Change of Abode and History of the Home

My absence from this blog was occasioned by some unfortunate developments. One of which was the announcement of our landlady that she would like to see us go within the next five months. The unpleasant prospect of becoming homeless has prompted my flatmate and I to look for a new place. We suddenly realized that we have very different priorities when it comes to different rooms in the house.

While we had no extraordinary expectations for our bedrooms, it turned out that she is very particular about the kitchen and I am more interested in the bathroom. She loves cooking, so naturally, she wants a bright spacious kitchen with lots of work spaces. And I, after a long day, like to luxuriate in a bubble bath, so a clean, pretty bathroom with a bathtub is a must.

This made me think of a wonderful BBC series by Dr. Lucy Worsley - History of the Home. In it she tells about the different rooms in our modern house and how they came to be. It's a really great series with all sorts of interesting titbits and trivia. And it's very enjoyable watching her try out old-timey appliances, sleeping arrangements and labor-saving devices. Many things we take for granted are very recent additions and what we consider a necessity today was in the past viewed as a needless extravagance and vice versa.

Here's the story of The Bathroom:



And here is the history of The Kitchen


You can find the entire series here.
More about the series on the BBC website 

Lucy Worsley Talks Regency Politics

The third and last part of Elegance and Decadence presented by Lucy Worsley is about the highs and the lows of the political and social environment of the Regency. It was a time of great technological breakthroughs (the steam engine) and, at the same time, an age of great social injustice (land enclosure).



As I watched this last part of the series about an era that is so often associated with elegance, cottages and Jane Austen, I thought how little things have change. Here we have a world trying to come to terms with mindboggling technological advancement; the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer; some people inciting violence, others trying to bring about peaceful reform. It's not all that different from our own age, really.

Lucy Worsley Talks Regency Brand

Elegance and Decadence series continues with Dr Lucy Worsley's take on Developing the Regency Brand. Regency was a time of great change, both politically and aesthetically. And I just love her way of narrating. She seems so psyched about all of this.

Lucy Worsley Talks Regency Era

BBC never stops wowing us with wonderfully informative and beautifully done productions. Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency is a three part series presented by Dr Lucy Worsley. The first episode is dedicated to the man himself - Prince Regent, warts and all.

Dr Worsley is also the author of If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home, a book I'm dying to get my hands on.