0:00:04 > 0:00:09'I'm Dr Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'based here at Hampton Court.'
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Another day at the office!
0:00:13 > 0:00:18'As a historian though, I'm fascinated not just by grand palaces,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21'but also by the more intimate moments and objects in history,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25'and by how they inform our lives today.'
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Oh, it's exciting, it's exciting!
0:00:27 > 0:00:30'In this series, I'll be tracing the story of British domestic life
0:00:30 > 0:00:34'through four rooms - the bathroom, the bedroom,
0:00:34 > 0:00:36'the living room, and the kitchen.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:37BOTH LAUGH
0:00:37 > 0:00:40'From the homes of the Middle Ages to the present day,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44'I'll be exploring the ways that our attitudes and habits have changed.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47'I'll be meeting some extraordinary people...'
0:00:47 > 0:00:48He's glowing at us.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50'..and doing some rather odd things.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:53Woooo!
0:00:53 > 0:00:58'This time, from having a tea party in a Georgian drawing room...'
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Well, this is a bit like drug paraphernalia, isn't it?
0:01:01 > 0:01:04'..to lighting original Victorian gaslights...'
0:01:04 > 0:01:05Lovely golden glow, isn't it?
0:01:05 > 0:01:10'..I'll be discovering how the living room has developed over the past 700 years.'
0:01:10 > 0:01:13The BBC didn't think TV would catch on...
0:01:32 > 0:01:36We take an awful lot for granted about life in a modern house.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40It's full of technology to make life more convenient. It's comfortable,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44it's private. But all this has evolved over many, many centuries.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Every single room in a modern house has a really fascinating history.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53'This time, I'll be exploring the story of the living room,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55'the room that has gone through more changes
0:01:55 > 0:01:57'than any other in the house.'
0:01:57 > 0:02:00It's pretty clear what goes on in the kitchen,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04in the bedroom, in the bathroom - their functions are clearly defined.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08Much harder to say what goes on in the living room of the house.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15In this house, the old front room has been knocked into what used to
0:02:15 > 0:02:19be the dining room, making a big multi-purpose living room space.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23At that end, you could be slobbing out on the sofa watching television,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27and at this end you might be dressed up, entertaining your friends.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29So it's very, very flexible.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33And this has gone on throughout history. The living room's had all sorts of names -
0:02:33 > 0:02:38It's been called the lounge, the parlour, the reception room, drawing room,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40family room, television room...
0:02:40 > 0:02:42but there's one thing that's always remained the same -
0:02:42 > 0:02:47it's been a place for families and friends to come together, it's a social space.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50That idea has always been at the heart of the living room.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'And nowhere more so than in Medieval England.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01'Today most of us are lucky enough to live in our own homes, but in the Middle Ages
0:03:01 > 0:03:06'it was much more common to live communally - even in the home of your employer.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10'And instead of living rooms, these houses had large open halls.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16'So to find out how this living space was organised,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18'I've come to meet historian John Goodall
0:03:18 > 0:03:20'in a 15th century farmhouse.'
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Wow, this is pretty impressive isn't it?
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Yes, halls are the oldest spaces in English domestic architecture.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29They've been the centrepieces of houses
0:03:29 > 0:03:32really from the Dark Ages to the present.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Even today, in your house, you may have a lobby that's called a hall.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40And why did they last such a long time - what's so great about the Great Hall?
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Well, they last such a long time because they
0:03:42 > 0:03:46embody, in the Middle Ages, a very important concept - communal living.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49The idea of a household where people come together,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53and they live, eat together and share conversation together.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58So, it is an architectural expression of a social unit, the household -
0:03:58 > 0:04:00and that's what it's always been,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and that concept is so powerful in English social history.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06'The household was the centre of Medieval life.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09'From the palace of the king to the humblest peasant dwelling,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13'it was a communal unit of workers, servants, relatives,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15'all living in the same space.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17'And it was in the open hall that they'd eat,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21'gather in front of the fire, and sleep safely behind bolted doors.'
0:04:21 > 0:04:24This is a very interesting example of a building
0:04:24 > 0:04:27of a middling, wealthy man of the 15th century,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29and the kind of space that he would have created
0:04:29 > 0:04:33for his small household of servants and his own family.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36But it's a very hierarchical. Indeed, to a Medieval eye,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39there are lots of invisible delineations in this hall.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43There's a main body of the hall, a fireplace, and what in a grand
0:04:43 > 0:04:46house would be a raised step or dais, with a high table.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49So if I were a miserable, lowly serf, and I came in here,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52I would know that I really shouldn't go up to that end -
0:04:52 > 0:04:54that's not my place to do so.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57You wouldn't put your foot on the line of the dais.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59And you would just know that instinctively,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02in much the same way that we know to queue at a bus stop today.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07It's all these things which are culturally ingrained in you, and you understand the space.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10'This hall might not have a dais, but it does have a top table,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14'where even the furniture was arranged according to hierarchy.'
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I think the farmer would have been sitting on this, cos it's not a lowly stool, it is a chair.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22And he sits here at his table, which is called a board -
0:05:22 > 0:05:26cos it is very literally a board on top of trestles.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29And because he's the most important person in the household -
0:05:29 > 0:05:32he's sitting at a chair, under a board -
0:05:32 > 0:05:36he is the "chairman of the board", that's the origin of the expression.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Well, he would also, of course, have been sitting at that side
0:05:38 > 0:05:41facing down the hall, looking at everybody as they sat together.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44The chairman of the board would have sat there in the middle.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47'The focal point of life in the hall
0:05:47 > 0:05:51'was the central hearth - literally "focus" in Latin.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53'But with no chimney, the smoke could only escape
0:05:53 > 0:05:57'through the large open windows or the tiles in the roof.'
0:05:57 > 0:06:02The problem with these great central hearths was the horrible, black smelly smoke,
0:06:02 > 0:06:07and here is a Medieval man's list of three reasons to leave a house.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10The first is "a wife with a wicked tongue".
0:06:10 > 0:06:12The second is "a leaky roof",
0:06:12 > 0:06:15and the third, perhaps the most important,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18are the days when "smoke and smoulder smite in his eyes
0:06:18 > 0:06:21"till he is bleary eyed or blind,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24"hoarse in the throat, and he cougheth and curseth".
0:06:24 > 0:06:29In fact, it's so smoky in here I feel like coughing and cursing and going to get a bit of fresh air.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36'By the late 16th century, a new phenomenon was entering domestic architecture, one
0:06:36 > 0:06:41'that would transform the living room from the smoky open hall of the past.'
0:06:42 > 0:06:45This looks like a classic English country cottage -
0:06:45 > 0:06:49it was built by sheep farmers at the beginning of the 17th century -
0:06:49 > 0:06:54but although it looks so traditional to us, it actually contains something revolutionary inside.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58'And that something was the chimney.'
0:07:00 > 0:07:04This is the exciting new thing, it's the brick chimney breast.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07It contains the fire, stops the smoke going everywhere,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11and it splits the big open hall into separate rooms for the first time.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14So this one here is a kitchen -
0:07:14 > 0:07:16cooking, eating -
0:07:16 > 0:07:20and through here we've got a recognisable living room for the first time,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24you could sit here in front of the fire enjoying yourself.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27The other change is that the big draughty rafters of the hall have
0:07:27 > 0:07:30been sealed off. There's a whole extra story in there -
0:07:30 > 0:07:32the bedrooms are upstairs.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36So this technological breakthrough of the chimney, it allows the modern
0:07:36 > 0:07:40house as we'd recognise it today to come into existence.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43'Chimneys had been a feature of the grandest manors and castles since
0:07:43 > 0:07:46'the 12th century, but they were expensive to build, and the open
0:07:46 > 0:07:49'hearth remained a powerful concept.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53'So chimneys wouldn't reach middling homes until the late 16th century.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57'Now the house was subdivided and its fire was closed off with brick,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59'it became a darker place.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02'So, to illustrate how living spaces were lit,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06'lighting historian Maureen Dillon has brought a collection of lights
0:08:06 > 0:08:09'that would have been used in a cottage just like this one.'
0:08:09 > 0:08:12What's that funny-looking thing there?
0:08:12 > 0:08:19It's a rushlight, which was first thought to have been used in England before the Roman occupation,
0:08:19 > 0:08:24made from a common or soft rush dragged through animal fat.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27This one's been dipped in mutton -
0:08:27 > 0:08:32it was usually for less offensive smells and less smoke.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36- So sheep smell less than pigs when their fat is burnt?- Yes.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40'The alternative to a rushlight was the tallow candle.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43'You make these from repeatedly dipping wicks
0:08:43 > 0:08:47'of twisted hemp or flax into pots of boiling animal fat.'
0:08:47 > 0:08:51So that one's much browner and sort of dirty-looking...
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Absolutely, and what you've got there are bits of the erm,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56- the flesh from the animal...- Urgh!
0:08:56 > 0:09:00- Bits of hoof, or...whatever. - It's a meat-flavoured candle!
0:09:00 > 0:09:04A meat-flavoured candle. But if you were starving to death,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06you would be quite happy to eat this.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Ooh, what a horrible thought!
0:09:08 > 0:09:12'Before the lights were lit, the house had to be sealed from draughts,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16'which burnt the candles more quickly and wasted precious money.'
0:09:16 > 0:09:20We're using the shutter to shut the "wind eye", the eye where the wind came in.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Here we go, lighting the end of the rushlight.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Ooh, it's melting and dripping fat...
0:09:29 > 0:09:34Yeah, often people put a wet cloth underneath to stop the grease.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39- Now, can I demonstrate burning the candle at both ends(?)- Yes. Why not?
0:09:39 > 0:09:42You just light the other end like this.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47'Lit rushlights would last 20 minutes at most, so burning them
0:09:47 > 0:09:50'at both ends was reserved only for special occasions.'
0:09:50 > 0:09:53So the advantage of this one is that it's going to
0:09:53 > 0:09:57- have less smoke and it's going to last a lot longer, right?- Yes.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01The more you paid for the candle, you got more light,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03less smell, less smoke, so at
0:10:03 > 0:10:05this end of the market - the very poor -
0:10:05 > 0:10:10they got the more smell, the more smoke and the less light.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13So that's the good candle out,
0:10:13 > 0:10:15and we are just left with the tiny,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18cheap meat candle - and you can see how it's guttered,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21all the fat has gushed down the side
0:10:21 > 0:10:24and it's making very little light.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25OWL HOOTS
0:10:25 > 0:10:29'With lighting so expensive, rushlights were pooled with the neighbours.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34'They'd take it in turns to go round to each other's houses - not for leisure, but for work.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'In the few minutes of affordable artificial light, housewives would
0:10:38 > 0:10:40'finish off vital household tasks
0:10:40 > 0:10:42'like spinning wool or mending clothes.'
0:10:42 > 0:10:47Now that I understand just how hard it is to MAKE rushlights,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and how quickly they burn,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53I've got a real new understanding of just how valuable they were.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57And it also gives me a new understanding of how important the
0:10:57 > 0:11:01fire is - not only for warmth, but for light in the evenings,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05it's just essential. And in fact, in places like Cumbria, the fire was so
0:11:05 > 0:11:10important, that they kept it burning for generations. It never went out.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13This room would be called the fire room, rather than the living room.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20'In comparison to country cottages with their single chimney, the owners of grand houses and palaces
0:11:20 > 0:11:24'projected their wealth through a profusion of chimney stacks.'
0:11:24 > 0:11:27By the late 16th century, there were two really obvious
0:11:27 > 0:11:33status symbols which marked out the houses of the wealthiest, like Hampton Court Palace here -
0:11:33 > 0:11:35the chimneys, and the glass windows.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38There's a huge number of chimneys here at Hampton Court.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40The implication is a lot of fireplaces,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44a lot of wood being burnt, a lot of land to provide the wood.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Glass had been around since Roman times,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51it was prominent in Medieval churches - but in the 16th century
0:11:51 > 0:11:55makes the great leap out of churches into people's houses.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59And it was so valuable, that you might even pack up your glass windows
0:11:59 > 0:12:01and take them with you when you moved house.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10'In order to see the impact that glass had on the living room,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13'I've come to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16'famously known as "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall".'
0:12:18 > 0:12:21This is a totally new kind of house.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25I think it's Elizabethan England's greatest architectural achievement,
0:12:25 > 0:12:31I just love it. All those windows send out beams of light and culture across the countryside.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33It's not a house for defence, or for farming -
0:12:33 > 0:12:36it doesn't have any function at all really apart from to impress people.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39And it's got a new type of living room that's all about
0:12:39 > 0:12:41expressing your status to guests -
0:12:41 > 0:12:44in fact, it's a house intended for showing off.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50'Hardwick Hall was built by Bess of Hardwick, the Countess of Shrewsbury
0:12:50 > 0:12:52'and the second richest woman in the land.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57'Finished in 1597, just three years before the country cottage I visited,
0:12:57 > 0:12:58'this is what money could buy.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03'Instead of just one living room, this house had a whole suite of them.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06'Hardwick's curator Andrew Barber is showing me round.'
0:13:06 > 0:13:11This is where everyone would have come into Hardwick for the first time, through the front door,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and this would be a throng of busy servants running hither and yon.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Now, this is still a Great Hall, but it's not really the heart of the household any more, is it?
0:13:22 > 0:13:29'Instead of the Great Hall, a new room called the Great Chamber was the focus of houses like this one.
0:13:29 > 0:13:35'At Hardwick, guests reached it by climbing a dizzyingly designed ceremonial staircase.'
0:13:37 > 0:13:41If you're standing here, as we are, you just feel like you're
0:13:41 > 0:13:46a little dwarf - and here's this super-human staircase, going up to, oh, I don't know...
0:13:46 > 0:13:48I feel that God might be sitting at the top of it -
0:13:48 > 0:13:51we can see the rays of his light coming down around the corner.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Yes, the great lantern windows of the south tower
0:13:53 > 0:13:56is what is waiting for you up there,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00to prepare you to go into the presence of Bess herself.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03- (Do we dare?) - I don't know... I think we ought to.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Come on, then!
0:14:05 > 0:14:09They're very comfortable these stairs, aren't they, they're not too high at all...
0:14:09 > 0:14:12'The whole household would have been welcome in the Medieval Hall, but now
0:14:12 > 0:14:17'only the most important visitors were invited up into the Great Chamber.'
0:14:17 > 0:14:20- There we are... - I've disorientated MYSELF(!)
0:14:20 > 0:14:21There's a little catch at the bottom here.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24- It's got a lock on it... From Narnia(!)- And there we are.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34- And here it is, the High Great Chamber.- Wow!
0:14:34 > 0:14:38'Bathed in light from the enormous windows, this giant reception room
0:14:38 > 0:14:42'was used for parties and feasts and entertaining on a lavish scale.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'With the smoke contained by the enormous fireplace,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51'Bess commissioned one of England's most striking interiors.'
0:14:51 > 0:14:55And what are the key features that you need, then, for a top-notch Great Chamber like this one?
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Well, you need to show off who you are and how wealthy you are,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02your status - and so you do that by your furnishings.
0:15:02 > 0:15:09And in this room, there still exists quite a bit of the furnishing and decoration that Bess had.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11The tapestries, they would have been
0:15:11 > 0:15:14very much more highly coloured, they've faded a lot.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17There were embroidered cushions on stools in here,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19which were embroidered with silver and gold thread...
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and then up above is this wonderful allegorical frieze.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27It would have been brilliantly coloured, and that's what one has to
0:15:27 > 0:15:29bear in mind coming into this great room.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Your senses would have been assaulted by the amount of light
0:15:33 > 0:15:35from these great lantern windows,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39and then the colour and the gorgeous quality of the textiles.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42'After the glorious Great Chamber,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46'there were two further rooms into which guests might be invited.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50'First was the semi-public long gallery, which ran the full length
0:15:50 > 0:15:54'of the house, and was crammed with extraordinary portraits.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58'And the second was the most exclusive room of all -
0:15:58 > 0:15:59'the withdrawing chamber.'
0:15:59 > 0:16:04You only came into this room, the withdrawing room, if you were
0:16:04 > 0:16:07in Bess's very intimate circle, you were a very close friend.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10This was the holy of holies of the house.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14So we've literally withdrawn from the common herd into the withdrawing room,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18and the withdrawing room over time will lose its "with",
0:16:18 > 0:16:20- and it will just become the "drawing room".- Absolutely.
0:16:20 > 0:16:27What intrigues me about rooms like this, are all the very formal rules of behaviour and hierarchy that you
0:16:27 > 0:16:31can read about in courtesy books from the 16th and 17th centuries.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Like - the more important person gets the better chair,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36and the less important person gets the worse chair.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38The more important person sits near the fire,
0:16:38 > 0:16:42the next person sits a little bit further away, and so on and so on and so on.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46And I've even read that if there's a portrait of an important person
0:16:46 > 0:16:50- on the wall, you can't even turn your back to it.- Oh, really?
0:16:50 > 0:16:52That really is something, isn't it!
0:16:52 > 0:16:56'With their progression of hierarchical rooms, Elizabethan
0:16:56 > 0:16:59'houses were seen as microcosms of society at large,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02'in which everybody had their rightful place.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05'Yet Bess of Hardwick hadn't been born into HER high position -
0:17:05 > 0:17:08'she'd risen there through a series of judicious marriages.'
0:17:08 > 0:17:13The big thing about Elizabethan England was there was the opportunity for people to rise.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17- It was just starting to change, and become... - And here is the person who did it.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22She started from fairly low down the pecking order, and landed up at the very pinnacle.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Do you know Horace Walpole's famous poem about Bess?
0:17:25 > 0:17:28I think it's a wonderful poem. Absolutely gorgeous.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32It goes, "Four times the bridal bed she warmed,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35"And each time so well performed,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38"That when death spoiled each husband's billing,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40"He left the widow every shilling."
0:17:40 > 0:17:42BOTH LAUGH
0:17:42 > 0:17:45And it's true! That's the amazing thing, it IS true.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50I think if Bess were alive today, she would be a very clever footballer's wife,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and she would move her way through a whole succession of men,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55get money off each one, and then she'd build
0:17:55 > 0:18:01- a footballer's mansion like this with gold taps, don't you think? - Absolutely - that's her!
0:18:05 > 0:18:10The story of the living room so far has been a real story about class and hierarchy,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13which is much more rigidly defined in the past than it is today.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17The type of decoration you had in your living room - in fact even the type of clothes
0:18:17 > 0:18:22you wore - were very strictly controlled by your rank in society.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25I like this map of England from 1610. And it shows the
0:18:25 > 0:18:27whole country, but what's really great about it
0:18:27 > 0:18:30is that it shows the classes of society as well.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Here are the nobleman, and woman.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Here are the gentleman, and woman.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Here are the citizens...and down here are the country people.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41So we've seen the living rooms of noble people,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45they are luxurious palaces of the aristocracy -
0:18:45 > 0:18:47and we've also seen the houses of country people
0:18:47 > 0:18:49but they didn't really have
0:18:49 > 0:18:52living rooms, because they didn't have any leisure time to relax.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57The places where they lived were also their places of work.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59It's this rank here that I'm interested in
0:18:59 > 0:19:01for the next 100 years of history, the citizens -
0:19:01 > 0:19:03the future belongs to them.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Over the course of the 17th century,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07they're going to get the leisure time and the money
0:19:07 > 0:19:12to start to want to recreate the living rooms of the aristocracy.
0:19:13 > 0:19:19'And one of the first status symbols that would filter down the social scale, was glass.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24'As Elizabethan towns grew into the cities of the 17th century,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'improved glass-making techniques
0:19:26 > 0:19:28'meant cheaper glass flooded the market.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31'In the 17th century the sash window was invented,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33'and would become standard in most homes,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37'leading King William III to have a flash of inspiration.'
0:19:37 > 0:19:4123, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30...
0:19:41 > 0:19:43I'm assessing the palace for the window tax.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49It's a new tax that was brought in in 1696 by William III - who's this gentleman behind me.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54So your basic house has to pay two shillings a year, but if you've got more than ten windows,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56you have to pay six shillings a year,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59if you've got 20 windows it goes up to 10 shillings a year.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And every year they sort of nudge up the bands just a little bit more.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06So by 1709, if you had a 30-window house,
0:20:06 > 0:20:11you were paying 30 shillings a year - which is £2,500.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13And it's a tax on light, essentially.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16The more light you let into your house, the more you've got to pay.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18I call that "daylight robbery".
0:20:20 > 0:20:24'The King, of course, didn't pay a penny for his palace of 200 windows,
0:20:24 > 0:20:32'but by the 1740s it was easy to assess the influence of his tax on the urban landscape.'
0:20:33 > 0:20:36So what effect did this tax have on normal people's houses?
0:20:36 > 0:20:41It explains why you get these weird blocked-up windows in Georgian cities.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46In 1747 they changed the rules about window tax, and if you had
0:20:46 > 0:20:49more than ten windows, you had to pay
0:20:49 > 0:20:51sixpence a window from that point on.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56So anyone with more than ten windows very cleverly blocked a couple up!
0:20:56 > 0:20:59So here, this family have clearly gone from having
0:20:59 > 0:21:0411 windows down to nine, and this gets them in under the band.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06And that is saving them
0:21:06 > 0:21:09the equivalent of several hundred pounds a year.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13'Despite window tax, the middle classes in Georgian England
0:21:13 > 0:21:16'were considerably better off than they ever had been.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20'With the expansion of British colonies abroad, and victorious wars
0:21:20 > 0:21:22'against the Dutch and the French,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25'by the 18th century, Britain had established itself
0:21:25 > 0:21:27'as the greatest trading nation on earth.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32'Now, a new, wealthy merchant class had money to burn
0:21:32 > 0:21:34'on luxury items for their homes.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38'And they would transform the elite withdrawing rooms of the past
0:21:38 > 0:21:42'into the newly prosperous drawing rooms of Georgian England.'
0:21:42 > 0:21:46This is an entirely new sort of drawing room.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49It's the Georgian urban middle-class living room.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53And if you look at it, you might think, "Ooh, it's terribly lavish and luxurious,"
0:21:53 > 0:21:58but this is what the 18th century brought - luxury for people who weren't aristocrats.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03This is the first floor of the house, what's known as the piano nobile,
0:22:03 > 0:22:04and this is a noble room.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07It's very decorative, it's feminine in character,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10it's a place where ladies would entertain each other.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13And you can sense from this drawing room that the family who lived here
0:22:13 > 0:22:15have lots of friends in the neighbourhood,
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and that they've been sucked into the new Georgian craze
0:22:17 > 0:22:19for having parties and for entertainment.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22I really like the way all those chairs are backed up against the
0:22:22 > 0:22:27wall there, so they can be drawn forward when the guests arrive.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30'And the phenomenon that would have the greatest social impact
0:22:30 > 0:22:32'on the drawing room, was the tea party.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34'I've dressed up to have one of my own - my guests are
0:22:34 > 0:22:39'the historian Amanda Vickery, and tea historian Jane Pettigrew.'
0:22:39 > 0:22:43The fact that the lady of the house did all this IN the drawing room
0:22:43 > 0:22:44was because the tea was so expensive.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48You never let your servants make the tea, handle the tea, store the tea,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51it was always kept in the room where you drank it.
0:22:51 > 0:22:52So...
0:22:52 > 0:22:56- How long are we going to leave it? - Well, about three minutes, I think.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59'Taking tea was such an important indicator of gentility,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03'that families were now painted in their new drawing rooms
0:23:03 > 0:23:05'surrounded by their expensive tea ware.'
0:23:05 > 0:23:09I think this might be ready. So if we pour it into the little bowls...
0:23:09 > 0:23:11'Alongside tea urns and silver spoons
0:23:11 > 0:23:16'came sugar tongs, and dainty Chinese teacups with no handles.'
0:23:16 > 0:23:18- This is a bit like drug paraphernalia, isn't it?- Yes.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21Special equipment for the heating and preparing...
0:23:21 > 0:23:22But isn't this where the joy of it lies?
0:23:22 > 0:23:25The lady of the house is individually serving her guests,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27so it's a gesture of hospitality.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31'Dressed in one's finest clothes in the best room of the house,
0:23:31 > 0:23:36'the taking of tea became governed by a complex code of etiquette.'
0:23:36 > 0:23:39I wanted to ask you... In paintings I've seen people holding -
0:23:39 > 0:23:43I don't know if I can manage it - holding it rather like that...
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Because these are such tiny bowls, this is where
0:23:45 > 0:23:49the pinkie started coming out, which today is really not very acceptable.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52And then some ladies would hold it like this, rather delicately.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Yeah - in the paintings I've seen...
0:23:54 > 0:23:57What this allowed was, for you to show off the fine white skin of your
0:23:57 > 0:24:02forearm, against the fine porcelain of the Chinese bowl.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08And really just saying, "Look - I'm so wealthy that I'm not having to scrub fenders and black the stove."
0:24:08 > 0:24:11- Am I holding that correctly? - That looks fine.
0:24:11 > 0:24:12I like the little finger out.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14THEY LAUGH
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Don't make me laugh, or there'll be an accident.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18That was worth the wait!
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Can I ask what influence all this new hot drink,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25tea business had on the use of the drawing room in the house?
0:24:25 > 0:24:30As people went out visiting more and more in the Georgian period, during the afternoon or after dinner,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32this would be the room where it would happen.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36There are endless references in diaries about people dropping round
0:24:36 > 0:24:40to visit and supping tea, taking tea, and then going off for a walk
0:24:40 > 0:24:42or going on to the next person to visit,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44so it seemed to be an endless round of tea drinking going on.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49These are the props which allow you to show off your polite manners - can you manage the gestures,
0:24:49 > 0:24:50can you manage all the equipment?
0:24:50 > 0:24:55And I suppose the drawing room then is a kind of stage set, really, for the exhibition of your gentility.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01'Swathed in silk dresses, drinking expensive tea
0:25:01 > 0:25:04'and warmed by a large coal fire,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06'the tea party was an expensive show to run.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10'And it was made even more so by additional taxes
0:25:10 > 0:25:12'on coal, on glass, on mirrors,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16'that made the living room the most taxed room in the house.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19'The most expensive tax of all was on beeswax candles, favoured
0:25:19 > 0:25:23'in the drawing rooms of the genteel as they didn't smoke or smell
0:25:23 > 0:25:26'like the tallow candles of the poor.'
0:25:27 > 0:25:29So the tea party's over and the guests have gone,
0:25:29 > 0:25:34and like a good Georgian hostess I've been desperately blowing out candles.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36They're expensive, and also they're heavily taxed.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41So I'm going to spend the rest of the evening burning as little candle as I possibly can -
0:25:41 > 0:25:43that's how I normally live my life when the guests aren't here.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48But I've got lots of devices to help me in the Georgian drawing room.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51The carving around the door frames is gilded. There are mirrors,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55there are silver candlesticks, brass doorknobs...
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Even little details like dining plates with gold rims.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03These are devices to sparkle, and to enhance the light that IS available.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06And in fact, look at my dress - it's all made out of sparkly silver.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10I am a living, breathing, walking human silver candlestick.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17'The 18th century wasn't just a boom time for the middle classes,
0:26:17 > 0:26:23'it also saw an explosion in the building of country houses by the super-rich, and these houses
0:26:23 > 0:26:26'would eventually have an impact on everybody's living rooms.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29'I've come to one of the grandest houses of them all,
0:26:29 > 0:26:36'Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, built by the Tory landowner Sir Nathaniel Curzon in 1758.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39'I'm being taken round by architectural historian Richard Hewlings.'
0:26:39 > 0:26:45Richard, I want to see a really grand Georgian house. I think I've come to the right place.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50Why did they go over the top and build what Dr Johnson called a "town hall"?
0:26:50 > 0:26:52The house was intended for display, undoubtedly.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56An awful lot of the spaces inside it are completely useless.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01They're just there to be very, very large and very, very expensive and very, very impressive.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05'Day to day, the family lived in an entirely separate wing.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10'The main house was built purely for show, as a giant suite of reception rooms for entertaining.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15'As well as party guests, Kedleston also received hordes of a very new kind of visitor.'
0:27:15 > 0:27:17People were quite often passing their time
0:27:17 > 0:27:20visiting places like this in the 18th century, weren't they?
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Yes, they would give a small tip to a housekeeper or some other senior servant
0:27:24 > 0:27:27who would actually take them round and show them the treasures.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29OK, come on, let's go in, have a look.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Mind the ice on the steps.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34'Just like today, in the 18th century visiting country houses
0:27:34 > 0:27:38'was the middle classes' second-favourite hobby after gardening,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42'and tourists to Kedleston were so numerous that its housekeeper,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46'Mrs Garnett, even printed her own guidebook.'
0:27:46 > 0:27:53So we're now starting out on Mrs Garnett's tour, and this is the music room,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58and what we're supposed to be doing here is admiring the pictures.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01'Kedleston Hall became the 18th century's ideal house,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06'and by admiring the paintings, the fixtures, the fittings and the proportions of its rooms,
0:28:06 > 0:28:11'visitors could feel a bit of the owner's culture and knowledge rubbing off on them.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15'Unlike the palaces of the past,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19'Kedleston was not designed as a suite of increasingly exclusive living rooms,
0:28:19 > 0:28:25'but rather as an open circuit, through which everyone could wander.'
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Well, this is quite something, isn't it?
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Why on earth would you build a room like this in your house?
0:28:30 > 0:28:35Well, I suppose partly to demonstrate that you have the space to enclose,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38but it also of course displays his learning,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40because everything is taken from ancient Rome.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45- And it echoes like a temple, too, doesn't it? It's so un-domestic.- Yeah.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50The whole point of the grand circuit in these Georgian houses is to fill it up with people
0:28:50 > 0:28:53in a great big party situation, isn't it?
0:28:53 > 0:28:56They're not so much a suite of rooms with different purposes any more.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59They're a bit like just an enormous nightclub.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03And this sprung floor was where they would be doing their dancing?
0:29:03 > 0:29:06- They would have been doing their rout.- Let's take to the floor, then.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09I don't think I can do this, Lucy!
0:29:09 > 0:29:13- You can!- I can't! I can't!
0:29:13 > 0:29:16- That's the worst dancing I've ever seen!- That's not dancing!
0:29:16 > 0:29:19The room does make you want to spin, though, doesn't it,
0:29:19 > 0:29:21like a spinning top? You get giddy just looking at it.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31'By the 18th century, a new concept called "taste" had arrived.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35'Now the middle classes were established in the market for luxury,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38'it was "taste" that set apart
0:29:38 > 0:29:41'those with knowledge of the rules of architecture and interior design
0:29:41 > 0:29:43'from the vulgar nouveaux riches.'
0:29:43 > 0:29:47We'll go to the very sober and masculine library next.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52This is a bit of a contrast, isn't it?
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Everywhere you look there's some expensive material.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58The chimneypiece is made of white marble, and there are
0:29:58 > 0:30:00these unbelievably expensive sofas,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04carved with mermaids and tritons and gilded.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07'Originally an Arabian piece of furniture called a "suffah",
0:30:07 > 0:30:09'sofas became fashionable in the 18th century
0:30:09 > 0:30:12'thanks to architects like Robert Adam,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14'and these are among Georgian England's finest.'
0:30:14 > 0:30:20You can see that you can't lean back. You can imagine ladies perched on the front. is that correct?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Well, they are relatively informal.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27If you consider that, in the 17th century, most people sat on stools.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30Only the grandest would have a chair with a back to it.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35And the idea of two people sitting on the same seat is quite inconceivable in 17th-century terms.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Actually having a chair that is capable of taking
0:30:38 > 0:30:43more than one person, it takes us into a much more informal age. It takes us into the 18th century.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48'And alongside the sofas were neoclassical incense burners,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52'solid gold fixtures and fittings and a crystal chandelier
0:30:52 > 0:30:54'that was so expensive to light
0:30:54 > 0:30:57'that it was only used on very special occasions.'
0:31:00 > 0:31:05So what does all this mean for normal people in Georgian England, people who don't live in palaces?
0:31:05 > 0:31:10Well, if they were coming round and doing the tour with Mrs Garnett, the housekeeper,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14they could be going, "Hm, I could get a bit of this at home. I fancy that wallpaper.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20"I fancy those curtains." And it is true that designers like Robert Adam are now producing these catalogues.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24They include enormous grand designs like whole houses
0:31:24 > 0:31:28or fishing pavilions, but if you didn't have that sort of money
0:31:28 > 0:31:30you could get Adam style through your clock
0:31:30 > 0:31:33or maybe a plaster decoration for your ceiling.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35So this is how aristocratic style
0:31:35 > 0:31:39filters down in Georgian England to the masses. It becomes mass-market.
0:31:39 > 0:31:45And Adam and the other architects of the day are very interesting in that they create brands for themselves.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47They don't just produce buildings any more.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50They produce entire, idealistic interiors.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53They're the Ideal Homes of Georgian England.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58And these Ideal Homes sparked off a revolution in decor.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02Between 1750 and 1850, Britain established itself not only as
0:32:02 > 0:32:07the leader of world trade, but as the manufacturing workshop of the world.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Producing everything from cotton textiles and cheap china
0:32:10 > 0:32:14to cast-iron fire surrounds and machine-made furniture,
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Britain's abundance of household goods
0:32:16 > 0:32:18would transform the living room.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22If you think about a Victorian living room, what probably comes to mind
0:32:22 > 0:32:26is the stereotypical parlour crammed full of knick-knacks.
0:32:26 > 0:32:32The word "parlour" is much older, it takes its name from the art of conversation, to "parler" in French.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37By the 19th century, though, these rooms were places of display for showing who you were
0:32:37 > 0:32:40through carefully selected ornaments, artworks, things.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44It's an age of mass production when you could express your personality
0:32:44 > 0:32:47through the things you had in your sitting room,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and this was a new phenomenon, because in the 16th century
0:32:50 > 0:32:55art objects were the preserve of the very, very rich, like Bess of Hardwick.
0:32:55 > 0:33:01In the 18th century, we began to see taste appearing at a lower level in society. By the 19th century,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05it's almost a human right to express yourself through your consumer goods.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14So to see how Georgian taste has turned into the Victorian passion for knick-knacks
0:33:14 > 0:33:16I've come to a small museum in London
0:33:16 > 0:33:18to meet its curator, David Milne,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22and to help him dust the myriad of objects
0:33:22 > 0:33:24filling every inch of the front room.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30So, David, tell me about your ornaments here.
0:33:30 > 0:33:37As you can see, we have a great collection of everything made in 19th century industrial England.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42Victorian household advice is that it would take a brisk girl three hours to dust the front room.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46- Do you spend that long doing it?- No. - You're not a brisk girl, obviously. - No, I'm not.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50'An overdecorated parlour was a way of individualising your home
0:33:50 > 0:33:55'among the identical suburban terraces being built all over the land.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58'And period household manuals, by gurus like Mrs Panton,
0:33:58 > 0:34:03'offered endless advice on how to embellish your living room with Flemish cups,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05'royal memorabilia,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08- 'fake singing birds...' - BIRD SINGS
0:34:08 > 0:34:11'..and Christmas scenes in glass jars.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16'It's clear that there are now more possessions in one Victorian room
0:34:16 > 0:34:18'than in the entire Tudor house.'
0:34:18 > 0:34:23David, come on, reveal the truth, would you like to live in this room?
0:34:23 > 0:34:24No.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27- Why not?- It's just too...crazy.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32And, you know, you spend too much time in this room and it comes down on you.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35- It's oppressive, isn't it? - Yeah.- A bit sinister.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40Yeah, everything's dark and overpowering and there are hundreds of things everywhere.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44'Now, not only was the parlour to be filled with one's best things,
0:34:44 > 0:34:49'it was also a sacred place, to be reserved for one's best behaviour.'
0:34:49 > 0:34:54This is very interesting. Mrs Panton tells us that the Victorian parlour
0:34:54 > 0:34:56has a moral purpose in the household.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00She says that in here fine manners are a necessity,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03because this room holds our dearest treasures.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06You see little of the seamy side of life in here.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11She says that even when a husband and wife are alone in the parlour, they've still got to behave well.
0:35:11 > 0:35:18No pipe, no slippers, and this will reinforce the mutual respect for each other they have, she says.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23And this is a surer means of happiness than anything else she knows.
0:35:25 > 0:35:32Alongside fine manners and fine things, the Industrial Age also saw the arrival of gas lighting.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36Discovered in the late 17th century as a by-product of burning coal,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40it wasn't till the 19th century that gas was first used for lighting,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44not in the home, though, but on London's streets.
0:35:44 > 0:35:481,600 working gaslights still exist in London today,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52so I've come to St John's, Smith Square, to meet Phil Banner,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55one of the last lamplighters left.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58- 47 years of British Gas.- 42.
0:35:58 > 0:36:0042. So you're doing good.
0:36:00 > 0:36:05'Gas lighting was first demonstrated in London on Pall Mall
0:36:05 > 0:36:09'by the German businessman Frederick Winsor in 1807
0:36:09 > 0:36:14'and it was such a sensation that people flocked to see it at work.'
0:36:16 > 0:36:19- There it goes.- Very nice, isn't it?
0:36:19 > 0:36:23- It's a lovely golden glow, isn't it? - Very soothing.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27What do you think people thought when this miraculous new light appeared?
0:36:27 > 0:36:30It was received with mixed feelings.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35Some people thought it was a great invention, but other people thought it was messing about with nature,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38because it should be light in the day, and dark at night.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41- And this is interfering... - With nature.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43I suppose it interfered with certain people's business as well.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Oh yes! There's talk of the ladies of the night, shall we say,
0:36:47 > 0:36:52it was lighting the areas they used to work and they didn't...
0:36:52 > 0:36:55They thought it was bad for business having too much light?
0:36:55 > 0:36:59How many lamps, then, were there all over London?
0:36:59 > 0:37:01One time, there was about 60,000.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03- And someone went round and turned them all on every night?- Yeah.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11'As evening fell, an army of lamplighters headed out to light every lamp by hand,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14'with the same equipment as I'm using now.'
0:37:15 > 0:37:19- So how does this torch work? - This is a lamplighter's torch,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22and if you push the lamp in through the bottom of the lamp,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24then squeeze the bulb...
0:37:24 > 0:37:28You need a good squeeze to get the air to go up through the pole
0:37:28 > 0:37:31to make the flame come out the top so you can light the lamp.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34Come on, come on!
0:37:34 > 0:37:37- Almost.- Ooh! Come on!- Keep going.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41- And on the light comes. - I have the magic touch.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44- You have the magic touch. Well done! - Thank you.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48- Only 59,999 lamps to go.- That's right, it might take us all night.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53By the time we get to the last one, we'll be turning off the first one.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Let's carry on.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05By the mid 19th century, a new network of gas pipes running directly into the house
0:38:05 > 0:38:07was supplying London's homes.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10The fireplace was still the centre of the parlour,
0:38:10 > 0:38:15but gas allowed householders to supplement their fire light, candles and oil lamps
0:38:15 > 0:38:17for the first time.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28Illuminated air was what they called gas lighting when it first appeared in London,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32and you can see why. It must have been magical to see the air bursting into flame.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40This is quite an early gas fitting, the pipe goes straight into a naked flame,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43and it's a less friendly light, I think, than oil.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49It's little colder, and it has many other disadvantages, although it's cheap and good.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54It's so bright in fact that, when it first appeared, people thought that it would damage their optic nerves
0:38:54 > 0:38:59and it could explode and it was incredibly dirty, sooty stuff,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02so it sort of destroyed your living room, and that's one explanation
0:39:02 > 0:39:05for these deep Victorian colours that you get.
0:39:05 > 0:39:1018th-century bright colours become rich reds and greens and things
0:39:10 > 0:39:13that just won't show the soot as much,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15and it also sucks oxygen out of the atmosphere.
0:39:15 > 0:39:20So when you hear about all these Victorian ladies fainting the whole time, yes, partly it was corsets,
0:39:20 > 0:39:26but it was partly because the oxygen from their room had been burnt by the gas lighting.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32In comparison to the rush lights of the 16th century,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36and the highly taxed candles of the Georgian drawing room,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39cheap gas would now flood the parlour with light
0:39:39 > 0:39:42and bring significant changes to how it was used.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49Another huge transformation that gas lighting brought about
0:39:49 > 0:39:52was that it extended the length of people's evenings.
0:39:52 > 0:39:58Can you imagine what a change that must have been to be able to stay up late and have loads of light?
0:39:58 > 0:40:02In fact, they had to invent new ways of passing the time
0:40:02 > 0:40:09and household manuals now have chapters on topics like "recreations for a long winter evening"
0:40:09 > 0:40:13and ladies are advised to make useful things out of fancywork
0:40:13 > 0:40:16that they can sell to each other at bazaars,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20like, I don't know, albums and pokerwork and
0:40:20 > 0:40:23collage fire screens.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29As the middle classes were filling their parlours with their ornaments,
0:40:29 > 0:40:34an alternative movement soon emerged to build a very new,
0:40:34 > 0:40:35or very old, kind of house.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39This is Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton
0:40:39 > 0:40:43and guiding me round is the writer Adrian Tinniswood.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Adrian, you could be forgiven for thinking that this house had been here since Tudor times, right?
0:40:48 > 0:40:51It's a perfect piece of Merry England, isn't it?
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Just for a minute, it fools you, I think.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57But this was built in Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, 1887.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00'Built by the industrialist Theodor Mander,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03'it's the ultimate house of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08'Its followers rejected the machine made designs of the Industrial Age
0:41:08 > 0:41:12'and urged a return to the hand crafted glories of the past.'
0:41:12 > 0:41:17There's that wonderful irony that so many people of Mander's class had
0:41:17 > 0:41:22that he's made his money from industry and now he rejects industry and the Industrial Revolution.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24So this is Mr Mander's drawing room,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28and what I think is fascinating about this house
0:41:28 > 0:41:32is the fact that we can pinpoint the exact moment
0:41:32 > 0:41:36at which Samuel Mander had the inspiration, can't we?
0:41:36 > 0:41:42Exactly, yes. 1884, Wolverhampton, and a lecture on the House Beautiful by Oscar Wilde.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Railing against the vulgarity of the Victorian home,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Oscar Wilde urged that taste should return to public life.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Taking his cue from the designer William Morris,
0:41:53 > 0:41:59Wilde's House Beautiful didn't need a profusion of fake birds and glass jars,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03but instead just a few carefully chosen objects made by hand.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09Well, I've got a lot sympathy for his views, which are that things should be hand crafted,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12craftspeople should take pride in their labour, but ironically,
0:42:12 > 0:42:14all of his products were jolly expensive, weren't they?
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Yes, that is the irony.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19You couldn't afford this kind of stuff if you were a labourer.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21Morris and his crowd are socialists
0:42:21 > 0:42:25and yet they're producing material that only rich people can afford.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27But he never actually came here, did he?
0:42:27 > 0:42:30No, Morris, although he was an interior decorator,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34he also ran a very profitable mail-order business.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37So the Manders could just have ordered up
0:42:37 > 0:42:40textiles or chairs or carpets or whatever.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42I find it quite extraordinary that you could do that
0:42:42 > 0:42:47and this whole House Beautiful concept is about putting thought and effort into your house,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and yet, you could get it through the post.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53'But the drawing room was not the only living room in the house,
0:42:53 > 0:42:57'for the Victorian rich now had a multiplicity of living spaces
0:42:57 > 0:42:59'to be used for different purposes,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03'by different members of the family, at different times of the day.'
0:43:03 > 0:43:08- So this is living-room-tastic, isn't it? What's that one?- The library.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11'Alongside the library were inglenooks for writing letters,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14'morning rooms for reading the newspapers,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17'there were games rooms for smoking and billiards.'
0:43:17 > 0:43:19This is where the men would have hung out.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21'And the largest room of all
0:43:21 > 0:43:25'was the great centrepiece of the house, the Great Parlour.'
0:43:25 > 0:43:28The quintessential late Victorian interior.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32It's not called the Great Hall, you call it the...
0:43:32 > 0:43:36The Great Parlour. It's a sort of end of the century living hall.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39But it's modelled on Great Halls of Medieval England.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43- It's the end of the road for the Great Hall, isn't it?- You could even argue it's the apotheosis.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47It's comfortable Great Hall, which is quite an achievement.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51What's interesting is that now the living room has really sort of come of age, if you like,
0:43:51 > 0:43:58because the Great Hall, that we are in, is only one of many different living rooms in this house
0:43:58 > 0:44:02and the act of being in a living room has become specialised.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05The guys hang out in the billiard room, or the library,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08the women in sort of the morning room or the drawing room
0:44:08 > 0:44:12and this great parlour becomes a sort of neutral zone.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15It becomes a sort of space where they can spend time together.
0:44:15 > 0:44:22Don't you think though that its chief function is, as we just did, coming into the house to say "Wow!"
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Oh yeah, it's a status claim apart from anything else.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30This is the room you walk into and say, "Isn't this just beautiful?!"
0:44:30 > 0:44:33And come on, isn't it?! It just blows you away.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39And it wasn't just the great halls of Victorian industrialists
0:44:39 > 0:44:42that harked back to the Medieval Age.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44At the back to backs in Birmingham,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46a series of 19th-century workers' houses,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50whole families still played out their lives in one room.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53It's a real extreme contrast. The aristocracy at this time
0:44:53 > 0:44:57have got more different types of living room than ever before,
0:44:57 > 0:44:58or ever since in fact.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02But at the same time, most people, most working people
0:45:02 > 0:45:04were still living in a way
0:45:04 > 0:45:06that's much more familiar from medieval times.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11They were still having just one space, in this case for nine people,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and they were doing their cooking, their entertainment
0:45:14 > 0:45:17and they were even working all in this one single space.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21But even here,
0:45:21 > 0:45:25this multi-functional front room was still a room for best.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Warmed by the fire from the range and equipped with the latest gaslights,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33it was the only room in the house to have wallpaper and a smattering of best things.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Although this is quite a small and humble room, in some ways,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41the people living here were definitely proud of it
0:45:41 > 0:45:43and it's a room to show off to visitors.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46There are lots of little touches here,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49like the super-white net curtains
0:45:49 > 0:45:51and the fringe on the fireplace
0:45:51 > 0:45:53and the Staffordshire ornaments.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56In fact, we know that the houses with the bay windows
0:45:56 > 0:45:58cost more to rent than the ones without
0:45:58 > 0:46:03because these bay windows functioned as a sort of shop window for your housekeeping
0:46:03 > 0:46:06and you could put your ornaments there.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09There's a great Brummie expression - kippers for curtains.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Everybody in this court had kippers for curtains
0:46:12 > 0:46:15and that means that they would eat cheap kippers
0:46:15 > 0:46:19in order to be able to afford their more expensive fancy curtains.
0:46:22 > 0:46:28The Industrial Revolution might have made technology and taste available to everybody in theory,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30but it didn't bring equal quality of life.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35The excessive number of living rooms in the upper class home
0:46:35 > 0:46:40reveals the amount of leisure time rich people had to fill with an infinite number of past times.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43The parlour was the middle-class housewife's domain,
0:46:43 > 0:46:47where husbands and wives might spend their evenings together.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52And for working people, hard at it 16 hours a day, six days a week,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56any enjoyment of their front room was limited to family mealtimes.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03But by the turn of the 20th century,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06in new-built streets like this one,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10the living room would experience its greatest transformation yet.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13There were two reasons for it. First was the growth of leisure time.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17The working week shrank down to 40 hours in the 1900s.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The second reason was the arrival of electricity.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Electricity had been discovered in the 18th century,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29but it wasn't until the invention of the light bulb in 1878
0:47:29 > 0:47:34that it turned from being a scientific curiosity into a practical application for the home.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38This sudden availability of cheap, clean light
0:47:38 > 0:47:41would be the first step in transforming the Victorian living room
0:47:41 > 0:47:43into a recognisably modern space.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52The first light bulbs were seemingly miraculous objects
0:47:52 > 0:47:56that came in all shapes, colours and sizes.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58To see some of these novelties at work,
0:47:58 > 0:48:04I've come to the largest, private collection of light bulbs in the world in a small house in Wimbledon
0:48:04 > 0:48:07owned, rather appropriately, by a man called Ray.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11I've never seen so many light bulbs!
0:48:11 > 0:48:17'For the pioneering homeowner, the first thing to do was to convert one's gas fittings.'
0:48:17 > 0:48:19This is a standard wall bracket.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23It's an 1880s' bracket, and it would have had a gas jet.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27There's a little jet, you see? You take the gas burner out,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29you screw in...
0:48:29 > 0:48:31the English lamp holder -
0:48:31 > 0:48:34the tapered end fits into the gas fitting.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37And this wire runs off to...?
0:48:37 > 0:48:40Well, that would run off to the mains, yes.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42And then it should light up.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45It all looks a little bit Heath Robinson.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49- Hey, there we go. - That's on 20 volts.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52- This is pioneering home electricity? - This is a real pioneer, yes.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56- Wow, so only the most enthusiastic people had these.- Absolutely!
0:48:56 > 0:49:02So I'm thinking myself into the mind now of a Victorian person seeing that happening for the first time.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04It must have been extraordinary.
0:49:04 > 0:49:05Yes.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Despite this extraordinary breakthrough,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11electric light could only be afforded by the very rich.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14A single bulb cost more than a week's wages
0:49:14 > 0:49:18and power was only available from private, domestic generators.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23It was when local power stations serving communities began to appear
0:49:23 > 0:49:27that electricity became available to the masses.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32This is a special light bulb made for Edward VII's coronation in 1902.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35That's quite something, isn't it?
0:49:35 > 0:49:37- Can I turn it on?- You may, yes.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39With pleasure.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41Are you going to turn the light off to better see it?
0:49:44 > 0:49:47There he goes, he's glowing at us.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53108 years old...this light bulb.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55That's quite something.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58By the 1920s, as the infrastructure improved,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00the benefits of electric light
0:50:00 > 0:50:03would finally be seen further down the social scale.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05What do you think the impact was?
0:50:05 > 0:50:08The biggest problem was could they afford to change over?
0:50:08 > 0:50:11It was a big investment changing over from one to the other.
0:50:11 > 0:50:13In modern terms, it doesn't seem much.
0:50:13 > 0:50:19- I understand you could get your house wired up in the 1920s for about £25.- Mm-hm.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23But when you are earning 25 shillings -
0:50:23 > 0:50:27£1.25 in modern terms - a week, it's...
0:50:27 > 0:50:30- It's a major investment. - It's a major thing, yes.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35For many householders it wasn't just the cost of converting from gas
0:50:35 > 0:50:38that made them hold back,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41there were still problems with the electricity supply.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44In the early days of electricity,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48everybody who had it had to have their own generator in their house.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52As time went on, towns began to get their own power stations,
0:50:52 > 0:50:57but the problem was they all produced different currents, different voltages
0:50:57 > 0:51:00and that meant that anybody producing electrical goods
0:51:00 > 0:51:04had to customise their products to suit different areas.
0:51:04 > 0:51:05So you get chaos really.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09You get all these different kinds of plugs, sockets and switches appearing on the market.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13It's very difficult to develop a national product.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21It was the creation of the National Grid in 1934 that changed everything.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24As electric power was centralised and pylons sprung up,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27living rooms could finally be wired up
0:51:27 > 0:51:29to a single national network at cheaper cost.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36For the first time, the National Grid standardised the voltage,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38so it's the same across the whole country.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42So now you could sell the same lamp to the whole nation.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45All these new electrical gadgets just flooded onto the market
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and people began to buy electric Hoovers,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50electric fans, electric fires
0:51:50 > 0:51:53and most important of all, the radio.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58- Well, what do you think of it?- I think it's absolutely great.- Listen.
0:52:00 > 0:52:06Given pride of place next to the fire, the radio now became the focus of the living room.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Its role would take on an increasing importance as Britain entered World War II.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Bonding communities together behind the blackout blinds,
0:52:15 > 0:52:20the wireless became a vital weapon both in relaying information and improving national morale.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27But the radio's real legacy was to transform the room for best
0:52:27 > 0:52:31into the everyday family room across all the classes for the first time.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34By the '50s, increasing prosperity and leisure time
0:52:34 > 0:52:39meant the wireless was now an established feature of every home.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44I've come to see the living room of '50s collector, Joanne Massey.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48The biggest change that occurred in the living room
0:52:48 > 0:52:49throughout the 20th century
0:52:49 > 0:52:53was the shift away from creating your own entertainment
0:52:53 > 0:52:56to being entertained.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59No-one thought that the radio would catch on -
0:52:59 > 0:53:03it was a bit like the internet - but its use grew exponentially.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07After the war, it was knocked off its perch by something even better.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12And that something was the TV.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The BBC had begun to transmit a television service in 1936,
0:53:15 > 0:53:20but it wasn't until the Coronation in 1953 that it really took off.
0:53:22 > 0:53:29With so few households owning a set, neighbours crowded into each other's living rooms to watch it.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32You would have had a houseful if you had a telly at that time
0:53:32 > 0:53:36and the Coronation was on. You would have had everybody round here.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40I've heard of cases of TV envy and people installing an aerial
0:53:40 > 0:53:43even if they couldn't afford the actual set,
0:53:43 > 0:53:45so the neighbours would think that they had one.
0:53:45 > 0:53:51They would have been disappointed if they had gone round to their house to watch the Coronation.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56In order to see what programmes were available on Coronation Day,
0:53:56 > 0:53:58I've brought along the original Radio Times.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01Here is the evening of Coronation Day.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Here in this little box is the television.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05That's the only room on the page it gets.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09- Mainly it's the radio.- Winston Churchill is going to be on TV.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Broadcasts from Downing street. Oh, he's sound only!
0:54:13 > 0:54:17Then there's the weather forecast, sound only, no pictures.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21And it's called the Radio Times because the BBC, bless them,
0:54:21 > 0:54:26didn't think that it should be called the Radio and TV Times in case TV didn't catch on.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29How do you think the TV changed the living room in the 1950s?
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Well, I think it changed the layout of the furniture.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40Before, chairs were circled and pointing at the fireplace as the centre of attention,
0:54:40 > 0:54:42and, all of a sudden, you had a new device in the room
0:54:42 > 0:54:46and the chairs had to be moved round to face that.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52By 1954, the number of TV licences had risen from 300,000 to over three million
0:54:52 > 0:54:58and this explosion in television ownership was mostly down to one thing - hire purchase.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03'Hire purchase is one of the greatest assets of the modern community.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08'It enables us to fill our homes with beautiful things we could never otherwise afford.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10'It raises our standard of living.'
0:55:10 > 0:55:15When the laws limiting credit were relaxed, companies showered a willing public with catalogues.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20We've got here a Kays catalogue... It's not Kays - it's Kays Continuous Credit catalogue.
0:55:20 > 0:55:26- It is indeed and it's 1955.- And this is how people could aspire to getting a living room like yours.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30It says here, "You too can start now to get everything for yourself,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34"the home and family, for only a few shillings a week."
0:55:34 > 0:55:36So you buy now, pay later.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38So 1954 is a big year of change.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42It's the end of rationing and it's the start of credit.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45You're going from everything from clothes,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50ladies clothes, gents clothes, shoes, handbags, nighties, underwear.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54And you can also get a three-piece suite out of this.
0:55:54 > 0:56:01And carpets, lights. Basically, I want to send for everything in this catalogue, but I don't think I can.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06Consumer credit was paving the way for a rash of home improvements.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13The 1960s also saw a dramatic rise in home ownership as young couples moved out of their family homes.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17'Mr and Mrs Earnshaw, newly married, a new flat to furnish,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20'but only £30 to do it with.'
0:56:20 > 0:56:25Responding to this generation's lack of funds, a new phrase was coined - do it yourself.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30I get a certain amount of satisfaction out of doing it myself.
0:56:30 > 0:56:31It's much easier to do it yourself.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35We find we can be a little more individual if we do it ourselves.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39And the man who brought DIY to the masses was Barry Bucknell,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43the most popular man on 1960s' television.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47For this week, one or two jobs that you might have to do on doors.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52I don't know whether you've got a problem like this - a rather ugly, old panelled door.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55It's one that can be solved quite simply.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57You can make it look like this.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Over 39 programmes of Bucknell's House,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Barry transformed a crumbling Victorian terrace,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10ripping out its period features
0:57:10 > 0:57:13and replacing them with hardboard and electric fires.
0:57:15 > 0:57:20Today, of course, we would value and keep the very features that Barry was destroying.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24The living room has come on a long journey, even since the 1960s.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29While it still says a lot about your taste and social class,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32it's now also a showcase for modern technology,
0:57:32 > 0:57:36from flat screen TVs and hi-fis to the latest computer games.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43And today, it's one of the most flexible rooms in the house.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47Throughout its long history, the living room has had many different incarnations.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49It's been the great hall,
0:57:49 > 0:57:50the withdrawing chamber,
0:57:50 > 0:57:51the parlour.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Now it's the lounge - a return to its multipurpose roots.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57These rooms are still used partly for relaxation,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01partly for entertaining guests and being entertained.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04The focus of the living room was always the hearth,
0:58:04 > 0:58:06now it's the television.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09But despite the fact that we live in centrally heated homes,
0:58:09 > 0:58:13we still have a deep, emotional connection with the open fire
0:58:13 > 0:58:15just like our ancestors.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18Wow! Next time, the bathroom.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21From having a Victorian upper-class lady's bath,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24to bathing Georgian style in the open sea.
0:58:24 > 0:58:30I'll be exploring the room with the most complicated history in the house.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33So in the Victorian age, poo becomes taboo.