0:00:01 > 0:00:03BBC Four Collections -
0:00:03 > 0:00:06specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56There's a saying, you've heard it before,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00"The Englishman's home is his castle."
0:01:02 > 0:01:07Well, I suppose, in a way, it is.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09PIANO INTRO TO: "Home, Sweet Home" by Nellie Melba
0:01:16 > 0:01:20# 'Mid pleasures
0:01:20 > 0:01:23# And palaces
0:01:23 > 0:01:30# Though we may roam
0:01:30 > 0:01:37# Be it ever so humble
0:01:37 > 0:01:45# There's no place like home!
0:01:47 > 0:01:51# Home!
0:01:53 > 0:01:58# Home!
0:01:58 > 0:02:01# Sweet
0:02:01 > 0:02:07# Sweet home!
0:02:07 > 0:02:13# There's no place
0:02:13 > 0:02:16# Like home!
0:02:16 > 0:02:21# There's no place
0:02:21 > 0:02:26# Like home! #
0:02:41 > 0:02:45The Celts in coracs crossed to Anglesey
0:02:45 > 0:02:46Pre-Christians
0:02:46 > 0:02:48Early Christians
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Irish Celts
0:02:50 > 0:02:55What were they like who dug these holes for huts
0:02:55 > 0:03:00Roofed them with boughs to keep the winter out?
0:03:03 > 0:03:08What were they like, who lived in such a place?
0:03:08 > 0:03:10The Ancient Romans, too,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13who settled here at Rockbourne on the Downs
0:03:13 > 0:03:18before the Saxons called them Hampshire, Dorset, Wilts.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Patterned floors...
0:03:21 > 0:03:24..remains of hypocausts...
0:03:26 > 0:03:27..luxurious life,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30where never luxury was seen again.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47Why did the Normans choose an Iron Age fort
0:03:47 > 0:03:50To build the castle of Old Sarum here?
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Why did the clerics, outlined in the turf
0:04:01 > 0:04:04You see their old cathedral over there
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Why did they go away?
0:04:06 > 0:04:10Was it a water shortage or a feud
0:04:10 > 0:04:14That drove them down to build in Salisbury?
0:04:14 > 0:04:16We do not know...
0:04:23 > 0:04:25But when, across the waves
0:04:25 > 0:04:27From Ireland and the west
0:04:27 > 0:04:29The shores of Wales
0:04:29 > 0:04:33Rise mountainous along those mountains' feet
0:04:33 > 0:04:36We see the castles of an English king
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Edward the First
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Oh, then the answer's clear
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Attack, defence
0:04:43 > 0:04:45After defence, attack
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Conquer, subdue and dominate the Welsh
0:04:49 > 0:04:53With arrow, shot and battering ram and lead...
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Harlech and Conway and Caernarvon
0:04:58 > 0:05:03Three grey bastions guard the northern coast of Wales.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06ROUSING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Peaceful today
0:05:59 > 0:06:01A poet of the Welsh
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Has thus translated from his native tongue
0:06:06 > 0:06:10One night of tempest I arose and went
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Along the Menai shore on dreaming bent
0:06:13 > 0:06:18The wind was strong, and savage swung the tide
0:06:18 > 0:06:22And the waves blustered on Caernarfon side...
0:06:26 > 0:06:30But on the morrow, when I passed that way
0:06:30 > 0:06:35On Menai shore the peace of heaven lay
0:06:35 > 0:06:39The wind was gentle and the sea a flower
0:06:39 > 0:06:43And the sun slumbered on Caernarfon tower.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Far over in England,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58how peaceful are names
0:06:58 > 0:07:02like Deeping St Nicholas, Deeping St James,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05long strips of rich soil
0:07:05 > 0:07:07and low houses of men
0:07:07 > 0:07:10where slow flows the Welland
0:07:10 > 0:07:13through Lincolnshire fen.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Villages, once Saxon or Danish,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19grew rich on plough land.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21The earth is the Lord's
0:07:21 > 0:07:24And all that therein is
0:07:24 > 0:07:26The compass of the world
0:07:26 > 0:07:28And they that dwell therein.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32Here at Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36the people prospered on the wool from sheep.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40They built themselves small substantial houses
0:07:40 > 0:07:43all along the market street.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51And at Nun Monkton, in the flat West Riding of Yorkshire,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53where roads and rivers meet,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56at the village pond and green
0:07:56 > 0:08:00is the picture people have of Merrie England,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04with dancing round the maypole on the grass.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS
0:08:51 > 0:08:52BUGLE CALLS
0:08:52 > 0:08:54DOGS BARK
0:09:06 > 0:09:10But life could be nasty, brutish and short,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13even for people at the top who lived in castles.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25where the Berkeleys still live.
0:09:31 > 0:09:38Here, on the night of September 21st, 1327,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Edward II was most barbarously murdered.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47You'll remember how Thomas Gray describes that fearful fate
0:09:47 > 0:09:51of the first Prince of Wales...
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Weave the warp and weave the woof
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The winding-sheet of Edward's race
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Give ample room and verge enough
0:10:00 > 0:10:03The characters of hell to trace
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Mark the year and mark the night
0:10:06 > 0:10:09When Severn shall re-echo with affright
0:10:09 > 0:10:13The shrieks of death thro' Berkeley's roof that ring
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Shrieks of an agonising King.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32A castle then, a castle still,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35but its walls are breached with windows
0:10:35 > 0:10:38which look at the world outside.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42A castle turning into a house,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Stokesay, Shropshire,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51the timbered gate lodge is almost ornamental.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Around the yard, the wall is only a curtain wall.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59In that hall,
0:10:59 > 0:11:05the lord of the manor eats at a high table above the salt.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13In that overhung bit, he and his family sleep.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Across the hills
0:11:17 > 0:11:19The borders of Wales are quiet...
0:11:20 > 0:11:24And over everybody is the King.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32It was rebuilt by Sir William Compton,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37First Gentleman of the Bedchamber and favourite of the King.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42He dedicated that porch to "My lord, King Henry VIII".
0:11:43 > 0:11:48Yet if His Majesty, our sovereign lord
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Should of his own accord
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Friendly himself invite
0:11:53 > 0:11:56And say I'll be your guest tomorrow night
0:11:56 > 0:11:59How should we stir ourselves
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Call and command all hands to work!
0:12:02 > 0:12:04"Let no man idle stand."
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Compton hid his house in a Warwickshire hollow,
0:12:12 > 0:12:17to be out of the weather and not to hide from enemies.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23Thomas Wolsey, a mightier man, Cardinal of England,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25built his palace at Hampton.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall
0:12:34 > 0:12:36See they be fitted all
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Let there be room to eat
0:12:38 > 0:12:42And order taken that there want no meat.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46See every sconce and candlestick made bright
0:12:46 > 0:12:50That without tapers they may give a light
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Thus, if a king were coming, would we do
0:12:53 > 0:12:56And 'twere good reason too
0:12:56 > 0:12:58For 'tis a duteous thing
0:12:58 > 0:13:00To show all honour
0:13:00 > 0:13:01To an earthly king.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05It was not enough for Henry VIII,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07who deposed Wolsey
0:13:07 > 0:13:09and took the palace for himself.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22The rich Elizabethans built to please themselves.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Longleat in Wiltshire.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30Longleat isn't a castle except in its square plan.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35Look - its outside walls are mostly glass and stone.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45The formal gardens are patterned
0:13:45 > 0:13:50like tapestries that hang on the gallery walls inside.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54And on the roof,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58the rediscovered gods and goddesses of Ancient Rome,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Elizabethan fancy carved again.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Pleasure on the roof...
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Pleasure in the garden...
0:14:38 > 0:14:39Pleasure in the park...
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Mythical beasts from the tapestries
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Inhabit the waters and woods
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Cars one pound
0:14:51 > 0:14:54With children free, no dogs.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42Harlaxton Manor, near Grantham, Lincolnshire,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45the grandest Elizabethan house of all.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08But look at the date -
0:16:08 > 0:16:101837.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Victorian-Elizabethan.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18But just as genuine-looking as the real thing
0:16:18 > 0:16:21and, I think, as impressive.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32This was about the last time
0:16:32 > 0:16:35that a private, un-ennobled citizen,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Mr George Gregory, a landowner,
0:16:38 > 0:16:42would be rich enough to build himself a palace.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46He and his architect Salvin
0:16:46 > 0:16:48were inspired by the Elizabethans...
0:16:51 > 0:16:53..to earlier ages,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55earlier inspiration.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Stay traveller!
0:17:12 > 0:17:14With no irreverent haste
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Approach the mansion of a man of taste
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Hail Castle Howard!
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Hail Vanbrugh's noble dome
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Where Yorkshire in her splendour rivals Rome...
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Here the proud footman to the butler bows
0:17:39 > 0:17:43But kisses Lucy when she milks the cows
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Here the proud butler on the steward waits
0:17:47 > 0:17:51But shares his mistress at the castle gates
0:17:51 > 0:17:56Here fifty damsels list my lady's bells
0:17:56 > 0:18:00And a whole parish in one mansion dwells...
0:18:02 > 0:18:07Chef, housekeeper, and humblest houseboy
0:18:07 > 0:18:12All in due gradation of the servants' hall
0:18:12 > 0:18:17Dependent on the slightest frown or smile
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Of him who holds the Earldom of Carlisle...
0:18:34 > 0:18:40But what are wealth and pomp of worldly state?
0:18:40 > 0:18:45To yonder mausoleum soon or late
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Up those broad steps
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Will go great Howard's dust
0:18:51 > 0:18:54A journey no man makes
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Before he must.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38By now, the garden becomes more than a tapestry.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42It's a place to walk in when the weather's fair.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47The ingenious Monsieur Grillet in 1694,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50at Chatsworth in Derbyshire,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53with the aid of the first Duke of Devonshire,
0:19:53 > 0:19:55turned the garden there
0:19:55 > 0:19:58into something as remarkable as the house.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07High on the moors was stored the water.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12And he trained it to cascade downhill,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16through planted woodlands...
0:20:17 > 0:20:20..down to lesser ponds,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and thence to burst from a temple.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Step by step,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27formal and straight,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30it charged with rushing force
0:20:30 > 0:20:34and burst as fountains in the vale below.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12High to the heavens
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Behold the silvery shower
0:21:15 > 0:21:17A dancing tribute
0:21:17 > 0:21:19To hydraulic power.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28Big houses set the pattern.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32First, formality was all the rage -
0:21:32 > 0:21:37from the garden front at Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire,
0:21:37 > 0:21:42windows looked out to straight and formal lines,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46a vista made of shrubs and ordered beds.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49The fashion had come from France.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Here at some fountain's sliding foot
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Casting the body's vest aside
0:22:07 > 0:22:10My soul into the boughs doth glide...
0:22:11 > 0:22:15How could such sweet and wholesome hours
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Be reckon'd but with herbs and flow'rs?
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Belton, Lincolnshire.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Formal on this side...
0:22:29 > 0:22:33..and conscious wildness in the park beyond.
0:22:36 > 0:22:37Too much formality?
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"Nature abhors a straight line,"
0:22:42 > 0:22:47said the 18th-century landscape gardener Capability Brown.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53"I will make the Thames look like a small stream."
0:22:57 > 0:22:59And so he did,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03when he dammed the little River Glyme in a Cotswold valley
0:23:03 > 0:23:06and turned it into a mighty winding lake
0:23:06 > 0:23:08at Blenheim, Oxfordshire.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48It was given by the grateful nation to the Duke of Marlborough
0:23:48 > 0:23:53for his victories over the French in 1704.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19As for Vanbrugh's splendid palace,
0:24:19 > 0:24:21I think of the lines of Alexander Pope.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Thanks, sir, I cried
0:24:24 > 0:24:26'Tis very fine
0:24:26 > 0:24:27But where d'ye sleep
0:24:27 > 0:24:29And where d'ye dine?
0:24:29 > 0:24:32I find by all you have been telling
0:24:32 > 0:24:35That 'tis a house but not a dwelling.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44A country house is nothing without its setting.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47In later Georgian days,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52that setting had to be wild or changed to look wild.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55"Nature abhors a straight line."
0:24:57 > 0:25:02Curve of land and curve of groups of trees,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05curves on the surface of a landscaped lake
0:25:05 > 0:25:08in Bedfordshire, Woburn.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS
0:26:21 > 0:26:22MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:26:35 > 0:26:38The sun shines out,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41no Mediterranean sun,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43for this is Stourhead
0:26:43 > 0:26:46where a chalky vale planted with trees
0:26:46 > 0:26:48is turned into a scene
0:26:48 > 0:26:52of temples, bridges, obelisks and rocks,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55commanded by the 18th century taste
0:26:55 > 0:26:58of a rich London banker, Henry Hoare.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Instead of Claude or Poussin on his walls
0:27:06 > 0:27:09showing a ruin dark against the light,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13his garden walks became his gallery,
0:27:13 > 0:27:15the Temple of the Sun,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17the Pantheon,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20reflected in the water, seen through trees...
0:27:30 > 0:27:32..a Wiltshire valley
0:27:32 > 0:27:34changed to Italy.
0:27:47 > 0:27:53On the shores of North Wales, overlooking Cardigan Bay,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56what fair Mediterranean port is this
0:27:56 > 0:27:58that stumbles to the sea?
0:28:08 > 0:28:11The port of Merioneth -
0:28:11 > 0:28:12Portmeirion.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38It's the work of a living architect, Clough Williams-Ellis,
0:28:38 > 0:28:44who has brought Italy and English eye-catchers to his native Wales...
0:28:45 > 0:28:48..an architectural antique shop
0:28:48 > 0:28:50of the open air.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26The charms deliberately plaster deep,
0:29:26 > 0:29:31colours are shown up by the grey Welsh skies...
0:29:39 > 0:29:43..yet it looks no more strange or out of place
0:29:43 > 0:29:49than must another such Italian dream have looked two centuries ago
0:29:49 > 0:29:51when first it rose -
0:29:51 > 0:29:52this...
0:30:13 > 0:30:16..Chiswick House,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20an Italian villa from the banks of the Veneto...
0:30:35 > 0:30:39..built by Lord Burlington and his architect William Kent,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43copying much-admired Palladio
0:30:43 > 0:30:45in what was orchard land of Middlesex.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05Country houses joined together
0:31:05 > 0:31:08to make the Royal Crescent, Bath,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11ancient Rome in Somerset,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15built in the mid-18th century by a father and son,
0:31:15 > 0:31:17both called John Wood.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21The Royal Crescent was a good address.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23Facade only,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26you built your rooms behind, as many as you could.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29It didn't matter about the back. The front counted.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33You and your family had to be in Bath for the season,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36to attend assemblies and routs,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39to take the waters and fall in love,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43when the city of Bath was as smart as London...
0:31:44 > 0:31:48..but all for a season, only a season.
0:31:48 > 0:31:54Facades, facades, along the Somerset hills.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And the smartest of all was the circus.
0:32:06 > 0:32:07Bath led...
0:32:09 > 0:32:12..but Bath seems to me to be
0:32:12 > 0:32:16in the crater of an extinct volcano.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20I prefer a part of Bristol that copied Bath -
0:32:20 > 0:32:21Clifton.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27High up on the downs,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30built in the 1790s,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34a place to live in, not just to stay in for a season.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Where East India men returned from voyages.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44In some of the vaults below these Clifton terraces and crescents
0:32:44 > 0:32:47that hang above the Avon Gorge,
0:32:47 > 0:32:51the Bristol merchants stored their pipes of port.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Bristol, the second city of England...
0:32:59 > 0:33:03..Clifton, the fairest suburb of the West...
0:33:08 > 0:33:11..Brunel's Suspension Bridge
0:33:11 > 0:33:15poised like an insect across the Gorge.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41And there along the Gorge,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45the Avon winds by woods to Severn sea.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Seaside brings out the best in all of us.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12When England left her inland spas for sea,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14following royal fashion,
0:34:14 > 0:34:20not able to travel to Europe because of the wars with Napoleon,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Brighton became what still it is -
0:34:23 > 0:34:26the best-looking seaside resort we've got.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Those cheerful stucco squares and promenades,
0:34:41 > 0:34:47those winding paths, romantic clumps of shrub,
0:34:47 > 0:34:52all in the curving Georgian landscape style...
0:34:54 > 0:34:59..an intended contrast with straight seaside fronts.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20They were all the work of speculative builders
0:35:20 > 0:35:23before spec building got its dirty name,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27spec building of the Thirties - 1830s.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40The pleasure-loving Regent, George IV,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43liked Brighton better than his palaces.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47His favourite architect, John Nash,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51built for the king at Brighton an Oriental pavilion.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54"It's as though St Paul's
0:35:54 > 0:35:56"had gone down to the sea and pupped,"
0:35:56 > 0:35:59said the Reverend Sydney Smith.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Outside Bristol,
0:36:02 > 0:36:08John Nash tried the cottage style with Blaise Hamlet,
0:36:08 > 0:36:14a model village on the big estate of Blaise Castle,
0:36:14 > 0:36:19so designed that every step you take when on the ground
0:36:19 > 0:36:22gives another subject for a watercolour.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38On the great estate of Chatsworth,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42the sixth Duke of Devonshire in the 1830s
0:36:42 > 0:36:47wanted to improve the rolling vistas of his park -
0:36:47 > 0:36:50and glorious those rolling vistas are.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01He was a sovereign lord in his domain.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05He cleared away the old village that spoiled the view
0:37:05 > 0:37:08and only left a single house of it.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18But he built for his tenants
0:37:18 > 0:37:22a better-looking village further up the hill,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26a model village done in various styles,
0:37:26 > 0:37:31spelt "Edensor" and pronounced "Ensa".
0:37:31 > 0:37:33And I can't see why this sort of thing
0:37:33 > 0:37:35is any more inhuman
0:37:35 > 0:37:37than what a council does today.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46And in the Sixties, in the midst of it,
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Sir Gilbert Scott rebuilt the village church -
0:37:50 > 0:37:54uncompromising middle-pointed Gothic.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59And so's North Oxford.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Cradle of individualism,
0:38:02 > 0:38:03where professors,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07freed at last from the university statutes
0:38:07 > 0:38:09which forbade them to marry,
0:38:09 > 0:38:16bred families of first-class brains in all that gabled brick.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18So many rectories
0:38:18 > 0:38:21and not too close together.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25Each house is slightly different from its neighbour,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29a pleasant place of wide and shady roads -
0:38:29 > 0:38:33humane, High Church and liberal.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36It gave birth
0:38:36 > 0:38:41to these - swim-pool suburbs,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43far from industry.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47The sort of house that everybody wants,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51an acre and a garden and no cow -
0:38:51 > 0:38:56the Keston Park Estate, near Bromley, Kent.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20"We'll house our workers
0:39:20 > 0:39:23"not in flats but farms
0:39:23 > 0:39:26"and cottages their forebears might've lived in."
0:39:26 > 0:39:30So thought the Lever brothers, who made soap
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and built Port Sunlight outside Birkenhead,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37a protest against northern back-to-backs.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49They housed their workers in the Eighties here.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52This was a very early garden village,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55with each house different.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Work of each for weal of all
0:40:01 > 0:40:05and the Nonconformist conscience turned to Art.
0:41:02 > 0:41:08New Anzac-on-Sea, just after the First World War.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Eventually they called it "Peacehaven",
0:41:11 > 0:41:15a garden suburb on the Sussex coast.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32We were told to laugh at it in days gone by
0:41:32 > 0:41:35as a dreadful example of urban sprawl and bungaloid
0:41:35 > 0:41:37and all that sort of thing.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49But there, you could still call your home your own
0:41:49 > 0:41:54and plant your garden with the plants you choose.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59The down-land air is laced with the scent of sea,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02your house detached.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Others mayn't like it but it's what you like.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Harlow in Essex,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28just after the Second World War,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31a new new town.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33And as the guidebook says,
0:42:33 > 0:42:38"You've come to live in a newly-developed area of Harlow
0:42:38 > 0:42:42"which incorporates the most up-to-date ideas and layout."
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Indeed it does,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48with sports facilities, pubs,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52community centres, play areas and shopping precincts
0:42:52 > 0:42:55and a string quartet
0:42:55 > 0:43:01and public works of art and public woods and a church
0:43:01 > 0:43:05and houses designed by the corporation architects,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09privately owned or rented from the town.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Do you think this is the way we ought to live?
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Perhaps we should and do as we are told.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Or do you prefer to live a country life
0:43:36 > 0:43:38with built-in urban joy?
0:43:40 > 0:43:44If you're in plastics, or an account executive,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46handling quality consumer durables...
0:43:48 > 0:43:50..for the foreseeable future
0:43:50 > 0:43:52New Ash Green,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55a neighbourhood unit development in Kent,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57is maybe what you need.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04The terrace houses with car courts,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07patios, and no loneliness
0:44:07 > 0:44:11can be obtained from about 6,000 each.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19A dream for some, for others, this is home.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30In Dockland,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Germans bombed the little streets,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35which had been homes for thousands.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39After that, partly to keep the rates up,
0:44:39 > 0:44:44partly to get as many as possible into a minimum space,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48out of the devastation, slabs arose.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57Sometimes they called them towers,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01and these replaced the liveliness of streets.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07Now new high densities in open space,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11high rise and low rise, towers and terraces.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15The planners did their best.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20Oh, yes, they gave it all a lot of thought,
0:45:20 > 0:45:21putting in trees
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and keeping grassy rinds
0:45:24 > 0:45:27and splendid views across to Richmond Park,
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and landscaped streets,
0:45:29 > 0:45:32and abstract sculpture.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35Oh, Roehampton won the prizes!
0:45:35 > 0:45:37It was all so well laid out.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Just so much space from one block to the next,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56perhaps this IS the way we ought to live?
0:45:56 > 0:45:58DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:46:08 > 0:46:10But where can be the heart
0:46:10 > 0:46:12That sends a family
0:46:12 > 0:46:14to the 20th floor
0:46:14 > 0:46:16In such a slab as this?
0:46:27 > 0:46:29It can't be right
0:46:29 > 0:46:30however fine the view
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Over to Greenwich
0:46:32 > 0:46:33And the Isle of Dogs
0:46:33 > 0:46:35It can't be right
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Caged halfway up the sky
0:46:37 > 0:46:39Not knowing your neighbour
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Frightened of the lift
0:46:41 > 0:46:42And who'll be in it
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And who's down below...
0:46:45 > 0:46:47And are the children safe?
0:46:47 > 0:46:49CHILDREN SHOUT PLAYFULLY
0:47:02 > 0:47:05What is housing if it's not a home?
0:47:10 > 0:47:14Thamesmead is to be built on Plumstead Marsh.
0:47:15 > 0:47:16Another town...
0:47:18 > 0:47:19..how human will it be?
0:47:36 > 0:47:39New towns, new housing estates,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42new homes, new streets,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45new neighbours, new standards of living,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48new financial commitments, new jobs,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52new schools, new shops,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55new loneliness, new restlessness,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58new pressures, new tension.
0:47:59 > 0:48:00And people...
0:48:01 > 0:48:06..people who have to cope with all this newness,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10people who cannot afford old irrelevancies,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14people who have to find a God
0:48:14 > 0:48:16who fits in.