The 1900 House

The 1900 House

PAL VHS cover (UK)
Genre Historical reality television
Country of origin United States
United Kingdom
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10 (UK)
5 (U.S.)
Production
Running time 50 min. (ep. 1, UK)
24 min. (eps. 2–9, UK)
77 min. (ep. 10, UK)
60 min. (U.S.)
Broadcast
Original channel Channel 4
PBS
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Original run 28 December 1999 – 3 July 2000
External links
Website

The 1900 House is a historical reality television programme made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 1999. In the show, a modern family tries to live in the way of the late Victorians in 1900 for three months in a modified house. It was shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in America (with American commentary).

The series was accompanied by a book titled 1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family by Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis.[1] It won a Peabody Award in 2000 for being "an often humorous, always perceptive, series about the realities of life in 1900 that reveals themes of perseverance, human adaptation and family dynamics."[2]

The house

The 1900 House in question is 50 Elliscombe Road, Charlton, South-East London (51°28′57″N 0°01′57″E / 51.482475°N 0.032394°E). An 1890s-built two-storey terraced house with a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a scullery, a bathroom, three bedrooms (there were actually four, but one was used as a safety room with a telephone) and an outside loo. To make it the 1900 house, all modern elements were removed, including electricity, insulation, indoor toilet, and central heating. Period fixtures such as a 'copper' (a large pot used for heating washing clothes over a fire), cast-iron oven and fireplaces were installed.

The Bowler family

Other people

Daru Rooke was the consultant historian to the series who helped the family adjust to the 1900 lifestyle. He later visited the house for a dinner party with the family. He also equipped the family with a useful reference manual to aid their stay at the house, based on sources of the period such as Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management and Cassell's Household Guide.

Because looking after the house became difficult, the Bowlers decided to hire a maid-of-all-work. Elizabeth Lillington was chosen, however after a few weeks the family sacked her as Joyce decided that she could not reconcile her views on women's emancipation with employing a woman as a domestic. However, being 'liberated' was not the view Elizabeth herself took of her dismissal. It was pointed out that a woman in Elizabeth's position in 1900 would have faced desperate poverty had she been denied housekeeping work.

Sequels

UK

Australia

New Zealand

Germany

USA

Switzerland

VHS/DVD

The 1900 House was released, alongside The 1940s House by Acorn Media UK. It was released on VHS in 27 June 2000 and on DVD in 5 August 2003.

U.S. television broadcast
#Episode ListRelease Date
1 A Year to Remember 28 December 1999
2 The Time Machine 12 June 2000
3 A Rude Awakening 19 June 2000
4 A Woman's Place 26 June 2000
5 The End of an Era 3 July 2000

Similar Series

Although not involving a normal family living the experience, the following series are similar to The 1900 House and its sequels in that they include historians reconstructing period lifestyles and customs.

Each of the following is related, or a direct sequel, to the UK series Tales from the Green Valley (2005):

Funding

1900 House is made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS Station from Viewers Like You Thank You

References

  1. Macmillan, London, 1999. ISBN 978-0-7522-1711-6
  2. 60th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2001.
  3. http://tvnz.co.nz/one-land/index-group-3134642

External links