The 1900 House
The 1900 House is a historical reenactment reality television series made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 1999. The programme features a modern family attempting to live in the way of the late Victorians for three months in a modified house. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in America.
The series was accompanied by the book 1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family by Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis. 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."
The house
The 1900 House in question is 50 Elliscombe Road, Charlton, South-East London. An 1890s-built two-storey terraced house with a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a scullery, a bathroom, three bedrooms 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', cast-iron oven and fireplaces were installed. Gas lighting was reinstalled using original remaining pipes.The Bowler family
- Paul was the father of the family. In contemporary life, he was a Warrant Officer in the Royal Marines. In the house, he worked in the recruiting office in London. 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 Social Services. She looked after the family and later in her free time she looked at the growing suffragette movement. She had problems with her hair and difficulty with incorporating her vegetarian diet into the project.
- Kathryn was a 16-year-old performing-arts student. In the house, she missed modern cleanliness, her friends and her social life.
- 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 and fast-food.
Other people
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
The success of 1900 House has since led to other related productions and co-productions:United Kingdom
- The 1940s House – a family "living" through the Second World War.
- The Edwardian Country House
- Regency House Party
- Coal House – a 1920s Welsh mining community
- Coal House at war – a 1944 Welsh mining community
- Victorian Slum House – London slum life during Victorian era
- The 1900 Island – a 1900 fishing village in Anglesey
Australia
- Outback House – a family running a sheep station in 1861 Outback Australia
- The Colony – Four families and several individual "convicts" try to live life in New South Wales of 1800.
New Zealand
- Pioneer House – essentially a New Zealand production of The 1900 House.
- Colonial House – a recreation of the experiences of typical British immigrants to Canterbury, c. 1850; complete with a Sea Voyage from Auckland to Lyttelton, tramping over the Bridle Path to Christchurch with their children and belongings, setting up house in a canvas Tent, and eventually, building their own house.
- One Land – Also a recreation of New Zealand in the 1850s. It featured three families, one Pākehā and two Māori, and aimed to replicate the experiences of British migrants and the indigenous Māori of the period. The Māori families were housed in a traditional Māori Pā, and one of those families was specifically chosen for their knowledge of Māori language and customs. This family was asked to speak only Māori throughout the Series.
Germany
- Schwarzwaldhaus 1902 – a family "living" without electricity in a traditional Black Forest house, on rural Kaltwasserhof in Münstertal
- Windstärke 8 – Das Auswandererschiff 1855 – about an emigration ship for the United States
- Die Bräuteschule 1958 – teenage girls attending a domestic science school in the 1950s
- Abenteuer 1900 – Leben im Gutshaus – about a noble family and their servants in a manor in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
- Abenteuer 1927 – Sommerfrische – life in the manor from Abenteuer 1900, this time in the Roaring Twenties
- Steinzeit – Das Experiment – life under conditions of the Stone Age.
- Die harte Schule der 50er Jahre – teachers and students experiencing a boarding school under 1950s conditions.
- Abenteuer Mittelalter – Leben im 15. Jahrhundert – people living in a 15th-century castle.
United States
- Frontier House – three families live as 1883 homesteaders in Montana
- Manor House – British family of five and staff of 14 live in a 1900 Scottish manor house
- Colonial House – set in the American frontier of 1628
- Texas Ranch House – set in the American frontier of 1867
Switzerland
- Leben wie zu Gotthelfs Zeiten – about a Swiss family living without modern technology in a traditional Swiss farmhouse as in the era of the Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf, similar setting as in the German TV series Schwarzwaldhaus 1902, mentioned above
Home video releases
| # | Episode list | Release 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 |