0:00:02 > 0:00:06BBC Four Collections - archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10For this Collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected
0:00:10 > 0:00:12programmes about Post-War Architecture.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Leeds, the Settle and Carlisle railway
0:00:23 > 0:00:25and its great viaduct at Ribblehead,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Carlisle, the border town of Hawick, Edinburgh.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Ian Nairn hardly took a direct route.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35But he did take a route that allowed him to sound off,
0:00:35 > 0:00:36and that's the important thing.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41His films are not travel programmes, though they are films about travel.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43This one is anecdotally strong.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47It's also typically demonstrative of Nairn's desire to see the everyday
0:00:47 > 0:00:49improved.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52He believed, and it's an unfashionable belief today,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55that better places might make better people
0:00:55 > 0:01:00and that better places could only be achieved through necessity,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03that is, through buildings, transport systems,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07public spaces and so on which are part of the organism of a town
0:01:07 > 0:01:10or village, and not plastered-on gestures.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Leeds, in midsummer 1972.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04This is midsummer day, give or take a few inches of rain.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08The last journey, by canal, ended only a few yards from here,
0:02:08 > 0:02:10the back of Leeds City station.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14This journey starts from the station, to look at a railway
0:02:14 > 0:02:17and the landscape it goes through.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This is a jumping-off point for the Settle and Carlisle, which is
0:02:21 > 0:02:24the most dramatic mainline in England.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27It goes from Settle right up into the Pennines,
0:02:27 > 0:02:32over the top, down to Kirby Stephen, then to Carlisle,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36through the Eden Valley, which is marvellous countryside.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39And then from there, from Carlisle to Edinburgh.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42This time, the railway is gone, it went a few years ago,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46a railway which used to be a lifeline to border towns like Hawick
0:02:46 > 0:02:48and Galashiels.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51The first part of the journey, as far as Skipton,
0:02:51 > 0:02:53is in fact the canal journey in reverse, because both railway
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and canal had to follow the Aire Valley,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57it was the only way they could get through the hills.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59HOOTER BLARES
0:03:17 > 0:03:23The great thing about journeys in different modes of transport is that
0:03:23 > 0:03:25each time you see a different place,
0:03:25 > 0:03:26the same place on the ground,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30but each time you see it you rediscover it in a different way.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Having come by canal down there, now going through it,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35cleaving through it on the railway,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40you could say that the canal was respecting the Aire Valley,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44where the railway here is sort of using it, driving through it.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48But, as soon as we get up on the Pennines, the situation is reversed.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50The landscape is totally in charge.
0:04:01 > 0:04:02Here, beyond Keighley,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05we've just about run out of the industrial West Riding.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10The landscape is already beginning to dominate
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and the hills are turning up on either side of the Aire Valley.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17The next port of call is Skipton.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21It's only 20 miles out, but already, from Leeds,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25you've got into a completely different landscape.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58That's where I leave the train, though not the rail line itself.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The main reason is there aren't very many of them.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05That was a service from Leeds to Morecambe.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08But, you know, a fair number of those every day.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11But that turns off from here and goes over to the other side of England,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14the main line north, the actual Settle and Carlisle,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17only has two trains each way every day,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19and two of those in the middle of the night.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24And anyway, this thing is not just about the railway, it's about
0:05:24 > 0:05:26all the places on and near the railway,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28and what the railway's done to them,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31how their character has been changed by it, or not changed.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35The first of those, the one that gave half the name to the line,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38is Settle itself, which is 15 miles north of here,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41sort of 15 miles deeper into the Dales.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04It's a bit of Settle, and it's not quite what it seems, really.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10This street here is in fact the balcony above the Shambles,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14the old market hall. Four little houses on top. Why not?
0:06:14 > 0:06:17It's a very reasonable way of doing it, uses the space twice,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20and it's sort of typical of the quirkiness of the place.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24It's very much its own, own person, Settle,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27much more than Skipton down the road, which is not quite industrial,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30not quite tourist, not quite market town.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32This is the very end of market day
0:06:32 > 0:06:38and you feel all the time that it's a local centre.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41It's not really worried by tourists, although it does have tourists.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44It's doing its own thing,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48doing its own thing in the buildings, as well, the way they crowd together
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and huddle up.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54This isn't picturesqueness, so much as complete practicality, keeping
0:06:54 > 0:06:57the wind out, because the wind can be diabolical here in winter.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59And, in fact, in June.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03It's very well looked after, apart from the main road traffic which
0:07:03 > 0:07:07goes through here, which could be got rid of easily.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Everything else is well kept up, but not too well kept up,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14it's just healthy and going on happily.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19There's a new public library and some flats just at the back, for example.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Nothing special, but just that bit more care,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27not leaving the site just as a vacant hole in the middle of the town.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Everything's trim here.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30And opposite that library,
0:07:30 > 0:07:35there's a typical bit of Settle or Dales bloody-mindedness.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38It's the most elaborate house in Settle.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40It's been called a folly, and with good reason.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43The designer, whoever he was, really did mix it.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45He mixed classical and Tudor
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and stirred the whole lot up into a colossal goulash.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50The railway?
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Well, it's just over at the back of the houses there.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57But it hardly affects the town at all. There's no railway suburb.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00The station now is almost a period piece,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04with gas lamps and what you might call Victoriana, you know, things
0:08:04 > 0:08:07you'd see in antiques shops in the King's Road, which is very nice,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11but I suspect the reason is that British Rail are slowly running
0:08:11 > 0:08:12the line down.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14They won't bother to replace anything,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16they'll just leave it until it crumbles, which is sad.
0:08:49 > 0:08:5315 miles further on on the Settle and Carlisle,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56and 1,000 feet up, the Ribblehead Viaduct, which is
0:08:56 > 0:08:59probably the most impressive engineering structure on the line.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02A magnificent thing in magnificent scenery.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05A real case of where man's building
0:09:05 > 0:09:08and nature are completely complementary.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14This valley is actually a wind funnel into the prevailing wind and there is
0:09:14 > 0:09:17a story that a chap working on top had his hat taken off,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21it got swirled under the arch, with the air currents,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24came back the other side and back onto his head again.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28But a lot of the stories aren't as funny as that.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32In three years, 100 men died here building this viaduct.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Not all accidents, but an awful lot of them were, accidents and disease.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41This was the last great railway work actually done by the navvies,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45that is, simple straightforward sweat and no mechanical aids.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50They travelled around and established shanty towns,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53and one of them was just here. It was called Batty Green.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58And when the line construction was at its peak, which was about 1870,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01there were about 2,000 people working here.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And Batty Green was equipped not only with pubs but with a hospital
0:10:05 > 0:10:06and a public library.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15From here on, for about 15 miles now, we're stuck on or above 1,000 feet,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19almost nothing, just the tracks and the hills
0:10:19 > 0:10:24and very occasional wayside halts which now, alas, are closed.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44I said there weren't many passenger trains on this line,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46but there's an awful lot of freight.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50It's a link still worth keeping between Scotland and Yorkshire.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52This is Dent Station.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55It is, or rather was, the highest mainline station in Britain.
0:10:55 > 0:10:581,150 feet up.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00And even though it is something like three miles
0:11:00 > 0:11:03from the village down there, something like 500 feet down,
0:11:03 > 0:11:08on one hell of a road, it is still a link, or could be.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Now the station is closed, the buildings are used as a kind
0:11:12 > 0:11:16of adventure centre for a school in Burnley, which is good in itself.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18But meanwhile, especially in the winter,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20you just can't get out of Dent except by road.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23And there are times when that's impossible.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27They're not joking when they put snow fences up here.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30And Dent itself is a quite remarkable place.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34They've absolutely packed the houses together here.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Just at this point, the village street is not much wider than I am.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42And it's all common sense, huddling together against the wind
0:11:42 > 0:11:43and the weather.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And it's common sense that's still relevant today, you know,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49in places in Britain that have this kind of winter weather,
0:11:49 > 0:11:50Scotsnewdowns, for example,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54because it can surely blow pretty hard up there.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56And, although it's a very pretty village,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00you might say a kind of Clovelly, it is also a working village.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03There's one or two souvenir shops, inevitably,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07but nothing overwhelming, the place is in balance.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10It's still a real community, and still in a real Yorkshire Dale,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12we're still in the West Riding here,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16although it's only a few miles to Kendal and Westmorland.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21And what I'd like to see, even in what is a national park,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25the Dales National Park here, is just a bit more employment,
0:12:25 > 0:12:31you know, a small factory, to keep the spirit of the place alive,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35to stop mass immigration and all the houses fill up with weekenders
0:12:35 > 0:12:37or second homes.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39The place is bigger and stronger than that.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45It could be done. It could be done carefully, and they are careful here.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Careful, for example, not to have asphalted this lot over.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53Careful in the car park, where instead, again, of mass asphalt,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56there's going to be a concrete framework, soil on that,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59grass on top of that. You can do it.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02And, with a bit of luck, just a tiny bypass,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06because it's quiet enough now, but when traffic comes through,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10and it has to because there are through roads through Dent,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12it gets a bit cramped up there.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17But what really hits me is the absolute need for the place to be
0:13:17 > 0:13:19just like this just here,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23with the hills behind the church and everything huddling in.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27You know, so many places now are built without any need at all,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31just for lowest common denominator materialism.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Appleby is the only passenger stop between Settle and Carlisle.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00And it's certainly a place worth stopping off for.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02It was, in fact, a medieval new town.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05It didn't grow up accidentally at a ford in the river or
0:14:05 > 0:14:06anything like that.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10The whole town was laid out at one go, though the buildings, of course,
0:14:10 > 0:14:11have changed.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13There's a castle at the top of the hill here,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17a church down at the bottom, most of the town's shops in-between.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21It's... It's a very solid, nice plan, that.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24The kind of thing that's just as valid today, really.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29But as well as that, there's all the taste of Appleby.
0:14:29 > 0:14:30Over the centuries,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32they've embellished it in all sorts of little ways.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Like the obelisk here, which they think was put up to commemorate
0:14:37 > 0:14:42Charles II's restoration, because Appleby was a staunch Royalist place.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44This sort of defines this end of the town.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Not only that, there's another one, it's a sort of twin,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49down at the low end of the town,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53so that, wherever you are in this high street, Boroughgate, you can
0:14:53 > 0:14:56relate yourself exactly by looking at the two obelisks.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Nearer to this one, further from that one.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And the church itself has a little screen in front of it.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07Super idea, this, because from the top end of town you see screen
0:15:07 > 0:15:10and church as one building, you think it's an extra aisle.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Lower down, you suddenly realise that it isn't, it's a thing in front,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17separate building, which you have to go through to get to the church,
0:15:17 > 0:15:18under an arch.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Things like that crystallise a town, make it absolutely unique.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29And, overall, it's such a solid, sane uniqueness in Appleby.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33It's not loaded with international tourism and gimmicks.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38It's just going on with its business, quietly, naturally, it's there to
0:15:38 > 0:15:41look at if you want to, it's not thrusting it down your throat.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46From here on in, slow diminuendo down to the Solway Firth,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50the hills gradually fading away, you know, hanging on as long as they can,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53but then, flat land and Carlisle.
0:16:28 > 0:16:29Well, that's it.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33The end of the Settle and Carlisle line, with one of the two expresses
0:16:33 > 0:16:40being held up, alas, a few yards away from Carlisle Citadel Station.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42This is the mainline on the left,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44the one that comes up from Euston through Crewe.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48I reckon meself it ought to be given right of way because
0:16:48 > 0:16:51the Settle and Carlisle deserves it.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53It must not go!
0:16:53 > 0:16:56British Rail have just started to reopen one or two lines,
0:16:56 > 0:17:01rather timid ones, really, to preserved steam locomotives.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04The whole of the Settle and Carlisle is ready-made for this.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09I was lucky enough just once to see one of those things panting up over
0:17:09 > 0:17:10the Ribblesdale viaduct.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12It's something I won't forget.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And just beyond, when they eventually let it into the station,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20is Carlisle itself, which I'd like to have a look at.
0:17:28 > 0:17:29Almost everywhere between Settle
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and Carlisle has a very strong sense of identity.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Carlisle itself, to me, seems to have none at all. It's got addled.
0:17:37 > 0:17:43It's as if all the border people that have come through it have somehow
0:17:43 > 0:17:47rubbed out the town altogether. This isn't only my opinion.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52Almost everyone I've spoken to has had the same feeling about the place.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54It goes back a long way.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59In 1830, a local newspaper was saying that they were neither Scots
0:17:59 > 0:18:01nor Irish nor English, but a mongrel breed of all three...
0:18:02 > 0:18:05..which is puzzling when you think of Berwick-upon-Tweed
0:18:05 > 0:18:06on the other side of the country,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09which is so terribly strong and its own place.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13This is all reflected visually.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15In the marketplace in Carlisle,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20I'm leaning on an Art Nouveau ladies' lavatory, which is about the last
0:18:20 > 0:18:25decent thing that's been put up here - it's all cacophony. It's a mess.
0:18:25 > 0:18:26The traffic's a mess.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30The...flowerbeds...they're nice flowers
0:18:30 > 0:18:33but they don't belong in a marketplace.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The lamp standards are thick and ugly.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39It's all getting in the way of the shape of the town.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43You just can't see the wood for the trees here.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46It really does need its own head shrinker -
0:18:46 > 0:18:49what I mean by a town planner, or what he ought to be.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53And if I was trying to plan Carlisle, I might say, well, all right, it is
0:18:53 > 0:18:56such a mess, let's simply leave it as it is.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58But one or two things make me
0:18:58 > 0:19:00think the situation isn't as hopeless as that.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03One is that this place, like everywhere else, has
0:19:03 > 0:19:07something from the past that you can hang on to and develop and expand.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11And here, a collection of alleyways, about a dozen of them,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13very close together indeed.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Some of them are still used for shopping now and they're not pretty
0:19:16 > 0:19:18but they are a working part of the town.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Others are left derelict or blocked or car parks.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25That's not the way to get a sense of identity.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30And the other thing, which, perhaps, is more important,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33is that this marketplace didn't always look like this.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37What has grown up here, this lack of identity,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40has happened in the last 30 or 40 years.
0:19:40 > 0:19:46From a photograph of 1898 you can see that it had a complete unity
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and it allowed the important parts of the town, like the statue
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and Carlisle Cross, the market cross there,
0:19:53 > 0:19:55the building behind it, to speak,
0:19:55 > 0:20:01to provide a real heart to the place, not, as I said before, this mess.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Because now, look at it.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06County town of Cumberland?
0:20:06 > 0:20:08All the places in Cumberland
0:20:08 > 0:20:15and the centre can be no more guts to it than you see here? It's not on.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18That, for me, is about enough of an addled place.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21I'd rather get on a bit further up the line towards Edinburgh.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39I'm sorry, I'm about three-and-a-half years late for the train to
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Edinburgh from Longtown.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44Expresses used to run through here all the way from St Pancras, up over
0:20:44 > 0:20:49the Settle and Carlisle, and then Carlisle to Edinburgh, on this route.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51The line was closed in 1969.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56There was a chance at one time it was going to be reopened privately,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00not done as an enthusiasts' railway, but as a proper commercial concern,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02quite independent of British Rail.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07They couldn't get the money in time, and now the track's been taken up.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12I don't really give it much chance. Pity, though. What a waste.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16What a waste here. This stuff is good machinery.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Not to be left lying around derelict like this.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24At the very least now,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29this could become a different sort of indoor adventure playground.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31It could become a house, I wouldn't mind living in this.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Keep all the stuff, and convert these to beer pumps.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41Longtown itself is only, what, eight miles from Carlisle.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46So, closing the railway hasn't meant an enormous problem.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Eight-mile bus journey is not too bad.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51But that's not at all true of the places further up there,
0:21:51 > 0:21:52into the hills.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06This is one of the wildest parts of the border, between Carlisle
0:22:06 > 0:22:12and Hawick. There's just greenery, me, and a railway junction.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16This is Riccarton, and it really was a junction
0:22:16 > 0:22:21because not only does the Carlisle Edinburgh come through here, but also
0:22:21 > 0:22:25a line which went down to Bellingham, down the Tyne Valley to Hexham.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28So, you could, quite literally, go from here to both King's Cross
0:22:28 > 0:22:31and St Pancras. Now gone, all gone.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35It was very odd in another way
0:22:35 > 0:22:38because for almost 100 years there was absolutely no road access to
0:22:38 > 0:22:40this place, you just had to get in by rail,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42it was the only way you could do it.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I can't visualise this half-mile of platform packed with
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Newcastle supporters or something, going to a Glasgow football match,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53but something like that could have happened.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55There's a road now, and it's rather sad, in a way,
0:22:55 > 0:22:57because it's a forestry road.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01In other words, little green fir trees are coming here by the million.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06It's a great pity to swamp these huge, rolling hills
0:23:06 > 0:23:08just for the sake of a bit more timber.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Ah, get off.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Hawick is the next town on the route,
0:23:14 > 0:23:19and it's the one which has suffered most from the closure of the railway,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23it's the one which is furthest from any railhead.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Hawick Station. The station's open.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The only thing is there don't happen to be any railway tracks running
0:23:35 > 0:23:36through it.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41The reason it's open is that British Rail operate a service here where
0:23:41 > 0:23:44the goods come in, collected, taken out in British Rail vans
0:23:44 > 0:23:47to either Carlisle or Edinburgh.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50It begins to look as though someone is trying really hard to invent
0:23:50 > 0:23:52the railway.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55And the reason why this is still going is that Hawick is an industrial
0:23:55 > 0:24:00town, it's not just a small, local centre.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03It's that as well, but, basically, it lives on textiles,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05particularly tweeds.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11You could almost be back in the West Riding here, same dark brown stone,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13the same mills crowding the river,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16the same hills coming in very close on all sides.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20And this industrial character is not conventionally beautiful,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22but very nice.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25It has a very strong sense of identity after Carlisle,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27which has very little.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30And the main street has a very strong character.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35It's fairly narrow, tall buildings, so you really know you're there.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39Occasional outcrops on the skyline, like the Victorian town hall.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43And a set of, for a town of this size, colossal banks.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Like Florentine palaces. All this is almost on an Edinburgh scale.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Without having any dramatically beautiful buildings it's still
0:24:51 > 0:24:52a very worthwhile place.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57And if you do go anywhere by bus you're a bit stuck
0:24:57 > 0:24:59because there is no bus station.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01There is a bus turn-round place,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03I mean, you just pick it up at a bus stop.
0:25:03 > 0:25:04But when you compare that,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08standing out in the open entirely with no facilities,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12with the facilities that were, well, still are provided here in name
0:25:12 > 0:25:15though not in fact - you know, waiting rooms and ladies' and gents'
0:25:15 > 0:25:17and that, probably a buffet, bookstall,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22that's still there - it seems we're making a bad exchange.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26There's a sort of Marie Celeste feeling about this because, as I say,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29the parcels office is still going, so it's still inhabited,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33but nothing is happening this side of the station buildings.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37And the same thing will be true all the way up to Edinburgh now.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Hawick I just wanted to show because it was representative.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43The point of this part of the journey, basically,
0:25:43 > 0:25:49is to make very sure that this kind of useless dereliction - you know,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53parts of the tracks are going to be a cemetery in the end. Eugh! -
0:25:53 > 0:25:56this kind of dereliction doesn't happen to the Settle and Carlisle.
0:26:01 > 0:26:02We're on a real railway again.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07We're also back to something pretty much like a British summer.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09But in terms of Edinburgh, it's not a bad thing
0:26:09 > 0:26:13because it's one hell of an atmospheric city.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17It just gives it an extra punch, whether it's to the castle,
0:26:17 > 0:26:22or to the long, straight avenue of Princes Street.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Or even to the new shopping precinct which is not living up to Edinburgh's
0:26:26 > 0:26:28past traditions.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31We're up on the Calton Hill here, and some pretty odd things
0:26:31 > 0:26:34are happening up here, as well as over there.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Like this, for example, which is a copy of the Parthenon.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42It was meant to be a national monument, the sort of thing
0:26:42 > 0:26:47they did in the French Revolution, these abstract conceptions.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51But the money ran out, didn't it? So we've now only got about half of it.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53And it's locally known not as a national monument but
0:26:53 > 0:26:55the disgrace of Edinburgh.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57For my money, I don't think it's a disgrace,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00I think it's a marvellous thing to do. But they didn't stop there.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02See, this is 1822,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and within a few years of that they went berserk on this hilltop.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09It's not only this half-finished Parthenon.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11There's a Royal Observatory with a dome,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14there's a Doric temple to a mathematician.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19There is a little rotunda to a philosopher.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21And there is a very large,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24telescopic Gothic tower to Nelson's achievements.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29This is all nuts, it's all crazy and marvellous at the same time.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32This place is a living proof of the fact that if God doesn't exist,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36because none of these are religious buildings, we've got to invent him.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40People have been building their cathedrals, that is
0:27:40 > 0:27:43reaching up to the skies here, for something like a thousand years.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Right up till now, that is, right up till the inarticulate,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49flat roofs of the modern office blocks.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56If I had to sum up these journeys, I suppose very simply,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01the land surface is sacred. Means of transport are sacred.
0:28:01 > 0:28:08Each has its own ethos and each is useful for
0:28:08 > 0:28:11a different pace of journey, a different kind of journey.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16And, finally, I suppose, that all the time, now, 1972,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20for as long as we've got left, we must just go on building cathedrals.