A House Through Time

In the first episode of this series, David follows the stories of the first inhabitants of the house, those who lived there in the 1840s and 1850s. In a remarkable piece of historical detective work David discovers how the house came to be built as a merchant's residence by a canny property developer at a time when Liverpool was one of the great trading ports of the British Empire. He then uncovers the story of the very first tenant, a customs clerk with a taste for fine furniture and the high life, and explores what happened to his lavish lifestyle when the money dried up.

David uncovers the extraordinary stories of a woman widowed in a cholera epidemic who turns the house from a single dwelling into a boarding house. He follows the trail of an ambitious Jewish immigrant from Denmark, struggling to stay afloat in the midst of a global financial crisis, and then sees what happens to a wheeler-dealer whose job is to enable hundreds of people to make new lives in America. David also traces the extraordinary story of the Robinsons - a seemingly successful couple in the watchmaking business. For them, the house is the backdrop to a family drama involving violence, infidelity and a tangle with the divorce courts. The story ends on the banks of the River Mersey, where an unidentified body dragged from the water has surprising connections to the house.

Historian David Olusoga follows the story of the house in Liverpool from 1891 to 1945, a turbulent 50-year period encompassing two World Wars and the Great Depression. He tracks the story of the Snewings, a large family of saddlers who live in the house for over four decades, and follows their business through challenging times - death in the family, cut-throat competition, the First World War and the age of the motorcar. On the Snewings' death, the Great Depression takes hold and Liverpool's inner city housing begins to decline. David sees the house become a shabby lodging house rented out to low income tenants. Amongs the multiple residents who share the house at the start of the Second World War he discovers Jack Greenall - a docker keeping a secret from his employers - who works in one of the city's most dangerous environments during the height of the Liverpool Blitz. Finally, David uncovers the poignant story of Robert and Sarah Ann Duffy. Robert, son of a lowly cotton porter, is born in the slums; his wife Sarah Ann, has had an unhappy childhood with her abusive mother. But the two meet and marry, and carve out a successful career in the tailoring business, eventually transcending the tragic circumstances of their pasts.

David Olusoga returns to chart more British history as lived through by the successive inhabitants of a house, this time a Georgian property on Ravensworth Terrace in Newcastle upon Tyne. Tracing the house's early years, David discovers the original deeds reveal that the house was built by local developer William Mather and completed around 1824. Its first long-term resident was local lawyer and family man William Stoker, who worked his way up the ranks of society and was elected to the post of town coroner.

David Olusoga tracks the lives of the residents of Ravensworth Terrace through the turbulent decades from the 1860s to the 1900s, discovering a family torn apart by catastrophe before the property became a refuge for destitute street girls, and hosted a seance.

Tracking the house’s occupants in the early 20th century, David finds a boarding house landlady whose family is threatened by war, and a young couple involved in terrorism.

David Olusoga investigates the residents of an 18th-century house in Bristol, uncovering stories of piracy, an abandoned baby, a notorious political writer and a runaway slave.

David Olusoga traces the house’s fortunes from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, discovering tales of scandal, domestic violence and the asylum.

Investigating the residents of No 10 Guinea Street, David Olusoga discovers a struggling entrepreneur and a World War One tragedy and unmasks the mysterious Mrs Watson.

David Olusoga discovers our house’s first resident - idealistic Victorian lawyer William Bruce, who tries and fails to save the life of a man convicted to hang for murder. Decades later, Bruce is serving as a Leeds magistrate when a similar case comes before him – can he save a young man’s life this time? Tracking our house forward, David uncovers the remarkable rags-to-riches story of Ann Dawson, who went from working on the factory floor to living in style in Grosvenor Mount. When her husband’s business collapses, Ann looks set to lose it all. Finally, David learns that our house was home to master builder William Nicholson, founder of a famous dynasty that built Leeds landmarks including County Arcade. William hands his business down to the next generation, but when Leeds train station is destroyed by fire, can William’s grandson ride to the rescue?

Digging into the affairs of the house’s next resident, Benjamin Wild, David discovers a factory owner with a history of questionable business dealings, including an employee mangled to death on the factory floor. But when his business is burned down, allegedly by a disgruntled employee, will Wild’s luck finally run out? David then explores the story of Mary and Andrew Mellish, whose one-year-old child fell victim to one of the Victorian city’s most deadly diseases. Next in our house are William and Mary Lucy Whiting. Committed pacifists, the Whitings take a stand against the Boer War, but with nationalistic fervour running high, their principles come at a cost. Finally, David uncovers the story of Edward Partridge Fearnley. Working on a luxury cruise ship through the 1920s, Edward rubs shoulders with the rich and famous, but his life below decks proves anything but glamorous when there’s an outbreak of TB.

By 1913, Number 5 is home to respectable couple Frederick and Louisa Pryce Lewis. From a clue in the family photo album, David follows the trail of their younger son Walter, tracking him from Australia to the battlefields of Gallipoli and finally back to Leeds, where David discovers that Walter has turned to a life of crime. Successful textiles chemist Percival King and wife Rose are the next to move into the house with their young daughter. But this apparently happy family is split apart when Percival suddenly resigns from his job, admits himself to a psychiatric institution then disappears without warning. Our next residents, Laurence and May Bendit, are a married couple with a shared passion for the spiritual movement of theosophy who raise their young children at Number 5. But when Laurence develops an interest in the paranormal, an encounter with a mysterious clairvoyant puts his marriage under threat.

David meets the residents of two apartment blocks in London and Berlin. From the ashes of World War I, the Nazi Party emerges, putting some of the families in terrible danger.

In Berlin, an SS officer arrives in the building, and another resident sees the Nazis arrest her new husband. War throws the lives of two London residents into turmoil.

A young poet takes to the skies as bombs rain down on London. In Berlin, one family attempts to flee the country as the persecution of Jewish people intensifies.