London Victoria to Abbey Wood Great British Railway Journeys


London Victoria to Abbey Wood

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In 1840, one man transformed travel in the British Isles.

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His name was George Bradshaw

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and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.

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Stop by stop, he told them where to travel,

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what to see and where to stay.

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Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys

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across the length and breadth of these isles

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to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

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I'm at the halfway point of my journey from Portsmouth to Grimsby

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and today, I'm going to linger in one of Britain's greatest ports -

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London.

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Our capital, my home city.

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On today's journey,

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I'll learn how volunteer Victorian firefighters liked a tipple.

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To encourage people to come and help pump the fire engine,

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insurance brigades would either take kegs of beer with them to a fire

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or they would take beer tokens with them.

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I'll discover how even 19th-century sewage pumps

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were a celebration of design.

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Open this valve here...

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And I'll put in a shift at the oldest fish market in Britain.

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It's getting boxed up. The man wants his fish today, not the weekend.

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HE CHUCKLES

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Using my Bradshaw's guide,

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I began this journey on the Hampshire coast,

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and have travelled up through Surrey to London.

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I will then push north east to Cambridgeshire,

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alighting finally in Grimsby, on the Humber Estuary.

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The third leg of my journey starts in Victoria,

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heads east to Southwark, on to Canary Wharf,

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and finally, downstream to Abbey Wood.

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On previous railway journeys to London, I've noted Bradshaw's view,

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which reflected the Victorian outlook on our capital.

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"London is the capital of the civilised world,

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"the largest mass of human life, of arts, science, wealth, power,

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"and architecture that exists.

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"Our gigantic metropolis is enabled by the Thames

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"to carry on a water communication with every part of the globe."

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And, on this trip, I intend to focus on Old Father Thames.

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Today's leg of my journey starts at Victoria Station,

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which began in 1862 as two distinct sites -

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one serving Kent and the other, Sussex.

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In the early 1900s,

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the brick and stone structures were beautifully rebuilt,

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'and, in the 1920s, it became the single station that we know today.'

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Victoria is my local station,

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but I shed a tear every time I come here,

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because the Victorian architecture has become so cluttered

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with illuminated advertising hoardings and shopping centres

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and what they need to do is sweep the lot away

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and reveal the beauty of the original brick and stone.

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Leaving the station behind, I'm taking a short stroll to the Thames

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to visit one of the most imposing Victorian buildings

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on the riverbank - Tate Britain,

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a gallery containing the world's greatest collection of British art,

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including works by Blake, Constable, Gainsborough, Stubbs and Turner.

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But, according to my Bradshaw's, this site at Millbank

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was once for those who'd had brushes with the law.

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Archivist Krzysztof Cieszkowski should know more.

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-Hello, Krzysztof.

-Hello, Michael. Very pleased to meet you.

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-It's lovely to be back.

-Yes.

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My Bradshaw's guide refers to a penitentiary being on this site.

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Do you know anything about that?

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Yes, it was variously called Millbank Prison and Millbank Penitentiary.

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It was a prison for convicts who were being sent to Australia.

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And what brought about a gallery on this site?

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Well, there was no gallery of British art

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in the way that there was, for example, in Paris.

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It was only when Henry Tate, in 1889, offered his collection

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of contemporary British art to the nation

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that the idea started to become a reality.

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Who was Henry Tate?

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He was born in Lancashire,

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he made his fortune, first of all, in the grocery business

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then, in sugar refining.

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This is the Tate that later became Tate and Lyle?

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Yes, he was the most important sugar refiner

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and he introduced the sugar cube to this country.

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This is a volume of correspondence

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relating to the opening of the gallery.

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Here is a letter from the Queen's Secretary, Arthur Bigge,

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thanking Henry Tate for the invitation and for an album

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in which all the works in the Tate collection were reproduced.

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They're wonderful documents.

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Henry Tate offered his £75,000 collection to the nation,

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but the press snobbishly complained

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that "a mere sugar boiler should impose his taste."

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So Tate spent £80,000 on building his own gallery,

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which contained many works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,

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an art movement founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti,

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William Holman Hunt

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and John Everett Millais.

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To create work that explored social, moral and political issues

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in a way that was new and often shocking,

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the Brotherhood took characters from literature and history

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and paid homage to the perfect realism of their hero Raphael

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by painting in the open air, directly from nature

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and not in a studio from sketches.

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Curator Alison Smith believes that their art relied on train travel.

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Well, now you're bringing me towards a very famous picture -

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Millais' Ophelia,

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and you tell me this has something to do with the railways.

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That's right, this is because the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

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was formed exactly at the time

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when the railway network was developing in and around London.

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He worked on this for about five, six months,

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from about July to November 1851.

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This was a place called Cuddington, near Malden,

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it's near Ewell, in Surrey.

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And so, he would have travelled to Ewell

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from either London Bridge or Waterloo.

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It's slightly disillusioning telling me now that it was painted

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near the suburban railway stations, of course, of the mid 19th century.

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It wasn't exactly near the suburban railway stations.

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He opted to stay in a rambling farmhouse called Worcester Park Farm

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and from that, each day, he would walk about four miles to the site

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and he, in fact, encountered lots of problems when he painted this.

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He was once arrested for trespassing,

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he was attacked by sheep and a bull...

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But it was fundamentally important to him

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to paint nature in nature, not to do it from sketches back in the studio.

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Yes, the key point is that this was painted en plein air, in nature.

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Are there other examples here of Pre-Raphaelites

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who were using the train to get to nature?

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We could look at Hunt, who worked in this area, in Ewell, with Millais.

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We've got another painting by him produced the following year

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which was Strayed Sheep, Our English Coasts,

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which he painted near Hastings.

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What's the importance of the Pre-Raphaelites?

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The Pre-Raphaelites are probably the first modern art movement in Britain

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in that they really wanted to break with the past

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and the fact that British artists had been indebted to European old masters.

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And they wanted to sort of paint in a new radical way

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which really reflected modernity.

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In Bradshaw's day,

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one of the most efficient ways of navigating London was by river.

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'He might have taken an elegant paddle steamer.

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'I'm impressed by this state-of-the-art catamaran.'

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I'm now using a Bradshaw's guide to London, dated 1862.

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I'm on the boat that takes us from the Tate Britain

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to the Tate Modern Galleries.

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My Bradshaw's says, "For the sake of variety,

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"we shall proceed to the journey by water,

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"which, of a fine day, is not only the most agreeable,

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"but furnishing an excellent opportunity

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"of seeing the scenery of the Thames."

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And to me, of course, the finest piece of scenery on the Thames

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is the Houses of Parliament.

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The river's popularity as a transport route

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may have dwindled in modern times,

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but, even on its choppiest days,

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there are some who remain loyal.

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Oh, hello.

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HE CHUCKLES

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-Are you enjoying your trip on the river?

-Certainly am.

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Would you say, as my Bradshaw's guide says,

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that seeing London from the river is really the best way?

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Lovely way, it really is, there's so much to see,

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the history is there,

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the way the town, city has developed over the years. It's all there.

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Nowadays, we use the river so little.

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Yeah, it's underused. I'm sure, yes.

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We've also arrived at our destination,

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so we better make sure we don't get left on.

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You better get off.

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THEY LAUGH

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Thank you. Bye!

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From Bankside Pier,

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home of the magnificent Shakespeare's Globe Theatre,

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I'm heading inland to Southwark

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to visit a place that was highly significant

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for the safety of Victorian Londoners.

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My Bradshaw's guide is very concerned about fire in London.

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"Sometimes, as many as five or six occur in one night.

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"To guard against the loss of life,

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"the Royal Society For The Preservation Of Life From Fire

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"have been most active in establishing stations,

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"where fire escapes, with conductors,

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"are ready to be called upon the first alarm.

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"No society more rigidly deserves encouragement."

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It's extraordinary to think

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that our capital city had no publicly funded fire brigade.

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With its origins dating back to 1828,

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The Royal Society For The Preservation Of Life From Fire

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placed mobile fire escape ladders on street corners at night.

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'I'm hoping Jane Rugg, Curator of The London Fire Brigade Museum,

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'can tell me who was actually fighting fires

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'in London at the time.'

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-Hello!

-Hello, there.

-I'm Michael.

-I'm Jane, nice to meet you.

-Very good to see you.

-Come on in.

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So when my Bradshaw's guides were written,

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at the beginning of the 1860s,

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what sort of fire provision was there in London?

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We didn't have a public service until 1866,

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so, before that time, you would have had insurance brigades

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that made up the London Fire Engine Establishment,

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so just like house insurance today,

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you insured your property and then, if your house was on fire,

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the insurance would send their fire brigade

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and they would come along to put the fire out for you.

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And obviously, it wasn't a fair system,

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not everybody could afford to have the fire brigades,

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it was not as a public service is now.

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The 1666 Great Fire Of London,

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which started in a baker's shop in the aptly named Pudding Lane,

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destroying over 13,000 homes, is well remembered in history.

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Less well known is that, almost two centuries later,

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the 1861 Tooley Street Fire was a catalyst

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to the formation of a publicly funded brigade.

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Firefighters from all over the country attended the blaze,

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but couldn't cope with an inferno that started in a warehouse,

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and burnt for two weeks.

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Five years later, The Metropolitan Fire Brigade was formed.

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Chief Officer, Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw,

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inherited the insurance brigade's equipment.

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You have wonderful machines here, what is this one?

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This is an example of a manual pump inherited by the public service.

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The arms open out, all the way out,

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and then, the other one comes out the other way,

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and you'd have ten people on this side, ten on the other

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and you would pump up and down

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working the pistons inside to push the water out.

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But you can only pump for five minutes before you're too exhausted

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and you need to swap with somebody else.

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I'm not surprised, I felt exhausted just standing there.

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To encourage people walking past to come and help pump the fire engine,

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the insurance brigades would either take kegs of beer with them to a fire

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or they would take beer tokens with them,

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so you can see an example of a beer token.

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You would be given it once you'd helped pump,

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and then, you could go to your local public house

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and exchange it for a drink.

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And they did that because, as you can imagine,

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with kegs of beer at a fire,

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people were more interested in drinking the beer

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than they were in pumping the fire engine.

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So did they have lots of drunken volunteers?

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They could have done, yes, there was the potential, so that's why...

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Sometimes, they would take cash with them to a fire,

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but, in the end, the pumping tokens seemed to work the best.

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So what else can you show me?

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This is an example of a steam fire engine,

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so we moved from the manual pumps to using steam,

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mainly when we had a public service.

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And that would be under Captain Shaw then, would it?

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It would indeed. Yes, he was the chief officer

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that really wanted the new technology.

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He also introduced a new uniform into the fire brigade,

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so he introduced a woollen tunic,

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and this is a replica of a tunic worn at the time,

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so you can get an idea of how heavy it would have been

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and what the fire fighters had to wear when they went into an incident.

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It is very heavy. I imagine if this was soaked with water,

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it would be quite an impractical garment.

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Yeah, the water helped to protect them when it was wet,

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but they also made sure that it didn't have hems

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so that the water could run off the jacket

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to try and keep it a bit lighter.

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In addition, they also introduced new helmets into the brigade.

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So again, this is a replica, but it gives you an idea

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of the brass helmets that would have been worn at the time.

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Take me to my hose.

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I'm keen to find out how things have changed since Massey Shaw's day.

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Southwark is also where the brigade trains new recruits.

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Assistant Commissioner Dany Cotton assures me

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that beer tokens no longer feature in the curriculum.

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At what stage of their development are these trainee firefighters now?

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They've been here about eight weeks now,

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so they're about half way through their initial basic training, which lasts 17 weeks.

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And what's the exercise we're watching now?

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What do they have to do?

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This is demonstrating that they are able to use hoses

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in combination with ladders,

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so it's a simulation of a fire in a three-storey building.

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-Do you remember your training?

-Oh, vividly.

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It was... It took place here in 1988.

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It was quite different.

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It involved a lot of marching, a lot of saluting,

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a lot more shiny shoes and shouting and running,

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but it was a lot more basic.

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But now, the fire-fighting role is so much more complicated.

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Why?

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Well, technology advances, mainly.

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Cars, for instance, were very basic. If you went to cut a car up,

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you could cut it anywhere, it didn't matter.

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Now, cars have got so many different systems in them to protect us,

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air bags and things, that you need the training for that.

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Then, you've got things like terrorist risk, chemicals...

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You're no longer squirting hoses yourself?

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No, sadly not, I did that for a number of years.

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I now point at people and tell them to squirt hoses.

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What's the proportion of women now in the London Fire Brigade?

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Still it seems a relatively low number,

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we've got nearly 350 women out of nearly 6,000 firefighters.

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And there's no reason why a woman couldn't fight a fire as well as a man these days?

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Absolutely not. Best job in the world. I would recommend it to anyone.

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I've loved every minute of my 24 years.

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In an area where old London meets new,

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I'm heading back towards the river through Borough Market,

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whose traders have sold food and supplies since the 11th century,

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to my final destination of the day.

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The George Inn also has a long past,

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which historian Pete Brown has investigated.

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-Pete, hello.

-Hello.

-Great to see you.

-And you.

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My Bradshaw's guide to London says,

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"The old inns in The Borough, with their wide rambling staircases

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"and wooden galleries round the inn yards,

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"are pleasant reminiscences of ancient days

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"of coach and wagon traffic."

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-Absolutely, yeah.

-I'm amazed to find it so brilliantly preserved, here at The George.

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This really is an amazing survivor from a previous age.

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We're on Borough High Street,

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which used to be the main thoroughfare into London

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from the south east and from the continent.

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London Bridge, just up the road, was the only bridge across the Thames until 1750.

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And it was this huge bottle neck.

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Everything came here and had to stay here

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and so, these inns cropped up all down the street,

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there were 20 at one time and this is the last survivor.

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Strangely, it's actually the railways that killed off places like this.

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Anything in the way of that railway line just disappeared, it was obliterated.

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When you look at maps of Southwark from before and after that happened,

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it's like a child with a felt-tip pen just kind of came in and just scribbled these lines across it,

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completely transforming the geography of the place.

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How do you account for the unique survival of The George?

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Partly, it's because the Great North Railway Company bought it, demolished a lot of it

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and kept some of it for office space and partly, it's because, at that time, the landlady was this lady,

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Agnes Murray, who was this formidable woman.

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She basically appropriated the mythology of all of Southwark's coaching inns

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and sort of centred it here.

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So, on this side, for example, stood The White Hart

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and The White Hart played a pivotal role in Dickens' first novel,

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Pickwick Papers, this is where Mr Pickwick meets Sam Weller.

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And Agnes Murray basically said, "Well, no, that happened here,

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"Dickens might have said The White Hart, but he meant The George."

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And she would show people the bedroom where this meeting supposedly took place

0:17:420:17:46

and she'd show the table where Dickens supposedly sat

0:17:460:17:49

and kind of built up this mythology around the place.

0:17:490:17:51

And does the pub still have a warm hearth and warm beer?

0:17:510:17:54

-It's got a warm hearth and pleasantly cool beer.

-Let's go in.

0:17:540:17:57

'With an early start tomorrow, it's just one for the road.'

0:17:570:18:01

-Well, Pete, cheers.

-Cheers.

0:18:020:18:04

-A delightful way to end the day.

-Absolutely.

0:18:040:18:07

I'm up too early to catch the Jubilee tube line

0:18:140:18:18

or the Docklands Light Railway to Canary Wharf,

0:18:180:18:21

because to get the full flavour of my next destination,

0:18:210:18:23

Billingsgate Fish Market, requires a pre-dawn start.

0:18:230:18:27

My Bradshaw's guide says

0:18:300:18:31

"Billingsgate, situated chiefly at the back

0:18:310:18:34

"of that cluster of buildings by the Custom House

0:18:340:18:36

"has been, since the days of William III,

0:18:360:18:39

"the most famous fish market in Europe."

0:18:390:18:42

In Bradshaw's day, the fish used to arrive by train.

0:18:420:18:45

Now, they come mainly by lorry

0:18:450:18:48

and the market has been relocated to Canary Wharf.

0:18:480:18:51

But here, at five in the morning, it has lost none of its bustle

0:18:510:18:55

and the change of location has made Billingsgate no less famous.

0:18:550:19:00

Billingsgate became synonymous with fish

0:19:000:19:03

when a 1699 Act of Parliament made it "a free and open market

0:19:030:19:07

"for all sorts of fish whatsoever."

0:19:070:19:09

Originally situated on the river adjacent to London Bridge,

0:19:090:19:13

the market was supplied by boat,

0:19:130:19:15

but the coming of the railways revolutionised the fishing industry

0:19:150:19:19

and, as it satisfied the new demand for affordable fresh product,

0:19:190:19:22

ports like Grimsby boomed.

0:19:220:19:26

Billingsgate customers are still buying the freshest fish possible

0:19:260:19:29

at a price that suits them.

0:19:290:19:31

Excuse me, I see you are buying fish this early in the morning,

0:19:320:19:36

are you in the business or are you buying it for yourself?

0:19:360:19:38

No, it's for my personal use.

0:19:380:19:40

-Do you do that a lot?

-Yes, very often, it's good value.

0:19:400:19:42

You come down here at five in the morning and buy your fish?

0:19:420:19:45

-Absolutely, great value for money.

-Are you looking for anything special in the fish line?

0:19:450:19:49

-Well, I tend to look for sea bream...

-Sea bream.

0:19:490:19:52

..which is extremely good value, and salmon as well.

0:19:520:19:54

How do you cook your sea bream?

0:19:540:19:56

First of all, I prepare the sauce,

0:19:560:19:57

and then, put the sea bream on top,

0:19:570:19:59

and then cook it for about five, ten minutes to steam it.

0:19:590:20:02

-It sounds absolutely fantastic.

-Beautiful, Caribbean style.

0:20:020:20:06

You enjoy that, mouthwatering. Thank you.

0:20:060:20:09

Most orders placed here are wholesale.

0:20:090:20:12

At busy times, the larger firms

0:20:120:20:14

can sell up to two tonnes of fish each morning.

0:20:140:20:17

Mark Morris works for the market's longest-established family business

0:20:170:20:21

and he's offered to show me the basics.

0:20:210:20:24

Has your family been in the business a while?

0:20:240:20:27

We're the fourth generation, we go back to the early 1900s.

0:20:270:20:30

My great-grandfather founded the business.

0:20:300:20:32

We bring our fish in from all over the UK, all over Europe.

0:20:320:20:36

We've got pollock and coley there, mackerel.

0:20:360:20:39

Beautiful mackerel there.

0:20:390:20:40

If you'll have a feel on that and a pinch on that.

0:20:400:20:43

Oh, beautiful fish.

0:20:430:20:44

And if you turn it upside down, open up its gills,

0:20:440:20:47

you see the lovely, thick, rich red rug colour in there.

0:20:470:20:50

That's what we're looking for - bright-eyed, nice and firm.

0:20:500:20:53

Lovely hake here. We pick it up by the eye,

0:20:530:20:55

because if you can see the teeth, they're absolutely razor sharp,

0:20:550:20:58

we don't want to be getting our fingers caught in there.

0:20:580:21:00

Thumb and forefinger...

0:21:000:21:02

So thumb in one eye, forefinger in the other.

0:21:020:21:05

And lift it straight up.

0:21:050:21:06

Oh, there we go! That's a nice, safe way of picking up a hake.

0:21:060:21:10

So I'm avoiding these sharp teeth,

0:21:100:21:12

I'm avoiding the sharpness round the gills.

0:21:120:21:15

And it's a rather yucky feeling

0:21:150:21:17

sticking your fingers in the eyes of a hake.

0:21:170:21:19

Having got a handle on his fish, I'm set to work.

0:21:240:21:27

Michael, I need two hake, please.

0:21:290:21:31

It's getting boxed up. The man wants his fish today, not the weekend.

0:21:310:21:34

HE CHUCKLES

0:21:340:21:35

-Michael, we need a headless cod there now please.

-Headless cod.

0:21:350:21:38

One of those large headless cod, please.

0:21:380:21:40

-3.88 of headless cod.

-Thank you.

0:21:410:21:44

And two salmon fillets, as well, please.

0:21:440:21:46

No, no, fillets, Michael. Michael, the fillets, please.

0:21:460:21:49

Thank you. Yes, of course, fillets.

0:21:490:21:51

Yeah, I do apologise. New boy on the firm today.

0:21:510:21:54

Oh, it's got to go on the weighing machine first.

0:21:540:21:57

3.46 of salmon fillet!

0:21:570:21:59

Thank you, Michael. We'll make a salesman out of you yet, sir.

0:21:590:22:02

OK, lovely. Thank you very much.

0:22:020:22:05

Yeah, sorry about the delay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

0:22:050:22:07

HE LAUGHS

0:22:070:22:08

Lovely, Michael, great job. Well done, sir, thank you very much.

0:22:080:22:12

Oh, dear. I don't think I could get used to this.

0:22:140:22:17

What I could get used to is travelling on Old Father Thames.

0:22:190:22:23

I'm heading east to Abbey Wood,

0:22:230:22:25

and my route takes me past

0:22:250:22:27

one of the most famous of all London landmarks.

0:22:270:22:30

My Bradshaw's London guide says,

0:22:310:22:33

"Greenwich presents a striking appearance from the river,

0:22:330:22:36

"it's hospital forming one of the most prominent attractions of the place."

0:22:360:22:39

I've always loved Greenwich, its wonderful architecture,

0:22:390:22:43

its spacious buildings,

0:22:430:22:45

its association with one of my heroes, Horatio Nelson.

0:22:450:22:49

And now that the Cutty Sark has been restored, it is complete again.

0:22:490:22:53

'I marvel at the river's wonderful views of London landmarks,

0:22:530:22:56

'old and new,'

0:22:560:22:58

but one should always remember

0:22:580:23:00

that the river is a potent force to be reckoned with.

0:23:000:23:04

In Bradshaw's day, and indeed until quite recently,

0:23:040:23:07

the Thames posed a mighty danger of flooding

0:23:070:23:11

and the erection of the Thames Barrier has much reduced that risk.

0:23:110:23:16

In Bradshaw's day, there was another peril from the Thames as well -

0:23:160:23:19

the water was filthy.

0:23:190:23:21

The final destination of this leg of my journey

0:23:230:23:26

lies six miles further downstream at Abbey Wood.

0:23:260:23:29

The Crossness Pumping Station was opened in 1865

0:23:290:23:34

as an essential element of one of the largest engineering projects

0:23:340:23:38

ever undertaken anywhere in the world.

0:23:380:23:41

Author Stephen Halliday should be able to tell me more.

0:23:410:23:44

-Stephen, hello.

-Hello.

0:23:440:23:46

I've just travelled here on the river and it was very nice,

0:23:460:23:49

but I believe it was not always that pleasant on the Thames.

0:23:490:23:52

Indeed. The sewage of 2.5 million people was flowing into the River Thames

0:23:520:23:57

and, of course, the Thames is a tidal river, so it never went away.

0:23:570:24:01

Why hadn't that happened before?

0:24:010:24:03

Because, until about 1800, if you wanted to spend a penny,

0:24:030:24:07

you would go into the basement of your home,

0:24:070:24:10

you would do what you have to do in a cesspit,

0:24:100:24:14

which would be emptied at intervals by a night soil man,

0:24:140:24:17

who carted it away and sold it to farmers.

0:24:170:24:20

And what happened AFTER 1800?

0:24:200:24:23

The importation of guano from South America,

0:24:230:24:26

solidified bird droppings,

0:24:260:24:28

gave a better form of fertiliser.

0:24:280:24:30

But the real killer was the introduction of the water closet.

0:24:300:24:34

When you flushed, what you sent round the S-bend

0:24:340:24:37

was a very small quantity of potential fertilizer

0:24:370:24:39

and a huge volume of water,

0:24:390:24:42

so the cesspit filled up ten or 20 times as quickly

0:24:420:24:46

with liquid which people didn't want to buy and which leaked.

0:24:460:24:50

And they leaked into surrounding water courses,

0:24:500:24:53

wells, sources of drinking water,

0:24:530:24:56

and dysentery, cholera and typhoid started to spread throughout London.

0:24:560:25:02

That's the so-called Great Stink.

0:25:020:25:04

Indeed, in the summer of 1858,

0:25:040:25:06

you would not have wanted to be on the river at all.

0:25:060:25:09

After the 1853 cholera outbreak had claimed over 10,000 lives

0:25:090:25:15

and the hot summer of 1858 created the Great Stink,

0:25:150:25:19

action was finally taken.

0:25:190:25:21

As chief engineer to London's Metropolitan Board Of Works,

0:25:210:25:24

Joseph Bazalgette oversaw the building of 82 miles of mains sewers

0:25:240:25:29

under the streets of London,

0:25:290:25:31

which intercepted existing sewers

0:25:310:25:33

and despatched the capital's human waste out to sea

0:25:330:25:36

via two steam-powered pumping stations like Crossness.

0:25:360:25:41

It's currently undergoing restoration.

0:25:410:25:43

It's absolutely glorious,

0:25:440:25:46

it's as highly decorated as the House of Commons.

0:25:460:25:49

Yes, for a sewage-pumping station, they didn't stint, did they?

0:25:490:25:52

What a fantastic restoration. Hello, I'm Michael.

0:25:540:25:57

-I'm Mike Jones.

-So when was the pumping station restored?

0:25:570:26:01

Well, we're still restoring it,

0:26:010:26:03

but I suppose the trust really started around 1988.

0:26:030:26:07

It was, in fact, scheduled for demolition for quite a while

0:26:070:26:11

and wasn't demolished because the engines are so large,

0:26:110:26:14

so it's very fortunate that it's still here.

0:26:140:26:16

And I think people would be amazed, overwhelmed

0:26:160:26:20

that the Victorians decorated a pumping station like this.

0:26:200:26:24

I think it's a reflection of the Victorian pride

0:26:240:26:26

in what they were doing.

0:26:260:26:28

And I believe one of the engines actually works.

0:26:280:26:30

That's true, Prince Consort has been in steam since 2003.

0:26:300:26:34

And if you'd like to, you can start it.

0:26:340:26:36

I would love to, it'd be a privilege.

0:26:360:26:39

Crossness has four gigantic steam engines,

0:26:390:26:43

each boasting 47-ton beams

0:26:430:26:47

and 52-ton flywheels.

0:26:470:26:49

We normally blow the whistle before we start the engine,

0:26:510:26:54

give it a long blast.

0:26:540:26:55

WHISTLE

0:26:550:26:57

Open this valve here...

0:26:570:26:59

My Bradshaw's guide is right -

0:27:250:27:28

the best way to see London is by boat.

0:27:280:27:30

From the Tate Gallery,

0:27:300:27:31

past the Houses of Parliament to Billingsgate Fish Market,

0:27:310:27:34

the Thames was London's highway to the world.

0:27:340:27:37

But when, during the Great Stink,

0:27:370:27:39

it began to carry more sewage than exports,

0:27:390:27:42

those magnificent Victorians engineered a solution

0:27:420:27:45

on a grand scale, as usual.

0:27:450:27:47

On the next leg of my journey,

0:27:510:27:52

I'll discover how derelict Victorian London

0:27:520:27:55

is being rejuvenated to its former glory.

0:27:550:27:59

This is to be called Granary Square

0:27:590:28:01

-and will be bigger than Trafalgar Square.

-Amazing.

0:28:010:28:04

I'll put in a shift at a Cambridgeshire brick factory

0:28:040:28:08

that helped to rebuild post-war London.

0:28:080:28:11

Hey, new boy! Come and have a go!

0:28:110:28:13

Always one for a challenge.

0:28:130:28:15

And I'll meet a brick-built immigrant community.

0:28:150:28:18

THEY SING

0:28:180:28:22

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0:28:530:28:56

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