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The 1900 House is a historical reality television
Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors....
 programme made by Wall to Wall
Wall to Wall

Wall to Wall, part of the Shed Media, is an independent television production company that produces event specials and drama, factual entertainment, science and history programmes for broadcast by networks in both the UK and US....
/Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 in 1999. The show is about a modern family that tries to the live in the way of the late Victorian
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
s in 1900 for three months in a modified house. It was shown on Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 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.

programme was originally going to be a documentary
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 about late Victorian domestic life, but the idea of a living family doing it was suggested.






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Encyclopedia


The 1900 House is a historical reality television
Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors....
 programme made by Wall to Wall
Wall to Wall

Wall to Wall, part of the Shed Media, is an independent television production company that produces event specials and drama, factual entertainment, science and history programmes for broadcast by networks in both the UK and US....
/Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 in 1999. The show is about a modern family that tries to the live in the way of the late Victorian
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
s in 1900 for three months in a modified house. It was shown on Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 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.

Introduction

The programme was originally going to be a documentary
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 about late Victorian domestic life, but the idea of a living family doing it was suggested. The concept of reality television at the time was relatively new. After 400 applications, the Bowler family was selected and the house was “made”.

The house

The 1900 House in question is 50 Elliscombe Road, Charlton, South-East London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. An 1890s-built two-storey
Storey

A storey , floor, deck or level is the level of a building above the ground.Buildings are often classified by how many levels they have....
 terraced house with a drawing room
Drawing room

A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber," which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642 ....
, a dining room
Dining room

A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level....
, a kitchen
Kitchen

A kitchen, is a room or part of a room used for food preparation including cooking, and sometimes also for eating and entertaining guests, if the kitchen is large enough and designed to be used that way....
, a scullery
Scullery (room)

A Scullery is a [room] in a house used for Domestic worker tasks, especially those not involving the handling of food.A scullery is a form of "back-up" kitchen and is usually located adjacent to the main kitchen, frequently to the rear of the house....
, a bathroom
Bathroom

A bathroom is a room that may have different functions depending on the cultural context. In the most literal sense, the word bathroom means "a room with a bath"....
, three bedroom
Bedroom

A bedroom is a room where people usually sleep for the night and/or for relaxation during the day.Many houses in North America, Australia and Europe have at least two bedrooms ? usually a master bedroom and one or more bedrooms for either the children or guests....
s (there were actually four, but one was used as a safety room with a telephone) and an outside loo
Loo

Loo written...
. To make it the 1900 house, major changes were made, such the electricity being taken out and a copper (a large pot used for heating washing clothes over a fire) installed.

The Bowler family


Paul was the father of the family. In normal life, he was a Warrant Officer in the Royal Marines
Royal Marines

The Royal Marines are the marine and amphibious warfare infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service....
. In the house, he worked in the recruiting office in London (for two months after that he had to go to his regular job in the Marines). He felt that the role of "Man of the House" was difficult to act.

Joyce was the mother of the family. In her normal life, she was a civil servant for Somerset
Somerset

Somerset is a Counties of England in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The Ceremonial counties of England of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west....
 Social Services. She looked after the family and later in her free time she looked at the growing suffragette
Suffragette

File:British suffragette.jpgSuffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more Political radicalism and militant members of the late-19th and early-20th century movement for women's suffrage Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Politica...
 movement. She had problems with her hair (shampoo
Shampoo

Shampoo is a hair care product used for the removal of sebum, dirt, skin particles, dandruff, environmental pollutants and other contaminant particles that gradually build up in hair....
 wasn't invented) and difficulty with her vegetarian lifestyle.

Kathryn was a 16-year-old performing-arts student. In the house, she missed her friends and her social life
Social life

Social life may refer to:* Social relation* Social Life, an album by Koufax * SOCIAL LIFE Social Life Networking and online entertainment website - The site blends, videos, photos, music and blogging with a range of entertainment, celebrities, personal services and the ability to meet and connect with friends in a single destination....
.

Ruth and Hilary were 11-year-old twins. In the house, they missed their friends and their music.

Joe was a 9-year-old boy. In the house, he missed sweets
SweetS

is a Japanese idol group. Put together through auditions, the group debuted in 2003 on the avex trax Record label. Although the group met minor success, they disbanded after three years with the release of a final single in June 2006....
 and fast-food.

Other people


Daru Rooke

Daru was the consultant historian
Historian

A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
 to the series who helped the family with the 1900 lifestyle. He later visited the house for a dinner party
Dinner party

Dinner party is a social gathering at which people eat dinner together.The United States and Canada have experienced a recent Renaissance of the dinner party, most notably amongst college-educated urbanites in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties....
 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.

Elizabeth Lillington

Because looking after the house became difficult, the Bowlers decided to hire a maid-of-all-work. Elizabeth was chosen, however after a few weeks the family sacked her as the mother decided that she could not agree with women's emancipation but at the same time hire a woman as domestic house. 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.

Afterwards

The show was a ratings winner for Channel 4, so much so that after the programme had finished another series was commissioned, The 1940s House.

Sequels


UK

  • The 1940s House – a family “living” through the Second World War.
  • The Edwardian Country House
    The Edwardian Country House

    The Edwardian Country House was an acclaimed United Kingdom mini-series in the reality television genre, produced by Channel 4.It was first aired in the UK in April, 2002 and was later broadcast in the United States on various PBS stations in 2003 as Manor House, where extra footage was added....
  • The Regency House Party
  • Coal House
    Coal House

    Coal House is a Welsh television series made by Indus Films for BBC Wales, and broadcast on BBC Wales in October and November 2007. Series 1 was set in the depressed economic coalfields of 1927, while Series 2 was set in 1944 as World War II draws to a close....
     – a 1920s Welsh mining community


Australia

  • Outback House
    Outback House

    Outback House was an Australian historical reality TV series that originally aired on Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005. The series was based on several series produced by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in the United States, in which the concept was to have a modern day family living in a facsimile of an historical dwel...
     – a family running a sheep station
    Sheep station

    A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand whose main activity is the raising of Domestic sheep for their wool and meat....
     in 1861 Outback
    Outback

    The Outback refers to remote arid areas of Australia, although the term colloquially can refer to any lands outside of the main urban areas....
     Australia
    Australia

    Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
  • The Colony - Four families and several individual "convicts" try to live life in New South Wales
    New South Wales

    New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
     of 1800.


Germany

  • Schwarzwaldhaus 1902 (Black Forest
    Black Forest

    The Black Forest is a forest mountain range in Baden-W?rttemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south....
     House 1902) – a family “living” without electricity, on rural Kaltwasserhof in Münstertal
    Münstertal

    M?nstertal may refer to:*Val M?stair, Switzerland*M?nstertal, Black Forest, Germanysee also* Taufers im M?nstertal, Italy...
     (August 2001 - January 2002)
  • Windstärke 8 – Das Auswandererschiff 1855 (about an emigration
    Emigration

    Emigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to Settler in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin....
     ship for the United States)
  • Die Bräuteschule 1958 (teenage girls attending a domestic science school in the 1950s)
  • Abenteuer 1900 - Leben im Gutshaus (The 1900 Adventure) - about a noble family and their servants in a manor near Berlin
    Berlin

    Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
    .
  • Abenteuer 1927 - Sommerfrische (The 1927 Adventure) - life in the manor from Abenteuer 1900, this time in the Roaring Twenties
    Roaring Twenties

    Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, that emphasizes the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism....
  • Steinzeit - Das Experiment (The Stone Age Experiment) - life under conditions of the stone age
    Stone Age

    The Stone Age is a broad prehistory time period during which humans widely used Rock for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different kinds of stone....
    .
  • Die harte Schule der 50er Jahre (Difficult 1950's School) - teachers and students experiencing a boarding school
    Boarding school

    A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers....
     under 1950's conditions.
  • Abenteuer Mittelalter - Leben im 15. Jahrhundert (The Medieval Adventure) - people living in a 15th century castle
    Castle

    A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territor...
    .


USA

  • Frontier House
    Frontier House

    Frontier House was an educational reality TV series that originally aired on PBS in April 2002. The show, which was filmed over the course of five months, followed the lives of three family groups that agreed to live as homesteaders did on the American frontier in 1883....
     – three families live as 1883 frontier settlers in Montana
    Montana

    Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
  • Manor House
    The Edwardian Country House

    The Edwardian Country House was an acclaimed United Kingdom mini-series in the reality television genre, produced by Channel 4.It was first aired in the UK in April, 2002 and was later broadcast in the United States on various PBS stations in 2003 as Manor House, where extra footage was added....
     – family of five and staff of 14 live in a 1900 English manor house (re-presentation of The Edwardian Country House)
  • Colonial House
    Colonial house

    American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English , French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, German Colonial and Georgian architecture....
      – set in the American frontier of 1628 (shown in the UK as Pioneer House)
  • Texas Ranch House
    Texas Ranch House

    Texas Ranch House is an PBS United States reality television series that premiered in May 2006. Produced by WNET, Wall to Wall Media Limited, and PBS, the show placed fifteen modern day people in the context of 1867 Texas....
      – set in the American frontier of 1867


External links