A one hour special first shown Wednesday 22 September 1999
The past comes to life in a major new series, The 1900 House, an experiment in living history that illustrates how radically our lives have been changed by technology in the past hundred years. The Bowlers, a thoroughly modern family of six, were selected from over 400 families around the UK to embark on a unique time travel journey to 1900. For three months they swap the luxury of 1999 for a life of urban Victorian domesticity.
The series starts with a one-hour special which goes behind-the-scenes to find out how The 1900 House was set up. After much research, 50 Elliscombe Road in London — an ordinary terraced house in the shadow of the Millennium Dome — is to be transformed into a time machine. It is typical of the urban housing inhabited by the aspiring lower-middle classes at the turn of the century. In 1900, it would have cost £300; and was bought for the series for £131,000.
Victorian specialist and museum curator, Daru Rooke became the guide on this massive renovation project. "It's a period that's within living memory, " he said. "But it will seem as strange to a modern family as a Roman encampment might do." Daru led a team of experts, which included architects, builders, gardeners and prop buyers. They had only four months to transform the thoroughly modern Elliscombe Road into its 1900 incarnation.
