The Moray Estate, Edinburgh The Secret History of Our Streets


The Moray Estate, Edinburgh

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The streets we live in reveal the secret past

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beneath the skin of the present.

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Here is our kitchen, which was the operating theatre of the hospital.

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There were families that didn't have toilets in.

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There was many a visit to the drains in the middle of the night.

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Our memories are rendered in the bricks and mortar that surround us.

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Just behind you there was where we all danced.

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Our streets chart momentous social change and

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the ebb and flow between enormous wealth and terrible poverty.

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Pretty grim, isn't it? Dirt, filth, stench everywhere.

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They reveal the changes that have shaped all our lives

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and make the story of our streets the story of us all.

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It's a nice view, isn't it?

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On the western edge of Edinburgh's 18th century New Town

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is a street that has been home to Scotland's elite for 200 years.

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We had a cook and a maid, and that was it.

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Oh, and a nanny, yes.

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This is the story of Scotland's grandest street.

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Well, certainly I remember as a child, you know, there were

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a few Rolls Royces about, but they were old Rolls Royces, you know.

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Do you ever imagine what it must have been like

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when they would have balls in this room?

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Not really. No. Nope.

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The Moray Feu, Edinburgh.

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A single development with the longest Georgian terrace in Europe.

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A crescent and an oval flowing into the grand circular Moray Place,

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and known collectively as the Moray Feu.

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Built as the home for Scotland's upper-class,

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for 200 years it's been the poshest street in Scotland.

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My name is John Moray.

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I'm the 21st Earl of Moray, and my ancestor - the 10th Earl -

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built the Moray Estate in Edinburgh.

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This is the 1st Earl of Moray, who was the son of James V.

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He does look a bit like you. Do people say that?

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Not too many people do.

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Which bit?

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When you walk down those streets in Edinburgh,

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it's your whole family on the street signs.

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That's right.

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Moray's the county where we're mostly based.

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Stuart, Ainslie.

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That's Philip Ainslie there, the father-in-law of the 10th Earl.

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The 9th Earl or...?

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-The 10th. 10th Earl.

-10th Earl?

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Yes. That's him there. The 10th Earl.

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Doune.

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Monty Python And The Holy Grail was filmed at Doune Castle.

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-And Doune Castle is, of course, another family home.

-That's right.

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It is a good castle, isn't it?

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Me and my pals used to go down and watch them filming every day.

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When we're shooting, it would be nice if you used the rubber hammer, OK?

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-We didn't say Randolph.

-We said Randolph, didn't we?

-No, we didn't.

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He is meant to have commanded the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn.

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Another relative of yours.

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He was... Well, he was, yes.

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We've still got that kilt somewhere in the attic.

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Yes. I think that's it, is it?

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-Are you a Stuart?

-That's the family's surname.

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-That's your name?

-Yes.

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Oh, Glenfinlas Street.

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And that was the old royal hunting forest that went with Doune Castle.

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Yes, I think we are proud of it.

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So...

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SHE LAUGHS

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And here's Freddy.

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1810. The Edinburgh Council has plans for an extension

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to the medieval Old Town.

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On the other side of the valley, a new town is under construction.

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Luxury houses are shooting up along its ultra-modern grid-plan streets.

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And the developers rapidly hit the boundary of a country estate

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owned by the 10th Earl of Moray.

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The Earl's house - Drumsheugh - stood here.

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Randolph Crescent more or less follows the pattern of his drive.

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It was surrounded by parkland, all this was parkland.

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The nearest buildings were beyond Hanover Street,

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more than half a mile away from here.

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It was very much open country.

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By the early 1790s, Queen Street had reached its west end,

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and it kind of hit the buffers against the Earl's boundary.

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The Earl saw an opportunity.

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He drew up plans for an exclusive new development on his estate.

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'The Moray Estate is too irregular to build squares on,

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'but the layout of the crescents

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'and circus fits ingeniously onto the contours of the land.'

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The Earl of Moray was the feudal lord.

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Under medieval property law he had the right to lay down strict

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regulations governing both the construction of the houses

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and the ways in which residents would live in them.

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All commercial use was forbidden.

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These feuing conditions were intended to apply for all time,

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even after the Earl had sold the land.

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They were amongst Britain's earliest planning regulations.

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They were said to be one of the strictest design codes

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there's ever been.

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They had to stick to the design code for the facades,

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get it absolutely right, exactly like their neighbour,

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exactly like every other house in the street.

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He actually stipulated which quarries the stone could come from.

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In the Edinburgh Old Town's medieval tenements rich and poor had

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been living on top of each other, literally in the same buildings.

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'The population huddled together within protective walls.

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'Tenements rose.

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'Rich and poor lived cheek by jowl.'

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But now the 10th Earl was using his feuing conditions to ensure

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that his development would be exclusive.

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By laying down eternal rules about the look of the buildings

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and the lifestyle of the residents, the Earl was building

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a planned community for Scotland's elite.

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A new town for the upper-class.

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'The New Town was built to the requirements of only one

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'section of the community.

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'When the rich left the Old Town, society separated in a new way,

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'and the division between slum and suburb began.'

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When they moved to Moray Estate, they knew they were moving into an

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upmarket residential area and that it was going to stay like that.

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It wasn't going to become mixed use.

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They weren't a cross-section of society. It was pretty exclusive.

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'A new social split resulted.

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'For the first time a complete environment was planned

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'right from the beginning.'

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They were snapped up by private individuals who were very

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keen to get onto the Moray Estate right from the beginning.

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People bought into the vision.

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The 1822 feuing plan shows the numbered plots ready for sale.

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Most are still unsold.

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The best, with views across the River Leith,

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have already been snapped up.

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And one upmarket family have put their builders to work.

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The head of the Scottish legal system -

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Solicitor General John Hope -

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and his dad, Lord Charles Hope, are at number 12.

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My name is David Hope.

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I'm a member of a family that has been connected with

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Moray Place really since it was built

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because one of my ancestors lived in a house that was built for him,

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although my house now is just a few hundred yards to the east.

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What you can see here - if you look out of the window -

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is the back of Moray Place.

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At the right-hand end is number 12,

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which was the house lived in by two of my ancestors.

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I'm descended from Charles Hope's third son.

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But hold on, didn't he have the same job as you had?

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Charles did, yes, that's right.

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He was Lord President and I was Lord President.

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200 years apart.

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About that. Yes. Yes.

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This is Charles Hope who lived in 12 Moray Place.

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And that was me as Lord President in Scotland,

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and I then moved to the House of Lords.

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-That's my favourite one.

-Oh, right.

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-That's much nicer.

-Well...

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There's a very grand-looking outfit in this one.

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Well, that's the Order of the Thistle.

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-You're a member of the Thistle...

-Yes. Oh, indeed.

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Yes, I wouldn't be allowed to wear it if I wasn't.

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CHORAL MUSIC

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Who gave you this honour?

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Her Majesty.

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Are you English?

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No.

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I have an accent which is actually typical of my part of Edinburgh.

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I certainly don't regard myself as English, I'm very patriotic.

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There are times when it's lovely to be Scottish and not British,

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and there are other times when one's very proud to be British.

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Lord Hope spent his early years at number 41 Moray Place.

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When he was still a boy, his expanding family moved

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to number 28 where, as a young man,

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he was introduced to the perfect girl next door but one.

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We had met in number 30.

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I was invited to somebody's engagement party by the man

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and you were invited to the engagement party by the...

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-By the girl.

-..by the girl.

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And I have to say that their relationship did not continue,

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-but ours did.

-That's right. Yes.

-THEY LAUGH

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I remember when David was courting me,

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I remember going to a very riotous... Adult, I say, adult Burns' supper,

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at which we played Murder In The Dark,

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and I think we broke a chair and broke various other things.

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At number 28?

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-Yes.

-At number 28A. Yes.

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28 was an enormous house,

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which was probably built to the specification of Lord Moray himself.

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The Earl needed a town house to use

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when he was down from his estates in the north.

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And he reserved Moray Place's prime location to build it.

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The house was double-fronted with six columns.

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At 11,000 square feet it was by far the biggest house on the Feu.

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There. See.

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-Wow. Why is this ceiling like this?

-Hmm?

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Where does the ceiling come from?

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Because this used to be the Earl of Moray's living floor,

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this must have been his living-room.

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How many people live here?

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Here? Me and him.

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How long have you lived here, Kathe?

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God, I couldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you.

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It must have been about 20, 30 years, something like that.

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It's when my husband retired and he... Cos he was a Scot.

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I didn't have a home because I've lived everywhere.

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And he said he wanted to go home, so we came back here.

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That's how I finished up here.

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Where's your husband now?

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In Heaven. He died almost two years ago.

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And of course that's why I have this place

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and I haven't had the will to get rid of it.

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My mother's side, she was Dutch, my father was German.

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I don't belong to this room.

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What do you mean?

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SHE CHUCKLES

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Only some of the stuff is mine.

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What do you mean, you don't belong?

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It's high class.

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The other residents had built their houses to conform with

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the conditions laid down by the Earl.

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Each house had five floors and was around 6,500 square feet,

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seven times the size of an average house today.

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The 152 houses took more than 30 years to complete, but when they

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were finished one side of the Feu became the longest Georgian building

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in Europe and one of the greatest engineering feats of the 1850s.

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It is about a third of a mile long, in fact,

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it's more than a third of a mile long.

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One building built by umpteen different people

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over a long period of time.

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So this is the western end of the New Town, built in about 1840.

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And so all obviously the same architecture, the same style.

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And so the reason I brought you to the front is that this level

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is where the owners would stop, so below is entirely for staff.

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The staff would have worked in the lower level,

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they would have lived on the top floor.

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This is beyond that. Well, you can see the same level up there.

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-Ah.

-It's that level. So it was under the eaves basically.

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So you've got five floors, you've got people working,

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public rooms, the drawing-room and family, then more bedrooms for,

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you know, other kids or guests, and then staff quarters.

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They are spectacular but it's very hard to live in a five-storey house

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if you don't have...if you don't have people helping you, actually.

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-They're too big.

-You actually need staff.

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You do really. I mean, you know, we don't obviously,

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cos we only live in three floors of it, but to live in five floors

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you spend an awful lot of time going up and downstairs, really.

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'These enormous houses needed an army of servants to run them.'

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The Feu's new households had between five

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and 12 domestic staff, most of them young women living under

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the same roof as their masters and mistresses.

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And while women's options in life were limited to agricultural work,

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servants were cheap,

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and Lord Moray's design for living worked well.

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But as the First World War approached, millions of young

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women were switching to factory work, drawn by higher wages

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and unimagined new freedoms.

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A social revolution, which meant the upper-class were having to

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make do with fewer domestic staff.

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Where are we, Patrick?

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Number nine. Uh-huh.

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I was born in number seven.

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And then where did you move to?

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Well, to number nine.

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And then I was in London for a couple of years,

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then I came back to Edinburgh and lived in Moray Place.

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How far away is Moray Place from here?

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About 200 yards. What are you doing now, Henrietta?

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Moving this out of the picture.

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It was Daddy's, and so I just kept it.

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In fact, when Patrick and I were married he cut our cake with it.

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What year were you born here?

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'22.

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And what year did you move into Moray Place?

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-1944. Well, that's right?

-No, no, '50...

-'54. '54.

-'54.

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And when did you leave?

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'98.

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So you spent most of your life on the Moray Feu.

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In the Moray Feu, quite right. Yes, indeed.

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-And was it just your family in that house?

-Yes, indeed.

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And you had a cook - Ella, was it?

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No, there were three servants, yes.

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-Well, you could tell them about it.

-At one time, at one time...

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You could tell them about that.

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..there were three servants there,

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then it was just Jessie who was the only remaining one

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when the war broke...when war was ended.

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-Was she the one who threw all the films away?

-Yes.

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Do you ever wish you could go back to the old days?

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Oh, well... Sometimes, yes, sometimes.

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My father died when I was six.

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And then we had a cook and a maid, and that was it.

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Oh, and a nanny, yes.

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I remember best of all the nanny who was with my mother

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for over 40 years - sorry, that was the cook, yes,

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the cook who stayed all that time.

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She would produce breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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And tea I think we probably put together for ourselves.

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Well, she must have had a day off a week,

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did she, or two days off a week?

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-A day off a week, yes.

-It's not very much, is it?

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HE CHUCKLES

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My mother was quite a senior officer in the ATS.

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It was the women's army in the war,

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and was allowed to retain the services of a servant.

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What did your mother do for a living before the war?

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Well, she didn't, she was just a married woman. That was that.

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I don't think she ever had a job.

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Before the war, women didn't work all that much.

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I mean, certainly middle-class people.

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She was particularly interested in horse riding.

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A friend of mine had number 29 when his uncle lived in it,

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which is not very long ago, sort of in the '50s.

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He was Master of the Linlithgow - I think it was - Hunt, so he'd

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have his horse here, he'd get on his horse, ride it down to the station,

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put it on the train, or get on the train with it, and go out and hunt.

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And then his butler would have met him with a car,

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and he'd come back by car and the butler would hack the horse back.

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So they genuinely did live like that.

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'The New Town housed a newly expanding middle-class,

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'now become genteel,

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'investing money and making good profits on the development of canals

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'and mills, and in the equipping and vittling of the Napoleonic wars.'

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Once the Union came along

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that was an enormous advantage for Scottish businessmen.

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They'd got the advantage of being part of the UK

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and particularly when colonies were developing abroad.

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So it was that sort of Common Market thing that was very, very important.

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This is 22 Moray Place, built in 1824.

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The first owner was a man called Walker Drummond,

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who was a lawyer. His widow sold it to the Primrose family

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who were here for about another 50 years.

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Out here is Fettes College, which Bouverie Primrose was

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responsible for building. And he lived here, so obviously

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he was able to supervise the site without leaving his house.

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CHORAL SINGING

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Sir William Fettes endowed the school.

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I think it was about £180,000 it cost to build.

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Gross it up today, probably 30 million, something like that.

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I suppose you'd describe him as a greengrocer by trade,

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he was a Mr Tesco or a Mr Sainsbury of his time.

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Fettes gave the job of getting construction under way to

0:19:560:19:59

Moray Place's Bouverie Primroses.

0:19:590:20:02

This is the trowel used for laying the original foundation stone.

0:20:050:20:09

The person who actually used it was the Honourable Mrs Primrose,

0:20:090:20:13

wife of the Honourable Bouverie Primrose,

0:20:130:20:16

one of the original trustees.

0:20:160:20:18

I know that your school is known sometimes as the Eton of Scotland.

0:20:180:20:21

We take that as a compliment.

0:20:210:20:23

I mean, the school at least has produced one Prime Minister.

0:20:230:20:26

We sometimes refer to Eton as the Fettes of the South.

0:20:280:20:31

Fettes College was founded in 1870.

0:20:340:20:37

The start of a period of rapid expansion of the British Empire.

0:20:370:20:41

By 1900 it covered an area of more than 11 million square miles.

0:20:430:20:48

There was a vast enterprise to be run

0:20:480:20:51

and educated Scots embraced the opportunities.

0:20:510:20:54

In the 19th century, two million Scots left their homeland

0:20:540:20:58

to make a life abroad,

0:20:580:21:00

and one-third of all British colonial governors were Scottish.

0:21:000:21:03

My father's a Scot. He was a tea planter.

0:21:050:21:09

So I was born in India.

0:21:090:21:11

I spent, what, the first seven years of my life there.

0:21:130:21:17

We had an ayah, which is a nurse.

0:21:180:21:21

They had somebody who cooked,

0:21:210:21:23

and they had somebody who cleaned and so on.

0:21:230:21:26

And I spoke fluent Hindustani.

0:21:260:21:28

I have a photograph of my tennis partner somewhere here.

0:21:280:21:32

There he is - Ramsbotham.

0:21:320:21:34

-Ramsbotham.

-I'm sure it was Ram-something-or-other,

0:21:340:21:37

but he didn't mind being called Ramsbotham.

0:21:370:21:39

He was lovely. He was a really nice man.

0:21:390:21:41

THEY LAUGH

0:21:410:21:42

My father's in the middle there with my mother.

0:21:420:21:45

And that was on Christmas Day.

0:21:450:21:46

They decided to send us to school, you know, here rather than there.

0:21:480:21:52

They're enjoying themselves.

0:21:520:21:54

Do you think I could meet one or two of them?

0:21:540:21:55

-Yes, certainly. Hilary.

-Hello, Hilary.

-Hello.

-I have met you, yet I haven't.

0:21:550:21:59

-I've met you, of course, in the film.

-Oh, yes.

0:21:590:22:01

And you come from Manila, how's that?

0:22:010:22:03

Well, my father works out there,

0:22:030:22:06

so he's sent us to boarding school, my sister and I.

0:22:060:22:10

You've got a slight American accent, is your father an American?

0:22:100:22:13

No, he's Scottish. But I went to an American school in Manila.

0:22:130:22:17

And your mother?

0:22:170:22:18

My mother, she's English, born in Shanghai.

0:22:180:22:22

This was given to us,

0:22:220:22:24

we all had one each, to remind us of how they looked.

0:22:240:22:30

Every three years we saw them, and they came back for six months,

0:22:320:22:35

and then they had to go again.

0:22:350:22:36

'As the Princess stepped ashore

0:22:490:22:51

'the Governor of the Windward Islands was there to meet her.

0:22:510:22:54

'And many of the people of Grenada

0:22:540:22:56

'had come to add their own greetings - formal and informal.'

0:22:560:23:00

This photograph is taken outside the town of Grenville in Grenada.

0:23:020:23:06

And that's my father, Michael, aged about four.

0:23:060:23:10

That's his grandfather - Tom DeGale. That's 1908, apparently.

0:23:100:23:16

Oh, Granny's in it, I hadn't realised that.

0:23:160:23:20

And there's Olga, she was blown up in the war.

0:23:200:23:22

The interesting thing is the mixture of colours.

0:23:220:23:25

Wilhelmina looks very much more of an African origin, I think.

0:23:250:23:31

Whether we went as an indentured slave or

0:23:310:23:33

whether we went as an overseer, it's not at all clear but, anyway,

0:23:330:23:37

we seem to have made good, as the Scots would say.

0:23:370:23:39

And by the time we got to 1920 they had quite a lot of plantations.

0:23:390:23:44

Victor.

0:23:440:23:46

Victor left 18 'outside' children by eight different coloured women,

0:23:460:23:50

and he married and had six legitimate children as well.

0:23:500:23:54

'Outside' children?

0:23:540:23:56

-CHUCKLING:

-Well, it's what... well,

0:23:560:23:58

it's what you would call illegitimate in English parlance.

0:23:580:24:02

But the Grenadians call them 'outside' children.

0:24:020:24:06

Now do you think it would have been a scandal for a white

0:24:060:24:10

plantation owner and a black woman to have a child?

0:24:100:24:13

No, not...not...not at all. It's perfectly normal.

0:24:130:24:16

Or I've never got the impression it was a problem.

0:24:160:24:18

And people in Grenada are all sorts of different colours.

0:24:180:24:22

There were no white women in Grenada in

0:24:220:24:25

the early part of the 19th century, so there were lots of black women.

0:24:250:24:30

So they were quite available.

0:24:300:24:32

So you've been descended from that couple?

0:24:320:24:34

I would think so. Yes, certainly.

0:24:340:24:36

I've always felt the only place I've ever felt at home is in Grenada.

0:24:430:24:46

I know when I get off the aeroplane.

0:24:460:24:48

-This is house number, what, 30 odd.

-The rest were Army houses.

0:24:570:25:02

So most of our time in the Army, and so we moved around an awful lot.

0:25:020:25:06

-You've lived in 30 different houses?

-Yes.

0:25:060:25:09

We went to our very first house in Folkestone and we came

0:25:100:25:14

back from honeymoon on the Sunday, and on the Friday I was told that I

0:25:140:25:18

was leaving to go back to Aden immediately, because of the crisis.

0:25:180:25:23

'Caught in the coils of South Arabian history.

0:25:250:25:28

'By 1965 these had become as big a basket of snakes as ever

0:25:280:25:32

'confronted any departing empire.

0:25:320:25:34

'In February, 1966, the end of it all, totally and forever,

0:25:340:25:39

'Britain was on the way out.'

0:25:390:25:41

Looking back on my very first trip, it was

0:25:420:25:44

when I was a 2nd Lieutenant -

0:25:440:25:46

very, very newly commissioned from Sandhurst -

0:25:460:25:49

and I was invited to take out 120 Jocks out to Malaya.

0:25:490:25:56

I was just 20. In fact, I was 19.

0:25:560:26:01

So I found myself in the jungle with a platoon.

0:26:020:26:05

And I'd never been in the jungle before, and with, luckily,

0:26:050:26:10

Sergeant Tweedy at my elbow saying,

0:26:100:26:12

"Look up Page 29 of the pamphlet, Sir, you'll see it's all right."

0:26:120:26:16

And eventually we had the Merdeka,

0:26:190:26:22

which was the Malaysian independence.

0:26:220:26:24

The people that one has worked with

0:26:270:26:29

and been with have become one's family in a way.

0:26:290:26:34

Cos the Jocks do what they're asked to do and always do it superbly.

0:26:340:26:39

It had been a privilege to command them and to be with them.

0:26:390:26:42

The soldiers joined to serve the Queen,

0:26:430:26:46

and they joined to serve Great Britain.

0:26:460:26:49

But you're English, aren't you?

0:26:510:26:52

No, I was born in Glasgow.

0:26:520:26:55

My accent may not sound Glaswegian, but I was born in Glasgow, and I

0:26:550:27:02

went to school in Glasgow, and left Glasgow to join the Army.

0:27:020:27:06

I remember being in the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's

0:27:110:27:14

bodyguard in Scotland, and we have the honour of looking after

0:27:140:27:18

Her Majesty and guarding her when she pays her visits to Scotland.

0:27:180:27:22

In a way, I'm still serving the Queen,

0:27:250:27:28

and will go on doing so as long as I can.

0:27:280:27:31

The sun was going down on Britain's empire.

0:27:420:27:45

And at home the old class certainties were breaking down.

0:27:450:27:48

The loss of overseas colonies and rising death duties had hit

0:27:500:27:54

the upper-class hard, and now the government had raised the top

0:27:540:27:58

rate of tax to 98%.

0:27:580:28:01

Britain was becoming more equal and it

0:28:010:28:04

was difficult to find working people willing to enter domestic service.

0:28:040:28:08

'Only 40 years ago my grandfather was coming here

0:28:090:28:13

'with about 100 servants. Today we struggle along with about four.

0:28:130:28:17

'Death duties have been the greatest curse of these days

0:28:170:28:22

'because they've crippled the estate forever.

0:28:220:28:24

'It's all gone.

0:28:240:28:26

'They want to equalise everybody on a lower grade.'

0:28:280:28:31

As the distance between the social classes shrank and the

0:28:330:28:36

upper-class fell into relative decline, the Feu began to suffer.

0:28:360:28:41

The 10th Earl's original design for living had been

0:28:410:28:44

built around huge households, but residents couldn't afford

0:28:440:28:47

to keep servants any more, or run whole five-storey houses.

0:28:470:28:51

The grand palaces were no longer fit for purpose and the Feuers

0:28:510:28:56

were being forced to find new ways of making use of their vast spaces.

0:28:560:29:00

I'll show you this, Joe.

0:29:020:29:03

This is a store-room but look at the ceiling!

0:29:050:29:12

Oh, it's the Earl's ballroom again.

0:29:150:29:19

I know.

0:29:190:29:21

SHE LAUGHS

0:29:210:29:23

That has to be the poshest ceiling for a cupboard I've ever seen.

0:29:230:29:28

I know.

0:29:280:29:30

Why does it cut off like this?

0:29:300:29:31

Well, it's when they split up this floor into a flat.

0:29:310:29:35

There you are.

0:29:390:29:41

Do you ever stand here and imagine what it must have been like

0:29:410:29:44

when it was first built, when they would have balls in this room?

0:29:440:29:47

Not really. No. Nope.

0:29:470:29:49

The 10th Earl took possession of his new house in 1825.

0:29:540:29:58

But within five years he put it on the market as a potential hotel.

0:29:580:30:03

It had needed an army of around 20 servants

0:30:070:30:10

and it was just too big for a town house, even for an Earl.

0:30:100:30:14

It was eventually sold, then split into five flats.

0:30:190:30:22

By that stage, really these houses were too big,

0:30:260:30:29

even for a pretty affluent family.

0:30:290:30:31

They needed huge numbers of servants to run the place.

0:30:310:30:35

When the Earl of Moray sold his house after only a few years,

0:30:350:30:39

he was advertising it as suitable for a hotel.

0:30:390:30:41

Well, this one became a hospital.

0:30:410:30:44

By the beginning of the 20th century, owners were bending

0:30:440:30:47

the Earl's original rules and selling up to businesses.

0:30:470:30:51

And with the NHS not yet in existence,

0:30:510:30:54

three of the Feu's big houses were converted to private hospitals.

0:30:540:30:58

The stair was big enough to put a hospital bed-lift in without

0:31:000:31:04

actually making any alterations at all.

0:31:040:31:06

So they put the bed-lift in and converted the house into a hospital.

0:31:060:31:10

This carried hospital beds with people on them

0:31:140:31:18

up to the operating theatre.

0:31:180:31:20

The wards, all the way down through the building.

0:31:200:31:23

Here is our kitchen,

0:31:280:31:31

which was the operating theatre of the hospital.

0:31:310:31:34

My aunt had her appendix out here - no, her tonsils.

0:31:380:31:41

Yes, I had my tonsils out and my sister had her tonsils out.

0:31:460:31:49

What I remember about it was we got ice cream,

0:31:490:31:52

which was a very seldom treat.

0:31:520:31:54

We were given ice cream after the operation.

0:31:540:31:56

And I then proceeded to be sick, ice cream

0:31:560:31:58

and blood all over the place.

0:31:580:32:00

HE CHUCKLES

0:32:000:32:02

It was designed to be blood-spattered up to about there,

0:32:020:32:04

and the floor actually falls into that corner,

0:32:040:32:06

there was a drain in that corner.

0:32:060:32:08

By the '50s, the aristocracy was feeling the pinch.

0:32:220:32:26

People were moving out to smaller, more manageable places

0:32:260:32:30

and the Feu's grand reputation was fading.

0:32:300:32:33

But the fixer-uppers had begun to arrive, young couples living

0:32:380:32:42

in upper-class austerity attracted by some surprising house prices.

0:32:420:32:46

We bought it in 1959.

0:32:480:32:50

It was 1960 before we actually moved in.

0:32:500:32:53

We were very young, we hadn't been married very long,

0:32:540:32:57

and he was only...must only have been about 29.

0:32:570:33:00

He was looking at this empty property,

0:33:000:33:02

which was on the market for five months, nobody wanted it.

0:33:020:33:07

No wonder.

0:33:070:33:08

Five floors of cream and green paint and disinfectant and frosted glass

0:33:100:33:16

partitions in all the big rooms, you know, it was a nursing home.

0:33:160:33:20

It had been a nursing home for 30 years or more.

0:33:200:33:22

All he said when he came,

0:33:220:33:24

and I said, "What do you think of it, darling?

0:33:240:33:26

He said, "I think it's simply awful."

0:33:260:33:28

He said, "But you can't build these views."

0:33:280:33:31

"You can't build these views," I remember him saying it.

0:33:310:33:34

Do you remember how much you paid?

0:33:340:33:35

We struggled. It was £5,000.

0:33:350:33:38

£5,000.

0:33:390:33:41

How many storeys?

0:33:410:33:43

-Hmm?

-How many floors?

0:33:430:33:45

Five floors. No, it was just unsalable.

0:33:450:33:48

It was magnificent outside, but it was...

0:33:500:33:54

I mean, I can't tell you how frightened I was because of this

0:33:540:33:58

great lift-shaft all the way up the thing.

0:33:580:34:00

And I had two 18-month children. Simon was one of them.

0:34:000:34:04

There was still some aristocratic residents,

0:34:060:34:09

and there was certainly...

0:34:090:34:11

I remember as a child, you know, there were a few Rolls Royces about,

0:34:110:34:14

but they were old Rolls Royces, you know.

0:34:140:34:16

HE LAUGHS

0:34:160:34:18

I've heard stories from other people who, you know -

0:34:180:34:21

of my parents' generation - who lived in Edinburgh as children

0:34:210:34:24

who weren't allowed to come down to the New Town,

0:34:240:34:27

to this part of the New Town cos it was a bit, you know, a bit risky.

0:34:270:34:30

And I remember David bringing me in here and saying, here it is.

0:34:310:34:34

I mean, it seriously was in a bad state of repair.

0:34:340:34:37

And as far as I could see, the only nice thing were the

0:34:370:34:40

four apple trees in the garden that we still have. And everything...

0:34:400:34:43

SHE LAUGHS Everything had to be done.

0:34:430:34:45

When we first arrived we had very little money,

0:34:460:34:48

we couldn't afford to do it up at all.

0:34:480:34:50

We used to show people round this house and they used to say,

0:34:500:34:54

FALTERINGLY: "Yes... Very...very nice."

0:34:540:34:56

THEY LAUGH

0:34:560:34:58

Here's the bath.

0:34:580:35:00

And we used to say to the children that it could go walking,

0:35:020:35:05

it could go walking in the night, that there's lion's feet.

0:35:050:35:10

Goodness me.

0:35:100:35:11

Isn't it wonderful?

0:35:110:35:12

Our little girl learnt to...used to swim with arm-bands in this bath.

0:35:120:35:16

When we were re-doing the bathroom, we thought

0:35:160:35:18

we might remove the bath and have something rather different.

0:35:180:35:22

-And we were told it would have to be broken up to get it out.

-Really?

0:35:220:35:25

They couldn't get it out of the door as it is.

0:35:250:35:27

And that raises a very interesting question -

0:35:270:35:30

how did it get here in the first place?

0:35:300:35:32

THEY LAUGH

0:35:320:35:33

Put it in and then built the rest of the house around it.

0:35:330:35:36

Well, there wouldn't be a bathroom when it was built.

0:35:360:35:38

-Of course...

-We think probably not.

0:35:380:35:40

As the young professionals restored their faded mansions,

0:35:420:35:45

businesses were still arriving,

0:35:450:35:48

taking advantage of the vast spaces and low rents.

0:35:480:35:52

So, Jim, can you tell me where we are?

0:35:550:35:58

In Moray Place,

0:35:580:36:00

outside the office where I started as an apprentice about 68 years ago.

0:36:000:36:07

What were you doing here?

0:36:080:36:10

I worked for Sir Basil.

0:36:100:36:11

Well, he wasn't Sir Basil in these days, he was just Basil Spence.

0:36:110:36:15

The Spence family stayed on the first floor.

0:36:190:36:22

They lived up there, did they?

0:36:220:36:24

They lived up there. He did quite a bit of entertaining. Yes, yes.

0:36:240:36:28

We used to go outside and have coffee

0:36:310:36:34

at around 10.00-10.30 in the garden.

0:36:340:36:38

People chatted about what they were doing

0:36:380:36:41

and the schemes they were working on.

0:36:410:36:45

This week we're delighted to have with us Sir Basil Spence,

0:36:450:36:48

one of Britain's most controversial architects.

0:36:480:36:50

He was born in Bombay in 1907.

0:36:500:36:53

His father was a Scotsman from the Orkneys

0:36:530:36:55

and worked in the Indian Civil Service.

0:36:550:36:58

When Basil Spence turned to making homes for people,

0:36:580:37:00

he turned back to Scotland - the Gorbals in Glasgow.

0:37:000:37:04

I was, by that time, an associate in the practice,

0:37:040:37:07

and I ended up on the supervision of the building of the Gorbals.

0:37:070:37:14

'The plan for Glasgow of tomorrow is taking shape,

0:37:140:37:17

'the over-crowded and over-developed city will give place

0:37:170:37:20

'to a new and free-flowing city.'

0:37:200:37:22

150 years after the creation of the Moray Estate,

0:37:220:37:26

Glasgow was to have its own planned community.

0:37:260:37:29

Like the Moray Feu,

0:37:290:37:31

Spence's tower sea was to be a new design for living.

0:37:310:37:35

It was a multistorey building and a very interesting, exciting design.

0:37:350:37:42

'This is the Gorbals.

0:37:420:37:43

'Not long ago it was a dark network of slum property.

0:37:430:37:47

'Let's meet a family that's moved into one of these new flats.

0:37:470:37:50

'This is Mrs Jack, born and bred in the Gorbals

0:37:500:37:54

'but not in a building like this.

0:37:540:37:56

'You need a lift to take you up and down, but Mrs Jack

0:37:560:38:00

'feels that the view from her living-room window is well worth it.'

0:38:000:38:03

The lifts started to go wrong. They were really poorly maintained.

0:38:030:38:09

And gradually, over the years,

0:38:090:38:12

the balconies became just dumping grounds.

0:38:120:38:16

Well, it was never used as it was designed to be used.

0:38:160:38:19

Why not?

0:38:200:38:22

That's one I don't know, I really don't know.

0:38:230:38:27

The 10th Earl of Moray had been able to design a new town

0:38:310:38:35

for the aristocracy because he was one of them.

0:38:350:38:38

But from his office on the Feu, Spence had tried to plan

0:38:380:38:42

a community for a city and a people to which he didn't belong.

0:38:420:38:47

Why, when you designed the flats in the Gorbals, did you make them

0:38:470:38:51

so depressing in appearance,

0:38:510:38:53

and yet the houses are so comfortable inside?

0:38:530:38:55

Well, you know, that's - what one says - is a subjective criticism.

0:38:550:39:00

I thought that there should be a little garden attached to

0:39:000:39:04

each house so that you can grow even small trees there if you wish,

0:39:040:39:07

peaches, perhaps.

0:39:070:39:09

It doesn't work.

0:39:090:39:10

We tried putting plants out and they were blown off.

0:39:100:39:13

The wind sweeps right through.

0:39:130:39:15

Because of the multistorey structure down at ground level

0:39:160:39:20

on what appears to be a calm day, it was always very windy down there.

0:39:200:39:25

And well, I think Sir Basil would have been very

0:39:290:39:32

upset and disappointed if he had been alive

0:39:320:39:35

when they were blown-up and demolished.

0:39:350:39:39

How did you feel?

0:39:440:39:46

I just felt sad really that, you know,

0:39:460:39:49

all this effort had gone into something that was now just

0:39:490:39:56

become a heap of rubble and that was it.

0:39:560:39:59

Spence's tower sea was demolished in 1993,

0:40:050:40:10

and the people of the Gorbals prepared to start over.

0:40:100:40:14

But the solid stones of the Moray Feu stood firm.

0:40:140:40:18

And now the fortunes of the professional aristocracy

0:40:180:40:22

had begun to turn.

0:40:220:40:24

By the 1980s a new economic orthodoxy had taken hold

0:40:240:40:28

and the top rate of tax had been slashed to 40%.

0:40:280:40:32

The upper-class was pulling away from the majority once again,

0:40:320:40:36

using their new money to buy back into the Feu.

0:40:360:40:40

In some areas prices are rising steadily,

0:40:400:40:42

in others they're stagnant.

0:40:420:40:44

And then there are the hotspots, like here in Edinburgh City Centre,

0:40:440:40:48

described as one of the most expensive places to live

0:40:480:40:51

outside London.

0:40:510:40:52

This came up.

0:40:540:40:56

It was the time when you had to bid quite a lot over the asking price.

0:40:560:40:59

And I think the asking price was something like 380 or 400.

0:40:590:41:05

And we bid, because we nearly bought it in 1944,

0:41:050:41:09

we bid £444,444.

0:41:090:41:11

£440,000 for this place?

0:41:130:41:15

Mmm. Yeah.

0:41:150:41:17

It seems pretty reasonable now.

0:41:170:41:18

It does now.

0:41:180:41:20

This was the office, in fact.

0:41:230:41:25

And when we arrived here there was a huge counter down here

0:41:250:41:28

and sort of furniture everywhere, and...

0:41:280:41:31

And the fireplace was painted in pebbledash, white pebbledash.

0:41:310:41:36

The grandchildren love this bed, they play bouncy castles on it.

0:41:380:41:42

It was in a bit of a state, wasn't it, when you arrived?

0:41:420:41:45

Yeah. That's putting it mildly.

0:41:450:41:47

This has now become the dining-room.

0:41:490:41:51

The bathroom was awful. Here we are, there's the bathroom.

0:41:540:41:58

Isn't that nice?

0:41:580:41:59

Oh, they're lovely, aren't they? Really gorgeous.

0:41:590:42:03

But you look after everything in this house.

0:42:030:42:05

-Yes.

-How many cleaners do you employ?

-None.

0:42:050:42:08

How many house-maids?

0:42:080:42:09

None. Alan does the silver and the...

0:42:090:42:12

No, no, none at all. No, I do it.

0:42:120:42:13

Just occasionally we...

0:42:130:42:15

As you see the cameraman disappear forever.

0:42:150:42:17

SHE LAUGHS

0:42:170:42:19

The main trading business I have in Edinburgh is

0:42:200:42:22

involved in looking after funds.

0:42:220:42:25

The smallest client is probably about 10 million

0:42:250:42:28

and the largest is 400 million.

0:42:280:42:30

Is that lady anyone you know there?

0:42:300:42:32

Both of them are relations of mine. Yeah. One prettier than the other.

0:42:320:42:36

HE LAUGHS

0:42:360:42:37

DOORBELL RINGS

0:42:370:42:39

-That'll be the Simpsons at their own old door.

-Yeah.

0:42:390:42:41

We should probably let them in.

0:42:410:42:43

We're rather early. You remember me, Henrietta.

0:42:430:42:45

You're not early at all.

0:42:450:42:46

Right, now would you like a cup of coffee?

0:42:460:42:49

Where would you like to have your coffee, Patrick?

0:42:490:42:51

I'll just have it where it is. Thank you.

0:42:510:42:53

Well, it's in the kitchen in that case.

0:42:530:42:55

-Yes, all right. Well, shall we...

-Well, come on down.

0:42:550:42:58

You'd lived here for 44 years, and we bought it for...

0:42:590:43:02

-All the fours, yes.

-All the fours.

-All the fours.

0:43:020:43:04

£444,444. I can't remember if it was 44p, can you?

0:43:040:43:09

I think it probably was, just to sort of round it up nicely.

0:43:090:43:12

-It might have been. It might have been.

-All the fours.

0:43:120:43:14

Well, it was a bit of an advance for me,

0:43:140:43:17

I paid 4,500 for the whole thing.

0:43:170:43:19

Well, if you'd have told me that I wouldn't have done nothing like that.

0:43:190:43:22

THEY LAUGH

0:43:220:43:23

You can almost see our house.

0:43:230:43:25

Yes, well, it's round there, isn't it?

0:43:250:43:27

As he would tell you, it's in the slums.

0:43:270:43:29

In fact, that green is the gardens in front.

0:43:290:43:33

Well, Patrick thinks it's a slum.

0:43:340:43:35

Why did you leave here, Patrick?

0:43:350:43:38

-Henrietta...

-I wish you wouldn't ask that question.

0:43:380:43:41

With her pictures as well as mine, there wasn't room for it all.

0:43:410:43:44

HE CHUCKLES

0:43:440:43:46

He misses it very much, actually, and he doesn't like where we are.

0:43:460:43:50

That is the truth.

0:43:500:43:52

Thank you very much.

0:43:520:43:54

Thank you, Henrietta.

0:43:540:43:55

It's such a killing little thing, isn't it?

0:43:550:43:58

Patrick, I think you must be one of the people alive with

0:44:040:44:08

the most years on the Moray Feu.

0:44:080:44:10

Well, I lived there quite a long time, yes.

0:44:100:44:12

I don't know though, I think there are probably decayed old

0:44:120:44:15

people still living in Moray Place who have been there for a long time.

0:44:150:44:20

Patrick had that floor, that floor and the basement,

0:44:200:44:24

and Bill Ayles is up there.

0:44:240:44:26

ELEVATOR HUMS

0:44:280:44:31

Gosh.

0:44:410:44:43

Good morning, Dr Ayles.

0:44:430:44:45

Nice to see you all.

0:44:470:44:49

It's nice to see you. Can we come through?

0:44:490:44:51

The usual Scottish greeting, you will have had your tea.

0:44:510:44:55

-You know that one?

-Yes.

-Come in.

0:44:560:44:58

This house was bought by the Honourable Lord Sorn in 1929,

0:44:580:45:04

and he paid 3,860 for it.

0:45:040:45:07

Do you want to take your coat off or anything?

0:45:070:45:10

It cost me 11,500. So suddenly prices have soared.

0:45:100:45:16

-Shot up.

-Absolutely.

0:45:160:45:18

You paid £11,500?

0:45:180:45:21

-Yes.

-When was this?

-1965.

0:45:210:45:24

That's all the children painted by Alan Sullivan.

0:45:240:45:26

That's Nicholas, Jane, Richard and Anthony.

0:45:260:45:30

Nicholas has a property company in London.

0:45:300:45:34

This is Janey who's married to a lawyer,

0:45:340:45:36

and this is Anthony who became my partner in the practice.

0:45:360:45:41

Richard, he's...he died.

0:45:420:45:43

How did he die?

0:45:460:45:48

Sudden heart attack, but a very unusual one.

0:45:480:45:51

I'm very sorry to hear about that.

0:45:510:45:53

Mmm. Yeah. It was a blow.

0:45:530:45:54

This one behind you is painted by my daughter-in-law.

0:45:560:46:01

And that's Mary and that's me. And that's the old tiger.

0:46:010:46:05

Mary's grandfather was out in India and her father was born out there,

0:46:050:46:11

and he - the grandfather - laid the railways from Calcutta to Delhi.

0:46:110:46:17

That's the rest of the tiger, missing the head here.

0:46:170:46:20

You know there's that famous Love On A Tiger Skin or whatever.

0:46:200:46:25

So I hope that sort of thing didn't go on in this house.

0:46:250:46:27

HE LAUGHS

0:46:270:46:29

There's no answer to that question.

0:46:300:46:32

What kind of a woman was your wife?

0:46:340:46:36

Happy. Very happy.

0:46:380:46:41

She used to do characters, particularly Children's Hour.

0:46:410:46:49

'Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.'

0:46:490:46:52

I get the impression that you were rather proud of her.

0:46:520:46:55

Yes, I was. Very much. Yes, very much. She was great fun.

0:46:550:47:02

And we had lots of parties.

0:47:040:47:06

Just behind you there was where we all danced, in that room there.

0:47:060:47:11

FAINT BALLROOM MUSIC

0:47:110:47:13

Is your wife still around?

0:47:150:47:16

She's in a nursing home with dementia.

0:47:160:47:19

And I see her twice a week or thereabouts.

0:47:220:47:25

And the problem is that when I have to get up to go home

0:47:250:47:30

she always thinks she's going to come too.

0:47:300:47:32

It must be strange. Every time you look at an object, there's a memory.

0:47:370:47:40

Yes. And of course, these are little family portraits.

0:47:400:47:44

There's John Ayles of Achmore, who goes back to 1687.

0:47:440:47:51

And above him I think is John Mount-Ayles. Very comforting.

0:47:530:47:59

And I'm lucky to have it all.

0:48:020:48:07

It doesn't get too difficult sometimes?

0:48:110:48:14

No. Well, it does, yes, actually.

0:48:140:48:17

But you know, it's not all that difficult compared to what

0:48:170:48:21

some people have to do, people who are very much worse off than I am.

0:48:210:48:26

Most of my close friends have died.

0:48:270:48:29

Now you said you would like a drink. What would you like?

0:48:340:48:37

What have you got?

0:48:370:48:38

Well, there's always whisky.

0:48:380:48:40

What is very nice is that all these people have known each other

0:48:420:48:45

all their lives and their children have known each other

0:48:450:48:48

all their lives, and it just goes on self-perpetuating.

0:48:480:48:51

Do you love this house?

0:48:520:48:54

No. And you know I don't. So don't quote me.

0:48:540:48:57

Why not?

0:48:570:48:58

Well, we've had a lot of difficulties with it.

0:48:580:49:01

But if you didn't have this house where would you be?

0:49:030:49:06

I don't know where I'd be.

0:49:060:49:07

I don't know where I'll end up. I've no idea.

0:49:070:49:11

What, you don't think you'll stay here?

0:49:120:49:14

-No.

-Why not?

0:49:140:49:16

Well, it's not economical for one person to live in this space.

0:49:160:49:19

It's such a nice view, isn't it?

0:49:240:49:25

Did your husband love this house?

0:49:280:49:30

I think so. But in the last year he didn't do much.

0:49:310:49:36

I kept saying to him, let's go out with the dog.

0:49:370:49:41

No, he wouldn't.

0:49:410:49:43

That's why he died so early,

0:49:430:49:45

because he just..his blood pressure let him down.

0:49:450:49:49

Have you ever felt the presence of any of the people

0:49:500:49:54

from the past in this house?

0:49:540:49:56

No-one's been in touch.

0:49:590:50:01

-No-one's been in touch?

-No.

0:50:010:50:03

So this is the ground-floor of number 31.

0:50:150:50:18

We've got number 31 and 32.

0:50:180:50:20

And we're about to start the construction work to take them

0:50:200:50:23

back to two original five-storey town houses.

0:50:230:50:25

But the plan is that this will become our family house,

0:50:260:50:29

and we'll live here for the next number of years.

0:50:290:50:32

But how many other families in this house?

0:50:320:50:34

In this house there are no other families.

0:50:340:50:36

This is just a...this will be a five-storey town house.

0:50:360:50:39

I had to buy it and get a couple of extra bedrooms,

0:50:390:50:41

I couldn't have bought two-thirds of it.

0:50:410:50:43

We could probably sleep 20, 24 folk at a push,

0:50:430:50:47

without having to squash people into camp-beds, et cetera.

0:50:470:50:50

And this is the furniture from our buddies in the law firm

0:50:500:50:54

that are moving out, so they're in the process.

0:50:540:50:56

If this building had not been occupied by the solicitors

0:50:560:50:59

that have been here for over 100 years, I'm sure it would have

0:50:590:51:02

been sub-divided and we wouldn't be standing here

0:51:020:51:04

talking about a five-storey town house.

0:51:040:51:06

This house in London -

0:51:060:51:08

one of the nice areas, in Knightsbridge or Mayfair -

0:51:080:51:10

probably about 20 million.

0:51:100:51:12

But then if my auntie had a moustache she'd be my uncle.

0:51:120:51:15

HE CHUCKLES

0:51:160:51:18

Did you grow up in a house like this?

0:51:190:51:21

No. I grew up in a tenement, a two-bedroom -

0:51:210:51:24

sorry a two-room tenement with four of us.

0:51:240:51:26

Oh, I could bore you stupid -

0:51:260:51:28

no hot water, no telephone, no fridges, dah-dah-dah.

0:51:280:51:31

But I did always want... I used to come here when I was at school.

0:51:310:51:36

I was quite keen on art and I used to come here

0:51:360:51:39

and draw the street from various different locations.

0:51:390:51:43

I always thought one day it'd be nice - when I'm big -

0:51:430:51:45

to come back and live here. And I got big.

0:51:450:51:48

So the living-room, kitchen, dining-room and family area -

0:51:480:51:53

that will be open-plan, as you would expect in a modern house -

0:51:530:51:57

is going to be 1,700 square feet.

0:51:570:52:00

When we re-unify the building,

0:52:000:52:01

this will have about 10,500 square feet over the five floors.

0:52:010:52:05

Maybe six times the average house.

0:52:050:52:07

You've got to remember there's four of us in the family -

0:52:070:52:09

Jackie and the two girls - so, you know, you need a lot of bathrooms

0:52:090:52:12

when you've got three women in the house.

0:52:120:52:15

Seven's maybe a bit toppy. THEY LAUGH

0:52:150:52:17

Everybody does the same, you stick a big table that can seat 20 people.

0:52:170:52:21

You never use it all year, apart from maybe New Year

0:52:210:52:24

and a couple of weekends.

0:52:240:52:26

It's actually...it's actually a waste of a room, basically,

0:52:260:52:29

but you have to do it.

0:52:290:52:31

I was in banking, I was in private equity and I got lucky,

0:52:310:52:34

in the good old days. I worked hard, you know,

0:52:340:52:36

some people are in the right jobs at the right time, I was one of them.

0:52:360:52:41

I was one of them.

0:52:410:52:42

The old money is being replaced by new money.

0:52:430:52:46

You know, as old money relies on assets and runs out of cash,

0:52:460:52:50

you know, then people that are lucky enough in careers to have

0:52:500:52:54

made money, new money, they come in.

0:52:540:52:56

It happens all over the world, you know, nothing unusual about that.

0:52:560:53:00

In the tradition of my ancestor,

0:53:070:53:10

we are planning to build a new town in the Highlands.

0:53:100:53:14

It's a project we've been working on now for over ten years,

0:53:140:53:17

and the name of that town is to be Tornagrain.

0:53:170:53:20

A lot of thought and research has gone into this project.

0:53:220:53:27

It feels like it's been a very long time.

0:53:270:53:30

I can't wait till we start digging.

0:53:300:53:33

So one day in a couple of hundred years' time they might be looking at

0:53:330:53:36

an image of you and saying, oh, it's the man responsible for Tornagrain.

0:53:360:53:40

Yes. Hopefully with a smile rather than a grimace.

0:53:400:53:44

Right, so what have we got here?

0:53:470:53:49

So this is where we're going to start,

0:53:500:53:54

and this is the first phase of the first phase.

0:53:540:53:58

It's about a 190 houses, so it's this area here.

0:53:580:54:04

And the close-up of it is this, this area here.

0:54:050:54:12

We can walk up first, up the street just along here.

0:54:120:54:15

So what's this street called?

0:54:170:54:19

Well, it hasn't got a name yet,

0:54:190:54:21

but it'll be sort of semi-formal, actually.

0:54:210:54:24

I said, you know, I want a bit of the Moray Estate here.

0:54:270:54:30

I want a crescent leading onto an oval, leading onto a polygon.

0:54:300:54:34

And they design it in, and then they design it out again.

0:54:340:54:37

But I'll get my way in the end.

0:54:370:54:39

You just come up this, the old farm track,

0:54:390:54:41

it comes round here, and...

0:54:410:54:43

Are you going to get rid of this farm track?

0:54:430:54:46

No, no, we're not going to do that.

0:54:460:54:48

That track, it's been on the map since the 18th century.

0:54:480:54:52

Life's been going on here for hundreds of years, we don't want

0:54:520:54:56

to lose that, we don't want a Year Zero where everything's obliterated.

0:54:560:55:00

Throughout Tornagrain there's 1,500 social houses

0:55:030:55:06

and they're not being put into any particular area.

0:55:060:55:09

So you're not going to have a council estate?

0:55:090:55:11

No. It's a cross-section, a mixed community.

0:55:110:55:14

The Moray Estate was upmarket and pretty exclusive,

0:55:140:55:18

that wouldn't be appropriate here. It's for everybody.

0:55:180:55:21

There's a good view just down here.

0:55:210:55:23

You know, it's fantastic to have a project that really sees you

0:55:230:55:26

right the way through, and...

0:55:260:55:28

-Right the way through life?

-Right the way through life.

0:55:280:55:31

I mean, if you're in a project like this for 40 years...

0:55:310:55:34

How old are you going to be then?

0:55:340:55:36

In 40 years, I'll be 87.

0:55:360:55:38

Are you trying to get one over on the 10th Earl?

0:55:400:55:43

HE LAUGHS

0:55:430:55:45

No, definitely not. No.

0:55:450:55:47

Well, he's gone down in history, hasn't he? And perhaps...

0:55:470:55:51

Well, I... It's... I mean, that's not the objective. No.

0:55:510:55:55

It's to create a nice place for people to live,

0:55:550:55:59

that's the bottom line.

0:55:590:56:01

Do you expect it to change very much in the next 70 years?

0:56:100:56:14

No, I don't think so.

0:56:140:56:16

I don't see any reason why it should.

0:56:160:56:18

They're very solid these stone-built houses.

0:56:290:56:32

CHOIR SINGS: # I vow to thee, my country

0:56:350:56:41

# All earthly things above

0:56:410:56:47

# Entire and whole and perfect

0:56:470:56:53

# The service of my love

0:56:530:56:57

# The love that asks no question

0:56:570:57:03

# The love that stands the test

0:57:030:57:09

# That lays upon the altar

0:57:090:57:14

# The dearest and the best

0:57:140:57:19

# The love that never falters

0:57:190:57:25

# The love that pays the price

0:57:250:57:30

# The love that makes undaunted

0:57:300:57:36

# The final sacrifice. #

0:57:360:57:42

In the next episode...

0:57:420:57:44

Duke Street, Glasgow, the longest street in Britain.

0:57:440:57:48

But just 40 years ago,

0:57:480:57:49

many of the buildings that lined this street were under threat.

0:57:490:57:53

-What are you going to do about it?

-Knock 'em down.

0:57:530:57:55

This is the story of how a group of neighbours took on the might

0:57:550:57:59

of the Glasgow Corporation in a battle to save their homes.

0:57:590:58:04

We're East Enders. Forget your London East Enders,

0:58:040:58:07

we're the East Enders,

0:58:070:58:09

and we will fight to the death for what we believe in.

0:58:090:58:12

If you want to learn more about social change

0:58:120:58:14

and issues such as poverty, class and housing,

0:58:140:58:17

the Open University has produced a free publication.

0:58:170:58:19

Go to...

0:58:190:58:21

..and follow the links to the Open University or call 08452710018.

0:58:230:58:27

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