Melanie

Melanie Backe-Hansen Biography
Historian for Chesterton Humberts

Melanie Backe-Hansen

Melanie Backe-Hansen is the first person to be employed as an in-house historian by a UK estate agent. Melanie is responsible for heightening awareness of our heritage by researching the history of individual houses and the history of streets and local areas.

Melanie’s house histories regularly appear in the media including The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Times. Melanie has also written a regular guest blog for Country Life and written a house history column in the Ham & High local newspaper.

Melanie has appeared on ITN London Tonight, BBC London Radio and in the Financial Times, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Homes and Antiques and House Beautiful. In May 2007 Melanie also spoke at the first national history show, Who Do You Think You Are? Live!, as part of Where Do You Think You Live? house history stage, in association with BBC London radio.

Melanie’s research has helped uncover forgotten house histories for properties ranging from grand mansions in Mayfair to medieval hall houses in Kent. She established that George Orwell may have based his room 101 on a converted flat on Oxford Street, and has profiled the former homes of P.G. Wodehouse, T.S. Eliot, H.G. Wells and former Prime Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli and David Lloyd George.

You can follow Melanie on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HouseHistorian

Read some of her recent Country Life blogs at www.countrylife.co.uk/blogs/property

Chesterton Humberts Historian

Chesterton Humberts values the importance of our national heritage, itself having a long history dating back to 1805. We greatly value the history of houses and the insight they give to the lives of our ancestors and our nation’s social history.

Historical information on select homes includes details of former residents, when the house was built, how the house has changed, how the area developed, and even any significant events in the house. This is all brought together to give a fascinating insight into the story of the house. 

People are increasingly interested in knowing more about the history of their house, or the house they hope to live in. Most people have walked along a street and noticed a blue plaque or noticed a particular building and wondered, how long has it been there or what it may have been hundreds of years ago. The Chesterton Humberts historian can give an insight to these mysteries and give an overview of the life of a house and the lives of the people who have called it home.