History of the Home

History of the Home

2011, History  -   39 Comments
8.06
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Ratings: 8.06/10 from 32 users.

History of the HomeHome is where the heart is, but how much do you actually know about yours? Each room can tell a different story and give you an insight into ever-shifting attitudes to privacy, class, cleanliness and technology.

Dr Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, will guide you through the history of the home and into the strange worlds of people in the past.

You may love your home or you may be desperate to move, but either way you're probably familiar with its corner. But what do you really know about its history? Each room in your house has a longer and more intriguing history than you probably realize.

The Bedroom. Let's start by considering the fact that one third of history is missing: because people were asleep. Today it's rude to barge into someone else's bedroom, but this is really relatively new. Until only 100 years ago, people were happy to share not only their bedrooms but even their beds with work colleagues, or even strangers.

The Bathroom. Next we come to the room in the house that has the shortest history: the bathroom. Two hundred years ago, bathrooms didn't exist. The bathroom's development has not been a straightforward matter, and you might be surprised to learn that many Tudor people had worse personal hygiene than their medieval ancestors.

The Living Room. Primarily, the living room's a place for spending your leisure hours. But it's also a place for display - a room for impressing your guests with your taste and wealth. At its heart is the chair, originally reserved for the household's head. The original 'chairman' sat down while his servants stood, or sat upon lowly stools not chairs with arms.

The Kitchen. Early censuses didn't count people or houses: they counted 'hearths', as the cooking fire was the central point of a home. The one-room medieval peasant's dwelling contained a central hearthstone or flat rock upon which a fire was laid.

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zomzom
zomzom
7 years ago

very bad video quality

john roddy
john roddy
7 years ago

Excellent Lucy love your work a education ,dont ever change .

Sandra
Sandra
8 years ago

Please, i would like to know if exists the subtitles of this documentary in Spanish

Edward Richtofen
Edward Richtofen
11 years ago

wtf a book review?!@#@!

SarahScotland
SarahScotland
11 years ago

is this a bill bryson collaboration?

Greg Babinecz
Greg Babinecz
12 years ago

This looks awful

Jessie Giddens
Jessie Giddens
12 years ago

The full doc is available on YouTube, to those who are interested. It is a great film. :-)

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

I finally get settled in a comfortable home with lots of alone time on my hands...and it's gone!
You snooze you lose.
az

John Christopher McDonald
John Christopher McDonald
12 years ago

So glad I got to finish this! It was a fantastic documentary that revealed the quite intricate home for what it is today, a culmination of developments in creature comfort, cultivated since the medieval times.

adilrye
adilrye
12 years ago

Aww...I was only on bathroom. This sucks.

Jessica Page
Jessica Page
12 years ago

I was just watching this yesterday and now its just a preview? I am SO disappointed. It was a GREAT doc!

KooKookaChoo
KooKookaChoo
12 years ago

I was halfway through the last one on Kitchens, which was really interesting, and I stepped away for an hour, came back and poof! it was gone =( I tried searching on YouTube but this must be the only version because it was private on there too -- why private?? lol

Pas
Pas
12 years ago

Aargh. Why T.F. are good series always removed or private. Started watching Bedroom but Bathroom blocked. Now, the series have gone from the net...

Bryan Heathcote
Bryan Heathcote
12 years ago

Anyone know where to even buy this?

Kirk Rose
Kirk Rose
12 years ago

I'm I the only one who fell in love with this woman instantly?

KooKookaChoo
KooKookaChoo
12 years ago

7:02 of 1/4 in the Kitchen series -- I was not expecting that! I had no idea of this fashion craze from the 1500s... oh my!

Jeremy
Jeremy
12 years ago

Excellent Documentary, I enjoyed this one.

Penni Dahl
Penni Dahl
12 years ago

Excellent documentary and the doctor is spot on.

adilrye
adilrye
12 years ago

Home is what you make of it. It's not the building or apartment, it's the people and memories. To me, that's what has always separated "house" as a physical entity, and home as a socio-cultural concept. A home alludes to a happy place, full of good memories, family and friends and somewhere you feel comfortable.

Anyway, this is a wonderful and interesting documentary. And I actually found her inability to say "r" a little charming ha ha.

P.S. I have to applaud the BBC for doing docs like this. For taking a subject most would find boring (but it's so intriguing in reality) and airing it on television. Thank you.

Sohiniben Shukla
Sohiniben Shukla
12 years ago

Home is always sweet Home because of our habits with that place we are comfortable at our own place......It does not mean that weather it's full of Luxury or not but you are very comfortable because you are used to....
Dr. Sohini Shukla.

John Krisfalusci
John Krisfalusci
12 years ago

what if i only have a studio with no rooms? its clean and cold like a museum, with electronic equipment strategically placed in a tidy neat room. ^_^

TheTruthPersists
TheTruthPersists
12 years ago

@Epicurus
I was honestly quite excited as well.

With that being said I enjoyed it quite a bit. I personally found the host quite annoying, but I don't let that ruin perfectly good information.

adilrye
adilrye
12 years ago

Just like the Filthy Cities doc, I find the history of the average man or woman, living their lives so compelling. I love history in general, military, political, cultural and economic, of course...but there's something about just learning about the life of a person in whatever time period that brings it all together. Love it.

panos dramitinos
panos dramitinos
12 years ago

Yes I completely agree with you Epicurus. History explains our present and helps as contextualize the evolution of our habits.

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

I think it's Miss Lucy.

christineaaa
christineaaa
12 years ago

She grew on me and I loved the bits of curious information behind words and expressions like curfew, by hook or by crook and f*ggots and pimps.

Epicurus
Epicurus
12 years ago

is it strange that im very excited to watch this and learn about this?

i feel that there is something odd about that.