Abroad in Britain

Miniseries

1990 · 5 episodes

Series in which Jonathan Meades considers unusual homes or architecture around Britain.

Episodes

1. 1

   1. Severn Heaven

   29 Oct 1990

   Just north of Bewdley in Worcestershire, beside the Severn Valley Railway, is the largest surviving interwars 'plotland' settlement in Britain. This is a village of dwellings built by their owners from improvised materials: old railway carriages, chicken coops, the fuselages of gliders etc. Decried as an instant slum and opposed by planning authorities it is today regarded as a valuable manifestation of working class history.

2. 2

   2. Right is Wrong

   5 Nov 1990

   Meades investigates a new age community beside a Scottish air base, a furniture factory in a Dorset wood, and an experimental school in East Grinstead, all of which are geometrically linked by buildings that shun the orthodoxy of the right angle.

3. 3

   3. House Ahoy

   12 Nov 1990

   Meades investigates unusual houses, houseboats and lifestyles of people on the Solent.

4. 4

   4. Brick and Mortars

   26 Nov 1990

   Jonathan Meades considers the style of army and military buildings and architectural styles.

5. 5

   5. In Search of Bohemia

   3 Dec 1990

   There are a surprising number of places in Britain called Bohemia. Even more surprising is the fact that two of them - in Hastings and the New Forest - have connections to the artistic bohemia of such painters as Augustus John, two of whose studios demonstrate how much domestic design would take from this type of building. Features a red Lada that's a mobile tip.