0:00:36 > 0:00:40I don't think there are many better pastimes
0:00:40 > 0:00:43than spending time in the back garden doing this.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45RIVETING
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Yeah, you can't beat a bit of riveting.
0:01:01 > 0:01:07Of course, if you get 'em wrong, they're a hell of a job to get one out!
0:01:09 > 0:01:11I don't suppose riveting
0:01:11 > 0:01:14would be everybody's idea of a good time.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20A day at the seaside or an amusement park would be a bit more like it for most people.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27What people enjoy doing in their spare time varies a lot. In this programme,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30we're looking at different places
0:01:30 > 0:01:34that have been built for leisure and pleasure.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39As well as Blackpool, I'll be going to places like theatres and museums.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44Starting with one of our earliest and best-preserved places of pleasure.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49The city of Bath is very important.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53It has the only hot springs in the country.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58And this is what made it very important to the Romans.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01The Romans developed Bath
0:02:01 > 0:02:04into a city of leisure and pleasure.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07They built around the hot springs
0:02:07 > 0:02:11a wonderful system of baths... and what we can see here, in fact.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15The thing is, along with Hadrians's Wall,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17it's one of the grandest monuments
0:02:17 > 0:02:20that the Roman Empire left behind.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25The main feature is the great bath,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29which is still fed from the hot springs
0:02:29 > 0:02:32by the original Roman plumbing.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35A masterpiece of early civil engineering.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38The hydraulics that control the water flow
0:02:38 > 0:02:42show a detailed knowledge of the art of taming springs.
0:02:42 > 0:02:49The channels that carry the hot water through the baths still function today
0:02:49 > 0:02:52as the Roman engineers intended them to do.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54The baths were a meeting place.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Roman Britons would come here in the afternoon to chat.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00They knew how to enjoy themselves,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02all that time ago.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09Another amenity that Romans introduced to Britain were theatres.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12When they left, the theatres disappeared.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16They never really made a comeback until the Tudor age.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19In Tudor times, this area south of the Thames
0:03:19 > 0:03:21was London's Theatreland.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23It was known as Bankside.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26It was the home of Shakespeare's Globe.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30The theatre was destroyed by fire and no trace of it was left.
0:03:30 > 0:03:37What we see today is an authentic reconstruction that's only 200 yards away from the original.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43It was the vision of an American actor, Sam Wanamaker, who was involved in the project
0:03:43 > 0:03:46from the cutting of the first trees.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50To get the wood, they had to travel all over the country
0:03:50 > 0:03:53to find trees of the right size and shape.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56Peter McCardy is the carpenter
0:03:56 > 0:04:00who was responsible for the whole timber-frame construction.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03If we look at the timber structure here,
0:04:03 > 0:04:09these posts actually reflect the bays inside.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12The basis of timber construction
0:04:12 > 0:04:15is breaking the structure up into a series of bays.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17If we look at these joints,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20we can see we've got these curved braces.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23We look for a tree with that natural curve.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26This is good, this lovely angle.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29In buildings that are polygonal, like this,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33or indeed, in buildings that weren't square in plan,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37and quite a lot of medieval buildings weren't square in plan,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42they would shape the posts to the angle of the building.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46This is shaped approximately to 162 degrees.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Peter, when you started,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52there couldn't have been much left of the original.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56The Globe theatre suffered from fire.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59- Being timber...- The thatched roof.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03The thatched roof led to the demise of the first Globe theatre.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08They fired a live cannon during a performance of Henry VIII.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Some of the wadding went onto the thatch.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15It caught light and the whole thing was razed to the ground.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20That created a problem for anybody who wanted to do a reconstruction.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26There was nothing to work from in the way of any tangible physical evidence.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31There's a number of drawings of the theatres that were done at that time.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34I've got one here on the end of a peg.
0:05:34 > 0:05:40That shows you how big the illustrations are that we've had to work with.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42The building as we see it,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and the timbers and joinery details,
0:05:45 > 0:05:50have had to be based on careful research of other buildings
0:05:50 > 0:05:54which have got similar features and characteristics.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Like the joints for the mortice and tenons
0:05:57 > 0:06:00and all the usual joints pegged together.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03Quite interesting, how you've...
0:06:03 > 0:06:08how it really looks as though it's been sawn with a pit saw.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14In 1987 they discovered the archaeology of the Rose theatre foundations.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18And then in 1989 they excavated the Globe theatre site.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21And it's from those two pieces of information,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26and these drawings, that we've got the overall size of this building.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29100ft diameter and a 20-sided polygon.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Each of these bays represents
0:06:32 > 0:06:34a facet on the building.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37There are 20 around the whole circle.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41The building is really dealt with
0:06:41 > 0:06:44in two-dimensional planes.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46So you don't fabricate
0:06:46 > 0:06:49a 3-D structure, you simply fabricate flat walls.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Once they'd done this, they'd have to take it all apart
0:06:54 > 0:06:56to transport it to the site.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And then piece it all together again.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04It must be one of the biggest timber prefabricated buildings ever made.
0:07:04 > 0:07:11There are various, really interesting refinements that these carpenters evolved
0:07:11 > 0:07:14to ensure that when the timbers were put together,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17they came together with the right angles.
0:07:17 > 0:07:24- If you didn't have the right angle in this building, they wouldn't meet.- Too long or too short!
0:07:24 > 0:07:26You might miss, like this.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32I spent from being 15 years old till I were 22 as a joiner.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35It's wonderful, how it's been done.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41I don't think it could have looked a heck of a lot different when it were first built.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48The principles in Sam's conception for this project were to do as accurate
0:07:48 > 0:07:50a reconstruction as possible.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Peter Street was the original builder
0:07:53 > 0:07:58and I like to feel that if he was standing here instead of me,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00that he would feel comfortable,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04as though it was one of his buildings.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07What would have made him feel at home is not just
0:08:07 > 0:08:11a structure that would have been familiar,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14but the whole design and decoration of the building.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The curtains, the painting of the stage
0:08:18 > 0:08:21and the marbled columns have been recreated
0:08:21 > 0:08:27by craftsmen and women to make it look as it would have done in Shakespeare's day.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31By the 18th century, the design and decoration of buildings
0:08:31 > 0:08:36had become so important that a whole city was built in one style.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40It was at this time that the old Roman city of Bath
0:08:40 > 0:08:45was transformed into the most popular leisure resort in England.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49It became the summer capital of polite society.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52The place to go to take the waters and socialise.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Towns have usually grown up
0:08:57 > 0:09:00in a fairly higgeldy-piggeldy sort of way.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04But Bath is an example of a town whose whole look
0:09:04 > 0:09:07was designed for gracious living.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12It was a Yorkshireman, John Wood,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15whose vision helped to change the face of Bath.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Queen's Square is a perfect example of a design layout,
0:09:19 > 0:09:24with all the houses in it built to the same proportions
0:09:24 > 0:09:26and of the same stone.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28His grandest project,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31the Circus,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35has 30 houses built on a curve, and a paved square.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38When he died, his work was carried on
0:09:38 > 0:09:42by his son, whose greatest work, the Royal Crescent,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45has been called the finest crescent in Europe.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Like his father, the young John Wood was influenced
0:09:49 > 0:09:53by the classical style of Ancient Greece and Imperial Rome.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00Another imperial age left us with some of
0:10:00 > 0:10:02our grandest monuments.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The age of Victoria
0:10:05 > 0:10:08and the British Empire was at its peak.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11The Great Exhibition was held in 1851
0:10:11 > 0:10:14to demonstrate the industrial supremacy
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and the prosperity of Britain.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19It was a great success.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22The profits were used to establish
0:10:22 > 0:10:24an area of museums
0:10:24 > 0:10:27in South Kensington.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29The grand facade
0:10:29 > 0:10:32of the Victoria and Albert Museum
0:10:32 > 0:10:35was built between 1899 and 1909,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38to bring uniformity to a group of buildings
0:10:38 > 0:10:41devoted to the decorative arts.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Aston Webb, the architect,
0:10:44 > 0:10:49wanted to bring the outside into the museum in quite a clever way.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54What he wanted to do was to create a buffer zone, if you like,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56using Portland stone,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59which he used on the outside face.
0:10:59 > 0:11:05He decided to bring what is normally used outside into this first area.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07It works quite well.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10In the other part of the entrance,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12you have the walls rendered.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16The soft plaster brings you into the envelope of the museum.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19All this lovely marble, as well.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23In the entrance here, he wanted to use several marbles.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25The floor is Carrara marble,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27also with black Italian marble
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and also Romanian red marble.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I've got a table in my back kitchen with that pink marble on.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38- Believe it or not! - When we take it up,
0:11:38 > 0:11:40we'll let you have that slab!
0:11:40 > 0:11:42As you get into the museum,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46you can see the way the decoration and the materials used
0:11:46 > 0:11:49were designed to complement the exhibits.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53So this staircase was the one that led up
0:11:53 > 0:11:55to the original ceramics galleries.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59As we walk up the staircase, the whole structure
0:11:59 > 0:12:01is clad in ceramic tile.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04If you look on the staircase, the decoration here
0:12:04 > 0:12:09endlessly repeats the marrying together of science and art.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12S and A, not V and A for Victoria and Albert.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16That's what S and A is there for.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18If we carry on up the staircase,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21you can see above the handrails
0:12:21 > 0:12:24are the painted panels.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27It's almost like a jigsaw,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29how it all fits together.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Little hexagonal pieces.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34They're cut up into smaller pieces that look like
0:12:34 > 0:12:38mosaic tesserae.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43The vitrified tiling was also carried up into the ceiling, too.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49You can spend a day just admiring the decoration
0:12:49 > 0:12:52without looking at any exhibits.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54For me, the most exciting bit
0:12:54 > 0:12:57was being able to get up into the roof
0:12:57 > 0:13:00to see what some of the original buildings
0:13:00 > 0:13:02would have looked like.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06We've now got inside the roof void of the south court.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11As you can see, it's had inserted into the south court, in 1952,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13a modern suspended ceiling.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Getting into the void, you can see
0:13:16 > 0:13:18the original roof structure.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Yeah. And the beautifying.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23And the beautifying.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27It was a bolted iron structure with a glass roof.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31Very similar to the construction of the Crystal Palace.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34The walls are still decorated
0:13:34 > 0:13:36with the original paint scheme.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41- Gold leaf. - Highly decorated.- Yeah, beautiful.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43See the plaster there,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45how it's stuck to the laths,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49which are all the gentle curve of the arch.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Even down to the decoration running along the eye sections
0:13:53 > 0:13:55of the girders.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00Every single surface has been gilded or painted or stencilled.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03You see the flanges there, riveted,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- joining the pieces together.- Yeah.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11- They were certainly good with the rivets!- Absolutely.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13One of the original aims of the museum
0:14:13 > 0:14:18was to inspire British designers and manufacturers.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21So there's a collection of
0:14:21 > 0:14:23plastercast reproductions
0:14:23 > 0:14:26from some of the world's greatest
0:14:26 > 0:14:28buildings and monuments - put together
0:14:28 > 0:14:31for the benefit of art students
0:14:31 > 0:14:33who couldn't afford to go abroad
0:14:33 > 0:14:35to see them for themselves.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38They include the door of a cathedral
0:14:38 > 0:14:40and Trajan's column from Rome,
0:14:40 > 0:14:45which they had to chop in half to get in here.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49At building monuments, the Victorians were best.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54From London I went to see
0:14:54 > 0:14:56one of the most famous.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00This magnificent monument on Princes Street in Edinburgh
0:15:00 > 0:15:02was erected in remembrance
0:15:02 > 0:15:05of Sir Walter Scott, the famous Scottish writer.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13I don't know why - there's 287 steps to t'top of this monument -
0:15:13 > 0:15:16through all my career of being a steeplejack,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18I've always found it easier
0:15:18 > 0:15:22to go up a straight, vertical ladder
0:15:22 > 0:15:24to t'top of anything, really.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Shortly after Sir Walter Scott's death,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33it was decided that they should build a monument in his remembrance.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36So it were put out for a competition.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41There were quite a few eminent architects who wanted the job.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44But George Meikle Kemp, a joiner from Midlothian,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47submitted his first drawing.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Of course, because of his humble beginnings
0:15:50 > 0:15:53and the fact that he were only a joiner,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55they turned him down.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58But there were nobody really happy on the committee
0:15:58 > 0:16:02with what they'd received on the first attempt.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07So a second batch of drawings were put forward by all the architects.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10But Mr Kemp applied again under an assumed name.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13They picked his drawing and he got the job.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18He supervised the whole thing from the beginning but not to the end,
0:16:18 > 0:16:23because when it were halfway up he went to see the main contractor.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25It was a terrible, foggy night.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Whether he'd had a wee dram, nobody knows.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31But he fell in the canal and drowned.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36His brother-in-law actually finished off the construction.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40The capstone were placed on the top by Kemp's son.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Mr Kemp would have been proud to see the end product.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47But it weren't finished after four years.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49The 30-ton block of marble
0:16:49 > 0:16:53that had to come from Italy for the statue of Sir Walter,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56they dropped it in the harbour in Italy.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00They managed to get it on a boat and when it got to Leith,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03in Scotland, they had no gear to get it off!
0:17:03 > 0:17:08It took another two years before the statue were completed.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13Recently, there's been quite a lot of restoration work done on it.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16They used exactly the same stone,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21but of course it will never get as black as what the rest of it is.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26There won't be the same amount of smoke in Edinburgh as there was.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28I'd have daubed a bit of mud on it
0:17:28 > 0:17:31to make it blend in with the other.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35It's something I tried when I was redoing
0:17:35 > 0:17:38some of the stonework on my house.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41When I bought this house about 40 years ago,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44it basically were a two-up and two-down.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48As my family got bigger, I'd got to do something about it.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51So I built as much on it again.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55In all the wonderful buildings we've been looking at,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57even castles and all that,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02they've all been messed about with and extended one way and another.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Even kings were great DIY men.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09Extensions were done to the house in the days of the Earl of Bradford.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11But they didn't do a good job.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14They omitted all the beading and the fancy work.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18When I did it, I thought I'd try and reproduce
0:18:18 > 0:18:20what they did in 1854.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27When I first did the moulding and the fancy bits,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29the little square pieces
0:18:29 > 0:18:31were a very white material.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34They stood out like a sore thumb.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38So I made a mixture of mud and water out of the garden,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and painted them. God and the rain has done the rest.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46They're now quite a good match with the moulding.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51Not far from me is a Victorian monument of a different kind.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53And one that's become one of
0:18:53 > 0:18:55the country's most famous landmarks.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Blackpool Tower were built in 1894.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06It's really an imitation of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08It helped transform Blackpool
0:19:08 > 0:19:14into one of the biggest and busiest tourist resorts in all of England.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17The tower is 518ft high.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21And what you've got to remember is when it were built in 1894,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25there were no aeroplanes and no skyscrapers.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Most Victorian people
0:19:28 > 0:19:30had never been far off the ground.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35To actually have the experience of being 500ft up in t'sky
0:19:35 > 0:19:37and being able to see 30 miles
0:19:37 > 0:19:40must have been an unbelievable attraction.
0:19:40 > 0:19:46The tower were completed by the famous railway bridge builders
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Enan and Froud, from Manchester.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54On this maintenance level, it gives you some idea of what it's all about.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56It's four latticework towers,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59all leaning inwards.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01And braced together with these big
0:20:01 > 0:20:04three-inch diameter diagonal tie rods.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07They stabilise the whole structure.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09They tell me, in a 70mph gale,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12it only moves an inch at the top.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22The North pier is even older than the tower.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It were designed by a gentleman called Eugenius Birch.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28That's some name, innit?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32He decided that he would build it out of cast iron stanchions,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35instead of the much stronger wrought iron.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38His argument against the wrought iron
0:20:38 > 0:20:43were if a ship crashed into it, it would bend and twist it.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46If a ship crashed into his cast iron stanchions,
0:20:46 > 0:20:51it would bust a few and they'd be able to replace them.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54I think that were a good idea. I do indeed.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59The pier was opened in 1863.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03In 12 months, it attracted a quarter of a million punters
0:21:03 > 0:21:07who paid a penny a piece to get on it.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09The pier company tried to attract
0:21:09 > 0:21:12a higher class of holidaymaker.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15They only had two kiosks.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20One sold tobacco and the other sold boots. There were no beer.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Not long afterwards came the Central pier,
0:21:23 > 0:21:29which catered for the working classes who came here on trains.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32A great venue for open air dancing
0:21:32 > 0:21:35and loud music that went on into the night.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39A stark contrast to the middle classes on the North pier.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46By the beginning of the 20th century,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Blackpool had become firmly established
0:21:49 > 0:21:53as Britain's favourite seaside resort.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56It attracted millions every year.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03After fresh air, the piers and the promenade during the day,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07the evening was the time for the fun of the theatre.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Blackpool became a centre for popular entertainment.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Theatres were springing up all over the place.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19This is the grandest of all the grand theatres, the Grand.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24Designed by Frank Matcham, it took only nine months to build.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27How did he do it with all this beautiful plaster?
0:22:27 > 0:22:33Very quick. They'd be hard-pressed in this day and age to accomplish the same thing.
0:22:33 > 0:22:40It's amazing how Matcham managed to get 1,200 people in such a small space.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43His great thing were his lavish interiors.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46All this beautiful ornamental plasterwork,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49and lots of different sorts of styles.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Matcham used the cantilever design
0:22:51 > 0:22:53to support the circles.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58Basically, what that means is the girders came out of the wall
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and radiated into the centre of that great curve,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05which gives the whole thing great strength.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07It must have bent a bit
0:23:07 > 0:23:12when a pop band were on and kids were jumping up and down.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16They've been pulling in the crowds in Blackpool
0:23:16 > 0:23:19for over 100 years. The latest attraction
0:23:19 > 0:23:22is as impressive for its engineering
0:23:22 > 0:23:26as it is for the excitement of riding on it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31This is the latest engineering feat here on the front at Blackpool.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36The Pepsi Max Big One is the biggest rollercoaster in the world.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38It's 235ft high.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41And the carriages go at 85mph.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45That's fast. I think I'm going to have a go.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Goodbye. I'll see you later.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51In about two minutes.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04I don't know whether I'm going to like it.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06You might see my breakfast!
0:24:09 > 0:24:11I nearly gulped!
0:24:36 > 0:24:39It would be better if it had strings on.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56You don't need a hair brush!
0:25:03 > 0:25:06I want to meet the man who first commissioned it.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08He must have been very brave.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10Aye.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16One of the mechanics told me...
0:25:16 > 0:25:20I said, "It's a bit bumpy. It could do with some springs."
0:25:20 > 0:25:25He said, "As the morning wears on, it gets smoother. The wheels get soft."
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Polystyrene or polypropylene. Poly summat or other.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Having just got off the Pepsi Big One,
0:25:36 > 0:25:42it must be a nerve-racking business, being in charge of a place like this and a machine like that.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45This is Jim, who's in charge.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Them lot up there don't really know what's going to happen to them.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52They're going to love every minute.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54And as for nerve-racking,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57it tests you at times, I tell you!
0:25:57 > 0:25:59It's quite scary, really.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02That's the idea. To scare the pants off people.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06But do it safely. That's what it's all about.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09How many tons of iron is there?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11There are 2,700 tons of steel in that.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Most of it was manufactured
0:26:13 > 0:26:16and supplied not far from here, in Bolton.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20Robert Watson's. The structural steel fellow.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24All the steelwork came from a company in Southampton.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27The biggest and best in England.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30I can't see anything in Europe
0:26:30 > 0:26:33going bigger than that at the moment.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Frightening to think of anything bigger.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38We'll hold the record for a while.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41The track's two pieces of tubing.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43A little bit more than that!
0:26:43 > 0:26:46A steel tube track, that's right.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Our engineers walk that track every day.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51You were on the first run.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54The wheels take a while to warm up.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56But it will be better now.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Let's go back.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03- Then it gets to stage where it just keeps going.- Let's go back!
0:27:09 > 0:27:13This is the third time round on here this morning.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16That's it. I'm ready.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31My hat's gone!
0:27:31 > 0:27:33I should have riveted it on.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44It's funny, wherever I go, whether it's a place of entertainment,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46or somewhere much older
0:27:46 > 0:27:50and quieter and more peaceful, I always look at things
0:27:50 > 0:27:53and wonder about the men who built them.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58And about the great vision of the architects and engineers
0:27:58 > 0:28:02who helped to create that wonderful, rich heritage of buildings
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that we have in this country today.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08What a credit they are to the men who built them.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Subtitles by Sally Gray, ITFC, for BBC Subtitling - 2000
0:28:24 > 0:28:28E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk