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Isabel, wriggle up.
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We'll have you next, Dad, please. Where's your brother gone?
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Go on, give him a shove! Come on, we need more room for the girls.
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CHILDREN LAUGH
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The whole family in one bed.
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This is called pigging and it's quite a common sight in 17th century England.
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Most people slept all together like this.
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I'm not sure we'll get much sleep but it's nice and warm, isn't it?
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It is.
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Goodnight, everybody.
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Morning!
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'I'm Dr Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces,
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'based here at Hampton Court.'
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Another day at the office.
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As a historian, though, I'm fascinated by the intimate,
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personal bits of history and the way they've shaped modern life.
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Oh, it's exciting, it's exciting!
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In this series, I'll be tracing the story of British domestic life through four rooms -
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the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom and the kitchen.
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From the homes of the Middle Ages to the present day,
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I'll be exploring how attitudes have changed,
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meeting some extraordinary people
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and doing some rather odd things.
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SHE SHRIEKS
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This time, the bedroom -
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from the Medieval communal hall to the glamorous boudoir.
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Full English for you this morning.
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I'll be seeing how its development has affected our most private moments.
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You're like the person in the horror film who says that
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and then everything goes horribly wrong!
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Our houses are a reflection of our selves.
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They tell us so much about how we live and who we are.
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But the homes we live in now have evolved over centuries.
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Every single room in a house like this one
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has got its own very interesting story.
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This time, the room that's been through fascinating changes.
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It's always been used for sleeping, but it hasn't always been
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the safe haven that most of us take for granted.
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People's bedrooms today are private places.
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You don't go in without an invitation.
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But in the past, bedrooms were surprisingly noisy, busy, social places.
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This idea that they're quiet places for sleeping
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is a relatively modern invention.
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Things were very different from this back in Medieval homes.
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The very concept of a bedroom
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didn't exist for most people in Medieval England.
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If you belonged to the household of the landowner,
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the Great Hall would have been your living and sleeping space.
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Just complete and impressive!
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It's the greatest surviving hall from the 14th century and isn't it wonderful?
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They've got the central hearth,
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which hasn't ever been replaced by a fireplace in the wall.
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It's what it would have been like - and full of people, of course.
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It's the centre of the estate - people coming and going all the time.
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The Great Hall was a powerful Saxon notion.
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It was expected to bind the community together
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and build a strong sense of shared values.
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People were entirely dependent on the Lord of the manor,
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in this case the Piltney's, for their existence.
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You know, they didn't really get paid for much.
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It wasn't that sort of world. What they got was their keep.
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Household members were only indoors during the hours of darkness.
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They slept and ate in the hall.
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The safety found in numbers was more important than privacy.
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It's a very different concept from what we can imagine
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but in the Middle Ages,
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people were used to doing many more things communally,
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to sleeping communally. People didn't even have beds much.
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They certainly didn't have very developed bedrooms.
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Privacy, as we understand it, didn't exist.
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The floor of the Great Hall would have been covered in rushes,
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which made things more comfortable and soaked up spillages.
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So you could clean them all up, throw them all away
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and put down a fresh lot.
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- Yes, you could.
- It's like disposable carpet.
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Yes, that's perfectly true.
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- This is making things look a bit more comfortable.
- I like this look.
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The term "to make the bed" came from exactly that -
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you took a sack and filled it with hay.
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The sack was called a tick and was woven from hemp.
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In fact, the striped cotton cover you still get on mattresses today is called ticking.
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So when night fell, they locked the doors,
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battened down the hatches to keep out the robbers
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and the scary Medieval darkness
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and they would have gathered around the fire, got their sacks of hay,
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ready to "hit the hay" - notice origin of expression.
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And then they had to cover the fire
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and this leads to the expression "curfew", doesn't it?
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Yes, from "cuevrefeu",
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cover fire in the Old French,
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and people put a container over the fire to keep the ashes warm,
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so people weren't going to get burnt, the rushes wouldn't catch fire,
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but the warmth would still be generated.
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The sack is one part of the bed.
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We have got something missing, though.
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We hear from the Elizabethan traveller William Harrison
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that people in Medieval England weren't soft and wussy, like the Tudors.
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They didn't have pillows, they slept with their head on a good hard log.
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Yes.
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The first proper bedroom was the chamber -
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a separate room above the Great Hall
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for the master and mistress of the household.
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It was a mark of high status to have a private room
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and they used it for lots of different things.
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This room is set up as a dining room today,
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as later generations used it,
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but the Medieval family used this room up above the Great Hall
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as a private solar,
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also known as a chamber, also known as a bower.
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These are Medieval words for something we would recognise as a bed-sitting room.
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They had their bed in here,
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but also used it for socialising, for parties with their friends.
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There is an element of the home office about it as well.
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They might have written letters, for example.
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So this is a very, very flexible space for the Lord and Lady.
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A very high-status version of the bedroom.
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This separate room was still a shared space,
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for the Lord, Lady, their family and intimate servants.
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Their idea of privacy was very different from ours.
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It was the ability to choose
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the people with whom you shared the room.
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This is a clever little touch. It's a sneaky squint window,
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so the Lord and Lady can check what's going on in the Great Hall down there
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and they are literally looking down on the plebs,
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who are so far below us there.
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You get a real sense of them and us up here.
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And it is literally us up here in the solar,
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because this is an exclusive space,
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but it's for the Lord, the Lady, their closest relatives
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and their most important servants, all sort of breathing the same air.
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This is privacy in the Medieval sense.
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It's up and above the masses
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but nobody expects to be all by themselves.
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That would be a bit weird.
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Beds were hugely expensive.
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So most people stayed sleeping on sacks.
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Bed hangings were costly.
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Many dyes were expensive and weaving was labour intensive.
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You needed skilled craftsmen
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to carve and construct a wooden bed frame,
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which meant that only the rich could afford to commission a bed.
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They were such status symbols
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that aristocrats would take them with them when they travelled.
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But society was shifting.
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By the 16th century, a new and prosperous middle class -
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know as the middling sort - had emerged.
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Even middling houses were now built with an upper floor
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and more ordinary families could afford a bedroom as well as a bed.
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Bedrooms were still sparsely furnished
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but they often had a chest for valuables,
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as well as a perche - or rod - for hanging clothes.
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Beds were still expensive.
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This would have cost three months' wages for a skilled craftsman.
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To try to understand Tudor attitudes to beds and sleep,
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I'm going to stay the night in this remote yeoman's farmhouse.
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And this is pretty smart, isn't it?
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How much of my wealth would have been tied up in this?
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- A third maybe?
- A third of my household goods!
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Yes, this is something really special.
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First purchase upon marriage?
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Oh, definitely, and if you're lucky, you get left something like this.
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'Privacy, in the modern sense, still didn't exist.
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'Bedrooms were shared -
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'not only by the married couple but also by their children and even their servants.'
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'The only really private place for the couple
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'was behind the bed curtains.'
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So this is a truckle bed.
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A truckle bed.
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So that rolls out for children, servants...?
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Yeah, anyone who isn't as grand as the person who gets the bed, really.
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And this is a straw mattress
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and then on top of that we've got another mattress.
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That feels like feathers.
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Oh, posh! That's quite classy.
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Yes, very Footballers' Wives, this house!
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Tudor people were terrified of the night and its dangers -
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from robbers, to witches, to evil spirits.
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It's not just an idea of making yourself comfortable,
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it's an idea of making yourself safe.
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- I'm defending myself against the night.
- Exactly.
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You don't know what spirits are lurking out there.
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The night air is considered dangerous and bad for your health.
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Do you sleep in moonlight? You might go mad.
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That's where the word "lunacy" comes from.
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- The light of the lunar moon turns you into a lunatic.
- Yes, exactly!
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Lots of things to worry about.
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I am going to follow every single ritual I can get my hands on.
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So where we are going to start
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is by making sure you are nice and comfortable
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and these bed strings have to be tight so you can sleep tight.
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Do you know, I have always wondered why people say "sleep tight."
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- Well, there you go.
- And this is the answer.
- What is the next bit of it?
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Don't let the bed bugs bite.
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- Don't let the bugs bite.
- That is what we are going to do next.
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Check the bed for bugs.
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Because bed bugs are a BIG problem.
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You have put me off the idea of sleeping in this bed.
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I was quite looking forward to it until you said that.
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Well, we haven't got to the fleas yet.
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Oh, thank you(!) Thank you(!)
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To keep the bed bugs at bay, they sprinkled wormwood -
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a herb used in traditional medicine - over the mattress,
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followed by camomile to aid restful sleep.
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To drive out damp and warm the bed, they used rocks heated in the fire.
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There we go. How do you feel about spending the night here?
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Bit worried about it.
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Well, as long as you take the right precautions, you are OK.
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Alison, you are so like the person in the horror film who says that
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and then everything goes horribly wrong!
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Nightfall was known as "shutting in" time.
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In a crowded yeoman's house like this, the master of the household
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would have checked and secured his property against human intruders.
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SHUTTERS CLATTER
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But this was only part of the nightly ritual.
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They also had to protect themselves against unearthly intruders.
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I'm going to put my shoes upside down
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because Tudors genuinely believed
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that pixies and spirits might come and put them on in the night.
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I have got here my Tudor sleeping pill,
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which is a little bag of aniseed,
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which apparently I can tie around my ears...
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..like this...
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and the smell of the aniseed is supposed to send me to sleep
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and also stop me from having nightmares.
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I must admit, all these rituals and preparations
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have made me slightly more nervous about the night ahead
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than I would have otherwise been.
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ALARM CLOCK BEEPS
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There's a theory that people had very different sleeping patterns
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to the eight hours we expect today.
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They would start with a "first sleep" of four hours
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and then naturally wake up.
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They were doing leisure things that they didn't have time to do in the daylight,
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like meditating, praying,
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chatting and, obviously, couples took the chance
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to have carnal knowledge of each other as well,
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in the dead of the night.
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The only other thing that's awake here at the moment is that owl,
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so I think I will go back for my second sleep now.
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I've had a disturbed night, I think it's fair to say.
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Because I live in the middle of the city,
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I'm always longing for dark and quiet
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and I got dark, but I didn't get quiet.
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There was just non-stop noise from the geese and the horses
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and goodness knows what else making a tapping noise.
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I've also learnt something about Tudor beds - they sag.
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It's hard to lie flat and it's a mystery why people in portraits,
248
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when they are seen in bed, are sort of semi sitting up like I am, like this,
249
00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:29,840
and the answer is that you can't lie flat because they sag so much.
250
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:33,560
Those ropes stretch and the feather bed...
251
00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:36,400
the feathers wiggle away from the weight of your body.
252
00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,840
So I have sort of been like this all night.
253
00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,960
I think I am in a genuine Tudor sleeping position.
254
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,080
Whether I have had an authentic Tudor experience
255
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:49,440
is a really good question,
256
00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:52,280
because obviously you can't recreate the past
257
00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:57,600
but I have to tell you, I feel like I've got closer to Tudor people
258
00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:02,080
sleeping here tonight than I have done by reading books about them.
259
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,120
There's something, it sounds naff,
260
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,440
but there is something psychologically true
261
00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,880
about researching history this way, I think.
262
00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:16,400
As bedrooms became more common in British houses,
263
00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:21,240
people used these new rooms for all sorts of get togethers and ceremonies.
264
00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:25,400
Because bed chambers in the past were much more social spaces,
265
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,240
sometimes public rituals were performed in them.
266
00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,800
Bed chambers were like the stages sometimes, where you might,
267
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,640
for example, get to know somebody, court them, even get married.
268
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,400
The ceremony of marriage wasn't restricted to just a church setting
269
00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:42,120
until right into the 18th century.
270
00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,760
Until then, for the property owning classes,
271
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,920
marriage involved a written contract, agreed by both fathers, followed by a formal exchange
272
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,640
of promises, and finally a church blessing.
273
00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:56,760
For poor people,
274
00:15:56,760 --> 00:16:00,320
a simple exchange of vows in front of witnesses was enough.
275
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,720
In order to find the right partner, though,
276
00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:05,360
it was worth checking your compatibility first.
277
00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:08,840
Hello there, brave people.
278
00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:12,520
'In some rural areas, the bedroom was used for a courtship ritual,
279
00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,840
'known as "bundling".'
280
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:18,600
The idea was that when a young couple sort of started to begin
281
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,720
to like each other their parents may well have decided to let them do this thing,
282
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:25,680
which is to spend the night in bed together.
283
00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,640
It was kind of testing the waters to see
284
00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,960
whether they would in fact make a good married couple.
285
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,480
And in order to stop this lusty young man
286
00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:40,000
from falling upon your daughter, you might have taken certain precautions.
287
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,520
That's where the sack comes in!
288
00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:44,960
Ha-ha!
289
00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:46,520
There we go.
290
00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:50,160
'The young woman would be bundled into a sack and tied at her waist
291
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:51,560
'and feet.'
292
00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,880
We have got to make the knot lusty-young-man proof.
293
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,080
He won't be able to undo that.
294
00:16:57,080 --> 00:16:59,600
'Then she would be put into her parents' bed
295
00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,520
'next to her potential husband.'
296
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,680
Right, there you are.
297
00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:08,760
No touching is going on there.
298
00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:11,640
Right, Tim, let's get the board in place.
299
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,200
'As an extra precaution, a wide wooden plank,
300
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:18,200
'called a '"bundling board", would be placed between them.'
301
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:21,680
You can't even see each other now, can you?
302
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:23,720
It's like Blind Date.
303
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,280
That's the modern equivalent of bundling.
304
00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:28,520
Tim, you are Cilla Black!
305
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,400
Very, very bizarre.
306
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:34,240
Very bizarre.
307
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:38,840
- Right, time for the parents to leave the room.
- Don't let us down. Bye
308
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,520
Night.
309
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:48,520
The bedroom wasn't just for courtship rituals.
310
00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,360
It was part of the marriage ceremonies as well.
311
00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,720
After the wedding had taken place, the bridesmaids would bring
312
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,840
the bride into the bedroom and publicly undress her.
313
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,320
She would throw her stockings over her shoulder.
314
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:05,680
The person who caught them would be next to get married. Just like the one who catches the bouquet today.
315
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,280
The bridegroom would come in with his friends. They would undress him.
316
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,960
They would have a big party with drinking and music,
317
00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,560
and only at the very last minute, after the husband and wife
318
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:19,640
had got into bed, would their friends leave and let them get on with it.
319
00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:34,280
The bedroom also had huge significance as the place where life began.
320
00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:38,320
Traditionally, childbirth was a women-only event.
321
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,400
It was, in a sense, quite social,
322
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,160
a women's occasion
323
00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,160
that not only would the woman have a midwife
324
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:48,720
and possibly her mother
325
00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,480
or a female relative with her. It would quite often be her neighbours.
326
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:55,040
The women who attended the birth
327
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,520
were known as "God's siblings" or "godsibs" -
328
00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,840
ironically, the origin of the term "gossip".
329
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,880
- Clearly, it's a very dangerous time.
- Oh, it's very dangerous.
330
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:09,720
Possibly one reason to have other women there is that these are the women who have got through it.
331
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:12,520
You know, they are experienced.
332
00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:16,120
They have the, as it were, one might think, good karma
333
00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:20,480
of having survived child birth to bring to the occasion.
334
00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,400
- Yes.
- But it was dangerous.
335
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:28,240
I mean, maternal mortality was very high and so was infant mortality.
336
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:32,160
One in five women died in childbirth.
337
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:36,640
Until the 18th century, it was the most common cause of death in young women.
338
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:41,720
Midwives had no formal training. Their knowledge was gained through experience.
339
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,760
They were hired by reputation and their equipment was pretty limited.
340
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,720
Although specially designed "groaning chairs"
341
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:50,640
had been in use since Medieval times.
342
00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:54,920
Birthing chairs have recently been re-introduced into many modern obstetric units.
343
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,280
It really looks like it has been used.
344
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,320
- I can just imagine someone's hands gripping the arms.
- Oh, yes.
345
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,200
No epidural is going to be on its way, is it?
346
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,880
No epidural, no chloroform,
347
00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:11,640
no nothing, just bite down on this piece of cloth.
348
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,440
- And pray.
- And pray, pray a lot.
349
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,560
This is The Complete Midwife's Companion, written by a woman
350
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:21,720
who was a midwife in the 17th century.
351
00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:25,880
You have got this illustration here of the scene in the bedroom.
352
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,480
You have got the woman, she has just given birth,
353
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:32,000
and you have got several other women around and one of them
354
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,640
is feeding the mother with presumably cordal,
355
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:40,320
something sort of between porridge and a drink, really, that was made
356
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:45,960
to sustain women in child birth and to sustain the women who were supporting them.
357
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,600
And it included alcohol, it included oat meal,
358
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,240
it included various herbs and spices.
359
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,160
And so it had a medicinal purpose.
360
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,600
But it was also to some extent a celebratory drink.
361
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,360
I've been thinking again about just how important beds were
362
00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,080
in history. No wonder they sometimes cost more
363
00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,080
than all the rest of the other furniture put together.
364
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:16,840
Because they were just the central point. Everything happened there.
365
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,760
A person might be born, might go through their married life,
366
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,640
might give birth to their children, might even die in the very same bed.
367
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:28,160
There was that sort of continuity, centrality to people's lives.
368
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:29,760
We don't get that any more.
369
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,440
Beds have definitely lost their edge.
370
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:37,400
Bedrooms were still very public places for the rich.
371
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,160
Along with the constant presence of servants,
372
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,400
they were used for receiving guests.
373
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:45,840
The notion of privacy in the bedroom didn't exist in a modern sense.
374
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:47,280
At Ham House in Richmond,
375
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,440
we can see some of the very first completely private rooms,
376
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,000
forerunners of the modern bedroom.
377
00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:02,360
'Lady Elizabeth Dysart inherited Ham House from her father in 1642.
378
00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:04,760
'The house is famous for its closets.
379
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,120
'Now, rather than bedrooms,
380
00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:12,280
'closets were small private rooms, specifically designed for solitude.'
381
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:16,800
So closets are these funny little rooms off a bed chamber.
382
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,480
It's quite extraordinary that she has got two.
383
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,160
Oh, exactly, and I guess with this
384
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:24,520
some people were coming into this room
385
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:26,160
and maybe for her that room
386
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,400
was absolutely sacrosanct, no-one came in there.
387
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:33,680
Well, this is really quite something, isn't it?
388
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:38,800
I think it is just so personal. It just expresses one person and their likes so much.
389
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:43,080
It is a room that has died out in our modern houses. We don't really have closets.
390
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:46,920
Absolutely. I mean the use is still there in our modern day bedroom.
391
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,400
'Closets were for prayer and contemplation,
392
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,400
'to be alone with God and one's self.'
393
00:22:55,400 --> 00:23:00,000
'Lady Dysart's closets were quite understated, compared to her father's
394
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,560
'which were much more in line with contemporary male taste.'
395
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:06,520
- It's so camp, isn't it?
- It is!
396
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,240
But I think that's how times had changed
397
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:14,800
- and this is what a sophisticated man would want his room to look like.
- As rich as humanly possible.
398
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,560
Really rich. This was definitely Mr Murray's room.
399
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:22,000
No-one else was allowed in here and it was locked at all times. I have got the original key.
400
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,000
He did himself proud because it is just totally decorated all over.
401
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,080
He decorated every space.
402
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:33,400
I think it's quite touching, if you think of 17th century aristocrats, whose lives are lived on display.
403
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,920
- They're always performing.
- Yes.
- Except when they're in their closets.
404
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:41,520
There is a moment when you have to have a bit of peace and quiet.
405
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:45,520
Closets are my favourite rooms in 17th century houses because I think
406
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,400
they are the places where we get the most intimate view of the owner.
407
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:54,760
It's a room where he or she would have been on their own, thinking private thoughts, writing,
408
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:59,160
doing things, that sort of solitary activities, the sort of thing
409
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,200
that I can really connect with because I do that myself.
410
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,560
It's something we have in common between us.
411
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,320
When I'm in my bedroom, by myself, resting or thinking,
412
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,040
I can imagine them doing the same thing in their closets.
413
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,960
The King and Queen had closets, but at Hampton Court,
414
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,840
they also each had a private bedroom.
415
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,720
But the rituals of court were so entrenched that they still had
416
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,800
public bedrooms for social and court events.
417
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,080
The levee, or ceremony of dressing the King or Queen in front of the court,
418
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,120
arrived from France in the 17th Century.
419
00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:41,440
50 years later, Queen Caroline, the wife of George II,
420
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,160
'was dressed by her ladies in waiting every day - in front of visitors.'
421
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,520
I'm standing in for Queen Caroline this morning
422
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,440
and when she got dressed in the morning she didn't do it by herself.
423
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:57,480
It was all done here in her public bedroom and quite a lot of people helped her out.
424
00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,680
Here are my bed chamber staff of five.
425
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:03,560
These nice people from Australia, they are visitors to the palace
426
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,840
and the queen did actually let visitors into her bedroom
427
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,920
- while this was going on. It's like a public ceremony. Hello.
- Hello!
428
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,360
'The occasion was extremely hierarchical
429
00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:19,760
'and the rules were extraordinarily detailed.
430
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,320
'At the top was the Mistress of the Robes, then the Lady of the Bedchamber
431
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:27,960
'followed by the Woman of the Bedchamber. Next was the dresser, who did most of the work,
432
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,640
'while the page, at the very bottom of the heap,
433
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:35,080
'had to wait around until called in to place the shoes on the Queen's feet.'
434
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,200
It feels very weird standing with practically no clothes on
435
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:41,160
in front of lots of people who don't know me.
436
00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:46,800
The queen must have just got used to it.
437
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:55,320
Libby, you're not touching the dress because you are too important,
438
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:56,400
as is Deirdra.
439
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,560
This hierarchy seems bizarre but it was so important. Make or break, life or death for these people.
440
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:05,160
It seems very unfair but you two get paid more than the others
441
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,160
- even though you're not doing any work.
- I think it's fair!
442
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,520
- What's next?
- Is it time for the shoes?
- The shoes!
443
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:14,800
Someone call the page.
444
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,920
Page, can you bring the shoes?
445
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:18,680
Thank you very much, page Katy.
446
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,240
Actually, to be honest, I could not physically bend down
447
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,440
and do it for myself. I am now in your hands.
448
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:29,280
Thank you very much.
449
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:34,960
So all the rest of you can aspire to doing what Deirdra is now doing
450
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,880
if you work hard and marry well.
451
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:41,840
You're ready.
452
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:43,000
Hey, I'm good to go.
453
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,040
Thank you, ladies. You may go.
454
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,400
See you same time, same place, tomorrow.
455
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,520
You've got to feel it for Queen Caroline, being trapped in this
456
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:02,240
sort of Byzantine web of ritual and having to go through it all every day.
457
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:03,360
My goodness.
458
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,000
'Queen Caroline didn't sleep in the public bedroom.
459
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,720
'Her private bedroom was on the other side of the palace.'
460
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,840
This is a sneaky special door. We're going into the private rooms now.
461
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,800
She doesn't use these rooms, except when people are here, visitors are here.
462
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,600
It's quite interesting the way all these rooms run one into another.
463
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,200
There is no corridor, there is no privacy.
464
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,240
The whole thing is like a railway carriage.
465
00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:01,400
And this is the Queen's private bedroom at last.
466
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,160
This is where she really slept.
467
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,320
You can tell she really did expect to be alone,
468
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,440
because there is this amazing contraption of locking the door.
469
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:15,000
It works on a pulley system and when she was lying in bed and didn't have any servants here
470
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,480
the door could actually be locked by her, so she didn't have to leap out and get cold.
471
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,800
And this is also the room where,
472
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:25,760
if the King, her husband, wanted to sleep with her,
473
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,120
this is where he came to do it.
474
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:32,440
So you can imagine those two in bed locking the doors on everyone else.
475
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,440
When he wanted to sleep with her, I say, as opposed to sleeping
476
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,800
with his mistress, and his mistress would travel to his bedroom
477
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,800
in his part of the palace when they were going to get together.
478
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:53,280
All across the country, aristocrats desperately hoped the King would sleep the night
479
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,080
'in one of their country houses.
480
00:28:55,080 --> 00:29:00,080
'So they created exclusive state bedrooms for visiting royalty.
481
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,680
'Furnished with hugely expensive state beds,
482
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,640
'they were reserved purely in case a King or Queen came to stay.'
483
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,600
That's what happened here at Kedleston Hall.
484
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,320
Lord Scarsdale in the 1760s commissioned this bed
485
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,560
in the hope that George III would come and sleep in it.
486
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,240
The designer was Robert Adam, top architect of the day,
487
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,560
and the very design includes reference to royalty and kingship.
488
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,680
The palms symbolise kingship and fidelity.
489
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,760
The ostrich feathers up at the top are a symbol of power.
490
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:33,760
Now, very sadly for Lord Scarsdale, although this bed has been here for over 200 years
491
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,120
no king or queen has ever slept in it.
492
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:44,040
Privacy was about to become a possibility for the middling sort.
493
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,400
The expanding Georgian economy led to an urban housing boom
494
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,480
with a radical idea - the private middle-class bedroom.
495
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:55,320
This is a classic house plan of the 17th century
496
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,160
for a house of the middling sort.
497
00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,000
What's interesting about it is the way the bedrooms are all inter-connected.
498
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,480
So, to get to that room, you have to walk through that person's bedroom
499
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:08,200
and through that person's bedroom. There's very little concept of privacy.
500
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:13,080
In the 18th century this changes. This is the classic 18th-century house-plan design.
501
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:18,440
And here, on the first floor, you can see corridors, stairwells, circulation space.
502
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,680
In fact, a quarter of the whole house's area is given over
503
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,720
to the circulation, so that each of these rooms
504
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:26,280
can be accessed independently.
505
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,080
This is quite a luxurious use of space, you might think.
506
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,320
It had happened previously in royal palaces and grand houses,
507
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,000
but now it's becoming standard.
508
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,880
Everybody wants privacy.
509
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:44,640
This is a Georgian bedroom
510
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,240
and it's not the main bedroom of this particular house.
511
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:48,400
It's a secondary one.
512
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,680
It would have been used by the children, maybe even by lodgers,
513
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:54,320
and when we've seen bedrooms like this in the past,
514
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:56,960
they've been accessed through the main bedroom.
515
00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,080
You had to go through one into another.
516
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,160
But here's the big step forward.
517
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,360
This bedroom now has its own door.
518
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,160
There's privacy here for the occupants of this room
519
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:10,160
and these are the public areas, that's the private area.
520
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,000
The back stairs,
521
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:16,320
the corridor. Key steps in separating out the different occupants of the house.
522
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:20,080
And it's good news for Mr and Mrs in the master bedroom as well,
523
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,240
because no longer do they have people trekking through their room
524
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:24,840
to get to the rooms beyond.
525
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:26,640
They can shut this door, lock it
526
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,760
and know they're going to be completely on their own for the first time.
527
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,800
Also the servants have disappeared out of this bedroom.
528
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,520
Previously, they would have been right close in,
529
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,160
maybe sleeping on truckle beds, or something like that.
530
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,440
But now they've been banished to the attic, to the basement.
531
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,480
In a big house, even to separate servants' quarters.
532
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,400
And this means a new innovation has to be developed -
533
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,280
the bell to summon the servants.
534
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,800
Either you ring it and it rings in their area
535
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,960
or, in an old-fashioned house, you just do this.
536
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:05,600
The 18th century saw clock ownership expand, as luxury filtered down the social scale.
537
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:07,480
Many clocks had alarms,
538
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,440
some using extraordinary methods to wake up their owners.
539
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,720
My very favourite Georgian alarm clock is this crazy device
540
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:18,400
where the alarm triggers the striking of a flint
541
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:22,160
which creates a little spark, which sets fire to some gunpowder,
542
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:23,960
which then ignites a candle,
543
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,760
so it's all ready for you to get up and out of bed.
544
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,240
The urban bedroom was becoming a properly private space.
545
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:34,160
New technology would make it much more comfortable.
546
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:37,480
As the Industrial Revolution swung into action,
547
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,000
the bedroom was about to be transformed.
548
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,760
Brass and iron beds with coil sprung and mesh bases,
549
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,760
cotton sheets and pillow cases, night shirts
550
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:51,480
and night dresses were all mass produced for the first time.
551
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:58,240
Victorian housewives were very proud of their endless supplies of mass-produced cotton.
552
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:03,000
They were obsessed with bed making, and their fastidiousness made sense.
553
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,120
A clean, well-aired bed reduced the risk of consumptive illnesses.
554
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,480
What's the most important thing if you're making a Victorian bed?
555
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:16,080
Well, the most important thing is that it must be stripped every day.
556
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:20,840
And, because of the moisture content that has actually got into your bed
557
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:25,000
and also from the dinges that you have actually made in the bed.
558
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:26,680
What are these "dinges"?
559
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,000
A dinge is the shape that you have made in your feather bed.
560
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,080
In my feather bed. Is it like memory foam?
561
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,480
Well, it is indeed - it's like memory foam
562
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,720
and it moulds to your body as you sleep.
563
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:43,640
And this dinge would retain the moisture that you had actually exuded overnight.
564
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,680
- That doesn't sound very nice.
- Indeed not.
565
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,720
And, in fact, it is said Florence Nightingale worked out
566
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,640
that a grown man in a 24-hour period in a hospital
567
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:56,400
would actually exhale as much as three pints of moisture.
568
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:58,160
Through his breath?
569
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,760
Through their breath, even while they were sleeping.
570
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,200
And, of course, added to the dampness in the room.
571
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:04,480
And the perspiration.
572
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:06,640
And the perspiration through your skin
573
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:10,960
you would really have quite a problem with this very quickly and every day.
574
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:15,240
It sounds much more serious than making my bed, which I do in about five seconds.
575
00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:16,680
Indeed. Absolutely.
576
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:18,720
- Right, we're ready to go.
- We certainly are.
577
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:21,200
- Are you going round that side?
- I am indeed.
578
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,920
This is where the bedstead itself
579
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,000
becomes a very important tool for this particular job.
580
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,160
The eiderdown, full of eider duck feathers,
581
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,080
is actually placed over the end of the bed
582
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,440
and then the counterpane, which now can go back
583
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:42,440
over the bed as well, and under that the various layers of blankets.
584
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:44,960
This is rather an ornate blanket, for the time,
585
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,240
and there would be far more layers,
586
00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:50,240
depending on what sort of time of the year it was.
587
00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:51,640
No fires in bedrooms.
588
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,240
No fires in bedrooms unless you were ill.
589
00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:56,680
Here we now have the cotton sheet.
590
00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:00,240
And you can feel how damp this is, Lucy, can't you now?
591
00:35:00,240 --> 00:35:02,520
That's five layers already.
592
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,400
Five layers and now we come to the pillows themselves.
593
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,920
Even a lower-middle-class household like this one
594
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,040
would have employed a maid of all work
595
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,560
to help with the sheer physical labour of Victorian housework.
596
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:20,760
There would be two more layers to go before we get to number eight
597
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,000
and something that looks like a mattress.
598
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,960
Here's the feather bed, looking unchanged since Tudor times.
599
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,040
It's like a futon, isn't it?
600
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,640
It certainly is, and you can imagine as you get older
601
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,480
this becomes more and more of a problem.
602
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:36,640
So, if we place it on the chairs...
603
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,920
What a nasty unhygienic thing it is, really!
604
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:41,920
It would need a good beating now, Lucy.
605
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:43,200
Yeah!
606
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:55,200
- This is a proper mattress this time.
- Yes, indeed it is. This is actually made of horse hair.
607
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,760
And this is what gives you the stability and firmness to your bed.
608
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,720
And what's going on underneath? We haven't got to the bottom.
609
00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:05,640
No, we've got a number of layers after that.
610
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,040
- We have...
- A blanket.
- A thick woollen blanket.
611
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:12,160
- And straw.
- Oh, straw!
- Mattress encased in a cotton cover.
612
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,920
And then, at the very bottom of the bed,
613
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,240
we have the brown Holland cover.
614
00:36:18,240 --> 00:36:25,600
Underneath, we have a mesh support and so this protection here is against rust.
615
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,600
- This horse-hair mattress would be completely turned.
- We can do this.
616
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:37,520
We can do this and then the layers, as they were thoroughly aired, would be replaced.
617
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:42,520
You'd spend all morning unmaking the bed, then all afternoon making it again.
618
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:45,440
It is an extremely arduous process.
619
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,480
The million dollar question is...
620
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:54,440
Is it going to be comfy now I know what's inside? I really hope it is.
621
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:05,520
Well, it is moderately comfortable.
622
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:07,600
I could definitely spend the night in here.
623
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,840
I think on my own, though, because this bed doesn't seem huge,
624
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,400
although I expect it was made for two people.
625
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,120
But imagine doing that every day! No, thanks.
626
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:22,560
While middle-class housewives were hoarding bed linen,
627
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,760
a new class of wealthy Victorian industrialists
628
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,360
began to invest in bespoke grand houses,
629
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,680
where privacy was essential to the house design.
630
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,000
Wightwick Manor in Staffordshire had ample space
631
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,120
to accommodate the mounting Victorian obsession with privacy.
632
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,680
The house takes it to a whole new level,
633
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,160
with separate rooms for masters and servants,
634
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:50,600
adults and children, and even husbands and wives.
635
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:55,680
This is the bedroom intended for a Victorian married couple.
636
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,560
And what's happened here is
637
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:02,160
that the lady and the gentleman are no longer sleeping in the same bed.
638
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:04,880
This is Victorian separation at its highest point.
639
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,720
This bed was slept in by the lady of the couple.
640
00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:12,440
She's got a horse-hair mattress to sleep on here
641
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,280
and that little pocket there is to put a watch into.
642
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,880
And these are no longer functional curtains.
643
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:20,920
The railings stop short.
644
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,800
They're just a gesture towards curtains, really.
645
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:25,760
They're for show rather than for use
646
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,120
because now privacy is within this room.
647
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,840
It has locks on the door, not within the bed itself.
648
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,240
And the husband, he's not in here at all.
649
00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:35,640
He's through the door here,
650
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,840
in what's called the dressing room.
651
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,200
This is the gentleman's dressing room,
652
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:46,440
but essentially he sleeps in here. Here is his bed.
653
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:51,120
And you can see that he actually has his own door
654
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:55,480
out on to the landing, so he can come in late at night
655
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,840
without affecting his sweet little wife, who's all tucked up
656
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,920
and sleeping happily next door in the actual bedroom.
657
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:07,120
Masculine and feminine have become completely separated out from each other.
658
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,960
The design of the house was all about separation.
659
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:17,720
The male servants were housed in a completely separate outbuilding.
660
00:39:17,720 --> 00:39:19,920
The maids' bedrooms were right up in the attic.
661
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,960
Most maids' rooms were decorated according to very strict rules.
662
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,480
I've got a book here. It's by Mrs Panton.
663
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:30,880
It's called From Kitchen To Garret - hints for young householders.
664
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:33,000
It's written for a fictional couple
665
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,320
whose names were Edwin and Angelina, who were setting up home together.
666
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,800
Mrs Panton really was a bit of a devil. Listen to this!
667
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:46,200
She says that you shouldn't let the servants keep their own boxes in their rooms,
668
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:50,760
and the reason is, she says, they cannot refrain somehow from hoarding all sorts of rubbish in them.
669
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,680
She says the simpler the servants' room was furnished the better.
670
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,440
And, basically, she says don't give the servants anything nice
671
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,080
because they will spoil it.
672
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:01,280
It's quite shocking.
673
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:05,760
Having said that though, these rooms at Wightwick aren't really representative.
674
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:09,560
The Mander family were socially aware. They looked after their employees.
675
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:11,720
This was a desirable place to work.
676
00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:17,680
Actually, this particular room has got electric lighting, very unusual.
677
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,680
It's got central heating, and the women who slept here
678
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:24,480
actually had their own bathroom. So that's not bad at all.
679
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:28,960
The maids' rooms at Whitwick would have seemed luxurious
680
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,560
compared to the homes in which they had grown up.
681
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,320
And these houses were so common, weren't they?
682
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,800
It's a really, really standard living pattern.
683
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,080
Ann Lawton was born in the late 1940s
684
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,440
in a Victorian back-to-back house in the centre of Birmingham.
685
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,400
These houses had a living room and kitchen combined downstairs
686
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,560
and two shared bedrooms upstairs.
687
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,320
So, Ann, what exactly is a back-to-back house?
688
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,800
It's two houses that literally back-to-back on each other.
689
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:59,480
Some separated by one brick some by half a brick.
690
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:00,640
Quite noisy.
691
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,600
And how long were you living in a house like that?
692
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:06,640
Oh, from when I was young until I was about 19 or so.
693
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:08,640
And then moved to live in a similar house
694
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,440
when I got married, where I had four children.
695
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:13,680
You're a bit of a time traveller, really, because of your own
696
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,200
personal experience you can take us back to life
697
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:19,760
in the Victorian back-to-backs, because it was very similar to what you experienced yourself.
698
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,520
Yes, and whatever anybody tells you, there's no way anybody would go back to it.
699
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:28,360
There would be up to nine people living under one of these roofs.
700
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:31,040
To help Ann explain how the sleeping arrangements worked,
701
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,800
we're joined by some children from a local primary school.
702
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,120
Right, kids, you need to take your shoes off
703
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:39,360
and get into bed.
704
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:42,040
- Climb on it.
- Scramble over there.
705
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,000
One at the top and one at the bottom.
706
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:45,720
Now, you've all got to pretend you're brothers and sisters.
707
00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:48,280
Do you think you can manage to do that?
708
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,360
- Yes.
- Has everyone got room?
- Yes.
709
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,920
There's somebody's foot here, look.
710
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:56,520
You never know whose foot it's going to be!
711
00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:58,200
Now, do you think we could sleep the whole night like this?
712
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,040
- No.
- No.
- No?
713
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,400
- You like having your own space, do you?
- Yes.
714
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,080
You think that is important?
715
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:06,880
Imagine doing this every night.
716
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,120
It would really annoy you, wouldn't it?
717
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:11,960
Who was saying they like to chat in the middle of the night
718
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,520
with their brother? Was it you telling me that?
719
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:17,920
You quite like having a chat with your brother in the middle of the night, don't you?
720
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:20,400
But you're not in the same bed, I bet, are you?
721
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:24,760
When you lived in a house like this and you've got all your
722
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,240
nice little bits and pieces that you want only you to use,
723
00:42:28,240 --> 00:42:31,240
where do you think you'd keep them?
724
00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:33,640
Where could you hide anything?
725
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:35,840
You couldn't, could you?
726
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,000
We had two ladies that came round and they had lived in one of these houses
727
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,920
and where the skirting board round the edge of the room...
728
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:46,880
they were able to show us where there was a piece that was loose
729
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,440
and they used to put all their little things behind it, so their other
730
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:53,280
brothers and sisters wouldn't know, and then shove it back into place.
731
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:57,480
So, for the first 19 years of your life, you shared your bed with your sister?
732
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,840
- Yeah.
- And then for the next...
- And my brother sometimes.
733
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,600
- And your brother?
- Yes, because he was a lot younger than we were
734
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:05,480
and he used to get a bit scared sometimes.
735
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:09,320
How old were you when you first slept in a bed by yourself?
736
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,720
46, when I was widowed. That meant when my husband had died,
737
00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:17,000
and I had the bedroom and a bed to myself and that's the first time
738
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:21,120
I'd ever had a bed of my own and a room of my own.
739
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,000
So it's mine now and I don't like other people in there.
740
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:28,960
It's all mine.
741
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,960
I suppose, in some ways, this is very familiar from the night
742
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:37,120
in the medieval house, really, because it's everybody in together
743
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:42,760
and privacy has not reached little houses like this in the 19th century yet,
744
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:45,600
they're still living very, very communally.
745
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,760
Bedrooms aren't private places at all.
746
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,960
You've got to feel for the mum and dad
747
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,280
who had their kids with them 24 hours a day.
748
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,200
But this is where Sunday school comes into its own.
749
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:03,440
On Sunday afternoon, they sent the kids off to be educated and
750
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:08,440
once they had the bedroom to themselves, for once, you can guess what happened.
751
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:13,720
But domestic life for working men and women was about to change.
752
00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:16,720
The Great War, the struggle for women's voting rights
753
00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:19,440
and the arrival of Hollywood films created a heady mix
754
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:21,080
that would alter the bedroom for ever.
755
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:25,320
Female emancipation and the glamour of the movies transformed
756
00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:29,480
the Victorian bedroom into the decadent 1930s boudoir.
757
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,960
I've come to look at your 1930s bedroom gear, if that's all right?
758
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,000
Yes, right over here.
759
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,600
This is an outfit for a film star, isn't it?
760
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:43,600
Well, that's the important thing.
761
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:45,880
That's when the fashion business went from Paris
762
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:49,000
being the focal point, to Hollywood being the focal point
763
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,480
and so everything was influenced by the Hollywood films.
764
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:56,440
Joan Crawford had said that it was a film star's duty
765
00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:00,280
to look fabulous during depression and recession times
766
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,200
That would have carried through to the home.
767
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,800
The '30s is really when the bias cut came in.
768
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:10,960
- And the way this works is that normally material is woven like that, right?
- Right.
769
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:15,440
And in the bias cut, it's turned so that it's cut diagonally,
770
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,360
on the diagonal to the grain, as it were.
771
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:19,960
And that gives it a stretch,
772
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,120
and that's what makes it cling to the curves.
773
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:24,640
It makes it slinky!
774
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,640
And the other thing that transforms '30s bedroom-wear,
775
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,120
- is artificial silk.
- Right, which is rayon.
776
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:33,240
Have you got an example of artificial silk?
777
00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:36,440
This floral one is made from rayon.
778
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:38,560
So you've got the bias cut all over again,
779
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,400
- but this is a mass-market version, isn't it?
- Exactly.
780
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,000
Everybody could afford this and look just as slinky
781
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,440
as the people who could afford silk beforehand.
782
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:50,080
So that the woman at home could wear what she saw on the Hollywood screen.
783
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:53,480
- It's slinkyness for the masses, isn't it?
- Correct.
784
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:56,720
'Even pyjamas appeared for women.'
785
00:45:56,720 --> 00:46:00,160
I would call this a new sort of category of clothing
786
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,680
that you might call leisurewear.
787
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:06,600
It's not just for sleeping, and it's not for being out in public,
788
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:08,640
but it's sort of somewhere in the middle.
789
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:11,760
It's an in-between, it's definitely an in-between.
790
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:16,560
However, this would be something that a woman could have worn
791
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:19,400
just before or just after she's been to bed.
792
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,240
But then if you look at the men's equivalent of that...
793
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,800
Ooh, very exotic! Look at that.
794
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:32,320
No man would have worn this anywhere else but in the bedroom.
795
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,520
Yeah, I see what you mean.
796
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:39,920
Two things that really strike me about this '30s nightwear.
797
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:42,360
Firstly, the influence of Hollywood.
798
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:44,800
This silk is designed to be seen on a camera,
799
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,360
light and dark, rippling over the silk.
800
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,400
The second thing that strikes me is the way
801
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:54,880
that glamour in the bedroom has become affordable and mass market.
802
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,880
Glamorous nightwear was reserved in the Victorian period
803
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,000
for actresses and mistresses, and other naughty people,
804
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,560
but now with rayon and artificial silk,
805
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:06,480
every woman can be a goddess in her boudoir.
806
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,080
- Good morning, Miss Worsley.
- Come on in. Thank you very much.
807
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:21,120
How are you today?
808
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:24,800
I'm fine, thank you very much. A bit wrapped up in my book here.
809
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:27,320
Do you know The Sheikh, the movie? A very steamy movie.
810
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:28,360
I am aware of it, yes.
811
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,320
I'm reading the book here. My goodness, it's quite something.
812
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,320
- A full English for you this morning.
- Marvellous.
813
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:41,000
Thanks.
814
00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:48,680
The 20th-century bedroom becomes much more about enjoyment
815
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,160
and not just a room for sleeping in.
816
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,480
The Victorians get into this position
817
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,240
where they have a very prudish, determined attitude towards the bedroom,
818
00:47:57,240 --> 00:48:00,240
it's for sleep and for nothing else.
819
00:48:00,240 --> 00:48:03,840
Here's a great character in an Anthony Trollope novel from 1869,
820
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:04,880
She says that,
821
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:10,120
"Different rooms should be used only for the purposes for which they were intended."
822
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,880
She never allowed pens and ink up into the bedrooms
823
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:16,720
and if she ever heard that a guest in her house had been reading in bed,
824
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,400
she would have made an instant, personal attack.
825
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,080
I like that. Bedrooms are just for sleeping.
826
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:24,400
And yet, before the Victorian period,
827
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,080
they were used for numerous other activities,
828
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:29,640
and this returns in the 20th century,
829
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:32,760
particularly this idea of bedrooms as boudoirs,
830
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,360
as places for women to be rather decadent in
831
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,280
and to do slightly illicit things, like reading naughty novels,
832
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:42,440
which Victorian ladies did, all right, make no mistake,
833
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,040
but they weren't supposed to.
834
00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:48,480
One of the best-selling novels of the 1920s
835
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,520
was The Sheikh, by EM Hull, and this is a racy read.
836
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,440
The Second World War brought suffering, sacrifice
837
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:07,680
and a severe housing shortage.
838
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:11,560
The nation's recovery from the war was slow,
839
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,080
both economically and psychologically.
840
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,280
But by the late 1940s, rebuilding began
841
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:19,920
and marriage rates started to go up.
842
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:26,040
Twin beds were common by the 1950s, but behind this cosy cliche,
843
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:29,840
lies an unexpected change in British domestic life.
844
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:32,400
To me, twin beds are just a symbol of repression.
845
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:36,600
- No physical relationship between the husband and the wife.
- Yeah, absolutely.
846
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:39,120
But do you think that's a fair view of the 1950s?
847
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,680
No, of course not. If that was the case in the 1950s,
848
00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:43,760
then none of us would exist today.
849
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:46,880
What explains it is the fact that people would have seen...
850
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,320
They would be following what they saw as the Victorian forebears.
851
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:53,840
Posh people in the Victorian times often slept in different rooms,
852
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:55,480
or certainly in different beds.
853
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:58,160
I think what had happened is that had filtered down.
854
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,720
You're acting out your posh person fantasy, if you like.
855
00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:03,760
You've got your own bed, your own space,
856
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:05,840
you don't have to share, this is yours.
857
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,560
Of course, that doesn't mean people weren't having fun.
858
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:11,680
In fact, it's in the '50s that you see the beginnings
859
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:14,880
of what we now think of as the sexual revolution.
860
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:17,320
In fact, you even get a little baby boom
861
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,880
at the end of the '40s and beginning of the '50s.
862
00:50:19,880 --> 00:50:24,200
So this idea that it's all tea cosies and Horlicks before bedtime,
863
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:26,320
I'm afraid isn't really true.
864
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:28,600
So what were the wider changes in society
865
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,560
that explain this transformation in the '50s bedroom?
866
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:34,800
The '50s was the biggest economic boom in British history,
867
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:38,800
and what you had then was lots of people, particularly young people,
868
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:42,480
buying into lifestyles that their parents could never have dreamed of.
869
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:47,200
The '50s bedroom, in all sorts of ways, it's a temple to consumerism.
870
00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:50,360
'If you can save enough space, you can sweeten up hubby a lot.
871
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:53,040
'With a large centre wardrobe and two swinging cupboards,
872
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:55,880
'each fitted to hold everything hubby ever possessed.
873
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,480
'It's the latest idea in space-saving furniture.
874
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:02,040
'Hubby buys it, sonny enters it, wifey appropriates it.
875
00:51:02,040 --> 00:51:04,400
'What could be more economical than that?
876
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:08,040
'If you're still short of space, this anti-kneeknock dressing-table
877
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,600
'has a special place for hubby's studs and a few of wifey's oddments too.
878
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:15,160
'And if that's not bait enough, you can still put a good face on things.'
879
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:18,240
Were the '50s the golden age of marriage as well?
880
00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:22,160
Were people more married in the '50s than they have been before or since?
881
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:25,280
Yeah, the '50s was a period of huge cult of marriage,
882
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:30,040
as the Government and the other big institutional bodies go to enormous lengths
883
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:34,000
to sort of make people fall back in love with the idea of domesticity,
884
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:38,560
and the idea of the couple as the centrepiece of national social life.
885
00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:42,160
What you have in the '50s is this growing emphasis
886
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,600
on what people call the companionate marriage.
887
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:47,240
So instead of just marrying someone you quite like
888
00:51:47,240 --> 00:51:49,960
and then leading separate lives in the same household,
889
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:52,920
you actually do things together, you go out for drives,
890
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:56,560
you play games, you read together, you do all these kinds of things,
891
00:51:56,560 --> 00:51:59,520
and the family becomes more and more important.
892
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:02,080
We've got here some books from the 1950s
893
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,960
about marriage, about sexual relationships.
894
00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:09,720
Things like the marriage guidance counsellor, government-sponsored bodies,
895
00:52:09,720 --> 00:52:12,680
would put out sex manuals because they were so keen to encourage
896
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,440
the cult of domesticity, the companionate marriage,
897
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:19,000
to encourage couples to have a healthy, happy and fulfilling life together.
898
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:22,160
When we read them today, they seem pretty quaint, don't they?
899
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,840
They have all sorts of bizarre and wacky theories.
900
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,640
Helena Wright in the Sex Factor In Marriage
901
00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:31,720
has a whole chapter on frigidity,
902
00:52:31,720 --> 00:52:34,920
for example, the difficulties in the sexual relationship.
903
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:38,120
She says the commonest causes of female frigidity
904
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:41,240
are insufficiency of rest, lack of sleep,
905
00:52:41,240 --> 00:52:43,520
and secondly, constipation.
906
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:46,600
Clearly, we now know that constipation is not
907
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:50,800
the single leading cause of lack of sexual fulfilment in marriage.
908
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:55,240
You have to remember that, in the 1950s, before you get to sleep in one of these twin beds,
909
00:52:55,240 --> 00:52:56,920
before you get to have your own bedroom,
910
00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:58,720
you've had no sex education at all.
911
00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:00,720
Not from your parents, not from school,
912
00:53:00,720 --> 00:53:02,680
not from the Church, not from anybody.
913
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:05,880
So these kinds of things were are seen as absolutely essential
914
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:09,360
in cutting down on unwanted pregnancies, on teenage pregnancies,
915
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:11,600
illegitimacy, all these kinds of things.
916
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:15,280
and in their way, they performed a very vital and important service.
917
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,920
I used to feel very sorry for married women in the '50s,
918
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:23,600
I imagined them sleeping in twin beds, probably being on tranquillisers
919
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,680
and their husbands having an affair with their secretary.
920
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:29,640
But, I've now realised that things weren't quite like that,
921
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:32,400
there was a current moving through society in the '50s
922
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:35,760
that was about learning how to have a good sexual relationship.
923
00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:39,280
The '50s bedroom wasn't such a bad place to be.
924
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:45,120
This quiet domestic revolution was building to its climax,
925
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,600
with the sexual liberation of the 1960s.
926
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,760
As parents, how do you feel about her leaving home,
927
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:54,240
going to live by herself for the first time?
928
00:53:54,240 --> 00:53:57,280
I can't help, of course, feeling a bit uneasy
929
00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:59,320
as anybody would, I think,
930
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:03,000
launching a young girl into life on her own.
931
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:04,960
What are you uneasy about?
932
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:08,800
Sex, drugs, drink...
933
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:10,440
anything could happen.
934
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,280
But now it wasn't just about who you slept with,
935
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:15,480
but what you slept under.
936
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:18,640
The days of sheets and eiderdowns were numbered.
937
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:23,280
A revolutionary product arrived, the duvet.
938
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:27,960
In the late 1960s, Terence Conran was credited with bringing it to the UK,
939
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:31,440
after he'd spent some passionate nights in Scandinavia.
940
00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:37,720
Patricia Whittington-Farrell was one of the first Habitat employees
941
00:54:37,720 --> 00:54:41,400
to demonstrate this shockingly different bedding.
942
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:43,800
When I first saw them, I didn't know what they were,
943
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:47,240
I thought they were a bed covering, but I wasn't sure what you did with them.
944
00:54:47,240 --> 00:54:52,000
So when it was your job to be selling the duvets to your customers,
945
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,920
you encountered this problem, presumably, people didn't know what they were?
946
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,080
I used to end up putting the duvet cover on
947
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:00,800
and showing them how easy...
948
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:03,640
It's so simple, all you do is that, and you can go out.
949
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:07,360
So you'd end up with sometimes 20 or 30 people.
950
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,280
This innovation. I know, it's amazing!
951
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:14,200
And all the people in the cafe would be looking down to see what you were doing.
952
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:16,800
I used to shake it and say, "There you go."
953
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:19,360
How much did a duvet cost then?
954
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:25,360
I think the double ones were about £11 and the single ones possibly £5.
955
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:26,640
A lot of money?
956
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:29,040
At the time, I was only working part-time,
957
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:30,640
but I was earning £10 a week,
958
00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:32,160
so it was an expensive thing.
959
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:35,200
At first, they were called continental quilts,
960
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:36,760
or else, slumberdowns.
961
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:40,640
After Conran had successfully exported the idea to France,
962
00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:44,480
they became known as duvets, from the French word for down.
963
00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:46,680
1971, this catalogue.
964
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:51,440
The whole idea of the lifestyle was, I can bring my children in with me, we can do things together.
965
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:54,320
Before then, a bedroom was somewhere where you went to sleep.
966
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:58,440
All of a sudden, it became a living room as well, because you've got a television in there.
967
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,800
The bedroom was a lovely, comfortable place to be.
968
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:04,240
Here it says, "Until you've tried this method of making a bed,
969
00:56:04,240 --> 00:56:07,480
"it's difficult to believe it could be so simple and so comfortable,
970
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:10,920
"but once you've experienced it, you're never likely to change."
971
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:14,360
Absolutely right. I don't know anybody who went back to blankets.
972
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:17,680
Once they tried the duvet, that was it, that was it for life.
973
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:21,160
Right, in the Habitat catalogue for 1975,
974
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:25,120
we have the 10-second bed challenge.
975
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:26,600
Oh my goodness!
976
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:31,080
Here she is, taking the duvet off, straightening the sheet,
977
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:34,520
putting the cover back on, sorting it all out, and yes, she's done it.
978
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:38,080
OK. But this is a single bed, I take it. Isn't it?
979
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:40,760
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But you're an expert, Patricia,
980
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,440
You've been trained to do this. It only takes 10 seconds.
981
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:45,960
Absolutely perfect, I really look forward to this.
982
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:47,920
- Right, are you ready?
- I'm ready.
983
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:50,320
..Get set. Go.
984
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,760
One cushion. I've lost another pillow.
985
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:57,520
- And all you do, Madam...
- Go, go, go.
986
00:56:57,520 --> 00:56:58,920
Shake it.
987
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:01,920
I love the way you called me madam, while you were doing it.
988
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:04,160
I was trying to do a shop demonstration.
989
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,160
- Are you done?
- Finished.
990
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:12,880
- How many?
- 19 seconds.
- Yes! But it was a double.
991
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:15,560
I could have done it with a single in 10.
992
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:17,640
It doesn't look very good, does it?
993
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,560
I think you've lost your edge here.
994
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:23,720
Once the duvet had arrived,
995
00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:26,200
the next decorative thing to change about beds
996
00:57:26,200 --> 00:57:28,320
was the '80s obsession with floral frills.
997
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:31,160
- How do you feel?
- Delighted.
998
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:35,680
Thankfully, it's nothing but a distant memory.
999
00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:44,040
The bedroom has evolved from the bustling medieval hall with absolutely no privacy
1000
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,400
to the sanctuary of today,
1001
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,880
where people seal themselves off from the rest of the house.
1002
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:53,160
Bedrooms now are like private kingdoms,
1003
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:58,200
where you can do whatever you want, but this is quite a modern notion.
1004
00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:02,320
In the past, bedrooms were full of bustle and other people's bodies.
1005
00:58:02,320 --> 00:58:05,360
It's only relatively recently that bedrooms have become
1006
00:58:05,360 --> 00:58:10,600
places for relaxation, intimacy and, above all, for privacy.
1007
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:19,440
My goodness, timewarp.
1008
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:22,560
Next time, from the medieval one-room cottage,
1009
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:25,040
to an open-plan futuristic utopia,
1010
00:58:25,040 --> 00:58:29,440
I'll be discovering how the kitchen came in from the cold.
1011
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:31,240
Come on, Coco, you can do it!
1012
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:32,960
Not too bad for a beginner.
1013
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:35,360
She's a bit patronising, isn't she?
1014
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:53,480
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1015
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,200
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk
90967
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