordan

England were considerably better off

than they ever had been with the

expansion of British colonies abroad and

victorious wars against the Dutch and

the French by the 18th century Britain

had established itself as the greatest

trading nation on earth

now a new wealthy merchant class had

money to burn on luxury items for their

homes and they would transform the elite

withdrawing rooms of the past into the

newly prosperous drawing rooms of

Georgian England this is an entirely new

source of drawing room it's the Georges

urban middle class living room and if

you look at it you might think

to be lavish and luxurious but this is

what the 18th century brought luxury for

people who weren't Paris oh crap this is

the first floor of the house sources the

piano nobile a and this is a noble room

it's very decorative it's feminine in

character it's a place where ladies

would entertain each other and you can

send some this drawing room that the

family who live to have lots of friends

in the neighborhood and that they've

been sucked into the new Georgian

praised for having parties and for

entertainment I really like ray all

those chairs backed up against the wall

there so that they can just be drawn

forward when the guests arrive and the

phenomenon that would have the greatest

social impact on the drawing-room with

the tea party I've dressed up to have

one of my own my guests are the

historian Amanda Vickery and tea

historian James Pettigrew and the fact

that the lady that has diddled is in the

drawing room was because the Kings are

so expensive you never let your servants

make the t-handle the team store the tea

it was always kept in the room where you

where you drank it so and then no longer

we going to leave it well about three

minutes second taking tea was such an

important indicator of gentility that

families were now painted in their new

drawing rooms surrounded by their

expensive tea were I think this might be

ready now so if we poured it into the

little bowl alongside tea urns and

silver spoons came sugar tongs and

dainty Chinese teacups with no handles

all quite a bit like drug paraphernalia

the special equipments are heating and

preparing and but it was rather than I

there lies the lady of the house is

individually serving her guests so it's

a gesture of hospitality dressed in

one's finest clothes and the best room

of the house the taking of tea became

governed by a complex code of etiquette

I also want to ask you in paintings I've

seen people holding to scuttle if I can

manage it sort of holding it was rather

like that and really because things with

such tiny balls this is really where the

pinkie started meows which today is

really not very acceptable and then some

ladies would hold it like this way i

delicately look in the pages I'd see

what this allowed was for use to show

off the fine white skin of your forearm

against the fine porcelain of the

Chinese bowl and really just saying look

I'm so wealthy that I'm not

to scrub fenders and black Lee's beep

I'm stoned am i holding that correctly

look fine do you approve I like the

little finger at ya Jeremy laughs

there'll be an accident that was worth

the wait

good can I ask what influenced all this

new hot drink tea business had on the

use of the drawing-room in the house as

people went out visiting more and more

in the Georgian period during afternoon

or after dinner and evening then this

would be the room where it would happen

and their endless references and Diaries

about people dropping around to this ISM

and stopping tea taking tea and then

going off for a walk or going on to the

next person to visit and so it seemed to

be an endless round of tea drinking

going on these are the props which allow

you to show off your polite manners you

know can you manage the gestures can you

manage all the equipment and I suppose

the drawing-room then is a kind of stage

set really for the exhibition of your

gentility the 18th century wasn't just a

boom time to the middle classes it also

saw an explosion in the building of

country houses fiber super rich and

these houses would eventually have an

impact on everybody's living rooms I've

come to one of the grandest houses of

the mall Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire

built by the Tory landowners and

Nathaniel curvin in 1758 I'm being taken

round by the architectural historian

Richard huling Richard I want to see a

really grand Georgian house I think I've

come to the right place why did they go

over the top and build what dr. Johnson

called a town hall house was intended

for display undoubtedly an awful lot of

the spaces inside are completely useless

so just to be very very large and very

very expensive and very very impressive

day-to-day the family lives in an

entirely separate wing the main house

was built purely for show is a giant

suite of reception rooms for

entertaining as well as party guests

Kedleston

also received hordes as a very new kind

of visitor and people were quite often

passing their time in visiting big

houses like this in the 18th century

learners they would give a small tip to

a housekeeper or some other senior

servant who would actually take them

round and show them the treasures okay

come on that's going how look

when your excellency just like today in

the 18th century visiting country houses

was the middle classes second favorite

hobby after gardening and tourists to

Kedleston was so numerous that its

housekeeper mrs. garnet even printed her

own guidebooks they were now starting

out on with his garnets tour and this is

the music room music group and what

we're supposed to be doing here is

admiring the pictures Kenaston Hall

became the 18th century's ideal house

and by admiring the paintings for

fixtures the fittings and the

proportions of its rooms

visitors could feel a bit of the owners

culture and knowledge rubbing off on

them unlike the palaces of the past

Kedleston was not designed as a suite of

increasingly exclusive living rooms but

lava as as open circuit through which

everyone could wander well this is quite

something isn't it why on earth would

you build a room like this in your house

well I suppose part of to demonstrate

that you have disposed to enclose but

also cause displayed his learning

because everything this room is taken

for mation roam and echoes like a temple

to doesn't it it's so undomesticated the

grand circuit in these Georgian houses

is to fill it up with people in a great

big party situation isn't it they're not

so much a suite of rooms of different

purposes anymore yeah they're a bit like

just an enormous nightclub and this

sprung floor was where they would have

been doing the dancing they would have

been doing the route let's take to the

floor then if you do this you can you

can I know my god

specialist beyond thing I've ever seen

does love those things the room doesn't

mean ones within there doesn't it like a

spinning top you get giddy just look

here sir

[Applause]

by the 18th century a new concept called

taste had arrived now the middle classes

were established in the market for

luxury

it was taste that set apart those with

knowledge of the rules of architecture

and interior design from the vulgar

nouveau riche this is a very sober and

masculine library next this is a bit of

a contrast isn't it

everywhere you look some expensive

material the chilly piece is made of

white marble and though these

unbelievably expensive sofas carved with

mermaids and tritones and gilded

originally an Arabian piece of furniture

called us suffer sofas became

fashionable in the 18th century thanks

to architects like Robert Adam and these

are among Georgian England's finest you

can see that you call it leaned back on

and you can imagine ladies push on the

front in their hoop skirts is that

correct well the relatively informal if

you consider in the 17th century most

people settled stools only the grandest

would have a chair with a back to it and

the idea of two people sitting on the

same seat it's quite conceivable in

double-entry terms actually having a

chair that's capable of taking more than

one person it takes us into a much more

informal it takes us into the 18th

century an alongside the sofas with

neoclassical incense burners

solid gold fixtures and fittings and a

crystal chandelier that was so expensive

to light that it was only used on very

special occasions so what does all this

mean for normal people in Georgian

England people who don't live in palaces

well if they were coming around and

doing the tour and this is gone at the

housekeeper and they could be going hmm

I could get a bit of this at home I

fancied that wallpaper I fancied those

curtains and it is true that designers

like Robert Adam and I'm producing these

catalogs they include enormous gratins

designs like whole houses or fishing

pavilions

but if you didn't have that sort of

money you could get Adams style through

your clock or maybe across the

decoration for your ceiling so this is

how our Socratic style filters down in

Georgian England to the masses it

becomes mass-market and Adams and the

other architects that I pay interesting

that they create brands for themselves

they don't just produce buildings

anymore they produce

entire idealistic interiors and the

ideal homes of Georgian England between

1750 and 1850 Britain established itself

not only as the leader of world trade

but as the manufacturing workshop of the

world producing everything from cotton

textiles and cheap China to cast-iron

fire surrounds and machine-made

furniture

Britain's abundance of household goods

would have a transformative effect on

the living room

so to see how Georgian taste has turned

into the Victorian passion for

knickknacks

I've come to a small Museum in London to

meet its curator David Milne and to help

him dust the myriad of objects filling

every inch of the front room David tell

me about your ornament here well we got

it as you can see a great collection of

everything made in 19th century

industrial England the Victorian

household advices that it will take a

brisk girl three hours to dust the front

room do you spend that long doing no no

it's a girl office Laurel North an over

decorated parlor with a way of

individualizing your home among the

identical suburban terraces being built

all over the land and period household

manuals by gurus like mrs. Hampton

offered endless advice on how to

embellish your living room with Flemish

cups with royal memorabilia fake singing

birds and Christmas fumes in glass jars

it's clear that there are now more

possessions in one Victorian room than

in the entire Tudor house say David come

on reveal the truth would you like to

live in this room

no why not it's it's just too crazy and

you know you spent too much time in this

room and it kind of comes down on you

it's oppressive isn't it a little bit

yeah yeah everything's dark and

overpowering and the hundreds of things

everywhere now not only was the parlor

to be filled with one's best things but

it was also a sacred place to be

reserved to one's best behavior this is

very interesting

mrs. Ponton tells us that the Victorian

parlor has a mole purpose in the

household she says that in here fine

manners are a necessity because this

room holds our dearest treasures you see

little of the seamy side of life in here

she says that even when a husband and

wife are alone in the parlor they still

gots behavior no pipe no slippers and

this will reinforce the mutual respect

for each other that they have she says

and this is a surer means of happiness

than anything

she knows alongside fine manners and

fine things the Industrial Age also saw

the arrival of gas lighting discovered

in the late 17th century as a byproduct

of burning coal it wasn't until the 19th

century that gas was first used for

lighting not in the home though but on

London's streets 1600 working gas

light's still exists in London today so

I've come to think John Smith Square to

meet sills banner one of the last lumped

licence left 47 years of British Gas was

he doing good gas lighting was first

demonstrated in London on foul-mouth by

the German businessman Frederick Windsor

in 1807 it was such a sensation that

people flocked to see us at work

[Music]

don't go look at hiring off the lovely

golden glow isn't it very soothing

I'm saving life and what do you think

people thought when this miraculous new

light appeared it was received with

mixed feelings some people thought is a

great invention yeah but other people

thought it was messing about with nature

because it should be lighting the day

and darker nature and I say to

individual certain people's business as

well oh yes

there's talk of the ladies of the night

shall we say it was like in the areas

they used to work and they didn't employ

the fasteners how many lumps done were

they all over London a 1-ton is about

60,000 and so I went around and turn

them all on every night yes

I have evening fell an army of

lamplighters headed out to light every

lump by hand with the same equipment as

I'm using now that all she works this is

a lamplighters torch and if you push the

loan in through the bottom a length and

then three 1500 good seems you need to

give it a good squeeze to get the air to

go up through the pole to make the flame

come out and self totem like the left

come on come on oh what fun okay like um

I have some magic Kosovo geez cut well

done okay only fifty nine thousand nine

hundred and ninety nine months ago

that's right my tokus Illinois but don't

get to last one will be turning off the

first one oh yeah yeah that's this carry

on

by the mid 19th century a new network of

gas pipes running directly into the

house thus applying London's homes the

fire plates the skills the center of the

parlor that get allowed householders to

supplement their fire lights candles and

oil lamps for the first time

[Music]

in lumen ated air was what they call gas

lighting when it first appeared in

London and you can see why it was being

magical to see the air bursting into

flame like that this is quite an early

gas fitting the pipe goes straight into

a naked flame and it's a less friendly

life I think than oil it's little colder

and it has many other disadvantages

although it's cheap and good it's so

bright in fact that when it first

appeared people thought that it would

damage their optic nerves and it could

explode and is incredibly dirty sooty

stuff that sort of destroys your living

room and that's one explanation to these

deep Victorian colors that we get 18th

century bright light colors become rich

reds and greens and things that just

won't show the soot as much and it also

sucks oxygen out of the atmosphere so

when you hear about all these Victorian

ladies fainting the whole time yes

partly with courses but it was partly

because the oxygen in their rooms have

been burnt by the gas lighting

in comparison to the rush lights of the

16th century and the highly taxed

candles of the georgian drawing-room

cheap gas would now flood the parlor

with lights and bring significant

changes to how it was used and how the

huge transformation that gas lighting

force about was it extended the length

of people's evenings can you imagine

what a change that must have been to be

able to stay up late and have loads of

light my goodness in fact they had to

invent new ways of passing the time and

household manuals now have chapters on

topics like recreations for a long

winter evening and ladies are advised to

make youthful things out of fancy work

that they can sell to each other at

bazaars like why doing it albums and

polka work and collage covered fire

screens as the middle classes are

filling their parlors with their

mass-produced

ornaments an alternative movement soon

emerged to build a very new or very old

kind of house

this is Witek Manor in Wolverhampton and

guiding me around is the writer agent

Ennis wood aging you could be forgiven

for thinking that this house had been

here since to the time it's a perfect

piece of merry England isn't it it's

just for a minute it for sure I think

but this was built in Queen Victoria's

Golden Goose built in 1887 built by the

industrialist field or Mandor it's the

ultimate house of the Arts and Crafts

movement its followers rejected the ugly

machine-made designs of the Industrial

Age and urged a return to the

handcrafted architectural glories of the

past there's got wonderful irony that so

many people of man de classe I had that

he's made his money from industry and

now he rejects industry he rejects the

Industrial Revolution so this is mr.

mandus drawing-room and what I think is

fascinating about this house is the fact

that we can pinpoint the exact moment at

which Samuel manda had the inspiration

coming exactly yes 1884 Wolverhampton

and a lecture on the House Beautiful by

Oscar Wilde railing against the

vulgarity at the Victorian home Oscar

Wilde urged that taste should return to

public life taking his cue from the

designer William Morris Wilde House

beautiful didn't need a profusion of

fake birds and glass jars but instead

just a few carefully chosen objects made

by hand well I've got a lot of sympathy

for his views which are that things

should be handcrafted class people

should take pride in their labour but I

wanna clear all of his products with

jolly expensive weren't they yeah I mean

that that is the irony you couldn't

afford this kind of stuff if you were a

labourer Martha's crowd our socialist

and yet they're producing material as

only rich people can afford he never

actually came here no Morris although he

was an interior decorator in the way

that we would understand it he also run

a very profitable mail-order business so

demanders could just that you know could

just have ordered up textiles or chairs

or carpets or whatever I find it quite

extraordinary really that you could do

that in this whole house beautiful

concept is about putting a lot of

thought and effort into your house and

yet you can get it through the post

but the drawing-room was not the only

living room in the house

so the Victorian rich now had a

multiplicity of living spaces to be used

for different surfaces by different

members of the family at different times

of day so this is living room tastic

isn't it what's that one survivor

alongside the library were Ingle nuts

for writing letters morning rooms for

reading the newspapers there were games

rooms for smoking and billiards

as a billiard room this is where the man

would have hung out and the largest room

of all was a centerpiece of the house

the great parlor the quintessential a

Victorian interior yeah it's not called

the Great Hall people at the the great

parlor I mean it's a big living hall

it's a sort of you know at the end of

the century living hall but it is

modeled on great halls of medieval

England it's the end of the road for the

Great Hall isn't it or you can even

argue is the apotheosis of the great

it's a comfortable Great Hall which is

quite an achievement what's interesting

is that now the living rooms really sort

of come of age if you like because the

Great Hall that we're in is only one of

many different living rooms in this

house and the act of being in an inner

living room has become specialized

hasn't it the guys hang out in the

billiard room or the library and the

women in the sort of the morning room or

the drawing-room and this great parlor

becomes a sort of a neutral zone it

becomes a sort of space where they can

take and sort of spend time together so

you think that its chief function is as

we just did

coming into the house for us to see Wow

yeah it's a status claim apart from

anything else this is the room that you

walk into and safeguard isn't it just

beautiful and you know corn isn't it

and it wasn't just the great halls of

Victorian industrialists that harks back

to the medieval age at the back-to-backs

in Birmingham a series of

nineteenth-century workers houses whole

families still played out their lives in

one room it's a real extreme contrast

the aristocracy at this time I've got

more different types of living room than

ever before or ever since in fact but at

the same time most people miss working

people were still living in a way that's

much more familiar from the medieval

times they were still having just one

space in this case the nine people and

they were doing their cooking their

entertainment and they were even working

all in this one single space but even

here this multifunctional front room was

still a room for best warmth by the fire

from the range and equipped with the

latest Gaslight it was also the only

room in the house to have wallpaper and

a smattering of best things although

this is quite a small humble room in

some ways the people living here

we're definitely proud of it and it's

room to show off to visitors there lots

little touches here like the super white

neck curtains and the fringe on the

fireplace and the Staffordshire

ornaments and in fact we know that the

houses of the bay windows cost more to

rent than the ones without because these

bay windows functions sort of shop

window to your housekeeping you could

put your ornaments there there's this

Greek drumming expression kids for

curtains and everybody in this Court had

kippers the curtains and that means that

they would eat cheap kippers in order to

be able to afford and more expensive

fancy curtains the Industrial Revolution

might have made technology and taste

available to everybody in theory but it

didn't bring equal quality of life the

excessive number of living rooms in the

upper-class home reveals the amount of

leisure time which people had to fill

with an infinite number of pastimes the

parlour was the middle-class housewife's

domain we're husband and wife might

spend there

Jennings together and for working people

hard at it 16 hours a day six days a

week any enjoyment of their lunch room

was limited to family mealtimes

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so I'll sit by the turn of the 20th

century in new built streets like this

on the living room was going to

experience its greatest transformation

yet there were two reasons for this

firstly there was the growth of leisure

time the working week shrank down to

only 40 hours in the 1900 the second

reason was the arrival of electricity

electricity had been discovered in the

18th century but it wasn't until the

invention of the light bulb in 1878 that

it turned from being a scientific

curiosity into practical applications of

the home

this sudden availability of cheap clean

light would be the first step in

transforming the Victorian living room

into a recognizably modern space the

first light bulbs the seemingly

miraculous object that came in all

shapes colors and sizes so in order to

see some of these novelties at work I've

come to the largest private collection

of light bulbs in the world in a small

house in Wimbledon owned rather

appropriately by a man called Mae I

never seen so many light bulbs for the

pioneering homeowner the first thing to

do is to convert one's gas fittings this

is a standard wall bracket 1880s bracket

and it would have had a get guest jet

there's a little jet you see you take

the gas burner out you screw in the

English lamp holder the tapered end fits

into the gas fitting and now and this

wire runs off to is about the real suit

to the mains yes and then it should

light on it all looks a little bit Heath

Robinson hey very good no less on 20

volts so this is pioneering Hogan I

didn't even remember your father only

the most enthusiastic people have been

issues I'm thinking myself into my life

now the victorian person thing that

happening for the first time is been

extraordinary

despite this extraordinary breakthrough

electric light could only be afforded by

the very rich a single bulb cost more

than a week's wages and power was only

available from private domestic

generators it was when local power

stations serving communities began to

appear that electricity became available

to the matters this is a special light

bulb made for edge of the seventh

coronation in 1980 that's great that's

curious can I can I turn it on

you might yes pleasure you're gonna tell

the light off so we can see it better

there he goes he's glowing Esther's a

hundred and eight years old light bulb

has quite something by the 1920s as the

infrastructure improved the benefits of

electric light would finally be seen

further down the social scale what do

you think the impact was the biggest

problem was could I afford to change

over if that was a big investment

maintain the film honestly I mean in

modern terms it doesn't seem much but I

understand you could get your house

wired up in the 1920s for about 25

pounds yeah but when you're earning well

25 shillings one pound 25 I think in

modern terms a week it every a factor

that motor thing yes yes

for many householders it wasn't just the

cost of conversing some gap that made

them hold back there were still problems

with the electricity supply in the early

days of electricity everybody who

haven't had their own generator in their

house as time went on towns began to get

their own power stations but the problem

was they all produce different currents

different voltages and that meant that

anybody producing electrical goods had

to customize their products to suit

different areas so you get chaos really

you get all these different kinds of

plugs all these different kinds of

sockets and switches appearing on the

market it's very difficult to develop a

national product it was the creation of

the National Grid in 1934 that changed

everything as electric power is

centralized and pylons sprang up living

rooms could finally be wired up to a

single national network at cheaper cost

so the first time the National Grid

standardized the voltage so it's the

same across the whole country so now you

could sell the same lamp to the whole

nation all these new electrical gadgets

just flooded onto the market and people

began to buy their electric hoover's

their electric fans their electric fires

and most important of all the media well

what do you think of it well I think

it's absolutely great that it given

pride of place next to the fire the

radio now became the focus of the living

room its role would take on an

increasing importance as Britain enters

World War two bonding communities

together behind the blackout blinds the

wireless became a vital weapon they've

been relaying information and improving

national morale but the radios real

legacy was to transform the room for

best into the everyday family room

across all the classes for the first

time and by the 1950s increasing

prosperity and leisure time meant that

the wireless was now an established

feature of every home

I've come to see the living room as 50s

collector Joanne Massey okay the biggest

change this occurred in the living room

throughout the 20th century it's the

shift away from creating your own

entertainment to being entertained now

no one for that the radio would catch on

is a bit like the internet but it's used

grew exponentially and then after the

war it was knocked off its perch by

something even better

that's something with the TV the BBC had

begun to transmit a television service

in 1936 but it wasn't until the

coronation in 1953 but it really took

off with so few households owning a set

neighbors crowded into each other's

living rooms two watches I think we

would have had a houseful if you've got

to tell you at that time and coronation

was on you depart everybody in the

street round me hmm

I've heard of cases of TV Envy and

people installing an aerial even if they

couldn't afford the actual set so the

neighbors would think that they had on

they would have been disappointed a con

man today oh my god in order to see what

programs were available on Coronation

day I brought along the original Radio

Times is the evening of Coronation day

here in this little box is the

television that's the only room on the

page it gets mainly it's the radio I was

a Winston Churchill was going to be on

TV

all costs from Downing Street so he

found in me now there's the weather for

got sound only no pictures and it's

called

the Radio Times because the BBC bless

them didn't think that it should be

called the radio and TV times in case TV

didn't catch on Martin how do you think

the TV changed the living room in the

nineteen fifties I think it changed the

layout of the furniture and before

chairs were what was circled and

pointing at the fireplace as a center of

attention and all of a sudden you're on

a new device in the room and the chairs

have to be moved round to face that by

1954 the number of TV licenses had risen

from 300 thousand to over three million

and this explosion in television

ownership was mostly down to one thing

hire-purchase high purchase is one of

the greatest assets of the modern

community it enables us to fill our

homes with beautiful things we could

never otherwise afford it raises our

standard of living when the laws

limiting credit were relaxed companies

showered a willing public with catalogs

we've got here a cave catalog mm-hmm

there's no pay this cave continuous

credit K days indeed it's 1955 and this

is how people could aspire to getting a

living room like yours is it you two can

start now to get everything for yourself

the home and family for only a few

shillings a week so you you buy now pay

later yeah so 1954 is a big year of

change it's the end of versioning and

it's the start of credit you're going

from everything from clothes ladies

clothes gents clothes shoes handbags

night underwear and you can also get a

three-piece suite Dell surface and new

carpet light basically I want to send

for everything in this castle I don't

think I can consumer credit with paving

the way for a rush of home improvement

the 1960s also saw dramatic rise in home

ownership as young couples moved out of

their family home mr. mrs. Earnshaw for

instance newly married a new flat to

finish but only 30 pounds to do it with

responding to this generations lack of

funds a new phrases coined

do-it-yourself I got a certain number

satisfaction out of doing it myself much

easier to do it just us we can see a

little more individual asleep

CEL and the man who brought DIY to the

masses was buried but not the most

popular man on 1960 television but this

week one or two jobs that you might have

to do on doors I don't know whether

you've got a problem like this a rather

ugly old panel door 12 can be sold quite

simply you can make it look like this

[Music]

over 39 programs of bucknall's house

berry transformed a crumbling Victorian

Terrace ripping out all of its period

features and replacing them with hard

board and electric fire

today of course he would value and keep

the very features that Barry was

destroying the living room has come on a

long journey even since the 1960s while

it still says a lot about your taste and

social cloth it's now also a showcase

for modern technology from flat-screen

TVs and hi-fi's to the latest computer

game or spoke about and today it's one

of the most flexible rooms in the house

throughout its long history the living

room has has many different incarnations

it's been the Great Hall the withdrawing

chamber the parlor now it's the lounge a

return to its multi-purpose roots these

rooms are still used partly for

relaxation partly for entertaining

guests and being entertained the focus

of the living room was always the half

now it's the television but despite the

fact you all live in centrally heated

homes we still have a deep emotional

connection with the open fire just like

our ancestors

[Music]