The 1900 House Online

I really can't recommend this documentary and experiment enough. It is really entertaining and brilliantly done to help us understand life in 1900. I found the Bowlers as a challenging adventurous family who was willing to undertake this difficult project. Mrs. Bowler is a remarkable woman who was wonderful. Her twin daughters passed time by creating a little theatre in their home. What she missed surprised me the most? They did not complain about the television, radio, telephone, or computer, almost necessary essentials in our times. Life was tough in Victorian times by their experience. I can't thank them enough for their efforts of three months as a Victorian family.

As someone who has always enjoyed reading stories about the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, I was thrilled to see 1900 House when it aired on TV.

Upon watching the first episode, I was anxious to see the Bowlers live as a 1900 family, to see the styling of the house, the clothes, the culture. An excellent amount of detail was put into the house and strict rules were put in place to help ensure authenticity. (I was glad to see as well that the show was honest in showing the Bowlers cheating and breaking the rules once!) Yes, as others have posted, the 20th century family do come off as a bit whiny, but I think that plays into the main theme of the show: advances in technology, social norms and overall standard of living. The biggest lesson I took from this show was that life in late Victorian times was definitely harder and more labour-intensive than the life we enjoy today. Growing up, I held a romanticized view of the Victorian era. 1900 House shattered that illusion in large part. Although I still admire the style and more simplistic human-interaction of those days, I now also realize how much we take for granted today.

Modern times have their problems, for sure. But advancements in technology (e.g. electricity, lightbulbs, computers, air conditioning, washing machines, dishwashers, etc.) have left us with much more time to spend on other leisurely pursuits (e.g. watching shows such as 1900 house!).

This film was great fun for me to watch! I grabbed it without even really knowing what it was about, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

It was fun to see them reworking the house, by removing portions of walls and appliances, and making awesome discoveries behind it! I appreciated the efforts and research measures they took in remodeling and redecorating. I learned quite a bit more then what I was expecting. There can be so much that one does not expect or take into consideration (Example: The reason's for all the Inspectors concerns).

It was hilarious to see some of the reactions from family members when they were confronted by things they had not anticipated, LOL!! That's the way it is with so many things in life (Example: We many times have no idea everything that a person is responsible for in a job/position, until we do it ourselves).

The most valuable thing this film produced, was stated beautifully about taking care what we 'romanticize'. We human beings have great tendencies to do that. NO, the grass is NOT always greener somewhere else!

I love the entire "House" series. This show in particular was very interesting. I am always fascinated by how people live/lived. I have had varying degrees of income (from very little to middle class and upper middle when I was a child). I take pride on my ability to withstand hardship and shows like this inspire me. To think what our families were able to cope with makes something silly like my cable going down very irrelevant. It is good to remember how tough people are and what they are able to do and this series does that very well. I can't wait for the next installment of House programs. 1900 House was my first introduction to the series and I immediately went out and rented other versions as well as eagerly awaited them on my television.

As an enthusiast for historic costumes and historic times, I found this programme eye-opening and - having become an amateur genealogist in the time since this programme aired, I can draw retrospective comparisons with at least one set of great-grandparents, who would have been rearing their families at this time.

We often look at old photographs - I do it myself - and think how elegant the sitters looked, but this programme almost breaks through the camera and shows us what the photograph can't. It had never occurred to me, for instance, how people washed their hair and - as I watched the Bowlers struggle with their eggy attempts at home-made shampoo - it strikes me that we are possibly more image conscious now than our ancestors could have been a century ago.

I loved watching the day-to-day things they had to contend with, the struggles they had with the confines of their Victorian life (and their clothes, in the case of Joyce and Kathryn) and also found it interesting that we have possibly become so reliant on electric and running water being available at all times that we don't think about the problems the people of the time could have had. (The Bowlers, I think, in one instance had difficulty getting the range to heat which resulted in a cake taking 14 hours to bake.) I was also fortunate enough to see an extra programme connected to The 1900 House during Christmas 2000, where they had a bit of extra footage on the families who volunteered, and I'm glad they chose the thoroughly modern Bowlers. One potential family (who I think was invited to comment on the Bowlers' experiences) presented themselves on the trial footage dressed in period clothing and acting the Victorian family for all they were worth. A family like that wouldn't have been as interesting, I feel, as putting a more modern-thinking, modern-living group in that situation.

If you get a chance, do see it. It was a good bit of TV from a time when "reality" TV was still fresh and interesting.

This documentary is about a British family that is taken back to live at the turn of the century. While some people may say that the documentary is too fake, I would highly disagree. The family goes through hard issues and fun times, but it is all portrayed in a very realistic way. I think that this film may be more appealing to women because it focuses mainly on the hardships of the mother, Joyce, and the two daughters. I enjoyed watching the part about setting the house- buying props and costumes, taking samples of antique wallpaper. I also found it funny to watch the family sneaking into a modern day drugstore to buy real shampoo. This is a great documentary to watch on a cold day with a bunch of girlfriends.

I've never seen this before, it was quite amazing really the lack of knowledge of the family and their advisers. However, I have to admit they were chosen as lower middle class. which they fitted perfectly the snobbery and the self effacing , the did it perfectly. Parts of the family did better than others. I was surprised that the Male component were given a wide berth almost ignored.

When I watched this I noticed the problem of hot water, I found this ridiculous it was 1900 given the rules of 1999. I lived in a house with a back boiler earlier than the 1900 house when I was a boy, you had to stack the fire but once the water was boiling , one heard a galumph of the water moving in the boiler warning you to run the hot water for washing or bathing or even just down the drain. In Glasgow at the time of the 1900 house we scrubbed everything when they said the Victorians must have accepted a lower level of cleanliness they were very wrong. they spoke of a time when there were no antibiotics the woman worked harder, the men worked so much harder than people now. Cleanliness was the difference between ones family surviving or not it was that crucial. The family were only there for 3 months, not nearly enough time for it it to make a difference. I hope they enjoyed it all the same. The problem of washing hair, lol they used pears soap lol, coal tar soap is what we used when I was little, but in Scotland we have better water for washing hair so it was never an issue, I did notice the water problem when we moved to england in the 70's luckily we moved back to Scotland some years later. Its hard to say if the Bowler family did well they were exposed to so little of it. They did so many things I did when I was little the helping with the washing, using the mangle heating the water in the kitchen with coal for the washing and heating the water for bathing, the thing I found funny was that I had thought what we did as normal in the time line. I had no idea we were so far behind the times lol. It all seemed so normal to me. I didn't live in a fully electric house until 1973. Much of what I saw in the 1900 house seemed familiar though the woman made a mistake with the shampoo, it was coaltar soap a half pint of beer and an egg white, where they got the use the yoke thing from I don't know. I still occasionally use it beats the silicon based 2 in 1 stuff we get now hands down, my daughter uses it a fair shiny tress she has too.Then again we have softer water here.

All in all the 1900 house reminded me of all the things I'm thankful I don't have to do now. However I think we should return to some of those older values in cleanliness, there is no way people would die from simple hygiene problems as they do now in homes and hospitals if the code of cleanliness was followed even from the 1900's The 1900 house was a reminder of just how lazy we have become as a nation and the consequence's of that.

The vegetarian diet, in reality could not have worked for the family lets make it really simple, name vegetarians by nature with large brains ....none, what gave the Bowler family the ability to be where they were was meat generations of meat eaters, choosing to eat only veg is a life choice it limits ones behaviors and ones ability to think, many think this is not true, but it is, they see it from the point of view of one or two lifetimes, but what a brain needs is the ability to work and that needs energy, energy not available from vegetables alone its not a hypothesis just a calculation, energy in work out , when it comes to survival of the species its that simple, its do you want your line to continue and be successful or not. all of us here now are here because of meat its that simple.

The maid of all works, the lower middle class bowlers played right into the directors hands, displaying their petty snobbishness exactly as described, My grandfather said never let the lower middle class have servants for they will abuse them and treat them terribly because they are only a step off of service themselves. Having watched the 1900 house I can see he was perfectly correct.

in the end it was a good view as a TV program well worth the watch even if only to see lower middle class snobbery, but one can see it work for the younger bowlers for them it was an adventure which the will never forget and one would hope the viewers also. I enjoyed it watching on 4OD,

I agree with all the other reviews here. I have been searching for a long time to watch this programme again, but I couldn't recall what is was called.

I did get the impression that the mother had a set idea of how it would all work out....but reality didn't correspond with her imagination.....hence the early days kick off over the food burning

Reviewer 'IridescentTranquility' made an apt comment regarding the costume wearing auditioning family. I know this family, through my previous years working at Victorian Festivals.

Those poor children have been trawled to many festivals, the little girl was only about 3 when I first met them. They literally live 'Victorian' and the children and wife never looked happy.....as you can see on the clip.

The father did all the talking and it appeared to me that they were all having to go along with his demands. That's when doing the 'living in the past' thing goes too far.

Back to the Bowler family; I'm sure a Victorian father would NEVER wash the dishes as the dad did, episode 2 I think.

I wonder the family may not have gotten a real Victorian feel as there was a camera crew there most of the time, unless they used motion detecting cameras.

There is a bit of masochism in having a whole family endure such hardships for so long, but this sort of documentary is quite endearing and informative. There should be more such programs.

As to 1900, many of the hardships are artificial. Why for instance did women have to wear cumbersome clothes in a time before air conditioning, clothes that are very hard to wash? No vacuum cleaners? Big deal! Sweep! Our ancestors couldn't have been so miserable. There was plenty of fun even then, even a thousand years ago.

In my personal opinion there has only EVER been 1 genuine....true to it's mission statement reality series of this type made....and that was Pioneer Quest a Canadian series featuring 2 married couples, 1 young sand 1 older who survived for 1 WHOLE YEAR on the Canadian prairies in the style of the 1850's...complete with living TOGETHER in a relatively small floor-less tent for more than 3 months while they constructed the first cabin from trees they cut...peeled and erected themselves!! Unfortunately this, as well as several American try-alikes, do a poor job at a relatively easy 3 month time commitment and along the way cheat when no-one is looking. Spending most of the time whining about how tough her plight is, the wife ultimately hires a maid who does nearly ALL THE HARD WORK while the hostess goes swimming at the local pool. I found the husband mostly invisible except when he chose to bully the maid in true Victorian fashion ( he believed at any rate ). Despite the claim of sticking religiously to articles which were period true we see a plastic broom and several other " guess we weren't supposed to notice " implements. They have chickens which we see arrive and not a word is spoken about them from then on....what was the point? Despite all the time available after she gets a maid we still see the wife buying bread instead of making it and even though fish & chips were certainly available in that time period, it's hard to believe an average family could have or would have eaten out. Too short a period, too compromised and WAY too much whining. If you want to see life hard and people TRULY living the time period check out Pioneer Quest.....once you see it, ALL the others look fake and baby-like.