Review: A House Through Time by David Olusoga and Melanie Backe-Hansen

I loved watching the BBC television series, A House Through Time, presented by David Olusoga. I adore history and finding out about old houses, and had assumed this book tied into that with perhaps a little bit about how to go about researching the history of your own house. Although the first chapter does give lots of tips on how to do this, A House Through Time is pretty much what the title suggests - a social history of housing from Roman times to the present date. There are also a few references to the houses that featured in the TV series, where relevant.

Reading this book felt a lot like sitting in a time machine, watching as houses were built, knocked down and built over again. We moved rapidly through the medieval period, got slightly bogged down with Victorian slums, before speeding up again through the 20th century. The book is packed full of quirky facts - who knew that chimneys weren't invented until the 1200s? - and the fascinating lives of the people who influenced trends (both good and bad!) in house building.

Although A House Through Time was not quite what I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Of particular interest to me was the section on the Victorian 'villas' (I grew up in one and this book explains a lot!), the back-to-back slums that my ancestors lived in, and how the cancellation of brick tax meant builders could go mad with different patterns and ornamentations. I had often wondered why this became a trend!

Recommended for anyone who loves old houses, history, and would like to research their own house's history.

Thank you to David Olusoga, Melanie Backe-Hansen and Pan Macmillan for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.