Home is where the heart is...

In order to portray my character in a realistic and meaningful way through makeup and hair styling, I need to take a deep insight into her life so I can really understand her... Most importantly I need to understand where she lived, what time period and how this would have affected her as a person.

Jeanette Winterson was born on the 27th of August 1959 and was adopted by Constance and John William Winterson on the 21st of January 1960. She lived in Manchester throughout her entire childhood and teenage year, these are the most crucial years of becoming your own person.

Exterior 
I've been researching what the houses looked like in Manchester at this time in the areas which are mentioned throughout the novel.



Here is an image of children playing down a back alley way. As you can see these houses are practically back to back and the house size is very standard with small gardens. This suggests that this area, like the one Jeanette lived it, is working class.



I found this image above online on a University of Nottingham's website where the featured the exhibition on Alan Stillitoe's 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'. They show a range of still images from the era, capturing his life. The cobbled streets, brick walls and old styled lamp posts show how middle class and working class houses looked like in England around the 60's. This gives me an insight into the kind of place Jeanette Winterson grew up.



This image is one of the road where 'Corrination Street' was set in the 60's showing the sizes of houses on a standard road in Manchester. As you can see they are small and very close together, and the brick work gives off the impression that inside is cramped and the walls are thin.


Tower blocks were built to solve the problems with the shortage of houses after the second world war like the one shown above.

Interior

Jeanette spent most if not all of her time either at home or at church, therefore finding out about the interior of houses in this period of time is crucial in uncovering what she must have experienced growing up.




Whilst I was browsing through classic 60's decor in Britain, I came across this website which features two images of actual house advertisements in Britain in the 60's.
I found this wonderful image advertising ceramic floor tiles which were obviously becoming popular in this period of time for kitchens. The 60's is well known for it's bright and wonderful colours in clothing and clearly in houses too. However, I have a feeling due to Jeanette's Mother being brought up in the 30's and 40's, the interior of her house may have been a lot less bright and colourful.    http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/en/page/show_home_page.html

Finally I found this image online from a woman who had taken photo's of her grandmothers house which has stayed more or less the same since the 60's. I loved the old style cooker in this photograph, it really gives you an image of how kitchens and houses would have looked in that era.

Did you know the standard house was priced around £2,500?