Upstairs Downstairs

6 Comments

1. Cathy_of_Alex says:

   20 July 2009 at 9:13 AM

   London is nothing without scaffolding. Scaffolders have their own union and craft. It’s not the same guys, necessarily who do the building work. The scaffolders come earlier and set up the scaffolding and take it down when the building work is done.
2. TNCath says:

   20 July 2009 at 10:23 AM

   What a great series Upstairs, Downstairs was. Last year I stayed very near 65 Eaton Place. Old London is a wonderful, yet EXPENSIVE experience.
3. Liam says:

   20 July 2009 at 5:09 PM

   Yes, they painted a 1 in front of that 65 for the exterior location shots.
4. Tony from Oz says:

   20 July 2009 at 10:05 PM

   I, too, enjoyed Upstairs Downstairs back in the day. However, I remember asking my Auntie Chris – a lovely Scottish lady who had worked in domestic service from the age of 14 (c.1912), and worked in the great houses of the aristocracy until her emigration to Australia in 1930 – about the program.

   Aunty Chris sniffed and expressed outrage at inaccuracies in the show’s depiction of life amongst the servants in a big house of the period. She said that the butler (the chief executive of household servants) would NEVER dine at the same table as ‘Ruby’ the scullery maid and lesser servants !

   I also asked her how she was treated: “Like human beings”, she retorted tartly – going on to tell of how a certain Lady Leith had summoned her, a mere apprentice cook aged 14, to her presence. Lady Leith had said she understood Chrissie would be going home to her people for a holiday and presented her with a 5 pound note for holiday expenses – that would at least be the equivalent of $400 in today’s money.

   So…obviously the show had its share of socio-historical inaccuracies – but I still enjoyed it, nonetheless!
5. Robert says:

   21 July 2009 at 6:23 AM

   Liam is correct in that 65 Eaton Place played the role of 165 Eaton Place. Not surprisingly, there is no 165 Eaton Place; the numbers don’t go that high. All the houses on Eaton Place are very similar in appearance. And most are now one flat on each floor. I visited a friend at 32 Eaton Place many times when she lived there.
6. Liam says:

   21 July 2009 at 7:40 AM

   Tony

   Remember, though, that 165 Eaton Place was not a great house: it was a townhouse of gentry (only later lesser aristocracy) and somewhat tight quarters in Belgravia. Lady Marjorie had a social position as the daughter of an earl, but she married down (respectably, to a vicar’s son and eventually MP), though she inherited staff from her parents. Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh, who created the series, were very familiar their subject, having too had mothers and other relatives in service, though obviously they created some opportunities for dramatic tension. And, in any event, different masters and mistresses treated staff differently. (Think, for example, of the argument Richard had with Lady Marjorie over making James apologize to Hudson over the luncheon for Hazel – the point being made there that the true upper class had a noblesse oblige feelings for the working class but none such for the burgeoning middle class.)

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