0:00:18 > 0:00:22NARRATOR: 'East of Tower Bridge, London becomes a very different city.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25'You leave behind the political capital, the financial centre,
0:00:25 > 0:00:26'the cultural headquarters,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29'and you come to a working town based on a river.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:38'It was, it is, the melting pot.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:42NARRATOR: 'For the sound and smell of the bazaar,
0:00:42 > 0:00:43'come to the romantic East.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45'The East End.'
0:00:48 > 0:00:51The East-Ender lives and dies football, the real Cockney.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Yeah.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Do this thing, East London, yeah.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17RAPPING: Get what I'm saying, I'm representing the clubs and the
0:01:17 > 0:01:19flats and I'm telling everybody East London is back,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21it's not long when I jump on the track
0:01:21 > 0:01:24so I'm telling everybody East London is back.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27I've got words that are hotter than a Bunsen, your favourite MCs -
0:01:27 > 0:01:29I'm amongst them, I've got a brand new sidey for them
0:01:29 > 0:01:31and I'm telling everybody East London is back.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39This is where I was born. As you can see, there's no plaque.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43We couldn't get grass to grow here,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47if a weed grew, my father used to rush out and water it.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51We had a telegraph pole that grew in the garden and that was
0:01:51 > 0:01:54the envy of all the neighbours, not that we had a telephone.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56But it made a marvellous clothes line.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59We were poor but we didn't know we were poor,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02we thought the whole world was poor.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Our idea of posh was curtains in the windows.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08In fact, we were very embarrassed about putting our dustbins out
0:02:08 > 0:02:10because we had nothing to put in them.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15The old East End was a civilised place
0:02:15 > 0:02:17because although it was poor, it was very, very human.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20It was overcrowded,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23but the overcrowding meant that people lived close together.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Because they lived close together they had to behave themselves,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29they had to be nice to each other, they had to be civilised.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32So, except from the Friday nights when they used to get
0:02:32 > 0:02:34drunk in the pubs, and I don't blame them for that
0:02:34 > 0:02:38because life WAS hard for some, it meant that we lived closely,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41almost a village-like atmosphere.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46I could play on the streets at night and there was no danger at all
0:02:46 > 0:02:49and it was, as I say, a very, very happy life.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Right, this is the street. They're calling it Lukin Street now.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Doesn't look like any kind of street.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Oh, God, there's old people walking up and down,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08but it's just corrugated iron.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11It's grass behind everything.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Grass in there when it was once cobblestones.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15Kids playing on the streets.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22We never saw grass, I never saw me first cow till I was evacuated.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24I had some really good times here.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Then, of course, we went to the underground shelter
0:03:28 > 0:03:30at Tilbury Docks and we came back one morning
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and there our house was... Gone.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38EXPLOSION
0:03:45 > 0:03:49NARRATOR: 'Of all the bombs scarred London, the East End was hit worst.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52'They were never down in the dumps, these big-hearted folk.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55'Now they were in real East End high spirits.'
0:03:55 > 0:03:58'After German bombers had been over this London district, we endeavoured
0:03:58 > 0:04:01'to find out how the raid had affected the morale of the people.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03'We wished Hitler could see and hear the interview with
0:04:03 > 0:04:05'a woman whose house had been demolished.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09- Miss Higgins?- Yes, sir?- Where were you when the bomb fell?
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Well, in bed! Where did you think I was?
0:04:12 > 0:04:14- And...- What happened?
0:04:14 > 0:04:16What happened to you?
0:04:16 > 0:04:19- It blew me out!- Blew you out of bed?
0:04:19 > 0:04:21It must have blew me out cos I don't remember no more.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25- Did you manage to get out of the house all right?- Yes.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Has it hurt you at all, do you feel any effects of it?
0:04:29 > 0:04:31No, only a bit shook.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32I had to find me own way out
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and I was trapped every time, time every way I went.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37And you still feel you can carry on?
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Yes, apart from being a bit shaken I feel all right. Fine.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47- NARRATOR:- 'At a site in East Poplar,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51'the first of London's pre-fabricated huts take shape, and rapidly,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55'for two men can build these houses for Doodlebug-victims in three days.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58'Each with a living room, two bedrooms and a kitchenette,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02'they'll accommodate families of five with a little extra room to swing a kitten.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05'Wood and asbestos are the main ingredients used.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08'The tabloid fireplace, together with heating plugs,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10'will provide the necessary warmth in winter.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'Finishing touches to the Lilliput house -
0:05:14 > 0:05:16'Mr Scott and his daughter say goodbye to their old
0:05:16 > 0:05:19'and badly damaged house, and with their furniture,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21'move off to Doodlebug Village.'
0:05:24 > 0:05:27'John Kane hadn't heard that for helping to save seven
0:05:27 > 0:05:29'lives in a London blitz, he had won the George medal.'
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Well, buster, I'm very proud of what you did, I congratulate you.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35- Thanks, guvnor.- Now, tell them all about it.- Righto, guvnor.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40We went in the factory and we seen seven men laying in a pit.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44So me and a policeman helped to get 'em out.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47After we got 'em out, we brought them out on doors,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50and after that I went and had a ginger beer in the pub.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54Here we go.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00# I got home the other night and what did I discover?
0:06:00 > 0:06:04# The law's been around again to see me little brother
0:06:04 > 0:06:08# Big sister's gone and got in trouble with a lover
0:06:08 > 0:06:12# I've had a bleedin' nuff of it with one thing and another
0:06:12 > 0:06:16# I should have listened to me dear old mother
0:06:16 > 0:06:20# She was a good old girl God love her
0:06:20 > 0:06:25# Find a wife and settle down she'd say, but, brother
0:06:25 > 0:06:30# You know how it is what with one thing and another. #
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Quiet, please, eyes on the ball, the first man's on the mark.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42- 60!- Correct!
0:06:45 > 0:06:48- 45.- Correct.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53- Would you like a paper this evening? - Certainly, my dear.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Thanks very much, God bless you. Tis cold tonight, isn't it?
0:06:57 > 0:07:00- Yes, very cold. Cold on your rounds, isn't it?- Yes.
0:07:00 > 0:07:01I hope you'll read it!
0:07:01 > 0:07:04- We always do. - That's the children's one.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07- If we don't the kids always read it. - That's good.
0:07:07 > 0:07:08That'd do me, I can't read!
0:07:10 > 0:07:12BOAT HORN BLARES
0:07:13 > 0:07:16NARRATOR: 'A boatman makes his way up Wapping Old Stairs
0:07:16 > 0:07:18'for a drink in the 500-year-old Town of Ramsgate Inn,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21'where pirates drank a last tot before being rowed
0:07:21 > 0:07:24'down river to be hanged in chains at Execution Dock.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28'It was in this bar that the infamous Judge Jeffreys was caught
0:07:28 > 0:07:30'when he nipped in for a quick one
0:07:30 > 0:07:33'while trying to flee the country back in 1688.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37'Today's customers are hard-working men, whose future is the future of the river itself.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40# Well, I used to be a doctor and in the surgery
0:07:40 > 0:07:44# Come a nice, young girl with a vaccination plea
0:07:44 > 0:07:48# Well, I'll vaccinate you darling I said I willing are
0:07:48 > 0:07:52# I'll vaccinate you darling with the end of me old cigar
0:07:52 > 0:07:56# With the end of me old cigar Hoorah hoorah hoorah
0:07:56 > 0:07:59# I'll vaccinate you, beauty where you couldn't see the scar
0:07:59 > 0:08:03# And as she stands and shows the boys around the public bar
0:08:03 > 0:08:05# Saying look at what the doctor's done for me
0:08:05 > 0:08:07# With the end of his old cigar
0:08:07 > 0:08:11# Yes the end of me old cigar hoorah hoorah hoorah
0:08:11 > 0:08:14# I walked down Piccadilly and they think that I'm a star
0:08:14 > 0:08:17# I ain't because I'm handsome or I'm a la-di-dah
0:08:17 > 0:08:20# But I tickled the lady's fancy with the end of me old cigar. #
0:08:20 > 0:08:23That's it.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25Oi!
0:08:25 > 0:08:27APPLAUSE
0:08:32 > 0:08:35And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's bubbles time.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38So why don't you all join in with a rip-roaring chorus
0:08:38 > 0:08:42of I'm For Ever Blowing Bubbles?
0:08:42 > 0:08:49# I'm for ever blowing bubbles
0:08:49 > 0:08:56# I will always follow follow everywhere... #
0:08:56 > 0:09:01'The success of the West Ham team had gone to the heads of some of the supporters.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05'And the crowd, who haven't had much to cheer about in recent years,
0:09:05 > 0:09:06'made the most of it.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14'The mayor, Mrs Marjorie Helps, looked to have forgotten the dignity of her office in the excitement.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19'The first player on the balcony was 17-year-old Paul Allen.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22'The youngest man to appear in a Cup final.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29'Trevor Brooking, the scorer of the West Ham goal, has seen it all before.'
0:09:29 > 0:09:31FANS CONTINUE TO SING
0:09:31 > 0:09:35'They are a great team of street footballers down in the East End.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39'One day, they are going to be top of the league. The champion centre forward of the future
0:09:39 > 0:09:42'is young Alfie, but he finds it tough going.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'That no hands rule was meant for bigger chaps.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52'Oh, dear, he has fallen down again and the game goes on without him.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55'Why do the goals always get scored when Alfie's out of the running?'
0:09:56 > 0:09:59'This type of football that's played in the streets,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02'is a rough and tumble affair whereby the boys
0:10:02 > 0:10:07'create instinctive dribbling ability to get out of the way of a lunging tackle.'
0:10:09 > 0:10:15These natural talents and keenness are the things that make them stand out from the other boys in the team.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17It is at this time that we hope that one of these boys
0:10:17 > 0:10:21one day may wear the colours of West Ham United.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31It's just everything I wanted.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33I always wanted to be a professional footballer
0:10:33 > 0:10:35so I jumped at the opportunity.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:10:40 > 0:10:44OK, lads, let's just work on some individual skills. First of all,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47we will work across and then back to this side of the gym.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Then work backwards with your ball, pulling it towards you,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58right the way over. Nice touch.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Right the way over. Off you go. There and back.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11That's it, Derek, nice and sharp. Well done, Ray, that's good.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14I chose West Ham more because of the atmosphere.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20When I went to other clubs, they seemed to treat you as a nothing.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22They wanted you and that's all they wanted.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25They wanted your name on that form.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28When I came to West Ham, it was completely different.
0:11:28 > 0:11:34# Fortune's always hiding
0:11:35 > 0:11:42# I've looked everywhere doo da doo da doo da doo
0:11:42 > 0:11:48# I'm for ever blowing bubbles
0:11:49 > 0:11:54# Pretty bubbles in the air
0:11:56 > 0:12:01# Pretty bubbles in the air. #
0:12:06 > 0:12:08They don't bite, do they?
0:12:08 > 0:12:12The only time they have bitten me is when I chop their heads off and they're wiggling about the boards.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17- They bite then, do they?- Or they snap you.- They're snapping all the time.- It's just the nerves.- Yeah.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22If one of them grabs hold of you, it shakes you up a bit. Just the head like.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27# Cor jellied eels, jellied eels woggling about like wonky wheels
0:12:27 > 0:12:29# Why just frown? They look so sickly
0:12:29 > 0:12:31# Slide them down your throat and quickly
0:12:31 > 0:12:36# Don't bring up any empty gut I knows just how you feels
0:12:36 > 0:12:40# When you gets a taste you won't want to waste your lovely jellied eel. #
0:12:41 > 0:12:46'In less polluted times, Thames eels were cheap - a valuable part of the daily diet.'
0:12:46 > 0:12:54I should say eels, they must be the most nutrimental food there is.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00'The days when eels were easily trapped in local rivers are long gone.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04'But since the craving for them remains, they are flown in from overseas.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10'Wherever they come from, Ireland or New Zealand, they have to be alive when they reach London.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13'The eels are stored in tanks until their hour has come,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17'and then they are slithered into boxes ready for execution.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19'As any Cockney will tell you, the best way to eat eels
0:13:19 > 0:13:23'is to boil them for about 20 minutes until they are tender.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28'Tubby Isaacs knows by the feel, when they are ready to be poured into bowls,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31'where they'll be entombed in their own jelly.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36'Although you can get jellied eels in certain West End restaurants,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38'they are at their best when eaten standing up.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41'Most of them are taken in big enamel bowls
0:13:41 > 0:13:45'to be sold in markets, at dog tracks, street stalls all over London.'
0:13:48 > 0:13:51If jellied eels are the traditional food of the East End, which they are,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54the traditional way to eat them is with pepper and vinegar
0:13:54 > 0:13:59and in the open air. And one of the best places is down here in Aldgate at Tubby Isaacs' stall.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Tubby, somebody told me once that jellied eels were an aphrodisiac. Any truth in that?
0:14:04 > 0:14:07They've been known to be an aphrodisiac.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13This was one of the things they blamed the high population in the East End of London for.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17One of our cries used to be, when we was flogging our wares in the old days,
0:14:17 > 0:14:23was, "Every one's a baby. Come and have a basin!" This used to be a regular call of ours.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25# They're loving their jellied eels! #
0:15:00 > 0:15:03'This is the department store of Mrs Smith down East,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07'only for departments say barrows,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11'for lifts and floors, think of steps along the pavement.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17'Noisy and colourful, but kindly and thoughtful too.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20'Under the open sky, Mrs Smith goes shopping as a friend of friend
0:15:20 > 0:15:22'with the storekeepers - knows them by name.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26'Knows there's no under-the-counter business on a barrow.'
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Come here, girls. There's no business like grow business.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Don't waste all your money on food and clothes when you can have flowers in the garden.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36# They are all very fine and large
0:15:36 > 0:15:38# They're fat and proud and prime
0:15:38 > 0:15:41# If you fancy you can beat them it'll take you all your time
0:15:41 > 0:15:45# They're the finest in creation and I make no extra charge
0:15:45 > 0:15:49# Who'll chance at a dozen or two? They're all very fine and large... #
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Who's got another giant bag there for 10p?
0:15:52 > 0:15:56The first customer, yours or mine, for 25.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Never mind about six bob, a dollar - four bob.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Who will give me three bob for four of them?
0:16:01 > 0:16:05# ..To be too modest nowadays is not a thing that pays
0:16:05 > 0:16:08# It is best to shout what you've to sell in these advertising days
0:16:08 > 0:16:13# I add to that, you all well know the public always pays
0:16:13 > 0:16:18# They are all very fine and large They are fat and proud and prime
0:16:18 > 0:16:21# If you fancy, you can beat them It will take you all your time
0:16:21 > 0:16:25# They are the finest in creation and I make no extra charge
0:16:25 > 0:16:29# Now, who will have a chance at a dozen or two? They are all very fine and large. #
0:16:34 > 0:16:36MAN: 'I can remember when it was crowded with stalls
0:16:36 > 0:16:40'and they would be shouting out, "Penny a pound for pears." It was friendly.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45'You'd come up here with your mother and it was a shopping expedition and it was a social expedition.'
0:16:45 > 0:16:48- WOMAN:- 'It seems to me that Petticoat Lane personifies the fact
0:16:48 > 0:16:53'that all races and colours can live easily and comfortably together if they are just left alone.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56'All my young life I'd seen new groups of immigrants
0:16:56 > 0:17:01'constantly arriving in the East End and very quickly calling themselves Cockneys.'
0:17:01 > 0:17:04JEWISH MUSIC
0:17:04 > 0:17:07'Whitechapel Market, that few hundred yards of pavement
0:17:07 > 0:17:13'which Abraham Nahum Stencl, the Yiddish poet, called sacred.'
0:17:15 > 0:17:18IN YIDDISH
0:17:18 > 0:17:21'What you can buy here, buy it dirt cheap.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23'All bargains. An ox for a penny.
0:17:23 > 0:17:24'Buy. Buy. Buy.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29'Above the singing gramophone records, the voice of the barkers rises harsh.'
0:17:29 > 0:17:33MAN IN YIDDISH
0:17:44 > 0:17:48IN YIDDISH
0:17:48 > 0:17:49'With a needle in his lapel,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52'with wife and child, fleeing the Kishinev pogrom,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'a tailor has come.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57'In a foggy street in a dark tumbledown house,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00'an open door where he felt at home.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03'At each window sings a Singer machine,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07'accompanied by the press iron's hiss and glow.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11'Jewish workers live here, as the children of Israel did
0:18:11 > 0:18:12'in the land of Gulshan long ago.'
0:18:17 > 0:18:21'Most Jewish family businesses have left the area now,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23'moved on to better things,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26'but Solly Shamroth likes it here and chooses to stay.'
0:18:28 > 0:18:30We can send that one up to Newcastle.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34'His right-hand man, Danny Tabi, was born and raised in the Lane
0:18:34 > 0:18:36'and joined Solly 25 years ago.'
0:18:36 > 0:18:38It was a Wednesday afternoon, actually.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40I was just walking down the road.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45I walked in and asked for a job and he said, "Start the next day."
0:18:45 > 0:18:48And that's how I got into the fur trade.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54'When Brick Lane was a Jewish Ghetto,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58'it was the heart of London's rag trade.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00'In that respect, little has changed.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02'But the Jews have all gone now
0:19:02 > 0:19:05'and Bengalis have quietly taken their places.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08'Often at the very same sewing machine.'
0:19:08 > 0:19:10People used to have small factories.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Now there is different styles around.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18It is harder for the workers now and the money is going down.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20I have to get my own business.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26If my father was running this shop, nobody would be talking.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35You cannot walk down Whitechapel
0:19:35 > 0:19:40without seeing suffering, drama and misery.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46And it's unfortunate that I'm drawn like a magnet to that place.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49When you see a man rolling on the pavement in Whitechapel,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53drunk out of his mind, you have got to ask yourself the question,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56why is he drunk out of his mind? Does he have a reason?
0:19:56 > 0:19:59You start asking yourself a lot of questions.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Do you mind if I do a quick picture of you?
0:20:04 > 0:20:06- You can do what you want. - Ah, you are very nice.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09- I'm only killing time.- You haven't got any other commitments?
0:20:09 > 0:20:13No, I'm only an ex-merchant seaman.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Can you look, would you look at me?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21After 20 years, I haven't stopped coming back to this district
0:20:21 > 0:20:26because I think it's the most visually fascinating district
0:20:26 > 0:20:30in the whole of London. In fact the whole of England.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35We're sitting in the best reservoir of photographic images
0:20:35 > 0:20:37that you could ever want for.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42I take about a square mile and I walk it
0:20:42 > 0:20:43and I absolutely kind of walk it.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46I criss-cross it, I double back on myself,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49I behave like some of the people I photograph.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51You become paranoid after several hours of walking.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59There are many wars. There are wars that concern bullets and guns
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and there are wars that take place in cities which I call social wars.
0:21:03 > 0:21:04I put just as much energy
0:21:04 > 0:21:07into showing the misery of these social wars
0:21:07 > 0:21:10as I do of the wars that involve guns.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15When I see a man like this sitting in a shop doorway cold and freezing,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18there is no way I'm going to walk past him
0:21:18 > 0:21:19and not make a statement about it.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Do you think you can just look straight into this camera?
0:21:26 > 0:21:30- Do you think I could make a portrait of you? Do you mind?- No, not at all.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32I prefer to go in with a wide angled lens
0:21:32 > 0:21:35because I like to be right up at the front.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40I am what I consider to be a confrontation photographer.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43I don't like to be deceitful about it.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Some of the people here
0:21:45 > 0:21:49have got the highest kind of qualities as human beings
0:21:49 > 0:21:53and it doesn't mean that because you live in an area like this,
0:21:53 > 0:21:54you don't have any dignity.
0:21:56 > 0:21:57I come here as a photographer
0:21:57 > 0:22:01and I am just pursuing the social image
0:22:01 > 0:22:04and there is a lot of drama here. It's social drama.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06It's just as...it's not as bad as a war
0:22:06 > 0:22:09because you don't actually see people with bullet holes,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13but you see a lot of misery and you see a lot of pain here.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16What part of the world are you from?
0:22:16 > 0:22:19I come from London. I am a Londoner.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21I've seen you around a bit, haven't I?
0:22:21 > 0:22:25- Oh! I'm an Ulsterman. - Can I make a portrait of you?
0:22:25 > 0:22:28- Yes, definitely. - That's very kind of you.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33An old soldier of the last war.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57There we are in once was a hive of industry.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01This is a part of the London docks and this is known as Shadwell Basin.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06This was served by 3,000 boat-registered workers.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10'Dockers, tallymen, checkers, stevedores,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12'hatchmen, winchmen, samplers, grain porters,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14'timber porters, teamers, tacklemen,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17'yard masters, shunters, pilots, tugboatmen, foyboatmen,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20'fresh watermen, blacksmiths, boilersmiths, masons, bricklayers,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23'joiners, shipwrights, 'pattern makers, ship chandlers,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25'gangers, tractormen, coopers,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27'bank riders, weighers, dock watchmen,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30'dredgermen, launchmen, needlemen, jetty clerks, warehousemen,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33'measurers, coal trimmers, lightermen, lumpers...
0:23:33 > 0:23:36'and just as you think you've named them all,
0:23:36 > 0:23:38'up goes a crane driver to his seat in the sky.'
0:23:38 > 0:23:42There'd be 300 or 400 on call of a morning,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45because you had to get there around about seven o'clock
0:23:45 > 0:23:47to hear the whispers
0:23:47 > 0:23:49because you would want to know where the work was.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56Used to have a system where they had some little brass tallies.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59If they gave you a brass tally, they didn't ask your name,
0:23:59 > 0:24:01if they gave you a brass tally,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03you was employed for a day's work
0:24:03 > 0:24:05or half a day, whatever it may be.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Now the thing was, when you got that brass tally in your hand,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10you had to grab it quick
0:24:10 > 0:24:12because if you didn't, what used to happen,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15someone else'd knock it up and away go your brass tally
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and whoever picked that brass tally up got the day's work.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24And at night, my house, which is now bombed, it's all gone,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28it used to overlook the West Garden Gate of the London docks
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and I could see the funnels
0:24:31 > 0:24:34and the cranes and the mast,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36and you used to hear the sirens at night
0:24:36 > 0:24:40and this was one of the most romantic feelings in the world.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42I'm certain it's one of the reasons that led me
0:24:42 > 0:24:46to become a foreign correspondent. I used to dream of far away places.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Very hard to picture that one day it would be like this.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59And now it's like, when you remember the old Western films
0:24:59 > 0:25:02of the ghost towns, that's exactly what it reminds me of
0:25:02 > 0:25:04as I'm looking at it now.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34'My grandfather found this little house in Spellman Street
0:25:34 > 0:25:36'just off the Whitechapel Road
0:25:36 > 0:25:39'and he and my grandmother lived here till the day they died.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44'I used to come every single day for lunch from school around the corner.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51'The house is now occupied by immigrant Cypriots.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53'Maybe in five years' time, it will be Pakistanis.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55'And who knows after that?'
0:25:59 > 0:26:05I can't believe this is the same place that I knew at all.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09This was the, erm... this was the front room.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The weddings and the Passovers we held. I don't know how we all got in!
0:26:16 > 0:26:19And the big family meetings were held in this room.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24My grandfather used to sit at the window
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and watch everybody go by all the time. He knew everybody.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33He was one of the elders at the synagogue and knew the street
0:26:33 > 0:26:37and people were always coming up to ask his advice on this or that.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45This is Custom House, south Canning Town.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50Custom built for the poor. The first joke I ever wrote,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53"They've pulled down my old house and built a slum."
0:26:53 > 0:26:56I thought it was funny then.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01'The Isle of Dogs isn't really an island.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03'It's a U-shaped bend in the River Thames
0:27:03 > 0:27:06'riddled with so many locks and canals linked to docks
0:27:06 > 0:27:08'that it's almost cut off.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11'It's also a depressed and deprived area.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13'Officially listed as needing urban aid
0:27:13 > 0:27:15'and being an educational priority area.'
0:27:21 > 0:27:25'A vast area of land and water was released for redevelopment
0:27:25 > 0:27:27'right in the heart of the city.'
0:27:33 > 0:27:35'Since the docks were closed,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38'derelict warehouses have been converted
0:27:38 > 0:27:43'into flats and penthouses at prices only the privileged few can afford.'
0:27:43 > 0:27:44This is the penthouse,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46the most expensive flat we have in the building.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48What will it set me back?
0:27:48 > 0:27:50We can sell it to you for 310,000.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I always saw my future as living round here
0:28:02 > 0:28:06and when this land was built on, there'd be a house for me.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12Either to buy cheaply or to rent. And I was really shocked.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15None of us say that we want to live in the past.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19There is a kind of nostalgia for the past,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22but the past was bloody hard for most people
0:28:22 > 0:28:26and everybody wants to see changing better life,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30but it depends upon the price that you have to pay.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37'It's one thing to dream of a bright new city by the Waterside.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39'Another to create it.'
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd