A House Through Time: Everything you need to know about the new BBC series set in Leeds

A House Through Time returns for its fourth series this week - here's everything you need to know about the Leeds edition.
Dr David Olusoga outside 5 Grosvenor MountDr David Olusoga outside 5 Grosvenor Mount
Dr David Olusoga outside 5 Grosvenor Mount

When does the series start and how can I watch it?

A House Through Time begins on Tuesday September 7 at 9pm on BBC Two. There are four episodes in total broadcast on consecutive Tuesdays. Presenter Dr David Olusoga, who lived in Roundhay in 1996 while studying at Leeds Trinity University, returns to front the programme.

Where is the house featured and who owns it?

The house selected for the focus of the fourth series is 5 Grosvenor Mount in Headingley, Leeds. The Victorian villa is owned by Pete and Jackie Slater, a retired teacher and financier, who lived at 13 Grosvenor Mount before buying number five in 1995. They also rented it out for several years in the 1990s while they worked in Hong Kong. It's in the Headingley Hill area, home to many listed buildings and with fewer student residences than the rest of the suburb.

What other filming locations were used?

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The base during filming was Leeds Library in the city centre - a private, historic subscription library dating back to a period when they were the intellectual 'engine rooms' of northern cities. It remains members-only, but the public can visit and regular events are held.

Presenter Dr David Olusoga took a rooftop tour of Leeds Town Hall, and expect the city's industrial heritage sites to appear on screen - many of the past occupants of 5 Grosvenor Mount had connections to the woollen mills.

The house also has a link to the Nicholson construction dynasty, who were behind Victorian buildings such as Leeds General Infirmary and the County Arcades, so expect these to be featured too.

Who lived in the house?

In the 19th century, when Headingley was becoming populated by the textile industry's managing class, 5 Grosvenor Mount was home to a morally corrupt mill owner who was linked to an accident which mutilated a worker. Another well-off industrialist who resided in the house married a former millhand. There was also William Bruce, a lawyer and social reformer who opposed the death penalty.

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In the 20th century, there was a pacifist couple who opposed the Boer War, a 1920s cruise ship entertainer, and a World War Two veteran who returned from serving in Europe with a Greek bride. Living there before the Slaters bought the house were the Weirs, who both worked at the Yorkshire Post - Alan as an arts critic.

The series ends with a group of University of Leeds graduates who rented the house from the Slaters in the 1990s reuniting on the doorstep to discuss how much the city changed during the period they studied there. Pete and Jackie only found out during filming that the small group of young professionals they believed were the tenants for the entire period they were overseas had actually expanded to include around 30 people who eventually lived there.

Were any other houses considered for the series?

Producers were inundated with applications from Leeds. They did leaflet drops along Headingley's most historic streets, and received a group nomination from the 18 Victorian houses that make up Oakfield Terrace.

Former Leeds West MP Michael Meadowcroft submitted his Georgian home, Waterloo Lodge - a former mill house in Bramley. Other proposals came from Shadwell and Horsforth.

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