0:00:04 > 0:00:06In this series, I'm uncovering the history
0:00:06 > 0:00:09of the ordinary British home.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14I want to explore the homes that most of us live in,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16and that most about us take for granted.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19From Tudor cottages and Victorian terraces
0:00:19 > 0:00:22to post-war high-rise flats,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25I want to review how these often ordinary-looking homes
0:00:25 > 0:00:28are in fact extraordinary.
0:00:28 > 0:00:29Pull.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32In each episode, I'll search out the stories
0:00:32 > 0:00:34of how and why our homes were built
0:00:34 > 0:00:39and I'll explore the evidence of centuries of design and redesign.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43Since I've got you here, I can explore your plumbing in detail.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Our homes offer intimate portraits
0:00:46 > 0:00:48of our public and our private selves.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52From the glass in our windows to the gadgets in our kitchens,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55they lay bare how healthy, how wealthy,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57even how happy we are.
0:00:57 > 0:00:58She kissed the walls.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00We have a lot in common - I'm always kissing architecture.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02So, she loves her terraced house!
0:01:02 > 0:01:05I'll uncover the architectural details
0:01:05 > 0:01:10which have shaped our social history and transformed our daily lives.
0:01:12 > 0:01:13FLUSHING
0:01:16 > 0:01:19I want to go beyond masonry and mortar
0:01:19 > 0:01:23and come face-to-face with residents past and present.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25I want to understand how they lived,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28how they transformed buildings into homes.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40The story of how the terraced house conquered the country
0:01:40 > 0:01:42is a classic Victorian tale
0:01:42 > 0:01:44of far-sighted, public-spirited reform
0:01:44 > 0:01:48and short-sighted, private speculation.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51It's also a love story of how we met our match
0:01:51 > 0:01:53in a house that perfectly expresses
0:01:53 > 0:01:56key aspects of the national character -
0:01:56 > 0:02:01the obsession with privacy and a love of snooping on the neighbours.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Liverpool is the ultimate Victorian boom town,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16turned by trade and industry from a provincial powerhouse
0:02:16 > 0:02:19into the second city of Empire.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24100,000 terraced houses were built
0:02:24 > 0:02:27to accommodate its vast Victorian workforce.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Throughout 19th century Britain,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38the terrace reshaped the landscape of every town and city
0:02:38 > 0:02:40and in Liverpool that transformation
0:02:40 > 0:02:42was more dramatic than almost anywhere.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48The terrace became the house that more of us live in than any other,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52and it proved the most brilliantly adaptable of homes.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Toxteth, south of Liverpool city centre,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04was one area changed beyond all recognition by the terrace.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10From the high of Victorian industry and immigration
0:03:10 > 0:03:13to the low of post-war decline and decay,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Toxteth's terraces have seen it all.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21And it's through the turbulent history of these streets
0:03:21 > 0:03:25that I want to chart our enduring love affair with the terrace.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Cairns Street was built in the 1880s
0:03:31 > 0:03:34and is typical of Toxteth's terraces.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Nasra and her daughter Shiloh recently moved in
0:03:41 > 0:03:43and have fallen in love with their terrace.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Well, how do you feel about your terraced house home?
0:03:49 > 0:03:51I absolutely adore it.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53It's open plan, it's contemporary,
0:03:53 > 0:03:59- but it's got the beautiful, classic Victorian exterior.- Yeah.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01I wonder what she thinks about living here.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Well, she kissed the walls when we first viewed the property,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08so that told me everything I needed to know.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10- She kissed the walls? - She kissed the walls.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12We have a lot in common - I'm always kissing architecture.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14So, she loves her terraced house.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19Yeah, she can appreciate how wonderful it is, as much as I do.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21- She was excited?- She was excited. - SHILOH LAUGHS
0:04:21 > 0:04:23I see she is!
0:04:23 > 0:04:26It makes a wonderful home, doesn't it?
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Yes, the fact that it is a Victorian home,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31it gives me the feeling that this is permanent,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34this is solid, this is a home I'll remain in,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38because of the actual fact that it's a Victorian terrace.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The new-builds do not give me that same feeling.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I imagine you hope you will be here for some years.
0:04:43 > 0:04:44Forever.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46- Forever?- I plan forever, Dan!
0:04:50 > 0:04:54I want to discover what made the terrace Britain's home of choice
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and why we are still as devoted to these houses
0:04:57 > 0:05:01as the first inhabitants were well over a century ago.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05In the 19th century,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Britain's population almost quadrupled
0:05:07 > 0:05:11as millions left the countryside to seek their fortunes
0:05:11 > 0:05:13in rapidly industrialising cities,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16creating a national housing crisis.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25Liverpool was more densely packed than anywhere else on earth,
0:05:25 > 0:05:27thanks both to this rural exodus
0:05:27 > 0:05:32and to an influx of Irish migrants fleeing the potato famine.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40With over 130,000 people per square mile,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43many Liverpool families ended up crammed into single rooms
0:05:43 > 0:05:46in the town's infamous court houses.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55So this is the last example in Liverpool of court housing?
0:05:55 > 0:05:57That's right. It was a type of housing that was so prevalent
0:05:57 > 0:06:00across the city in the 19th century,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02and yet the slum clearance programmes,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05as they became known in the late 19th and early 20th century,
0:06:05 > 0:06:06were very effective
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and a vast number were demolished in that period.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13So, these are just two of the court houses that would have existed here.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15There would originally have been eight houses in this court.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20- So it would have been longer, darker, more overshadowed?- Yes.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23And of course, each house, three storeys above a basement,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27four storeys in all, and is essentially one room per floor.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29- Exactly. - So, this is your front door,
0:06:29 > 0:06:30there's your neighbours' front door.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33That's the space - you're cheek by jowl, aren't you?
0:06:33 > 0:06:35You really are living in each other's laps?
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Absolutely. And then, at the end of the courts,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40it was very common to have the privies and waste pits,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42which, again, were shared amongst all the houses.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46- All the houses?- So that could be 10 or 12 houses in some cases.- Yes.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49These are all things that were being commented upon in the 19th century
0:06:49 > 0:06:51- by the public health officers.- Yes.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Dr Duncan, the first medical officer of health in the country,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59writes in detail about the conditions he finds in the 1840s.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03He's particularly disturbed by the waste he finds in the court.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05- The waste - human waste? - Well, exactly, yeah.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09He says, "I found the whole court inundated with fluid filth
0:07:09 > 0:07:11"which had oozed through the walls
0:07:11 > 0:07:13"from two adjoining ash pits or cesspools,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15"and which have no means of escape."
0:07:15 > 0:07:18So, quite a disgusting thing to be faced with.
0:07:18 > 0:07:25Let's be clear, human waste floating in a little lake of ordure here.
0:07:25 > 0:07:26People... Not here, or maybe here.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28People had to track and walk through,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31play and live in this terrible condition.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38William Duncan was a general practitioner
0:07:38 > 0:07:39who saw for himself
0:07:39 > 0:07:43the terrible effects slum housing had on his patients.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48He warned of the link between poor housing and epidemics of disease...
0:07:50 > 0:07:51..and in 1846 he was appointed
0:07:51 > 0:07:55to reform Liverpool's appalling sanitary conditions.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59So this is the entrance to the cellar.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Goodness. A rather unconventional place for an entrance to a...
0:08:02 > 0:08:05There's a pole here.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Put it in there...
0:08:07 > 0:08:09- and then...- That seems to be it.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13- Oh.- OK?
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Goodness, that's going to be quite a challenge!
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Parachute jump? OK...
0:08:23 > 0:08:25Oh. It's good.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27- OK.- There's a fireplace still here. - Oh, wow.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The key thing is, that tells us that this was an inhabited space.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Yes, it was, wasn't it?
0:08:32 > 0:08:34I notice a smaller cellar beyond there.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Dr Duncan describes these double decked cellars,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and obviously is very concerned
0:08:39 > 0:08:41about the lack of light and ventilation,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43and the dampness of that back room.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45He describes a cellar in Preston Street,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49where nearly 30 individuals slept every night in a double cellar.
0:08:49 > 0:08:5230? That's more than one family. All sorts of vagrants...
0:08:52 > 0:08:55It must have been quite a group of people gathered together
0:08:55 > 0:08:56in a space just like this,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58and Duncan's particularly concerned about this
0:08:58 > 0:09:00because, "Fever of a malignant type broke out
0:09:00 > 0:09:02"amongst the unfortunate beings,"
0:09:02 > 0:09:04- which is hardly surprising. - Yeah, yeah.
0:09:04 > 0:09:05Cholera was a massive issue here,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07as it was in other cities in Britain,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11and there's this wonderful cholera map I got from the library.
0:09:11 > 0:09:131866.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15- Yes.- Mortality map of cholera.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18The red dots mark the number of deaths
0:09:18 > 0:09:21and we see a rash of red dots over this part of the city.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23We're up in this area.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Well, here, yeah, there's a dot literally on the street.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28On the other side of the road, yeah.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30Liverpool had a particular problem
0:09:30 > 0:09:33because of the cellar dwellings - they were unusually common.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35It was estimated in the 1840s
0:09:35 > 0:09:39that the average age of death of a working-class person in Liverpool
0:09:39 > 0:09:42- was only 19.- 19? That is shocking.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50The Victorian solution to the problem of high-density housing
0:09:50 > 0:09:53was a host of new rules and regulations,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55which spelled the end for the old court houses,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58and set the template for the homes of the future.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08From the 1840s onwards,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12the first national housing bylaws were introduced
0:10:12 > 0:10:15as a solution to the horrors of Britain's slums.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21The bylaws set out minimum standards
0:10:21 > 0:10:24to which all new homes were to be built.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36This is the ground plan of the bylaw house.
0:10:36 > 0:10:37The front room,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39the back room,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42and the rear yard.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Now, the bylaws insisted that each habitable room
0:10:45 > 0:10:49had to have an area of 108 square feet of clear space.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Which means the frontage could be no less than 12 foot.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56That gave you an area, of course, for one room, of 144 feet -
0:10:56 > 0:11:00but you had to extract the staircase and the chimney breast.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Therefore ensuring 108 feet of clear space, living space.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09The back room, here's the back room, similar area.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12The bylaws were insistent that these room had to be well ventilated,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14big windows, so air could be brought into the house.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15Ventilation was all-important
0:11:15 > 0:11:18getting rid of the evils of the old slum houses, the court houses,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20often with really dark, dank rooms.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24Now, through the back door, here, into the rear yard.
0:11:24 > 0:11:25According to the bylaws,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28the rear yard had to have an area of at least 150 square feet.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Slightly bigger than the rooms.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Again, really, the main reason for that was ventilation.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40The bylaw house is small, but it brought about a housing revolution.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43It did away with the evil of the court house
0:11:43 > 0:11:45and put in a new type of house
0:11:45 > 0:11:49that took Toxteth, Liverpool - indeed, the nation - by storm.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56Old court housing was phased out
0:11:56 > 0:11:59after the introduction of the bylaws,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03which specified that the more houses there were around a courtyard,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05the wider that courtyard had to be.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Builders chose to construct houses and terraces
0:12:11 > 0:12:14instead of around courtyards as soon as it became clear
0:12:14 > 0:12:17that more houses could be squeezed into a straight line
0:12:17 > 0:12:21than could be fitted around one of the new, wider courtyards.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27The bylaws made the terrace Britain's new model home
0:12:27 > 0:12:29and, over the course of the 19th century,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32a staggering five million were built.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41These were houses of decent proportions
0:12:41 > 0:12:45which guaranteed their inhabitants light, space and air,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and promised them a far healthier home.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56But although the terrace became Victorian Britain's favourite home,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59it was far from a Victorian invention.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05You can spot examples of terraced housing
0:13:05 > 0:13:07in medieval towns and cities -
0:13:07 > 0:13:11but the terrace really came of age towards the end of the 17th century.
0:13:13 > 0:13:14After the Great Fire of London,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18terraces were the mass-produced homes fit for a modern city...
0:13:20 > 0:13:22..and in the 18th century,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25the terrace became the epitome of elegance,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27with uniform classical facades
0:13:27 > 0:13:30gracing all the most desirable districts.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34But it was only in the 19th century
0:13:34 > 0:13:37that terraces were built in such vast numbers
0:13:37 > 0:13:40they became homes everyone could aspire to.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50The terrace's boom years arrived
0:13:50 > 0:13:53when Britain became the world's first industrial superpower.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Liverpool's prosperity was founded on its docks,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02which employed tens of thousands of men.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05For the second half of the 19th century,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07the port was one of the world's busiest,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11with dozens of docks along seven miles of the Mersey
0:14:11 > 0:14:14handling four million tonnes of goods a year.
0:14:17 > 0:14:18In the 1860s,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23the Herculaneum Dock opened at the southernmost tip of the dock system,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25on Toxteth waterfront.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It handled highly flammable petroleum,
0:14:29 > 0:14:34which was stored in vast sandstone casemates.
0:14:34 > 0:14:35The dock proved critical
0:14:35 > 0:14:38to the development of the area's terraced housing,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41as the nature of dock work made it essential
0:14:41 > 0:14:45for workers to live within spitting distance of the waterfront.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50How tough was at to get a job at the dock?
0:14:50 > 0:14:52It could be very tough.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53At this point, in the 1870s,
0:14:53 > 0:14:58you've got somewhere in the region of 13,000 to 15,000 dock labourers
0:14:58 > 0:15:02all competing for work, and the system is a casual system,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06so as a dock labourer you have to present yourself every morning
0:15:06 > 0:15:08between seven and eight in the hope of getting work.
0:15:08 > 0:15:09There's tales of workers
0:15:09 > 0:15:12literally getting their clothes torn off their backs
0:15:12 > 0:15:14in order to get to the front,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and to catch the eye of the foreman.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20A brutal and stressful process, and every day you had to do that.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24I suppose... being a big employment opportunity,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26the dock led automatically, naturally,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28to the creation of terraces nearby.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30You've got this large community of dockers
0:15:30 > 0:15:32who need to live in this area,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34and they're not paid huge wages,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37so they haven't got a lot of money to spend on their housing,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40so they need fairly low-cost housing,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44so you have a hinterland of dockers who live locally
0:15:44 > 0:15:45in these terraced houses
0:15:45 > 0:15:48so that they could come down every morning
0:15:48 > 0:15:50that short way to the waterfront.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55Toxteth's development followed a national pattern.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59Across the country, street after street of bylaw houses
0:15:59 > 0:16:03were built in the shadow of factories, mines and mills.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12During the second half of the 19th century,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16the grassy fields around most of England's towns and cities
0:16:16 > 0:16:20were covered with rows and rows of terraced houses.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23What makes the transformation that took place
0:16:23 > 0:16:24here in Toxteth so remarkable
0:16:24 > 0:16:28is that the layout of the streets and the design of the houses
0:16:28 > 0:16:34were largely the work of one man, and that man was Richard Owens.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Owens' story as a typical Victorian tale of industry and endeavour.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49He arrived in Liverpool from North Wales in 1851, aged 20,
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and worked a joiner while studying architecture at night school.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Within a decade he was making his name
0:16:56 > 0:16:59as an enterprising and ambitious property developer.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Control of hundreds of acres of Toxteth Park
0:17:04 > 0:17:06had been acquired by David Roberts,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10a leading timber merchant who leased the land for developing.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14From the 1860s, Roberts employed Owens
0:17:14 > 0:17:18to turn this open land into neat little terraces,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22and to extract the maximum value from every available plot.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Owens' collection of letter books kept at Liverpool record office
0:17:30 > 0:17:33reveal the remarkable scale of the pair's venture.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38In this area, the numbers of houses
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- are defined by Richard Owens in a letter...- Yes. Oh!
0:17:41 > 0:17:44- ..dated in 1877.- His letters?
0:17:44 > 0:17:46He itemises the estates
0:17:46 > 0:17:48for which he's been responsible for.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50So in this area of Toxteth,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54we have estate number one, which is 320 houses,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56estate number two, which is 300,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59- but estate number three is 1,776... - Oh!
0:17:59 > 0:18:03- Bigger enterprise.- So, it's a much bigger operation from Roberts.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06The fourth estate is the Parliament Fields estate,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08which is north of Princes Avenue,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11upon which 1,900 houses were constructed.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15- Yes.- The combined area of estate three and estate four
0:18:15 > 0:18:20in Toxteth Park is somewhere in the region of 140 acres,
0:18:20 > 0:18:24- so it's a huge investment by one developer.- Mm.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Owens was a canny operator at the heart of a network
0:18:31 > 0:18:34of landowners, builders, estate agents and banks
0:18:34 > 0:18:38that underpin Toxteth's speculative building business.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Speculating builders built with no specific client in mind.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50Instead, they borrowed money to lease plots and finance construction
0:18:50 > 0:18:54on the expectation they could sell, or more likely rent,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56the finished houses for a healthy profit.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04Owens set the pattern for the houses,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07providing basic plans whilst leaving their precise detailing
0:19:07 > 0:19:09to the builders...
0:19:11 > 0:19:15..but he kept a very close eye on construction,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and builders whose workmanship fell short of his exacting standards
0:19:18 > 0:19:20faced his wrath.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Do the letter books give us a sense of Owens' character?
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Yes, there's a letter here, for instance,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34in correspondence to Mr Evan Roberts here.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37He asks whether he's fond of lawyers,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39because one will be calling on him quite soon.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Clearly something has gone wrong.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44- Basically he's threatening to set the lawyers on him.- Yes, indeed.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47That's right. It's called passive aggressive, I think, isn't it?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50This is a man with a lot to do - he's got a city to build.
0:19:50 > 0:19:51Well, indeed, yes.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59For the labour required to turn his plan into bricks and mortar,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Richard Owens relied on an influx of migrants from his native land.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Like Owens, his men arrived in Liverpool
0:20:07 > 0:20:10determined to make their fortunes from its building boom.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14By the mid 19th century,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17several ships a day would make the journey from North Wales,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20along the coast, up the Mersey, to Liverpool.
0:20:20 > 0:20:26On board were the men who were going to build the terraces of Toxteth.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33The promise of better pay and prospects
0:20:33 > 0:20:37led Welsh workers to leave their native coalmines and slate quarries.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43By 1850, entrepreneurial zeal
0:20:43 > 0:20:47had drawn around 20,000 Welsh builders to Liverpool.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Now, this book, called The Welsh Builders Of Merseyside,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57commemorates some of these humble and generally rather anonymous men.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00As you can imagine, coming from North Wales,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03many had the same surnames - Evans, Jones, Williams.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07So, their nicknames are all-important to distinguish them,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10and the nicknames are, to a degree, portraits of the men.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Here are some of the names. Porky Williams.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Well, of course, you can see him straight away, can't you?
0:21:16 > 0:21:17Wiggy Roberts.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Deaf Tom. Footy Tom.
0:21:20 > 0:21:21Tom Tom.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24Windy Bob. Say no more.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26So, it's incredible, you know? These names give them identities.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29You can imagine them, can't you?
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Also, you can imagine the excitement coming from North Wales,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36arriving here at this great world city.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37What an adventure.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57New arrivals fresh off the boat
0:21:57 > 0:22:00gravitated to the vast Nonconformist chapel
0:22:00 > 0:22:02on Princes Road in Toxteth.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07In its heyday, it had the largest congregation of any Welsh chapel
0:22:07 > 0:22:09in the world, and held the key to success
0:22:09 > 0:22:11for Liverpool's Welsh builders.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Although now terrifyingly derelict, there are plans to repair it.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Well...
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Ben, I must say, the scale of the building
0:22:29 > 0:22:31and its architectural quality
0:22:31 > 0:22:34does say an awful lot, doesn't it, about the ambitions,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37and, indeed, the achievements of the Welsh community
0:22:37 > 0:22:39- here in the 1860s?- Yes.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43But they wanted somewhere that was even bigger
0:22:43 > 0:22:44than anybody else had.
0:22:44 > 0:22:45More than the Irish,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48more than the Scots, more than the English.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50So this is what they built.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52The Cathedral - what they call the Welsh Cathedral.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55When I first came here, in 1968, it was very impressive,
0:22:55 > 0:23:00and we kept it till 1975.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03- Right.- I preached the last sermon here...
0:23:03 > 0:23:06- You did?- I did!- In '75.- 1975.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11When you preached here, here there were benches, there were chairs.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Pulpit over there.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16- Every window was stained glass... - Yeah.- ..and a beautiful pulpit.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Beautiful...what they call a big seat for the elders.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23And this was more than simply a church, wasn't it,
0:23:23 > 0:23:24for the Welsh community?
0:23:24 > 0:23:27This is where a lot of what they call the elders,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29big builders of Liverpool, were.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33So young men came from Wales,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36and the only thing they needed to find work in Liverpool
0:23:36 > 0:23:39was to get what they call a membership ticket
0:23:39 > 0:23:41from their own local chapel.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44They would hand it over on a Sunday morning to the presiding elder
0:23:44 > 0:23:46and say, "We've come to find work,"
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and one of them would say, "Yes, can you start tomorrow?"
0:23:49 > 0:23:50It was a bit of a closed shop, then?
0:23:50 > 0:23:52You couldn't get into the building trades, really,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55- unless you came through this building...- That's right.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57- ..and you were approved by its elders.- Yes.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00If they were in dire straits, they couldn't find enough workers,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03they would sometimes go and find some Irish labourers.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06- Yeah.- But that was not often.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08If they could find Welsh people,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Welsh-speaking people and chapel-going people,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13that was the first priority.
0:24:13 > 0:24:19It was a self-contained community - kind of a Welsh mafia, in a way.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Although Owens' terraces were built in Liverpool,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31they owed far more to North Wales than they did to Merseyside.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37Their builders exploited the Welsh connection
0:24:37 > 0:24:40to source many of their raw materials from their homeland.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47For centuries, Welsh slate had been used to roof Welsh houses,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49but it wasn't until the 19th century
0:24:49 > 0:24:53that slate became the main roofing material of the industrial age.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Wales produced four fifths of Britain's slate.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05And Dinorwic was the second largest of the Welsh quarries.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Now, that is lovely, isn't it?
0:25:20 > 0:25:21A lovely object.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Would you like to try it?
0:25:23 > 0:25:25I'd better try it, just to see how skilful it is,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28by revealing what a mess one can make of it.
0:25:28 > 0:25:29Right, I'm sure you'll get it.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32- You'll be OK with that. - Well, that's even more pressure!
0:25:32 > 0:25:34- OK.- Here we go.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40The size of roofing slate was standardised
0:25:40 > 0:25:42and each was given a female title.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Whilst the Mighty Empress boasted impressive vital statistics
0:25:48 > 0:25:50of 26 by 16 inches,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54the Narrow Lady was a very slight 14 by 7 inches.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58- There's your mallet.- Mallet.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01- There's your chisel. - Sharpened chisel.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04This lady has to be forgiving and open up.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06- Not too firm.- Not too firm.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Equally, you can't be too tentative.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10You've got to show who's master.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13- Now this is a key moment. - That's it.- The moment of truth.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15- Perfect.- Oh!- And again.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17OK, you see? She's opened up there.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20- She has. She has opened up for me. - You want to go up there.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21She's forgiving.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Ooh...
0:26:23 > 0:26:25- Keep going.- Certainly some interesting sounds
0:26:25 > 0:26:27- are coming out of the slate.- Yes.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29- Not sure they sound altogether good.- There you go.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32My God! Right, she parted for me.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Look at that. And with relative... That's lovely.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38I mean, how many slates would a chap do in a day?
0:26:38 > 0:26:40- Maybe about 800 a day. - Up to 800 day?
0:26:40 > 0:26:42- That's right, yes. - With the right material.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44- That's right.- A good quality slate.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46- Yeah.- It looks beautiful.
0:26:46 > 0:26:47Also entirely practical -
0:26:47 > 0:26:49It will endure for eternity, really.
0:26:49 > 0:26:50A wonderful material.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01For centuries, the cost of getting slate from quarry to building site
0:27:01 > 0:27:04ensured that it remained either an expensive luxury
0:27:04 > 0:27:07or an exclusively local product.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15In the late 18 century,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18it was more expensive to transport Dinorwic slate
0:27:18 > 0:27:20than it was to produce it.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25Incredibly, transporting it seven miles from the quarry to the port
0:27:25 > 0:27:28by road, in carts, was more expensive
0:27:28 > 0:27:31than transporting it from the port to Liverpool.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38In 1848, steam power was introduced onto the Dinorwic line
0:27:38 > 0:27:39and by the end of the century
0:27:39 > 0:27:43it was carrying 100,000 tonnes of slate a year.
0:27:43 > 0:27:44TRAIN WHISTLE
0:27:46 > 0:27:48Better transport revolutionised the slate industry,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53turning it from local to national, even international importance,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and for Liverpool's speculating builders,
0:27:56 > 0:27:58it meant that Welsh slate was cheap enough to use
0:27:58 > 0:28:02as their material of choice for roofing their terraces.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Along with slate, the railway revolution
0:28:07 > 0:28:11made another home-grown material affordable for Toxteth builders.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15This was sourced from the aptly-named Red Works
0:28:15 > 0:28:18at Ruabon near Wrexham in North Wales.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26This is a lump of Etruria Marl clay.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28Fine stuff, look at it.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29A deep red in colour.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Now, when this clay was found around here in huge quantities
0:28:33 > 0:28:36in the mid 19th century, it made the area's name -
0:28:36 > 0:28:38indeed it made the area's fortune.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43And the clay was extracted and then put on a conveyor.
0:28:43 > 0:28:44Well, you can see it here.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47There it is, the conveyor belt's still surviving,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50going up in the factory to be milled, to be produced,
0:28:50 > 0:28:56to be made into thousands and thousands of wonderful bricks.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04The speed and scale of 19th-century house-building
0:29:04 > 0:29:07turned brick production from a largely local industry
0:29:07 > 0:29:11with individual builders often manufacturing their own bricks,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13into a vast industrial process.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Ruabon's brickworks was so productive and so famous,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25that the town became known as Terracottapolis.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35This yellow one was made in Liverpool - Liverpool common brick.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37There we are.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39Cheaper product, and looks it, doesn't it, really, in a way?
0:29:39 > 0:29:41Rather sort of anaemic,
0:29:41 > 0:29:46but this wonderful thing is a Ruabon red brick,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48made, of course, here in North Wales.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52These bricks were much favoured in the late 19th century,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54used for some major buildings.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57The Law Courts in Birmingham, for example,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59and indeed, Liverpool's university,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01made out of the Ruabon red brick,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05and that gave its name, really, to redbrick universities.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07Incredible. Now, this brick,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11it would be about twice the price of a Liverpool common brick,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14but even so, the Welsh builders of Toxteth
0:30:14 > 0:30:17did find the money to buy them.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19They give that little touch of class,
0:30:19 > 0:30:21so essential in respected buildings,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23to really, kind of, attract the client.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27This brick made the houses really look the business.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Owens' terraces had to turn a decent profit for their Welsh builders,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41so every decorative flourish was carefully calculated
0:30:41 > 0:30:44to catch the eye of prospective tenants.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53These terraces were homes of two halves.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57One half, with its attractive facade
0:30:57 > 0:31:00and its perfectly presentable front room
0:31:00 > 0:31:02was designed to be a show home...
0:31:04 > 0:31:07..whilst the other half was a real home.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13At the back of the terrace, the kitchen, the scullery,
0:31:13 > 0:31:18and the rear yard were devoted to daily life and domestic chores.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24This layout had instant and abiding appeal,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28combining a new sense of privacy with a new pride in the home.
0:31:36 > 0:31:37For the first residents,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41these terraces were a significant step up in living standards.
0:31:46 > 0:31:47Carole's home in Cairns Street
0:31:47 > 0:31:50retains many of its original features,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54and offers a fascinating insight into late Victorian life there.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01The front doors of these terraced houses
0:32:01 > 0:32:04were reserved for use by official visitors,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06or by strangers like me.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08Family and friends went through the back door,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11reached by an alley at the rear of the house.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Now, you can see, this house has been rendered with this pebble dash,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18but the original brickwork is visible up there -
0:32:18 > 0:32:20rather lovely red bricks.
0:32:26 > 0:32:27Oh.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34Ah, the ground floor front room.
0:32:34 > 0:32:35A parlour.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Lovely. Very good cornice.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41It's all surprisingly refined.
0:32:41 > 0:32:42And the fireplace -
0:32:42 > 0:32:45of course, it's made of Welsh slate,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48now painted, but certainly slate.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50And a bay window.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52A big ornament on the street,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55also an incentive to keep the room very nice,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57because the neighbours could see in,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00so this is where your best furniture would be.
0:33:00 > 0:33:01This was the best room of the house,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03where you would receive your honoured guests,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06or a great occasion would take place here.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09Otherwise, the door would be kept firmly closed
0:33:09 > 0:33:11and all would be, therefore, pristine.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19So Carole, how long have you lived there?
0:33:19 > 0:33:2048 years now.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22So what was life like
0:33:22 > 0:33:23in this house when you moved in?
0:33:23 > 0:33:26It hasn't changed all that much, cos I haven't had a lot done to it.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29- Yeah.- But we only had one tap.
0:33:29 > 0:33:30- One tap?- Yes, I'll show you.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32- I'll show it to you.- Well, OK.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34- Yes, it's out here.- In what would have been the scullery.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37- Yes.- The ground floor rear room.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Right here.
0:33:40 > 0:33:41Was where the tap was,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45and then there was a sink here, coming out of the wall there,
0:33:45 > 0:33:46and it was only shallow then.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48- Right, and that was... - And that was it.- That was it.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50That was the only tap in the house.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53- Yes.- And...- Cold water. - Cold water. One tap.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56This plan I've got, I'm holding, is of houses in this area.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58This plan was drawn up in the 1890s.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00And you can see here, look, here's a house like yours,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02- same sort of arrangement.- Yes.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04This particular house here, the scullery
0:34:04 > 0:34:07has the sink and tap on this wall.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10- Yes.- This little line shows the water supply,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12so you can see water coming in from the alley,
0:34:12 > 0:34:13the passage at the back pipe.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14Right to the corner.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17- That's right.- Absolutely. - It was right in the corner.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19- And then into the water closet to fill the cistern.- Yes.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Now, what's interesting to me, since I've got you here,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25I can explore your plumbing in detail...
0:34:25 > 0:34:28You're captive! ..is that it's upstairs.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30- Yes.- This house has...
0:34:30 > 0:34:33- above us, above the scullery, is another bedroom.- Yes.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35- No bathroom showing in this house. - No, there wasn't a bathroom.
0:34:35 > 0:34:36That's amazing.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40So you lived in the house much as it had been lived in in the 1880s,
0:34:40 > 0:34:42- when the house was new. - Yes, exactly.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Yeah, you're sort of... Wonderful!
0:34:44 > 0:34:46You're living history. Your memories and experiences.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50Now, I'd like... I'd love to see what happens upstairs.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58So, in the first-floor room above the scullery,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01- and is now the bathroom.- Yes. - But when did the bath arrive?
0:35:01 > 0:35:03Um, 1975.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06So what did you do before, when you obviously had - for some years,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08you didn't have a bath, what's... How did you wash?
0:35:08 > 0:35:11We used to go up to Lodge Lane,
0:35:11 > 0:35:12and they had a swimming baths.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Attached to that was a wash house, they called it,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17where you used to do washing,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20and then next to that was the bathhouse,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and there were little cubicles with baths in
0:35:23 > 0:35:24and that's where you went.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26How many times a week would people tend to go?
0:35:26 > 0:35:28About four times we used to go.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31- OK.- I think it would only be two pence.- Two pence.- Nowadays.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Right. And you got a towel?
0:35:33 > 0:35:35- You got a towel.- Soap. - I think...
0:35:35 > 0:35:37I think you got a little block of soap.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40- Yeah.- And you could have as much hot water as you liked,
0:35:40 > 0:35:42and it was really fantastic.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Carole's Victorian forebears would also have been regulars
0:35:49 > 0:35:52at the bathhouse, which was a great Liverpool institution.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56The country's first publicly funded bath and wash house
0:35:56 > 0:35:59opened on Frederick Street in 1842.
0:36:01 > 0:36:02It boasted ten baths,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04open to men in the mornings and evenings
0:36:04 > 0:36:06and to women in the afternoon...
0:36:08 > 0:36:12..and it proved so popular that by the end of the century
0:36:12 > 0:36:13there were 12 bathhouses in the city.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Another great leap forward for public health
0:36:19 > 0:36:21came with better plumbing.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24In Liverpool's old court houses,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26a single water pump at the centre of the court
0:36:26 > 0:36:29was shared by around 100 inhabitants,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31but in Owens' new terraces,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35every household enjoyed a water supply of its own.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44The Toxteth reservoir was opened by Liverpool's town council in 1853.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46It would bring the plumbing revolution
0:36:46 > 0:36:49to thousands of the area's residents.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53This is sensational, isn't it?
0:36:53 > 0:36:56A great columned hall, like the mosque at Cordoba.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Amazing! And of course, to be absolutely clear, this is where
0:36:59 > 0:37:02the water was. It's now empty, but the water was here, wasn't it?
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The water was here. This reservoir would have held
0:37:05 > 0:37:08two million gallons, or roughly about ten million litres of water.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11- Ten million litres?- Yes.- Good Lord.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Here's this big stone granite trough coming down diagonally,
0:37:15 > 0:37:16with a wonderful lip at the end.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18It demonstrates what it does.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20The water comes through here, and it gushes down there.
0:37:20 > 0:37:21And gushes down there.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23- Into the reservoir.- Absolutely.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26And it would have come by gravity down to this.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28- OK, no pumping involved. - No pumping whatsoever.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30- It simply comes down here. - Yes, no pumping.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32I can see some other sort of technology over there.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35It looks like a ballcock - the biggest ballcock I've ever seen.
0:37:35 > 0:37:36So what's this about?
0:37:36 > 0:37:38Very simply, this is no different
0:37:38 > 0:37:40than the ballcock on your toilet cistern...
0:37:40 > 0:37:42- OK.- ..except it's a lot bigger.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45- Right.- And so, as the water rises up,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47the ballcock closes the valve at the top...
0:37:47 > 0:37:49- Right.- ..and stops the water coming in.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52As the water level drops, it opens again.
0:37:52 > 0:37:53Right. Fascinating.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Show me how the water got from here to the terraced houses of Toxteth.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58Ah!
0:38:00 > 0:38:03This dark and secret area holds the answer.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07And these are the outlet valves here.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09These supplied the mains in the street.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12- They did indeed. - So how did it change people's lives?
0:38:12 > 0:38:13Oh, tremendously.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15If you'd been living in a court house,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17you had to queue up for your water,
0:38:17 > 0:38:20quite often at an unsociable hour,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22and then suddenly you've got your water on tap.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Thanks to this wonderful, wonderful palace of water!
0:38:25 > 0:38:27Yes, indeed!
0:38:29 > 0:38:31And piped water delivered to your door
0:38:31 > 0:38:34also made possible one of the most ground-breaking
0:38:34 > 0:38:37of all Victorian home improvements.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46Everything that was smelly, dirty or unsightly happened here.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49This is where you'd beat your carpet,
0:38:49 > 0:38:51store the rubbish collection,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53or hang out the washing,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55including the mangled corset
0:38:55 > 0:38:57away from the gaze,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00rather embarrassing to be seen by neighbours, I suppose,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03but, the most important back yard business of all
0:39:03 > 0:39:04happened over here.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07The outside water closet.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Now this structure is not the original.
0:39:09 > 0:39:10Clearly, it's concrete block,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13but this is where the lavatory would have been,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15and, inside, the wonder of the age.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17Now, imagine this - you know, in the 1880s,
0:39:17 > 0:39:21to have in your home a private water flushed lavatory, a water closet.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Before that, lavatories were no more than simply holes in the ground,
0:39:25 > 0:39:26really, emptied into a cesspit.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29They had to be cleared on a regular basis by night soil men.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32But now, this house had this wonderful thing.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37So, all bodily waste could be removed from the premises
0:39:37 > 0:39:39by a mere tug on a chain.
0:39:40 > 0:39:41FLUSHING
0:39:44 > 0:39:46# Hallelujah
0:39:46 > 0:39:48# Hallelujah
0:39:48 > 0:39:49# Hallelujah... #
0:39:49 > 0:39:53At the Great Exhibition of 1851, a very relieved public
0:39:53 > 0:39:56took advantage of George Jennings' flushing water closets -
0:39:56 > 0:40:00one of the earliest examples on the market.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05Luxurious lavatories would be beyond the means of most Toxteth residents,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07but Liverpool was ahead of the rest of the country
0:40:07 > 0:40:09in ensuring that, by the 1890s,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12every household did at least boast a basic model.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16The other fantastic thing about this arrangement
0:40:16 > 0:40:18is that, unlike in the courts,
0:40:18 > 0:40:22where whole families would queue to use the same privy,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24this was a loo of one's own.
0:40:24 > 0:40:29It marked another significant step from traditional communal life
0:40:29 > 0:40:32to a more discreet and private way of living.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Excuse me.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43# In me Liverpool home
0:40:43 > 0:40:47# In my Liverpool home... #
0:40:47 > 0:40:50A Victorian housewife's home was her pride and joy.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54And the humbler the home, the more house-proud the housewife.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59The secret weapon of working-class wives in the North of England
0:40:59 > 0:41:04was donkey stone - a scouring block made of powdered stone and bleach,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08which promised a front step to put the neighbours to shame.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Donkey stoning the front step remained standard practice
0:41:14 > 0:41:16into the middle of the 20th century.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23So you're going to introduce me to the great ritual
0:41:23 > 0:41:26of donkey stoning the front steps of the terraced house.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29- Mm-hm.- And, of course, over there, you've got some donkey stone.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31I have, different colours.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34- Oh.- Dark, light and cream.
0:41:34 > 0:41:35OK. So here we've got the dark...
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Darkish, the darkish one, sort of light brown.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40Why is it called donkey stone?
0:41:40 > 0:41:45The first large company had a picture of a donkey on the stone.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48- Oh, I see.- So it became known as donkey stone.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51So here's a fragment of precious donkey stone,
0:41:51 > 0:41:52so I can apply this to the stone step,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54so I have the authentic experience
0:41:54 > 0:41:57of the Toxteth housewife in the 1890s,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01transforming her terraced house into the home and beautiful.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03So, how do I begin?
0:42:03 > 0:42:04Get your hand brush.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06- OK. Warm water... - And clean the dirt out of the...
0:42:06 > 0:42:08- Oh, I see.- Yeah, that's right.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11That's exactly right.
0:42:11 > 0:42:12OK.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Let's... OK, if the job is worth doing, it's worth doing well.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19- Let's get down to this.- Yeah.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22So ten minutes later, I'll still be doing this! Never mind.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24So, as a girl, this is what you did?
0:42:24 > 0:42:25I did.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30About 12 year old, that was my pocket money of a Saturday morning.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34I used to go and do it for an elderly lady
0:42:34 > 0:42:37and I would do her front and the back yard...
0:42:37 > 0:42:39- Right.- ..and the toilet.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42It would also be pretty much of a social event,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44people stoning their steps.
0:42:44 > 0:42:45People would be outside
0:42:45 > 0:42:48and they'd be saying, "Good morning, how are you today?"
0:42:48 > 0:42:50I imagine there was quite a lot of competition
0:42:50 > 0:42:53amongst the Toxteth housewives, all in rows,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56donkey stoning their front steps to see who would get the best one.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59People would notice if you hadn't done yours
0:42:59 > 0:43:01and it would be something of a gossip,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04amongst the neighbours.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06"Oh, Mrs so-and-so hasn't done hers,"
0:43:06 > 0:43:08or, "Doesn't it look a mess?"
0:43:08 > 0:43:10OK, but how do I...?
0:43:10 > 0:43:13- Now, you're going to apply the... - I'm already exhausted, by the way!
0:43:13 > 0:43:16- You're going to apply the stone. - OK. Oh, my goodness.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19- You don't need to press on too hard. - Not too hard. OK.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24- OK, I...- Yeah.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26Just carry on going right across.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28Carry on, just gently.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Oh! It is... It is...
0:43:31 > 0:43:35It is, you know, skilful work, and also it's hard work.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38It is hard work. And one's hands, of course, completely wrecked.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40I mean, I'm not very proud of this, I'm afraid.
0:43:40 > 0:43:41It looks a bit streaky to me.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45- What do you think?- I think you've done a job well done there.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47- Yes.- It must have wrecked their hands, wrecked their knees,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50broken their backs, but so what?
0:43:50 > 0:43:53The net result was a lovely home.
0:43:58 > 0:43:59By the end of the 19th century,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03Richard Owens hadn't just developed thousands of homes in Toxteth,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06he'd also dramatically shaped the area's social hierarchy.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Owens created homes fit for Victorians
0:44:13 > 0:44:15from almost every walk of life.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18For working-class dockers, there were two-up, two-downs
0:44:18 > 0:44:22near the waterfront, whilst at the other end of Toxteth,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26positively palatial terraces were designed for well-to-do merchants.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35I've got a transcript of the 1891 census for Cairns Street,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37and this should give me some sense of the community
0:44:37 > 0:44:40that occupied these terraced houses when they were relatively new.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42Now, let's start with this house here.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44Number 28.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46Um, one head of the family here.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Hugh Ellis.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51He's 39, he's a tobacco warehouse labourer,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56so, interesting, he's working in the docks and he was born in Wales,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59a Welsh-born Liverpudlian dock labourer.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00His wife, Elizabeth,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04they had two sons and a daughter and they have a lodger.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07A bit of money is being made by renting out a room.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10A Joseph Parry, a merchant's clerk,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13so probably also working in the docks nearby.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17So as I say, six rooms, six people. Now let's look at another house.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29Now this house, 31 Jermyn Street, is absolutely amazing.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33It retains virtually all of its original decorative details.
0:45:33 > 0:45:34Look, pedimented porches, lovely.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Flights of steps to the elevated ground floor.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Well, let's see who was living here in 1891.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44The head of the household was Edward Meyer.
0:45:44 > 0:45:45And he was... Oh!
0:45:45 > 0:45:47..the vice consul for Germany.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52So this was the home of the main German diplomat in Liverpool
0:45:52 > 0:45:54in the 1890s.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58Now, let's see. His wife, Emma, and his two children,
0:45:58 > 0:46:04Marguerite and Lionel, and they had a servant, a Margaret Purse.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06So there we go, from one, two, three, four, five -
0:46:06 > 0:46:09five people in this house of 10 to 12 rooms.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15In an age obsessed with the subtlest distinctions of class,
0:46:15 > 0:46:20Owens' terraces also reinforced the reassuring social divide.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24These two streets represent something rather fascinating
0:46:24 > 0:46:26about late 19th century Toxteth -
0:46:26 > 0:46:30they are physically so near, yet socially, worlds apart.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36By his death in 1891,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Richard Owens had grown rich on the back of his terraces,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43and had founded one of Liverpool's leading architectural practices,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45which survived for over a century.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52Owens had at least 10,000 of the city's homes to his name,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56and he was so successful that he may well have been responsible
0:46:56 > 0:47:00for more terraced houses in Victorian Britain than anyone else.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16When they were built, Britain's 19th century terraces
0:47:16 > 0:47:18were a vision of a new world,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21promising the highest living standards possible
0:47:21 > 0:47:23for working-class Victorians.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28But by the middle of the 20th century,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31the fate of millions of these homes was in doubt.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Many had been destroyed or damaged by wartime bombing,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and many more fell victim to neglect.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43- ARCHIVE:- Drive around any of our old industrial towns.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Sooner or later, mostly sooner, you'll come to this -
0:47:46 > 0:47:50grey acres, street after street of incredible monotony.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56As British industry began a slow but sure decline,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00millions of the terraces' tenants lost their livelihoods.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07In the early 1950s, manufacturing employed 40% of the workforce,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11but as that figure fell, to less than 10% today,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15the country's industrial heartlands became urban wastelands.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Liverpool was one of the places hardest hit
0:48:22 > 0:48:25by the decay of the post-war years.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29The dramatic decline in trade coming through the port
0:48:29 > 0:48:32set the city on a devastating downward spiral.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38As work disappeared, Liverpool's population deserted it.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43In the 1970s, around 10,000 people a year left the city.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54In Toxteth, many better-off residents,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57including many of those originally from Wales,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59moved out to the suburbs,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02making way for some of Liverpool's poorest citizens.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06From the 1950s,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09the area had become the heart of the city's black community...
0:49:10 > 0:49:13..but rogue landlords also moved in,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17buying up empty properties and turning decent family homes
0:49:17 > 0:49:21into ones no better than the court houses they had replaced.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26As chronic unemployment took hold,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28the desirable 19th century neighbourhood
0:49:28 > 0:49:31became one of Britain's worst slums.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36In the late 1960s, early '70s,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Nick Hedges recorded Toxteth's decline in photographs,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42taken for the housing charity Shelter.
0:49:45 > 0:49:46When they were newly built,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Richard Owens proudly described Jermyn Street houses
0:49:49 > 0:49:53as desirable properties in a first-class street.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56But when Nick photographed them some 80 years on,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58he found that they were anything but.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04This first one is a picture of a woman
0:50:04 > 0:50:07cooking on an open fire
0:50:07 > 0:50:10with a saucepan of potatoes ready to start.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12- The gas and electricity had been cut off.- Yeah.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15So she was living in very reduced circumstances.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18The scene is like a scene from an illustration of a 19th century slum,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22and basically, cooking over the open coals in a frying pan
0:50:22 > 0:50:25- in one's living room.- I know. - It's an amazing scene.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28This picture, which I think I'm very fond of,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30this was a really tragic story.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32This guy worked for the Liverpool council...
0:50:32 > 0:50:34- Yeah.- ..but the house that they were living in,
0:50:34 > 0:50:36they were living in one room, as you can see,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38there's a double bed over here.
0:50:38 > 0:50:39- Yeah.- But the house had no running water.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42That's why there are a proliferation of buckets around.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Because whenever they wanted any water,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47they had to cross the street to a neighbour to collect water.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50And this was a family of...
0:50:50 > 0:50:52- Right.- ..a mother, a father and two children.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55I wonder where the children slept? One double bed for them...
0:50:55 > 0:50:58- They all slept together. - They all slept in that bed.- Yeah.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03In the basement of some houses,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Nick discovered conditions eerily similar
0:51:06 > 0:51:09to the city's notorious 19th century cellar dwellings.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13I was brought in by Mrs Ditchfield...
0:51:13 > 0:51:15- Yeah, yeah. - ..who appears in this photograph...
0:51:15 > 0:51:18- Yeah.- ..and she's descended the cellar stairs.- Mm.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21I thought she was going to show me something to do with damp,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24but in actual fact, she was showing me her living accommodation.
0:51:24 > 0:51:25- Her living accommodation! - Yeah, I know.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27Which was extraordinary. I mean, the cellar,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30which had no natural lighting,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33was incredibly damp, as you can see from the walls,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37and she lived with her daughter, her teenage daughter, in this room.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40- Mm.- Extraordinary. - I say, this is profoundly shocking.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42- It is.- This is the 1960s.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44It looks like an image from a slum of the 1860s.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48There were still people living in basically subterranean -
0:51:48 > 0:51:51like troglodytes - in a damp hole in the ground.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53- I mean...- Yeah. Looking at the picture now,
0:51:53 > 0:51:57it reminds me of photographs that you see these days,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00you associate with people who are taking shelter,
0:52:00 > 0:52:02- taking shelter in war zones.- Mm.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05But these people weren't taking shelter.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08- This was the only room they had they could find to live in.- Mm.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Five million people living in slum housing
0:52:14 > 0:52:19were not just deprived of light, air and the most basic amenities,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23poverty also denied them any sense of pride in their homes.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29The disaster that befell so many of Britain's terraces
0:52:29 > 0:52:31was a fault not of the houses themselves,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34but of their inhabitants' circumstances.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Yet successive post-war governments
0:52:38 > 0:52:42saw the terrace as a cause of the problem -
0:52:42 > 0:52:46one which could only be solved by knocking down millions of homes.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Liverpool council's approach was particularly radical.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57In 1966, it proposed demolition
0:52:57 > 0:53:02of almost three quarters of inner-city Victorian houses.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11In Toxteth, many of the streets laid out by Richard Owens
0:53:11 > 0:53:13were razed to the ground...
0:53:16 > 0:53:17..but sweeping away the terraces
0:53:17 > 0:53:20could not erase deeper problems of poverty,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22crime and racism.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28In 1981, Liverpool reached its lowest ebb
0:53:28 > 0:53:32when Toxteth was the scene of some of the worst rioting
0:53:32 > 0:53:34the country had ever seen.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41- REPORTER:- Stones and lumps of iron were thrown.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43Worst of all, the petrol bombs.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45# Listen to the music
0:53:45 > 0:53:47# Hear about a place
0:53:47 > 0:53:51# People call the shady side of town... #
0:53:51 > 0:53:55The despair of 30 years of decline and deprivation were unleashed
0:53:55 > 0:53:58as Toxteth residents turned on their own streets.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04By dawn, the full extent of the damage had become clear.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09One of Toxteth's busiest shopping streets resembled a wartime scene.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11Dozens of shops had been looted, burned
0:54:11 > 0:54:13and then totally destroyed.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36The area around Granby Street saw some of the worst of the violence
0:54:36 > 0:54:39and, for 35 years after the riot,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42was left mostly desolate and decaying.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Now, it's being regenerated.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Although just four of the streets Richard Owens developed
0:54:52 > 0:54:54in this part of Toxteth survive,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57the reinvention is proof that there is plenty of life left
0:54:57 > 0:54:59in the terraced house.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01For me, growing up in a terraced street,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03I think it's that kind of sense of security
0:55:03 > 0:55:05and there was also a kind of, you know,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07you probably knew everybody within the street.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09I mean, it's great, because there's another language.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11- This is an area of languages.- Yeah.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13And the one that has been going,
0:55:13 > 0:55:14probably since the Victorian times,
0:55:14 > 0:55:16is the language of knock-on-the-wall.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18It's like bang, bang! "Have you got any sugar?"
0:55:18 > 0:55:21- Whatever.- Oh, OK!- It sounds a bit corny, but I think, you know,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24- like, bang, bang! "Turn the music down!" Whatever it is.- Yeah!
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Remarkably, the refurbishment of ten derelict houses
0:55:32 > 0:55:34in neighbouring Cairns Street
0:55:34 > 0:55:39has even won Assemble architects the 2015 Turner prize.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44By reintroducing human craft to these houses,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46and by re-adapting the terraces' form,
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Assemble have been have been the salvation of these houses.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54One of the Assemble houses,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56which had been reduced to little more than a shell,
0:55:56 > 0:55:58is now Nasra's home.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01I definitely admire the architects,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05that they've done things that are both practical, durable
0:56:05 > 0:56:07and aesthetically beautiful.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09When I have people around, family and friends,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12- everybody can just enjoy and breathe.- Yeah.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17There's not these two separate rooms, which are now out of date.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19And that, of course, was absolutely the point.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21The plan was appropriate hundreds of years ago,
0:56:21 > 0:56:23when people wanted, you know, a sitting room,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25separate dining room, little compartments -
0:56:25 > 0:56:29now, of course, people favour light and space and the open plan.
0:56:29 > 0:56:30Well, I say, well, it's fantastic,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34you see how easily a terraced house like this can accommodate that.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37- Yeah, it's got substance to it. - Yeah.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41- This is lovely, isn't it?- Yeah. - This big, curvaceous, newel post.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43- This is obviously original. - Beautiful, isn't it?
0:56:43 > 0:56:46- So some details have been kept and reused.- Yeah, I love this.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49So it obviously, two bedrooms, front one is the big one,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52- smaller one behind. - Yeah, it's beautiful. Big bedroom.
0:56:52 > 0:56:53This is your room,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and your daughter at some point should move next door?
0:56:56 > 0:56:58She's got her lovely double bedroom.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00She'll be able to grow into it.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Straight away, we're going to paint it, you know, the baby pink,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08and I'm going to put even a little baby chandelier in there. Pink!
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Also, you get a sense she's part of a safe community,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14cos each house is a private world,
0:57:14 > 0:57:16created to suit the people who live in it.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18- Yeah.- Their own front door,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20but the moment you go through the front door into the public world,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23well, that's also the communal world - you know the neighbours,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25you know the people opposite, the people next door.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28It is nice to open my door and be able to speak to my neighbours,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30because in many properties
0:57:30 > 0:57:32I've had no relationship with my neighbours at all.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37In my last property that I was at, I barely knew the neighbours.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Now at this property, it's, "Hello", you know,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43numerous times throughout the day, and it's nice.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48The rebirth of houses like Nasra's
0:57:48 > 0:57:51has restored faith in the terrace's future.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56300 of Richard Owens' Toxteth houses
0:57:56 > 0:57:59had been scheduled for demolition for over a decade.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05These were some of the nation's most neglected terraces,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08but within a week of the Turner Prize announcement,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11Liverpool City Council performed a remarkable U-turn.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Bowing to pressure from campaigners and central government,
0:58:17 > 0:58:20it finally declared that these terraces
0:58:20 > 0:58:22would be spared the wrecking ball.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28Once remodelled, repaired and repopulated,
0:58:28 > 0:58:31these houses will stand as proof of both the terrace
0:58:31 > 0:58:34and Toxteth's extraordinary transformation.
0:58:39 > 0:58:43Next time, I'm exploring the high-rise flat,
0:58:43 > 0:58:46the home designed to do away with the decaying terrace.
0:58:48 > 0:58:52I'll see how multistorey living was made possible...
0:58:52 > 0:58:57and discover why this was a home loved and loathed in equal measure.