''How We Built Britain'' is a series of six television documentaries produced by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 2007 and repeated in 2008. The series was written and presented by broadcaster

David Dimbleby David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme '' Question Time''. He is the son of broadcaster ...

. In the series Dimbleby visits some of Britain's great historic buildings and examined their impact on Britain's

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and social history.
'How We Built Britain' on BBC website The series was a follow-up to Dimbleby's 2005

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

series, '' A Picture of Britain'', which celebrates British and Irish paintings, poetry, music, and landscapes.

Programme list

Episode 1: The East: A New Dawn Dimbleby begins his tour of Britain's historic buildings in Ely in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...

before moving on to

Hedingham Castle Hedingham Castle, in the village of Castle Hedingham, Essex, is arguably the best preserved Norman keep in England. The castle fortifications and outbuildings were built around 1100, and the keep around 1140. However, the keep is the only ma ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

and

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Lavenham Guildhall, Guildhall, Little ...

. He visited

Walsingham Walsingham () is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval Christian monasticism, monastic houses.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Expl ...

and the Slipper Chapel before finishing at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

King's College Chapel King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bu ...

. Episode 2: The Heart of England: Living It Up In this programme Dimbleby examines how England had been changed by the

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and visited stately homes including

Burghley House Burghley House () is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the senior (Exeter) branch of the Cecil family and is Grade ...

, Harvington Hall, the Triangular Lodge and

Chastleton House Chastleton House () is a Jacobean country house at Chastleton, Oxfordshire, England, close to Moreton-in-Marsh (). It has been owned by the National Trust since 1991 and is a Grade I listed building. History Chastleton House was built betwee ...

, one of Britain's most complete Jacobean houses. Episode 3: Scotland: Towering Ambitions In this episode Dimbleby travels north to discover how Scotland developed its own distinctive building style. During the programme he visited

Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most historically and architecturally important castles in Scotland. The castle sits atop an Intrusive rock, intrusive Crag and tail, crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill ge ...

Dunrobin Castle Dunrobin Castle is a stately home in Sutherland, in the Highland area of Scotland, that serves as the family seat of the Earl of Sutherland, Chief of Clan Sutherland. It is located north of Golspie and approximately south of Brora, overlo ...

Gearrannan Garenin () is a crofting township on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Garenin is in the Carloway municipality and has a population of about 80 people. It is also within the parish of Uig. Today, the village ...

on the

Isle of Lewis The Isle of Lewis () or simply Lewis () is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The t ...

and

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

's masterpiece, the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; ) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and design. These are all awa ...

before finishing at the new

Scottish Parliament Building The Scottish Parliament Building (; ) is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood, within the World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. Episode 4: The West: Putting on the Style Episode 4 sees Dimbleby visiting the Georgian terraces of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, as well as

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace ( ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough. Originally called Blenheim Castle, it has been known as Blenheim Palace since the 19th century. One of England's larg ...

and

Stourhead Stourhead () is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I list ...

. Visiting sites where the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

began, he looked at the canals and locks of the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

and the tin mines of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

before travelling across Wales to

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

Menai Bridge Menai Bridge (; usually referred to colloquially as ''Y Borth'') is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford, j ...

and Ireland to explore Georgian

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Episode 5: The North: Full Steam Ahead The start of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's reign saw Britain's greatest construction explosion and in this programme Dimbleby travelled to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

's Tower Ballroom to find out how factories, town halls, sewers, churches, hospitals and dance halls were built in an attempt to deal with the rapidly expanding urban population. Episode 6:The South: Dreams of Tomorrow In the final programme Dimbleby examines twentieth-century

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and explored suburban homes and

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...

s in London and other buildings in the South East of England.

Publications

Dimbleby also wrote a book, 'How We Built Britain' (Photography Paul Barker), to accompany the series.Dimbleby, David 'How We Built Britain' Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2007)

References

External links

* *
''How We Built Britain''
on the

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

website
'BBC newsman puts Bath in headlines with latest TV series'

'Dimbleby set for heritage series' BBC News
* {{DEFAULTSORT:How We Built Britain 2007 British television series debuts 2007 British television series endings 2000s British documentary television series BBC television documentaries Documentary television series about architecture Television shows about British architecture