How We Built Britain

Synopsis

David Dimbleby tells the dramatic and heroic story of Britain's architecture - the extraordinary buildings which grew out of the experiences and beliefs of the British people and define the nation. From magnificent cathedrals to Glasgow tenements, from the medieval castle to the hi-tech corporate HQ and from the splendours of the most palatial stately home to the urban terraced house; from the invention of our industrial cities to the cosy postwar prefab - not forgetting railways, bridges, canals and lidos - this is the story of a thousand years of change in Britain's buildings. How We Built Britain was a series of six television documentaries produced by the BBC in 2007 and repeated in 2008. The series was written and presented by broadcaster David Dimbleby. In the series Dimbleby visited some of Britain's great historic buildings and examined their impact on Britain's architectural and social history.

First Air Date: 2007-06-03

Last Air Date: 2007-07-15

Number of Seasons: 1

Number of Episodes: 6

Networks: BBC One

View Technical Specifications on IMDb

Top Cast

David Dimbleby as N/A

Seasons

Season 1 (2007)

No overview available for this season.

Episodes:

Ep. 1: The East: A New Dawn (2007-06-03)

David Dimbleby starts his journey in Ely in the spectacular cathedral that dominates the Fens. He explores the world of medieval knights at Hedingham Castle, travels to Norwich to discover the workings of a great medieval city and visits Lavenham which grew fat on the cloth trade. Join him on a pilgrimage to Little Walsingham and a visit to a rabbit warrener's lodge before finishing at Cambridge University, the jewel of East Anglia.
Ep. 2: The Heart of England: Living It Up (2007-06-10)

David Dimbleby looks at how England was transformed by the extraordinary flowering of architecture, ideas and exploration of the Elizabethan Renaissance. Take a journey that tracks the newly rich to stately homes like Burghley House and follows those who hid, in fear of their lives, in the secret spaces in Harvington Hall. Discover the bizarre secret codes of Triangular Lodge and the wonders of Chastleton House, one of Britain's most complete Jacobean houses.
Ep. 3: Scotland: Towering Ambitions (2007-06-20)

David Dimbleby travels north of the border to find out how Scotland developed a style of building quite different from that in England. Join him on a journey from the extraordinary visions of Stirling Castle to the Scottish baronial of Dunrobin; from the crofter's community of Gearrannan on the Isle of Lewis to Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterpiece, The Glasgow School of Art; and ending up at the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.
Ep. 4: The West: Putting on the Style (2007-06-27)

David Dimbleby encounters the grace and elegance of the Georgian terraces of Bath and Bristol, the magnificent country houses of Blenheim and the gardens of Stourhead. He discovers where the seeds of the Industrial Revolution were sown, in the canals and locks of the West Country and the tin mines of Cornwall. He also travels across Wales to Thomas Telford's Menai Bridge and to Ireland to tell the story of Georgian Dublin.
Ep. 5: The North: Full Steam Ahead (2007-07-08)

At the start of Victoria's reign, the north of England seemed out of control. Enormous industrial cities lacked basic amenities whilst many of their inhabitants lived in slums. David Dimbleby travels to Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, to tell the story of Britain's greatest construction boom. Find out how factories, town halls, sewers, churches, hospitals and dance halls were built in a dramatic attempt to deal with the rapidly expanding urban population.
Ep. 6: The South: Dreams of Tomorrow (2007-07-15)

Twentieth Century was driven by the ideal of progress, and the heart of that movement was in London and the South East. David Dimbleby embarks on a journey that explores how the idea evolved, from the commuter's dream of a house in the suburbs, to the modernist vision of streets in the sky, and the breathtaking scale and ambition of hi-tech building in the City of London.