0:00:03 > 0:00:07Imagine Britain in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12We've been fighting the French for years.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Napoleon tightens his grip on Europe.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Closing us in, locking us down.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20But the Brits fight on.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Across Europe, more than three million people die
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and then in 1815, the final struggle.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41The Battle of Waterloo was a decisive victory over Napoleon
0:00:41 > 0:00:43and the start of a new era.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49I'm at the top of a memorial
0:00:49 > 0:00:54to the Commander in Chief of Britain's triumphant army.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00The darkness and destruction of the Napoleonic wars were over.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03In 1815, Britain emerged victorious
0:01:03 > 0:01:06as the most powerful nation on Earth.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Britannia really did rule the waves.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Almost by accident, we'd acquired 17 new colonies.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Our leaders and statesmen looked around them,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17asked themselves the question, "Who are we?
0:01:17 > 0:01:21"Who should we be? What should a modern Britain look like?"
0:01:21 > 0:01:24And all this...would be transformed.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29Demolished and rebuilt in some of the most ambitious metropolitan improvements ever attempted.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Central London would be reborn,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38with Regent Street slicing through the heart of the city.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43This was an age of confidence, exuberance
0:01:43 > 0:01:46and above all, experimentation.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50It was a decade of design as wild as the '60s.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02With Ancient Greece and Rome, Egypt, China, France,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and India all thrown into the mix.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10There was glorious light and garish colour.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13New technology mixed up with ancient art.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18In the decade of the Regency,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22between 1811 and 1820, there was an explosion of design.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24British style was lavish,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28theatrical, outrageous and brilliant!
0:02:33 > 0:02:37And at the heart of it all was George, the Prince Regent,
0:02:37 > 0:02:43whose obsession with building left an indelible stamp on Britain.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03I'm Lucy Worsley and I'm a historian.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06I'm Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces
0:03:06 > 0:03:10and I love poking around in Royal buildings.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16I'm fascinated by the way palaces always reflect the character
0:03:16 > 0:03:18of the person who built them.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24The biggest builder of them all was the Prince Regent.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26He had something like an addiction
0:03:26 > 0:03:28for architecture and interior decoration.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31He was constantly building and rebuilding his houses.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34He was always hungry for change.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37In 1815, he appointed the architect John Nash
0:03:37 > 0:03:39to rebuild his seaside retreat,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41the Marine Pavilion at Brighton.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Nash took it from being an elegant neo-classical villa
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and turned it into this Indian fantasy palace.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00George started this place as soon as Waterloo was won.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04He'd defeated Napoleon, the Emperor of Europe, and now here he was,
0:04:04 > 0:04:09building a holiday home for himself as Emperor of the World.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23The pavilion captures the craziness of Regency style.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Its clashing of cultures, its boldness,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32its willingness to try new things.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Together, George and his architect, John Nash,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37would give us the very essence of the Regency.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46This book was commissioned by John Nash
0:04:46 > 0:04:50to celebrate his finished building and the amazing exuberance here,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Indian on the outside, Chinese on the inside,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56was achieved with the help of some new technology.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00These domes are sealed with what Nash called his patent mastic
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and they're supported by an iron framework.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08The building's all about illusion and theatricality.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12It's by one showman for another. By John Nash for the Prince Regent,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15both of them willing to break the rules of architecture.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Building was George's biggest passion, his main creative outlet.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Walking through these exotic rooms,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35you get the sense that they were designed
0:05:35 > 0:05:39for the naughty, no-rules lifestyle that George longed for,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41with a room for each pleasure.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49And for his greatest pleasure, eating,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51the most luxurious rooms of all.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56Trapped indoors by his gout and hardly able to climb up stairs,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01the Regent planned his palace around his consolation - a love of grub.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04A quarter of the building is devoted to food.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09He was so pleased with his new kitchen,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11he even used it as a dining room.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15The cartoonists showed him gnawing on a greasy drumstick,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19but his taste was a lot more sophisticated.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Is that enough wax?
0:06:22 > 0:06:29'I'm in George's kitchen with the food historian, Ivan Day.'
0:06:29 > 0:06:32So what you're doing is you're pressing it
0:06:32 > 0:06:34- into this little impression... - I'm making an urn.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36- ..of a classical urn. - That'll be good.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Shall I start kneading my stuff?
0:06:40 > 0:06:42- Yeah. If you get some of that out of there.- What's it called again?
0:06:42 > 0:06:44This is called gum paste, or pastillage,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and it's a mixture of sugar and a gum called gum tragacanth,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50which makes it very elastic, like plasticine.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52It's like edible plasticine.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54- Is it what I put on my Christmas cake?- Not at all.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00It was used at very, very high status regal banquets,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03usually to make edible table ornaments.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Originally, it was made for making cups and plates
0:07:05 > 0:07:07you could actually eat off.
0:07:07 > 0:07:08Once you'd finished eating,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11you could then eat the plate if you wanted to save the washing up.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Squidge, squidge, squidge it in.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19- Right.- You'd better start because it's drying out.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21- Quick, quick, quick! - Now, let it touch the wood first. So push it down.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Push it down hard, really hard.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26- Are you going to hold still while I...?- I'm going to hold it for you.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29And then you just squeegee it backwards and forwards.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Don't break the neck!
0:07:32 > 0:07:34- That's perfect.- Oh, very good!
0:07:36 > 0:07:38I'm going to get the little pointy thing
0:07:38 > 0:07:39and start pulling it out.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Work your way around the sides.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43Come out, little urn.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46This is going to be a masterpiece.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48You've done it. It's done, it'll come off.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53And just let it drop that side down onto the wood.
0:07:53 > 0:07:54Just flick it over and it'll just drop out.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59Ooh! Look how finely decorated it is.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01It's superb. And then you make another one
0:08:01 > 0:08:03and you join the two together with a bit of adhesive.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06And then I could put it on the top of a building like that.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08- Exactly, yeah.- Brilliant!
0:08:08 > 0:08:12My urn is a tiny bit of the most spectacular part
0:08:12 > 0:08:15of a Regency Banquet - the sugar Sculpture.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21The undisputed master of this arcane art was Antonin Careme,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24the Regency's most celebrated chef.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28He'd cooked for Napoleon, which instantly attracted George,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32and in 1816 he managed to lure Careme over from France.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36It turns out the Regent and his new cook had a common interest.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Tell me a bit about Antonin Careme.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43The interesting thing about Careme was he studied architecture.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46He went to libraries and looked at, you know, Vitruvius,
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and people like that
0:08:48 > 0:08:51so he could understand the classical orders.
0:08:51 > 0:08:52And he defined confectionary
0:08:52 > 0:08:55as being an art form because it was architecture in miniature.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01So even the Regent's cook considered himself an architect.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04His bestselling books were filled with diagrams of edible buildings,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07reflecting all the latest architectural trends.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12His style is very eclectic, and on one table
0:09:12 > 0:09:16you might get an Egyptian colossus and a Greek Temple,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21but you also might get a Swiss cottage or a Russian Orthodox church
0:09:21 > 0:09:24made out of nougat and sugar and almonds.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31And it became very much based on a really early 19th century aesthetic
0:09:31 > 0:09:37of pinching forms from all kinds of architectural and artistic genres.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41So when you look at his designs, they are caprices.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43It's a fantasy kind of world.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Rather like this building.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51In fact, this building is rather like a big sugar Careme in its own right really.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57Sadly the perfect match between George and Careme, wasn't to last.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01But he didn't stay for long cos I think he saw the Prince Regent
0:10:01 > 0:10:04as being a little bit on the boorish side
0:10:04 > 0:10:08and not really appreciative of some of the finer details
0:10:08 > 0:10:10of French cuisine classique, and he moved on.
0:10:10 > 0:10:16Careme wasn't the only person to fall out of love with George.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21The world at large thought his pavilion looked ridiculous.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25A shoddy version of an opium smoker's dream.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36Satirists painted the Regent as a fat, debauched addict,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39ensconced in an outrageous oriental den.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44And George, oblivious, carried on building away, living the high life.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51But his government was taking a rather more cautious approach
0:10:51 > 0:10:53to honouring Waterloo.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08How do you celebrate the glorious ending of 20 years of warfare?
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Well you'd expect the government to put up a whole lot of monuments -
0:11:10 > 0:11:14triumphal arches, columns, that sort of thing.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16But two years after the Battle of Waterloo,
0:11:16 > 0:11:17they'd only finished one monument,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19and it wasn't even a proper monument at all.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21It was a bridge.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Of course, the original Waterloo Bridge wasn't made of concrete,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28or even of sugar.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31The Regency version was a granite affair with many arches
0:11:31 > 0:11:35and on the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37it was the scene of a huge party.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45The Bridge was opened on the 18th June 1817.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48For the occasion, there were lots of flags flying.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51The bridge was packed with veterans from the battlefield of Waterloo
0:11:51 > 0:11:52and the houses all around
0:11:52 > 0:11:55were described as looking as if they were roofed with people.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58This feat of engineering
0:11:58 > 0:12:01was proclaimed as a fitting and practical monument
0:12:01 > 0:12:03to the brilliant victory of Waterloo
0:12:03 > 0:12:07and it was described as one of the wonders of the age.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Waterloo's victorious general, The Duke of Wellington,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15crossed over the bridge.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Smoke filled the air as cannons fired.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22One shot for each of the 202 guns captured at Waterloo.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27In amongst this crowd was the painter, John Constable,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30and for him the occasion would turn out to be a bit of an obsession.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Constable set out to paint his grandest canvas yet -
0:12:39 > 0:12:41a patriotic tour de force
0:12:41 > 0:12:44recording this great moment in the life of the nation.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49He slaved away at his painting for 15 years.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Finally in 1832, it was ready to be exhibited at the Royal Academy,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55here at Somerset House.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02In the finished canvas, we see the Prince Regent getting into a barge
0:13:02 > 0:13:05up at Whitehall, with the bridge in the distance.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10I think this picture meant a lot to Constable.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13This was his chance to paint a historic moment -
0:13:13 > 0:13:14the opening of a monument
0:13:14 > 0:13:17to the greatest victory in military history.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23But poor old Constable was completely upstaged by Turner
0:13:23 > 0:13:24in the same exhibition.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26This is Turner's effort. It's a seascape.
0:13:26 > 0:13:27It's full of movement,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31although apparently it's a much simpler picture,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33and when Turner saw what Constable had done,
0:13:33 > 0:13:35he played rather a naughty trick.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38He saw how bright and busy this work was and he came back
0:13:38 > 0:13:42and added just one little red buoy on the surface of his waves there.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45When Constable saw what Turner had done, he knew
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Turner was playing a trick on him and he said in a rage,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51"Turner's been here and he's fired a gun!"
0:13:54 > 0:13:56Even without Turner's mocking,
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Constable's painting was a total flop.
0:14:00 > 0:14:0415 years on, critics couldn't remember the event he'd painted,
0:14:04 > 0:14:09or why Waterloo Bridge was supposed to be so important.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12So why did the government make all this fuss about a bridge?
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The real reason that a bridge ended up being the official monument
0:14:18 > 0:14:21to the Battle of Waterloo was that the government was broke
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and the amazing thing about Waterloo Bridge
0:14:24 > 0:14:27is that it was funded entirely by private investment.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29It may have cost members of the public
0:14:29 > 0:14:31a penny to cross over the bridge,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33but to the government, it was free.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Something free was very desirable in a post-war recession
0:14:39 > 0:14:41with a huge national debt.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51The Tory government needed to slash spending by a quarter
0:14:51 > 0:14:54rather than spewing away public funds.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56The gout-ridden Regent stands by,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00his expensive projects propped up with the people's cash.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04It was time for cuts...
0:15:06 > 0:15:09..not for squandering money on public monuments and art...
0:15:11 > 0:15:14..which is where some broken old Greek statues come in.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27These are the Elgin Marbles, taken by Lord Elgin
0:15:27 > 0:15:33from the Parthenon in Athens at the start of the 19th century.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36These bits of somebody else's monument
0:15:36 > 0:15:40would turn out to be a real emblem for a triumphant Britain.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44But when they first arrived, not everybody was convinced.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Their curator, Ian Jenkins, can tell me more.
0:15:50 > 0:15:56So Ian, what was new about the Elgin Marbles? Why were people excited?
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Well, when they first came to Britain
0:15:58 > 0:16:01and went on show in Lord Elgin's temporary museum in London,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03people had never seen the like before.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06They were immediately shocked
0:16:06 > 0:16:09by the almost brutal naturalism
0:16:09 > 0:16:12of these great colossal figures.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19These were ancient Greek originals
0:16:19 > 0:16:21and they weren't what people expected.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30People liked their sculpture complete, white, restored, domestic.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33These were not domestic, they were not tamed.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35They were broken, they were stained,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38they were often headless, they were unrestored
0:16:38 > 0:16:40and Lord Elgin entertained for a long time
0:16:40 > 0:16:42the possibility that they should be restored
0:16:42 > 0:16:44and consulted the great sculptor Canova,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46who said that they were real meat.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50- Real meat! - Real flesh.- Real flesh. I love it!
0:16:50 > 0:16:51They were avant garde.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55They represented the shock of the new, a new wave.
0:16:55 > 0:16:56Were these frightening objects
0:16:56 > 0:16:59the sort of thing we really wanted in Britain?
0:17:02 > 0:17:05In 1816, Parliament held an enquiry
0:17:05 > 0:17:09to decide whether to buy them for the nation.
0:17:09 > 0:17:10It came down to two things
0:17:10 > 0:17:14- were they any good, and what did they stand for?
0:17:17 > 0:17:20It's a defining moment when all the congnoscenti, the artists,
0:17:20 > 0:17:21the connoisseurs, were brought in,
0:17:21 > 0:17:26each interrogated in turn, and each giving his own
0:17:26 > 0:17:30account of the marbles and how they should be evaluated.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33The answer came back from most of them
0:17:33 > 0:17:37that these were the greatest works of art ever seen in Britain.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39and yes, the enquiry concluded,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43it was entirely appropriate for a triumphant Britain to own them.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Greece was seen by Britain in the 19th century as somehow pure,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51an untainted society.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54To have the Elgin Marbles in Britain
0:17:54 > 0:17:58was to have transplanted Old Greece to London.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Even though the Government was broke,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04it found £35,000 to buy the Elgin Marbles
0:18:04 > 0:18:07for the British Museum.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09We were the inheritors of the Greeks,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11plucky little Britain, defender of freedom.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19This was powerful stuff and it changed the way Britain looked.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Within a few years the home of the marbles itself
0:18:22 > 0:18:24was being rebuilt as a Greek temple.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32The most modern buildings after 1815
0:18:32 > 0:18:34drew upon Ancient Greek originals,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37like St Pancras Church in London.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Achingly cool and built for the north London intelligentsia.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47These urbanites aspired to Greekness.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52Like the Athenians, they hoped to change the world with ideas and art.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58But a city with a greater claim to this Greek inheritance
0:18:58 > 0:19:01lay north of the border - Edinburgh.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Now London didn't have a monopoly on the idea of Ancient Greece
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and Edinburgh, too, wanted to be the New Athens.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23I'm sitting on Britain's first monument
0:19:23 > 0:19:25to the dead of the Napoleonic Wars
0:19:25 > 0:19:27and clearly there's a bit of competition going on here.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Down in London they had the real Elgin Marbles,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32but up here in Scotland
0:19:32 > 0:19:36they were hoping to build a complete Recreation of the Parthenon.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46In 1820, someone suggested reconstructing the Greek ruin
0:19:46 > 0:19:48as a massive memorial,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51complete with its 46 giant columns.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54The Scottish people gave generously,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56at least at first, and building began.
0:19:56 > 0:19:57But it didn't last long.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Sadly the money ran out and it never got finished.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Construction ground to a halt after just 12 columns
0:20:06 > 0:20:10and the monument became known as Scotland's shame.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Not that this put Edinburgh off the Greek theme.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23The city had been the home of the big brains of the Enlightenment,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25like Adam Smith, and David Hume
0:20:25 > 0:20:28- the modern heirs of Ancient Greek thought.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33After Waterloo the New Town's architects
0:20:33 > 0:20:36turned those ideas into bricks and mortar,
0:20:36 > 0:20:41earning Edinburgh its title of The Athens of the North.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51But this cold Greek purity wasn't for everybody.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53This is Sir John Soane.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56He was one of the most important architects of the age.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59A man with a very different architectural mission,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01and this is his house in London.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05Soane shared the Prince Regent's belief
0:21:05 > 0:21:09that you should express your personality through architecture.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13As we're about to see, Soane was a pretty unusual man.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17# People are strange
0:21:17 > 0:21:20# When you're a stranger
0:21:20 > 0:21:22# Faces look ugly
0:21:22 > 0:21:23# When you're alone
0:21:23 > 0:21:26# Women seem wicked
0:21:26 > 0:21:28# When you're unwanted
0:21:28 > 0:21:30# Streets are uneven
0:21:30 > 0:21:32# When you're down
0:21:32 > 0:21:33# When you're strange
0:21:33 > 0:21:36# Faces come out of the rain
0:21:38 > 0:21:40# When you're strange
0:21:40 > 0:21:42# No-one remembers your name
0:21:44 > 0:21:46# When you're strange
0:21:46 > 0:21:48# When you're strange
0:21:48 > 0:21:50# When you're strange
0:21:52 > 0:21:54# People are strange
0:21:54 > 0:21:56# When you're a stranger
0:21:56 > 0:21:59# Houses look ugly... #
0:21:59 > 0:22:03'Jerzy Kierkuc Bielinski is a curator here.'
0:22:03 > 0:22:06This is John Soane.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08- Yes.- And what sort of a man was he?
0:22:08 > 0:22:10He was a very driven man.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Because he was driven, I think he could also be slightly difficult.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16He's not short of self confidence, is he?
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Placing a bust of himself so prominently.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22No. Well, I think it's also a comment that he's making
0:22:22 > 0:22:25about architecture and the role of the architect
0:22:25 > 0:22:27because if you notice,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30there are two small figures, two statuettes beneath the bust.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34You have Michaelangelo representing sculpture
0:22:34 > 0:22:38and Raphael with his artist's palette representing painting,
0:22:38 > 0:22:39and what Soane is saying here
0:22:39 > 0:22:43is that architecture, as personified by himself of course,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45is greater than those two arts
0:22:45 > 0:22:49because painting and sculpture ornament architecture.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53So it's sort of a comment about the union of painting,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56architecture and sculpture within this house as well.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59So he's making a wider point than, "I am the greatest!"
0:22:59 > 0:23:02- He's saying architecture is the greatest art.- Yes.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04Soane, a self-made man,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07won social status through his skill as an architect
0:23:07 > 0:23:11and he wanted to be sure people saw architecture as a proper art.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Here, he made the world's first architectural museum -
0:23:14 > 0:23:19a temple to architecture with himself as high priest.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21# When you're strange
0:23:22 > 0:23:24# Faces come out of the rain... #
0:23:24 > 0:23:29He hoarded Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Gothic fragments.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33All the stylistic influences on Regency taste.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36And what Soane has done here is that he's created
0:23:36 > 0:23:40a type of dictionary of architecture, if you like.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43He's taken casts or actual fragments of the great buildings
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and he's brought them into this London townhouse.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52Sort of telescoping the classical past into this incredible interior.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56So there is method behind the madness, if you like.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01But Soane didn't take the rules and follow them to the letter.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03He liked to experiment.
0:24:03 > 0:24:04# When you're strange. #
0:24:10 > 0:24:13I think that one of the reasons that modern architects
0:24:13 > 0:24:14are so obsessed with Soane
0:24:14 > 0:24:17is because he broke the box, if you like.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20If you think of a room as having four walls, a ceiling and a floor,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Soane bursts through those constraints.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25- Absolutely.- And this space here, in an ideal world
0:24:25 > 0:24:27it would be just a little square in the middle here,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30but he's dissolved the walls and all the energy
0:24:30 > 0:24:32is taking place beyond the boundaries
0:24:32 > 0:24:35of the traditional room, isn't it?
0:24:35 > 0:24:39Absolutely. He's punctured this space through the use of plate glass
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and he's illuminated it with this amazing skylight,
0:24:42 > 0:24:47this huge ceiling rose that seems almost about to sort of crush us.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51There's a lot of spacial ambiguity here.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53A lot of playfulness, I think, because of that.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55He's a real conjurer, isn't he?
0:24:55 > 0:24:58Yes, definitely, definitely. Light and space.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00He's a magician of light and space really.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14Soane liked to talk about "the poetry of architecture."
0:25:15 > 0:25:17He thought it should stimulate the imagination.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22So Soane treated his house as a kind of laboratory
0:25:22 > 0:25:25for trying out different architectural ideas
0:25:25 > 0:25:29and this room is full of what he called "fanciful effects."
0:25:29 > 0:25:33Let's start with this weirdly truncated dome.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36You would expect it to land in the four corners of the room,
0:25:36 > 0:25:37but it doesn't.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Beyond the dome there are these slots with light coming down
0:25:40 > 0:25:42and it's not normal light,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44it's yellow coloured
0:25:44 > 0:25:48because of the coloured glass that he's put into the skylights.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56We've also got more than 100 mirrors in here.
0:25:56 > 0:25:57So that everywhere you look,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00there's a disconcerting reflection of yourself.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03We're really in the hands here of an architectural wizard.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16And he didn't stop at innovating with light and reflection.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Soane's also what you might call an early adopter.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Now, although he loved antiquity,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Soane also loved all mod cons
0:26:26 > 0:26:28and this is his own little dressing room
0:26:28 > 0:26:31where we've got all the latest gadgets.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Firstly, we've got a nice fitted desk and drawers.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Just outside the window here we've got gas lighting.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39This is a great novelty.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The first gas company is only set up in 1812.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45This square was the first in London to have a gas supply
0:26:45 > 0:26:47and just as soon as it was available,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Soane installed it in his courtyard.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54Down here we've got a hot air central heating system.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Over here we've got a plumbed in washbasin,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and over here, best of all, we've got a flushing toilet.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06But Soane didn't just rethink interiors.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10He was after big commissions.
0:27:10 > 0:27:11By the start of the Regency,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15he'd already rebuilt the Bank of England in Roman style.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Bloated with the profits of lending money in the Napoleonic wars,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24the bank needed a giant new building.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30He created the pioneering Dulwich Picture Gallery -
0:27:30 > 0:27:32the first national art museum.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40And he also left us a funny little surprise.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44This is the monument he designed for his wife, Eliza,
0:27:44 > 0:27:45when she died in 1815.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49He eventually joined her here.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51It has a very distinctive shape,
0:27:51 > 0:27:54which might remind you of something else.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03In 1924, Giles Gilbert Scott
0:28:03 > 0:28:08entered a competition to design the new phonebox.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11This is his winning entry, inspired by the mausoleum of Sir John Soane.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15It must be one of the strangest architectural legacies
0:28:15 > 0:28:17of the Regency period.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23If he'd had his way, Soane would've left us with much more.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30This is London, Soane style.
0:28:30 > 0:28:31Crammed with triumphal arches,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36a Senate House, new Royal palaces, oh, and mountains.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Actually, it's all a fantasy.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42These are all the buildings Soane never got to build
0:28:42 > 0:28:46because the biggest patron of them all always eluded him.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48An important architect like Soane
0:28:48 > 0:28:53might have expected to get a big job at the royal palaces,
0:28:53 > 0:28:54but it wasn't to be.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Soane had a reputation for being a bit difficult,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00for bossing his clients around
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and only for doing his own very distinctive style.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06This isn't what the Prince Regent was after at all.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10He wanted an architect to help him realise his own vision.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13As he put it, someone suited to his mind.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16That's why he chose John Nash.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22Nash wasn't the most original designer of his day,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24but he was a much easier-going guy than Soane
0:29:24 > 0:29:28and happy to design in any style that took the Regent's fancy.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33As well as Brighton Pavilion,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Nash worked on the Regent's official home
0:29:36 > 0:29:38at the heart of London - Carlton House.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42This place had already had several facelifts,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45but when he became Regent in 1811,
0:29:45 > 0:29:47George spent a fortune beautifying it even more
0:29:47 > 0:29:51to make a palace fit for, well, a Regent.
0:29:51 > 0:29:52This a book published in 1819,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56showing the interiors of the different Royal Residences.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00These pages show Carlton House and you can see how it had now become
0:30:00 > 0:30:04the most amazingly lavish and opulent interior.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Regrettably, Carlton House is long gone,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14but you can get the Carlton House experience
0:30:14 > 0:30:18at another Royal Palace, Windsor.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20In these rooms at Windsor Castle,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24you get a real sense of what Carlton House was actually like.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27In the 1820s, George remodelled this suite
0:30:27 > 0:30:31and he re-used several of the fittings from Carlton House,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35so here you can see tantalizing traces of the Prince's lost palace.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45Fireplaces, doors, even whole floors from Carlton House ended up here.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48George treated his palaces like doll's houses,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50to be constantly rearranged
0:30:50 > 0:30:54and filled with an ever-stranger assortment of stuff.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59I've come to meet the Deputy Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art, Rufus Bird.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01Paint me a picture of what it was actually like
0:31:01 > 0:31:05to walk into Carlton House, perhaps the Crimson Room.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09You would have walked into a room of almost unimaginable opulence...
0:31:11 > 0:31:14..with incredible gilded ceilings,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18fantastically rich silk velvet on the walls,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22amazing combinations of English contemporary Giltwood furniture,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26with French decorative works of art...
0:31:27 > 0:31:30..amazing chandeliers, he was obsessed with lighting,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32huge quantities of light.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Very bright, very, very impressive rooms.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41The 20 or so showy rooms in Carlton House
0:31:41 > 0:31:45were designed to project George's royal magnificence to the world,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48in styles that ranged from the fashionable Grecian decor
0:31:48 > 0:31:52of the Old Throne Room to Nash's Gothic Dining Room,
0:31:52 > 0:31:58completely gilded and perfect for George's intimate dinners of 30.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00There was a real sense of exoticism.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05The combinations that he chose were quite adventurous.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08We've got a pretty good example of exactly what you're talking about
0:32:08 > 0:32:10just here. Tell us what this one is.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Well, this is a Chinese vase.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17It's a very plain blue 18th century vase,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and then it has been completely transformed
0:32:20 > 0:32:23by these magnificent mounts. Here you see a satyr's head,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28and then between the satyrs' heads are these swags of vine,
0:32:28 > 0:32:33and the horns scroll up and twist around onto the rim of the bowl.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36And it's stood on a griffin stand.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Three griffins which support the top
0:32:38 > 0:32:41and they are derived from Roman fragments.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45So we've got a mid-18th century Chinese vase,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47we've got late 18th century French decoration,
0:32:47 > 0:32:52standing on a British Regency but Roman-inspired stand.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Absolutely and that's exactly the sort of confection
0:32:55 > 0:32:58that creates this wonderful mixing of styles and eras,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and shows the eclecticism and exoticism
0:33:01 > 0:33:04that the Regency is really all about.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08This place may look about as grand as it gets
0:33:08 > 0:33:13but, in fact, for their time, George's rooms are shockingly informal.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15It's all about the furniture.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18A generation before it would have been lined up against the walls,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22but now chairs and tables are scattered about willy nilly.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26And it wasn't just the furniture that was informal.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29George was shaking up behaviour too.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34In 1816, a scandalous new dance was seen at court for the first time...
0:33:34 > 0:33:35the waltz.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Waltzing scandalous? How could this be?
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Well, before the Regency, people danced in groups,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52only occasionally touching each other.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55The waltz was a very different matter,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58as the dance historian Robin Benie shows me.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01This is a quite nice and romantic movement too.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04It is. But it's not as good as waltzing.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06- And it's only for a few seconds.- Yes.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09In the waltz, when I take you, I have you...
0:34:09 > 0:34:12- For the whole dance. - ..for the whole dance. Just you.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17When this German waltz arrived, it broke all social rules.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19It's the arms that go round rather than...
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Don't be fooled by the plinky plonky music, this is dirty dancing.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And we've got this wonderful close proximity.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31This is one of the reasons that people thought
0:34:31 > 0:34:33the waltz was a bit iffy, dodgy.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Just think of the things, that I could be whispering to you.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38Well, you could be telling me all sorts of things,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43but unfortunately, there's a camera just six inches away, so I advise you not to tell me now!
0:34:45 > 0:34:50For polite society, this was the Regency version of a swingers party.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54The cartoonist Cruikshank made this print in 1816.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59He called it "Waltzing or a Peep into the Royal Brothel".
0:35:01 > 0:35:05The Times called the Waltz, "An indecent foreign dance"
0:35:05 > 0:35:10and drew attention to its, "Voluptuous intertwining of the limbs".
0:35:13 > 0:35:15Led by the Regent's courts though,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18the waltz's close embrace was gaining acceptance.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21And such scandalous behaviour even began to penetrate
0:35:21 > 0:35:25the peaceful country homes of the aristocracy.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Take this place, Attingham Park.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34A beautiful 18th century mansion in Shropshire
0:35:34 > 0:35:37that got a decadent Regency makeover.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46It's a bit of a cautionary tale
0:35:46 > 0:35:50about a man who indulged a lascivious taste for luxury.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56We're talking shocking pinks and garish colours and gilding aplenty.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08This fan of soft furnishings was Thomas Hill, Lord Berwick,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12a true follower of Regency fashion.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21Thomas the second Lord Berwick was a typical Regency rake.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23He went on a grand tour in the 1790s,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27came back with a lot of these paintings and pieces of furniture,
0:36:27 > 0:36:29and then he took this house that he'd inherited
0:36:29 > 0:36:33and ripped the middle out of it. He carried out a major remodelling.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37And he gave the job of making over his house
0:36:37 > 0:36:40to the defining architect of the Regency.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43His architect was John Nash
0:36:43 > 0:36:45and here in the picture gallery,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48you can see Nash at his most extraordinarily inventive.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51It's a really rich, bold interior.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58There's quite a few novelties here, the glass roof for example.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03The glazing's held in place with iron glazing bars instead of wood.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05This was all very exciting but unfortunately
0:37:05 > 0:37:08almost immediately it started to leak.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11How very modern.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16For Thomas, this house was all about displaying his personality
0:37:16 > 0:37:18as a cultured gentleman.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24Its curator, Sarah Kay, has been delving into his decorative secrets.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Now, it strikes me that it's very pink in here.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Is this normal for a Regency man's study?
0:37:29 > 0:37:33People are not expecting to see pink in here and we've got,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36as you can see, sumptuous lavish use of pink in the curtains.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39We have to explain to people that pink was not
0:37:39 > 0:37:41an exclusively feminine colour by any means.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44It was just another lavish, opulent statement about yourself.
0:37:44 > 0:37:49So what we're seeing here is the room as it was in 1813.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53That's right, yes, with all his Regency bright, bold,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56lavish opulent colours.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57Do you like it?
0:37:57 > 0:38:00Well, you can see it's making me smile.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04I think it's great fun, I think it's very challenging for us today,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08but I think what it does is really create this impressive, bold,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10sock-it-to-you impression
0:38:10 > 0:38:14and that is what the second Lord Berwick wanted to do
0:38:14 > 0:38:16and he expressed it in the way he furnished his room
0:38:16 > 0:38:21and this room is the heart of his suite of spaces in the house,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24so he needed to make a big impression in here and he did.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Thomas had another passion as well as interior decorating.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41He was in love with a teenage courtesan named Sophia
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and this amazing monkey music box was a gift that he got for her.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54Sophia was actually a bit of a luxury commodity in her own right.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Her big sister was the famous Harriette Wilson,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00the high class prostitute patronised by Lord Byron,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02the Duke of Wellington etc.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06And like her sister, Sophia was hot property in the Regent's circle.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11She needed some persuasion to give it all up to marry Thomas.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14She held out on him for some time
0:39:14 > 0:39:17although he bought her a house in London to live in
0:39:17 > 0:39:19while he was doing up Attingham Park.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22He asked her to marry him several times.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27Eventually she said in 1812, when he was 43 and she was 17.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35This music box is supposed to be the gift that swayed her
0:39:35 > 0:39:37which is a little bit creepy.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Thomas and Sophia were shunned by polite society
0:39:41 > 0:39:43so they retreated to their beautiful house,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47still splurging on paintings and furniture.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51Lord Berwick's finances couldn't keep up
0:39:51 > 0:39:53with all of this extravagance.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56In 1827 he was declared bankrupt
0:39:56 > 0:39:58and he had to retire ignominiously to Italy.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06For people outside the Regent's charmed circle,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10it must have seemed that Lord Berwick got what he deserved.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12He really did live in a different world,
0:40:12 > 0:40:17one where waltzing and courtesans and fancy furnishings were normal.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26The top tier that included the Regent, English courtiers
0:40:26 > 0:40:28and peers like Lord Berwick,
0:40:28 > 0:40:34contained, according to one Regency writer, just 576 families.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37In contrast, more than half of the rest of the population
0:40:37 > 0:40:39were paupers or vagrants.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46But there was a middle way,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49a small but growing class of respectable people,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51who might have lived in houses like this.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02This isn't the sort of place where anyone waltzes.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06It's the modest home of a particular heroine of mine.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14We think the Regency's all about colour and life and vibrancy,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17but there's another side to its style as well.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Simple country-dwelling people like Jane Austen
0:41:21 > 0:41:25stitching away at very austere garments,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27like this nice little shawl,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30which is said to have been sewn by Jane Austen herself.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37In her novels, Jane Austen gives us the voice of the middling sort.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Not poor, but definitely lacking money to burn.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44She didn't spend all of her time in the country doing embroidery.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47In fact, she even experienced
0:41:47 > 0:41:51the Regent's extravagant world first-hand.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58In 1815, Jane Austen visited Carlton House.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01She was invited there by the Regent himself,
0:42:01 > 0:42:02who was a big fan of her novels.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05She didn't actually meet him face to face,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08but he did make his mark on her next book.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11This is the first edition of her new novel Emma
0:42:11 > 0:42:16and she'd been invited to dedicate it to the Prince Regent.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18The first draft of her dedication's really funny.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23It says, "Dedicated by Permission to HRH The Prince Regent".
0:42:23 > 0:42:26But Jane's publisher, John Murray, perhaps wisely,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28suggested that she pep it up a bit.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31So what was actually printed was,
0:42:31 > 0:42:33"To His Royal Highness The Prince Regent
0:42:33 > 0:42:36"This work is, by his Royal Highness's permission,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40"most respectfully dedicated by his Royal Highness's dutiful
0:42:40 > 0:42:43"and obedient humble servant, the author".
0:42:44 > 0:42:47It's ironic that poor Jane was made to include this,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51given her well-recorded views on the Prince Regent.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54A couple of years before, she'd written to a friend
0:42:54 > 0:42:59about her support of his estranged wife, Princess Caroline.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01"Poor woman", Jane had written,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04"I shall support her as long as I can,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08"Because she is a woman, and I hate her husband".
0:43:12 > 0:43:16The Regent's open separation from his wife, Caroline,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18and his parading of a series of mistresses,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22made him hugely unpopular with the more proper middle classes,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24not least with Jane.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Although we often think of her books as a bit apolitical,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30all romance and nice dresses,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34her disapproving views about the morals of upper class society
0:43:34 > 0:43:36are very much on show.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42The Prince Regent may have been a big fan of Jane Austen's works,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46but if he'd read them properly, he might have noticed
0:43:46 > 0:43:49that she gave people like him a pretty hard time.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52In Mansfield Park, the villain, Henry Crawford,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54has quite a lot in common with the Prince Regent.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58He'd been, "Ruined by bad examples set to him",
0:43:58 > 0:44:00he had an uncle who openly kept a mistress.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03He was superficially very charming
0:44:03 > 0:44:06but this disguised a cold-blooded vanity.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10And just like the Prince Regent, he was addicted to remodelling
0:44:10 > 0:44:13perfectly good houses. He wanted to knock them about
0:44:13 > 0:44:17and alter them in line with fashionable but frivolous ideas
0:44:17 > 0:44:18of ornament and beauty.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23For Jane, people's houses tell you an awful lot
0:44:23 > 0:44:26about their attitude to life.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31And in her final work, she fires a kind of parting shot
0:44:31 > 0:44:33at some Regency trends in property development.
0:44:33 > 0:44:39In 1817, Jane Austen wrote 12 chapters of quite an unusual book.
0:44:39 > 0:44:40She was very ill at the time,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43she would die later the same year and never finish it.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46But it's not what you'd expect a dying woman to write.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48It's not about melancholy or longing.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52It's about the very British folly of property speculation.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54It's a satire of Britain in the years following
0:44:54 > 0:44:55the battle of Waterloo
0:44:55 > 0:44:59and it's set in the fictional seaside village called Sanditon.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03We meet the comical Mr Parker,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07a man obsessed with building up his quiet seaside hamlet
0:45:07 > 0:45:09into a fashionable resort.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11He wasn't alone.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15New seaside resorts were springing up all along the coast
0:45:15 > 0:45:18in the Regency, with houses for middle class tourists
0:45:18 > 0:45:22who wanted to try the health trend of sea-bathing.
0:45:23 > 0:45:29In Sanditon, Mr Parker has traded in his honest, old family home
0:45:29 > 0:45:33for a flimsy, fashionable residence exposed to the biting sea breezes.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35He's called it Trafalgar House,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38although now he regrets not calling it after the more up to date
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Battle of Waterloo
0:45:41 > 0:45:44His quest for modernity is clearly more than a little bit ridiculous.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Now you may personally agree with Jane that old-fashioned houses
0:45:50 > 0:45:53and old fashioned values are worth preserving,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55or you might be a modernizer, like Mr Parker.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Either way, what you see in the story of Sanditon
0:45:58 > 0:46:01are the preoccupations of Regency Britain.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04It was a country intending to transform itself
0:46:04 > 0:46:06but also to chase after a profit.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13The years after Waterloo saw a boom in house-building.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17Property speculators spread their stucco-clad tentacles
0:46:17 > 0:46:21anywhere that people might want to visit, not just the seaside.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24Spa towns were another nice little earner.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29There's one that really sums up the Regency building craze.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33It's not the long established spas of Bath or Cheltenham.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36No, in the 1810s, there was a new Spa on the rise.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55This is a guide book to Regency Leamington Spa.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Leamington had been a little village but in the Regency period
0:46:59 > 0:47:02it burst into life as this new spa town.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Between 1811 and 1820, its population quadrupled.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11The guidebook says that this terrace of houses behind me
0:47:11 > 0:47:14looked as if an invisible hand had picked it up
0:47:14 > 0:47:18from a smart part of London and dropped it here in the fields.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22There are all the features you'd expect from a Regency new-build.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27Stucco facades and big windows, lots of classical details
0:47:27 > 0:47:29these wrought iron balconies,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31and plenty of columns.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36The private speculators who built Leamington
0:47:36 > 0:47:38threw up grand town houses, available to rent,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42next door to the village's original cottages.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45This was Leamington's very own Parthenon,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47not a particularly Greek one.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49It housed a library and assembly rooms
0:47:49 > 0:47:52where you could pick up an improving book,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56meet new people, maybe indulge in a bit of old-fashioned dancing.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01Leamington had one of the largest hotels in Europe.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04It had 100 rooms but only one bathroom.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Oh, and parking for 100 carriages.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11One of the most spacious, splendid and complete hotels in the kingdom.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23But, of course, the main attraction in any aspiring spa town was the water.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26The mineral properties of the water are supposed to be excellent here,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30much better than those at Cheltenham, that's very important,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32and the diseases which they're supposed to be
0:48:32 > 0:48:34particularly good for include
0:48:34 > 0:48:36tumours...
0:48:36 > 0:48:38piles,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40diseases of the kidneys,
0:48:40 > 0:48:43intestinal worms,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45and above all,
0:48:45 > 0:48:47obstinate constipation.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54The pump rooms and baths where visitors paid to take the water
0:48:54 > 0:48:56opened in 1814.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Now, the lucky Leamington residents get it for free.
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Here we go.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Hmm.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12That's really quite nasty.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15It tastes like Alka Seltzer, I think.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18I don't know if I could manage half a pint.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23And I'm a bit worried now that it really is going to relax the bowels.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29Fortunately, this was just what the Regency tourists were after,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and Leamington did very nicely for a while.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37But then Spa towns went out of fashion
0:49:37 > 0:49:39and when the profits dried up
0:49:39 > 0:49:41Leamington was left with a few oddities.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46The Regency property boom didn't last all that long
0:49:46 > 0:49:48in Leamington Spa,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51and when it was over, some projects got left unfinished.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56This was supposed to be one of those long and curving Regency terraces.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59They did this end, you can see, and down there,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01they've also put in the other end,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04but they didn't get round to filling in the middle,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08so that's why, later on, the gap was filled with these Victorian villas.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Grand schemes for town planning didn't always work out
0:50:14 > 0:50:16quite as intended.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22In London, another incredibly ambitious project was under way,
0:50:22 > 0:50:26which would really capture the tastes and aspirations
0:50:26 > 0:50:28of the Regent and his country.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32It all began with a farm in Marylebone.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37Up until 1811, this whole area was covered with cow-sheds,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40but then the lease ended and the Prince Regent
0:50:40 > 0:50:43took the farmland here back into his own management.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Now his government started a really visionary piece of urban planning.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50They created a great, new city park here
0:50:50 > 0:50:54and they also constructed a big, new grand road, a mile long,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56right through the heart of London.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01The Park became Regent's Park
0:51:01 > 0:51:03and the new road, Regent's Street,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07London's first grand boulevard, 30 yards wide,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10slicing through the small tangled streets of Soho
0:51:10 > 0:51:14and linking the park straight to the Prince Regent's front door
0:51:14 > 0:51:15at Carlton House.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20This ceremonial route would allow the Regent, as he put it,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22to, "Eclipse Napoleon",
0:51:22 > 0:51:26a sign that London could equal Paris or Rome.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31The brains behind it all was the Regent's architect John Nash.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34First he had to design the grand urban park,
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Surrounded by terraces like this one, Cumberland Terrace,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40with its monumental Greek theme.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43This is John Nash at his most theatrical.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45Some people have laughed at this terrace
0:51:45 > 0:51:48because there's nothing behind that pointed pediment,
0:51:48 > 0:51:51and the plaster statues don't bear the closest of scrutiny,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55but actually, he's done something quite remarkable here.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58He's taken what could just be a bog standard row of terraced houses,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01and he's turned them into a gigantic palace.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Nash wanted men of rank and fortune to live here,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14creating the sort of exclusive neighbourhood
0:52:14 > 0:52:16that would bring in plenty of cash for the Crown
0:52:16 > 0:52:20and these people needed an easy link to the court and the Regent.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28So this is where it starts.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31The wealthy new tenants stepped from Park Crescent
0:52:31 > 0:52:35onto Portland Place, already one of the best addresses in London,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37on their way to the wonders of Regent Street.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Actually, before Nash had even properly begun,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49he'd already run into problems.
0:52:54 > 0:52:55This is John Nash,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59and I'm not sure he would have been delighted to end up just here,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02because this part of Regent Street gave him terrible trouble.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05He wanted to come in a straight line down from the park,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07but the man who lived just there,
0:53:07 > 0:53:08called Sir James Langham,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11he didn't want the new road going too close to his garden,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16so he bought up land, forcing Nash to divert the line of the road.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20He ended up with this bend but Nash made the best of a bad job.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28He designed this church, All Souls,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30to deal with the inconvenient bend.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32It has a unique round portico,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35making the whole church a kind of pivot point.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38Characteristically, Nash completely ignored the rules.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40He mixed different sorts of columns
0:53:40 > 0:53:45and put a weird pointy tower where by rights there should be a dome.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49This cartoon mocks the "Nashional Taste"
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and the creator of a church that one MP called,
0:53:52 > 0:53:54"A deplorable and horrible object".
0:53:57 > 0:54:02But Nash was always better at the big picture than the detail.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03Once the spiritual needs
0:54:03 > 0:54:07of our wealthy Regent's Park resident were satisfied,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10it was off across Oxford Circus to the pleasures of shopping.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21There weren't any grand public buildings here.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25The government didn't want to waste the cash.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28It was a perfect example of a public/private partnership.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32The government paid for the compulsory purchase of the land,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34private builders put up the buildings
0:54:34 > 0:54:36and everyone made money.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Nash was really clever
0:54:44 > 0:54:46in picking this particular line for Regent's Street,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49because it marks the boundary between the fashionable area
0:54:49 > 0:54:52of Mayfair over here where the nobility lived,
0:54:52 > 0:54:54and the meaner streets of Soho,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58which were inhabited by so-called mechanics and poorer people.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01This means the wealthy residents of Mayfair can get to the shops
0:55:01 > 0:55:03without going outside their own zone.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05It also meant that the cheap land over there
0:55:05 > 0:55:07increased massively in value.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12So the line of Regent Street marks the line of maximum profit.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20Nash saw this as a place for the Regency elite to socialise.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23He pictured the leisured classes window shopping
0:55:23 > 0:55:28and buying the latest styles inspired by the Regent.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Here on the curved quadrant, there were once colonnades,
0:55:32 > 0:55:35so that the rich could shop even on rainy days.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Above the shops there were terraces,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40where dandy bachelors renting the upper floors could loiter
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and chat to passers-by in their carriages.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47Then, after all the shops, you'd reach Piccadilly Circus,
0:55:47 > 0:55:52take a sharp bend, and it's about the proud victorious nation again,
0:55:52 > 0:55:57with a dramatic straight approach down towards the new Waterloo Place.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Regent Street, Britain's grandest road,
0:56:00 > 0:56:04taking you to the Regent himself, in Carlton House.
0:56:07 > 0:56:08Except it doesn't.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Today when you reach Waterloo place, there's no Carlton House,
0:56:12 > 0:56:17just a square filled with later monuments and parked cars.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19So what did happen to Carlton House?
0:56:19 > 0:56:24Was it destroyed in a fire? Was it demolished years later?
0:56:24 > 0:56:28Well, no. Nash's grand finale to his grand street,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31the obsession of the Prince Regent for so many years
0:56:31 > 0:56:35was destroyed by George himself, and the reason's just over there.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Buckingham Palace, George's new obsession. Typical old George.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45They'd built the grandest street in Europe to his house,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47but he was bored with it.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49He didn't really like living on a street.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56In 1820, the Regent became King George IV.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01And he commissioned Nash to create a spectacular new palace.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05As usual though, Nash's design went a bit over budget.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08So to help pay for it all, they pulled down Carlton House,
0:57:08 > 0:57:09and developed the land.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12Nash put up gentleman's clubs
0:57:12 > 0:57:16and exclusive new houses where Carlton House had been.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18All very nice,
0:57:18 > 0:57:21but not really what you'd expect at the end of a ceremonial route.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27In the end, though, perhaps it doesn't really matter
0:57:27 > 0:57:30that Regent Street is a bit of a road to nowhere.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Regent Street was a hugely ambitious piece of urban design
0:57:34 > 0:57:38and it was built at a time when London had the self-confidence
0:57:38 > 0:57:40to try to rival Paris or Rome,
0:57:40 > 0:57:46but Regent Street also sums up a very Regency sense of Britishness.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52With unfinished Parthenons and demolished palaces,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Regency architecture can sometimes feel like a crazy experiment
0:57:55 > 0:57:58that didn't quite work.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01But because this was a style that was so ambitious,
0:58:01 > 0:58:03the surviving buildings of the Regency
0:58:03 > 0:58:07have proved to be the greatest legacy of the age.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13Next time, the workers are revolting.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15As Regency arrogance and excess pushes Britain
0:58:15 > 0:58:19to the very edge of revolution.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22And the Regent has to face down a coalition of radicals,
0:58:22 > 0:58:25luddites and angry poets.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27Even his own wife has it in for him.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:48 > 0:58:51E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk