Ep 1. Episode 1

The former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects will examine how design has affected one Georgian house and its inhabitants in Bristol, from when it was first built in 1779 right up to the present day. Throughout the series Maxwell reveals how fashions in interior design have mirrored social, political and economic trends. The opening programme reveals how the house was built as part of a boom in speculative building in Bristol and who the early residents were. Covering the period from 1779 - 1845 the main characters are John Britton, a young gentleman who decorated the house in late Georgian simplicity and Mrs Hobbs, a widow who lived in the house for thirty years and followed the latest Regency interior trends.