Turn Back Time: The High Street - 100 Years of British Life Through the Shop Window - Hardcover

Wilkinson, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849164207 ISBN 13: 9781849164207

Publisher: Quercus Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

In six hugely entertaining hours of television, BBC One brings the story of the great British high street to life in a major new series for Autumn 2010. At the centre of the programmes are five modern-day shopkeepers and their families, whose challenge will be to run their shops exactly as they would have been run in six key eras of British history, from the 1870s to the 1970s. The book that accompanies the television series tells the remarkable story of how the rise and fall of the high street transformed all our daily lives, touching on the history of technology, family relationships, work, food, fashion and community that make Britain what it is today. Each chapter vividly retells the story of the evolving high street at that period in time, with special emphasis given to changes in food, fashion, attitudes, jobs and family life. Illuminated with human interest stories from the programmes and illustrated with hundreds of archive photographs, this is the truly fascinating story of British society over the last century as well as a lavish photographic record of the great British high street in its heyday. CHAPTER 1 THE BIRTH OF THE GREAT BRITISH HIGH STREET. CHAPTER 2 SETTING UP SHOP (1880-1901). CHAPTER 3 THE GOLDEN AGE OF SHOPPING (1901-1918). CHAPTER 4 PEACE AND PROSPERITY (1918-1939). CHAPTER 5 MAKE DO AND MEND (1939-1945). CHAPTER 6 HELP YOURSELF (1945-1969). CHAPTER 7 COMMON MARKET (1970-1980). CHAPTER 8 THE FUTURE OF THE HIGH STREET. CHAPTER 9 YOUR HIGH STREET'S STORY.

About this title

About the Author

Philip Wilkinson's many books include the award-winning Amazing Buildings, the ground-breaking English Buildings Book, and several TV tie-ins for the BBC's major series, Restoration. He is also the author of Quercus' giant book Frank Lloyd Wright.

From the Back Cover

How did the Victorians make their daily bread? Why were Edwardian shopkeepers so much more polite than today's? Just how tough was rationing? How many Green Shield Stamps did you need to buy a colour television? And when could one pound feed the whole family for a week?
From the boom years of the Victorian High Street to the 1970s supermarket, discover what life was really like on the great British High Street and how shopkeepers and their customers have adapted to both good times and bad. Written to accompany BBC One's living history experiment, Turn Back Time... The High Street charts the extraordinary journey of a group of modern day butchers, bakers, caterers and retailers who run their shops using exactly the same foods, fashions and shopkeeping skills as yesteryear.

From the Inside Flap

From the hard graft of the Victorian era and the excesses of the Edwardians to 'make do and mend' in wartime Britain and the post-war boom, this is the fascinating story of how the shopping streets of Britain have been transformed over the last 140 years.
Written to accompany the hit BBC One series, this book explores the ins and outs of life for our 'nation of shopkeepers' as seven tradesmen and women are sent back through history to relive the traditions and challenges that defined a generation of High Street shops. Learn how butchers kept their meat fresh before cellophane and refrigeration, how bakers made bread before sliced loaves, and how grocers kept track of their stock before computers. Discover how shopkeepers coped with 18-hour days in the Victorian era, rationing and blackouts during wartime, and the new technologies of the '60s and '70s that revolutionized retailing.
With behind-the-scenes diary entries from the show's shopkeepers, in-depth features on everything from Victorian candle-making to 1970s vinyl collecting, plus expert advice on researching the history of your own local town centre, rediscover what made the High Street the beating heart of our towns and cities in this fascinating look at everyday British life through the decades.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1849164207
• ISBN 13: 9781849164207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272