Six families and their houses. It is not only stately homes which are infused with family history, and traditions. The walls, stairs, front bedrooms and loft conversions of more ordinary dwellings carry their own stories.
1: The Johnsons
A semi detached in Harrow 'I object to the label
"semi-detached suburbia". It implies I'm some sort of cardboard cut-out. This is nonsense. If you look at this road every house is different.' Bill Johnson still lives in the house he grew up in. His father had it built in 1924 during the Metroland boom. He and his wife Elsie have brought up a family who now regularly return home with their children. They have never wanted to move.
'To me this house is a place of security. It is somewhere safe to return to. It's the castle. I can pull up the drawbridge and cut the world out.'
Photography MARTIN PATMORE Sound
DON LEE. ARTHUR CHESTERMAN Research JANE TREAYS
Film editor TONY HEAVEN Produced and directed by DAVID PEARSON
* FEATURE: page 8