Spirit of the House
A look at the deep relationship between Rodney Archer and his historic house in east London.
Filmmakers: Ed Beck and David Mead
The short film reflects on the deep relationship between Rodney Archer, the owner of an historic house, and the place of both within the changing history of Spitalfields, the area of east London where his 18th century house is situated.
Rodney looks at his life in this historic house, explaining what drew him to the area and why he still loves it even after many years of transition.
“I am just so identified with the place and the street … the street is fascinating …. The longer I stayed in the house, the more I realised there were certain things I couldn’t do. If say I’d wanted to paint all the rooms pink as opposed to turquoise I could have done that in the first month. But afterwards I couldn’t. There is a feeling that the house has its own say. Certain things I couldn’t do because the house in a way would be saying “no, I don’t want that.” That’s the spirit of the house. It’s sort of a marriage. The house has its own character and I have my character. The house is really saying I want to remain like this, but you can change it a little bit. But I still want my personality and you can still have yours.”
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