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In 1840, one man transformed travel in the British Isles. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
His name was George Bradshaw | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
what to see and where to stay. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
across the length and breadth of these isles | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:35 | |
I'm at the halfway point of my journey from Portsmouth to Grimsby | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
and today, I'm going to linger in one of Britain's greatest ports - | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
London. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:01 | |
Our capital, my home city. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
On today's journey, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:05 | |
I'll learn how volunteer Victorian firefighters liked a tipple. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
To encourage people to come and help pump the fire engine, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
insurance brigades would either take kegs of beer with them to a fire | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
or they would take beer tokens with them. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
I'll discover how even 19th-century sewage pumps | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
were a celebration of design. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
Open this valve here... | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
And I'll put in a shift at the oldest fish market in Britain. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:34 | |
It's getting boxed up. The man wants his fish today, not the weekend. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:01:38 | 0:01:39 | |
Using my Bradshaw's guide, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
I began this journey on the Hampshire coast, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
and have travelled up through Surrey to London. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
I will then push north east to Cambridgeshire, | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
alighting finally in Grimsby, on the Humber Estuary. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
The third leg of my journey starts in Victoria, | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
heads east to Southwark, on to Canary Wharf, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
and finally, downstream to Abbey Wood. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
On previous railway journeys to London, I've noted Bradshaw's view, | 0:02:19 | 0:02:24 | |
which reflected the Victorian outlook on our capital. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
"London is the capital of the civilised world, | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
"the largest mass of human life, of arts, science, wealth, power, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:36 | |
"and architecture that exists. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
"Our gigantic metropolis is enabled by the Thames | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
"to carry on a water communication with every part of the globe." | 0:02:41 | 0:02:46 | |
And, on this trip, I intend to focus on Old Father Thames. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
Today's leg of my journey starts at Victoria Station, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
which began in 1862 as two distinct sites - | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
one serving Kent and the other, Sussex. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
In the early 1900s, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
the brick and stone structures were beautifully rebuilt, | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
'and, in the 1920s, it became the single station that we know today.' | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
Victoria is my local station, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
but I shed a tear every time I come here, | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
because the Victorian architecture has become so cluttered | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
with illuminated advertising hoardings and shopping centres | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
and what they need to do is sweep the lot away | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
and reveal the beauty of the original brick and stone. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
Leaving the station behind, I'm taking a short stroll to the Thames | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
to visit one of the most imposing Victorian buildings | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
on the riverbank - Tate Britain, | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
a gallery containing the world's greatest collection of British art, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
including works by Blake, Constable, Gainsborough, Stubbs and Turner. | 0:03:54 | 0:04:00 | |
But, according to my Bradshaw's, this site at Millbank | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
was once for those who'd had brushes with the law. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
Archivist Krzysztof Cieszkowski should know more. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
-Hello, Krzysztof. -Hello, Michael. Very pleased to meet you. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
-It's lovely to be back. -Yes. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
My Bradshaw's guide refers to a penitentiary being on this site. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
Do you know anything about that? | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
Yes, it was variously called Millbank Prison and Millbank Penitentiary. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:25 | |
It was a prison for convicts who were being sent to Australia. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
And what brought about a gallery on this site? | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
Well, there was no gallery of British art | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
in the way that there was, for example, in Paris. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
It was only when Henry Tate, in 1889, offered his collection | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
of contemporary British art to the nation | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
that the idea started to become a reality. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
Who was Henry Tate? | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
He was born in Lancashire, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
he made his fortune, first of all, in the grocery business | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
then, in sugar refining. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
This is the Tate that later became Tate and Lyle? | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
Yes, he was the most important sugar refiner | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
and he introduced the sugar cube to this country. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
This is a volume of correspondence | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
relating to the opening of the gallery. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
Here is a letter from the Queen's Secretary, Arthur Bigge, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
thanking Henry Tate for the invitation and for an album | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
in which all the works in the Tate collection were reproduced. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
They're wonderful documents. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
Henry Tate offered his £75,000 collection to the nation, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:33 | |
but the press snobbishly complained | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
that "a mere sugar boiler should impose his taste." | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
So Tate spent £80,000 on building his own gallery, | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
which contained many works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
an art movement founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:51 | |
William Holman Hunt | 0:05:51 | 0:05:52 | |
and John Everett Millais. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
To create work that explored social, moral and political issues | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
in a way that was new and often shocking, | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
the Brotherhood took characters from literature and history | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
and paid homage to the perfect realism of their hero Raphael | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
by painting in the open air, directly from nature | 0:06:11 | 0:06:15 | |
and not in a studio from sketches. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
Curator Alison Smith believes that their art relied on train travel. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:23 | |
Well, now you're bringing me towards a very famous picture - | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
Millais' Ophelia, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:27 | |
and you tell me this has something to do with the railways. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
That's right, this is because the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
was formed exactly at the time | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
when the railway network was developing in and around London. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
He worked on this for about five, six months, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
from about July to November 1851. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
This was a place called Cuddington, near Malden, | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
it's near Ewell, in Surrey. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
And so, he would have travelled to Ewell | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
from either London Bridge or Waterloo. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
It's slightly disillusioning telling me now that it was painted | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
near the suburban railway stations, of course, of the mid 19th century. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
It wasn't exactly near the suburban railway stations. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
He opted to stay in a rambling farmhouse called Worcester Park Farm | 0:07:05 | 0:07:10 | |
and from that, each day, he would walk about four miles to the site | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
and he, in fact, encountered lots of problems when he painted this. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
He was once arrested for trespassing, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
he was attacked by sheep and a bull... | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
But it was fundamentally important to him | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
to paint nature in nature, not to do it from sketches back in the studio. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Yes, the key point is that this was painted en plein air, in nature. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:33 | |
Are there other examples here of Pre-Raphaelites | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
who were using the train to get to nature? | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
We could look at Hunt, who worked in this area, in Ewell, with Millais. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
We've got another painting by him produced the following year | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
which was Strayed Sheep, Our English Coasts, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
which he painted near Hastings. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
What's the importance of the Pre-Raphaelites? | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
The Pre-Raphaelites are probably the first modern art movement in Britain | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
in that they really wanted to break with the past | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
and the fact that British artists had been indebted to European old masters. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
And they wanted to sort of paint in a new radical way | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
which really reflected modernity. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
In Bradshaw's day, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
one of the most efficient ways of navigating London was by river. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
'He might have taken an elegant paddle steamer. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
'I'm impressed by this state-of-the-art catamaran.' | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
I'm now using a Bradshaw's guide to London, dated 1862. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
I'm on the boat that takes us from the Tate Britain | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
to the Tate Modern Galleries. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
My Bradshaw's says, "For the sake of variety, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
"we shall proceed to the journey by water, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
"which, of a fine day, is not only the most agreeable, | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
"but furnishing an excellent opportunity | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
"of seeing the scenery of the Thames." | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
And to me, of course, the finest piece of scenery on the Thames | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
is the Houses of Parliament. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
The river's popularity as a transport route | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
may have dwindled in modern times, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
but, even on its choppiest days, | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
there are some who remain loyal. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
Oh, hello. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:06 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
-Are you enjoying your trip on the river? -Certainly am. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
Would you say, as my Bradshaw's guide says, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:12 | |
that seeing London from the river is really the best way? | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
Lovely way, it really is, there's so much to see, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
the history is there, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:19 | |
the way the town, city has developed over the years. It's all there. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
Nowadays, we use the river so little. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
Yeah, it's underused. I'm sure, yes. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
We've also arrived at our destination, | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
so we better make sure we don't get left on. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
You better get off. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:09:34 | 0:09:35 | |
Thank you. Bye! | 0:09:45 | 0:09:46 | |
From Bankside Pier, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
home of the magnificent Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
I'm heading inland to Southwark | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
to visit a place that was highly significant | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
for the safety of Victorian Londoners. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
My Bradshaw's guide is very concerned about fire in London. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:04 | |
"Sometimes, as many as five or six occur in one night. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
"To guard against the loss of life, | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
"the Royal Society For The Preservation Of Life From Fire | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
"have been most active in establishing stations, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
"where fire escapes, with conductors, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
"are ready to be called upon the first alarm. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
"No society more rigidly deserves encouragement." | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
It's extraordinary to think | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
that our capital city had no publicly funded fire brigade. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
With its origins dating back to 1828, | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
The Royal Society For The Preservation Of Life From Fire | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
placed mobile fire escape ladders on street corners at night. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
'I'm hoping Jane Rugg, Curator of The London Fire Brigade Museum, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
'can tell me who was actually fighting fires | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
'in London at the time.' | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
-Hello! -Hello, there. -I'm Michael. -I'm Jane, nice to meet you. -Very good to see you. -Come on in. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
So when my Bradshaw's guides were written, | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
at the beginning of the 1860s, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
what sort of fire provision was there in London? | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
We didn't have a public service until 1866, | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
so, before that time, you would have had insurance brigades | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
that made up the London Fire Engine Establishment, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
so just like house insurance today, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
you insured your property and then, if your house was on fire, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
the insurance would send their fire brigade | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
and they would come along to put the fire out for you. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
And obviously, it wasn't a fair system, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
not everybody could afford to have the fire brigades, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
it was not as a public service is now. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
The 1666 Great Fire Of London, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
which started in a baker's shop in the aptly named Pudding Lane, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
destroying over 13,000 homes, is well remembered in history. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:45 | |
Less well known is that, almost two centuries later, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
the 1861 Tooley Street Fire was a catalyst | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
to the formation of a publicly funded brigade. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
Firefighters from all over the country attended the blaze, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
but couldn't cope with an inferno that started in a warehouse, | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
and burnt for two weeks. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
Five years later, The Metropolitan Fire Brigade was formed. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
Chief Officer, Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw, | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
inherited the insurance brigade's equipment. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
You have wonderful machines here, what is this one? | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
This is an example of a manual pump inherited by the public service. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
The arms open out, all the way out, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
and then, the other one comes out the other way, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
and you'd have ten people on this side, ten on the other | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
and you would pump up and down | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
working the pistons inside to push the water out. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
But you can only pump for five minutes before you're too exhausted | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
and you need to swap with somebody else. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
I'm not surprised, I felt exhausted just standing there. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
To encourage people walking past to come and help pump the fire engine, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
the insurance brigades would either take kegs of beer with them to a fire | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
or they would take beer tokens with them, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
so you can see an example of a beer token. | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
You would be given it once you'd helped pump, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
and then, you could go to your local public house | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
and exchange it for a drink. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
And they did that because, as you can imagine, | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
with kegs of beer at a fire, | 0:13:07 | 0:13:08 | |
people were more interested in drinking the beer | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
than they were in pumping the fire engine. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
So did they have lots of drunken volunteers? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
They could have done, yes, there was the potential, so that's why... | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
Sometimes, they would take cash with them to a fire, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
but, in the end, the pumping tokens seemed to work the best. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
So what else can you show me? | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
This is an example of a steam fire engine, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
so we moved from the manual pumps to using steam, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
mainly when we had a public service. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
And that would be under Captain Shaw then, would it? | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
It would indeed. Yes, he was the chief officer | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
that really wanted the new technology. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
He also introduced a new uniform into the fire brigade, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
so he introduced a woollen tunic, | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
and this is a replica of a tunic worn at the time, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
so you can get an idea of how heavy it would have been | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
and what the fire fighters had to wear when they went into an incident. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
It is very heavy. I imagine if this was soaked with water, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
it would be quite an impractical garment. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
Yeah, the water helped to protect them when it was wet, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
but they also made sure that it didn't have hems | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
so that the water could run off the jacket | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
to try and keep it a bit lighter. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
In addition, they also introduced new helmets into the brigade. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
So again, this is a replica, but it gives you an idea | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
of the brass helmets that would have been worn at the time. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
Take me to my hose. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
I'm keen to find out how things have changed since Massey Shaw's day. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
Southwark is also where the brigade trains new recruits. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
Assistant Commissioner Dany Cotton assures me | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
that beer tokens no longer feature in the curriculum. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
At what stage of their development are these trainee firefighters now? | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
They've been here about eight weeks now, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
so they're about half way through their initial basic training, which lasts 17 weeks. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
And what's the exercise we're watching now? | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
What do they have to do? | 0:14:44 | 0:14:45 | |
This is demonstrating that they are able to use hoses | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
in combination with ladders, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
so it's a simulation of a fire in a three-storey building. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
-Do you remember your training? -Oh, vividly. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
It was... It took place here in 1988. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
It was quite different. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
It involved a lot of marching, a lot of saluting, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
a lot more shiny shoes and shouting and running, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
but it was a lot more basic. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:07 | |
But now, the fire-fighting role is so much more complicated. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
Why? | 0:15:10 | 0:15:11 | |
Well, technology advances, mainly. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
Cars, for instance, were very basic. If you went to cut a car up, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
you could cut it anywhere, it didn't matter. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
Now, cars have got so many different systems in them to protect us, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
air bags and things, that you need the training for that. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
Then, you've got things like terrorist risk, chemicals... | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
You're no longer squirting hoses yourself? | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
No, sadly not, I did that for a number of years. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
I now point at people and tell them to squirt hoses. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
What's the proportion of women now in the London Fire Brigade? | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
Still it seems a relatively low number, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
we've got nearly 350 women out of nearly 6,000 firefighters. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
And there's no reason why a woman couldn't fight a fire as well as a man these days? | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
Absolutely not. Best job in the world. I would recommend it to anyone. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
I've loved every minute of my 24 years. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
In an area where old London meets new, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
I'm heading back towards the river through Borough Market, | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
whose traders have sold food and supplies since the 11th century, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:03 | |
to my final destination of the day. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
The George Inn also has a long past, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
which historian Pete Brown has investigated. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
-Pete, hello. -Hello. -Great to see you. -And you. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
My Bradshaw's guide to London says, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
"The old inns in The Borough, with their wide rambling staircases | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
"and wooden galleries round the inn yards, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
"are pleasant reminiscences of ancient days | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
"of coach and wagon traffic." | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
-Absolutely, yeah. -I'm amazed to find it so brilliantly preserved, here at The George. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
This really is an amazing survivor from a previous age. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
We're on Borough High Street, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:36 | |
which used to be the main thoroughfare into London | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
from the south east and from the continent. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
London Bridge, just up the road, was the only bridge across the Thames until 1750. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
And it was this huge bottle neck. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:45 | |
Everything came here and had to stay here | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
and so, these inns cropped up all down the street, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
there were 20 at one time and this is the last survivor. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
Strangely, it's actually the railways that killed off places like this. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
Anything in the way of that railway line just disappeared, it was obliterated. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
When you look at maps of Southwark from before and after that happened, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
it's like a child with a felt-tip pen just kind of came in and just scribbled these lines across it, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
completely transforming the geography of the place. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
How do you account for the unique survival of The George? | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
Partly, it's because the Great North Railway Company bought it, demolished a lot of it | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
and kept some of it for office space and partly, it's because, at that time, the landlady was this lady, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
Agnes Murray, who was this formidable woman. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
She basically appropriated the mythology of all of Southwark's coaching inns | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
and sort of centred it here. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
So, on this side, for example, stood The White Hart | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
and The White Hart played a pivotal role in Dickens' first novel, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
Pickwick Papers, this is where Mr Pickwick meets Sam Weller. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
And Agnes Murray basically said, "Well, no, that happened here, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
"Dickens might have said The White Hart, but he meant The George." | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
And she would show people the bedroom where this meeting supposedly took place | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
and she'd show the table where Dickens supposedly sat | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
and kind of built up this mythology around the place. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
And does the pub still have a warm hearth and warm beer? | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
-It's got a warm hearth and pleasantly cool beer. -Let's go in. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
'With an early start tomorrow, it's just one for the road.' | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
-Well, Pete, cheers. -Cheers. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
-A delightful way to end the day. -Absolutely. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
I'm up too early to catch the Jubilee tube line | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
or the Docklands Light Railway to Canary Wharf, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
because to get the full flavour of my next destination, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
Billingsgate Fish Market, requires a pre-dawn start. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:27 | |
My Bradshaw's guide says | 0:18:30 | 0:18:31 | |
"Billingsgate, situated chiefly at the back | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
"of that cluster of buildings by the Custom House | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
"has been, since the days of William III, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
"the most famous fish market in Europe." | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
In Bradshaw's day, the fish used to arrive by train. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
Now, they come mainly by lorry | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
and the market has been relocated to Canary Wharf. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
But here, at five in the morning, it has lost none of its bustle | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
and the change of location has made Billingsgate no less famous. | 0:18:55 | 0:19:00 | |
Billingsgate became synonymous with fish | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
when a 1699 Act of Parliament made it "a free and open market | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
"for all sorts of fish whatsoever." | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
Originally situated on the river adjacent to London Bridge, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
the market was supplied by boat, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
but the coming of the railways revolutionised the fishing industry | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
and, as it satisfied the new demand for affordable fresh product, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
ports like Grimsby boomed. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
Billingsgate customers are still buying the freshest fish possible | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
at a price that suits them. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
Excuse me, I see you are buying fish this early in the morning, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
are you in the business or are you buying it for yourself? | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
No, it's for my personal use. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
-Do you do that a lot? -Yes, very often, it's good value. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
You come down here at five in the morning and buy your fish? | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
-Absolutely, great value for money. -Are you looking for anything special in the fish line? | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
-Well, I tend to look for sea bream... -Sea bream. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
..which is extremely good value, and salmon as well. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
How do you cook your sea bream? | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
First of all, I prepare the sauce, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:57 | |
and then, put the sea bream on top, | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
and then cook it for about five, ten minutes to steam it. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
-It sounds absolutely fantastic. -Beautiful, Caribbean style. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
You enjoy that, mouthwatering. Thank you. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
Most orders placed here are wholesale. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
At busy times, the larger firms | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
can sell up to two tonnes of fish each morning. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
Mark Morris works for the market's longest-established family business | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
and he's offered to show me the basics. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
Has your family been in the business a while? | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
We're the fourth generation, we go back to the early 1900s. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
My great-grandfather founded the business. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
We bring our fish in from all over the UK, all over Europe. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
We've got pollock and coley there, mackerel. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
Beautiful mackerel there. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:40 | |
If you'll have a feel on that and a pinch on that. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
Oh, beautiful fish. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:44 | |
And if you turn it upside down, open up its gills, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
you see the lovely, thick, rich red rug colour in there. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
That's what we're looking for - bright-eyed, nice and firm. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
Lovely hake here. We pick it up by the eye, | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
because if you can see the teeth, they're absolutely razor sharp, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
we don't want to be getting our fingers caught in there. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
Thumb and forefinger... | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
So thumb in one eye, forefinger in the other. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
And lift it straight up. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:06 | |
Oh, there we go! That's a nice, safe way of picking up a hake. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
So I'm avoiding these sharp teeth, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
I'm avoiding the sharpness round the gills. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
And it's a rather yucky feeling | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
sticking your fingers in the eyes of a hake. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
Having got a handle on his fish, I'm set to work. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
Michael, I need two hake, please. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
It's getting boxed up. The man wants his fish today, not the weekend. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:21:34 | 0:21:35 | |
-Michael, we need a headless cod there now please. -Headless cod. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
One of those large headless cod, please. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
-3.88 of headless cod. -Thank you. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
And two salmon fillets, as well, please. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
No, no, fillets, Michael. Michael, the fillets, please. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
Thank you. Yes, of course, fillets. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
Yeah, I do apologise. New boy on the firm today. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
Oh, it's got to go on the weighing machine first. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
3.46 of salmon fillet! | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
Thank you, Michael. We'll make a salesman out of you yet, sir. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
OK, lovely. Thank you very much. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
Yeah, sorry about the delay. Thank you. Bye-bye. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:22:07 | 0:22:08 | |
Lovely, Michael, great job. Well done, sir, thank you very much. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
Oh, dear. I don't think I could get used to this. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
What I could get used to is travelling on Old Father Thames. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
I'm heading east to Abbey Wood, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
and my route takes me past | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
one of the most famous of all London landmarks. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
My Bradshaw's London guide says, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
"Greenwich presents a striking appearance from the river, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
"it's hospital forming one of the most prominent attractions of the place." | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
I've always loved Greenwich, its wonderful architecture, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
its spacious buildings, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
its association with one of my heroes, Horatio Nelson. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
And now that the Cutty Sark has been restored, it is complete again. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
'I marvel at the river's wonderful views of London landmarks, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
'old and new,' | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
but one should always remember | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
that the river is a potent force to be reckoned with. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
In Bradshaw's day, and indeed until quite recently, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
the Thames posed a mighty danger of flooding | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
and the erection of the Thames Barrier has much reduced that risk. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:16 | |
In Bradshaw's day, there was another peril from the Thames as well - | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
the water was filthy. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
The final destination of this leg of my journey | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
lies six miles further downstream at Abbey Wood. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
The Crossness Pumping Station was opened in 1865 | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
as an essential element of one of the largest engineering projects | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
ever undertaken anywhere in the world. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
Author Stephen Halliday should be able to tell me more. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
-Stephen, hello. -Hello. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
I've just travelled here on the river and it was very nice, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
but I believe it was not always that pleasant on the Thames. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
Indeed. The sewage of 2.5 million people was flowing into the River Thames | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
and, of course, the Thames is a tidal river, so it never went away. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
Why hadn't that happened before? | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
Because, until about 1800, if you wanted to spend a penny, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
you would go into the basement of your home, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
you would do what you have to do in a cesspit, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
which would be emptied at intervals by a night soil man, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
who carted it away and sold it to farmers. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
And what happened AFTER 1800? | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
The importation of guano from South America, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
solidified bird droppings, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
gave a better form of fertiliser. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
But the real killer was the introduction of the water closet. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
When you flushed, what you sent round the S-bend | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
was a very small quantity of potential fertilizer | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
and a huge volume of water, | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
so the cesspit filled up ten or 20 times as quickly | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
with liquid which people didn't want to buy and which leaked. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
And they leaked into surrounding water courses, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
wells, sources of drinking water, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
and dysentery, cholera and typhoid started to spread throughout London. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
That's the so-called Great Stink. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
Indeed, in the summer of 1858, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
you would not have wanted to be on the river at all. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
After the 1853 cholera outbreak had claimed over 10,000 lives | 0:25:09 | 0:25:15 | |
and the hot summer of 1858 created the Great Stink, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
action was finally taken. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
As chief engineer to London's Metropolitan Board Of Works, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
Joseph Bazalgette oversaw the building of 82 miles of mains sewers | 0:25:24 | 0:25:29 | |
under the streets of London, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
which intercepted existing sewers | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
and despatched the capital's human waste out to sea | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
via two steam-powered pumping stations like Crossness. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
It's currently undergoing restoration. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
It's absolutely glorious, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
it's as highly decorated as the House of Commons. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
Yes, for a sewage-pumping station, they didn't stint, did they? | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
What a fantastic restoration. Hello, I'm Michael. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
-I'm Mike Jones. -So when was the pumping station restored? | 0:25:57 | 0:26:01 | |
Well, we're still restoring it, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
but I suppose the trust really started around 1988. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
It was, in fact, scheduled for demolition for quite a while | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
and wasn't demolished because the engines are so large, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
so it's very fortunate that it's still here. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
And I think people would be amazed, overwhelmed | 0:26:16 | 0:26:20 | |
that the Victorians decorated a pumping station like this. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
I think it's a reflection of the Victorian pride | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
in what they were doing. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
And I believe one of the engines actually works. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
That's true, Prince Consort has been in steam since 2003. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
And if you'd like to, you can start it. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
I would love to, it'd be a privilege. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
Crossness has four gigantic steam engines, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
each boasting 47-ton beams | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
and 52-ton flywheels. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
We normally blow the whistle before we start the engine, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
give it a long blast. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:55 | |
WHISTLE | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
Open this valve here... | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
My Bradshaw's guide is right - | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
the best way to see London is by boat. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
From the Tate Gallery, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:31 | |
past the Houses of Parliament to Billingsgate Fish Market, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
the Thames was London's highway to the world. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
But when, during the Great Stink, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
it began to carry more sewage than exports, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
those magnificent Victorians engineered a solution | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
on a grand scale, as usual. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
On the next leg of my journey, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:52 | |
I'll discover how derelict Victorian London | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
is being rejuvenated to its former glory. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
This is to be called Granary Square | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
-and will be bigger than Trafalgar Square. -Amazing. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
I'll put in a shift at a Cambridgeshire brick factory | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
that helped to rebuild post-war London. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Hey, new boy! Come and have a go! | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
Always one for a challenge. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
And I'll meet a brick-built immigrant community. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
THEY SING | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 |