Brighton to Chichester Great British Railway Journeys

In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.

His name was George Bradshaw

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

Stop by stop, he told them where to go, what to see and where to stay.

And now, 170 years later, I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures

across the United Kingdom to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

I'm reaching the end of my journey and I'll be travelling

along the south coast through the counties of East and West Sussex.

Bradshaw says, "Railways may now be considered as accelerators

"of pleasure. Bringing the most favourite watering places

"along the coast within the compass of a brief and agreeable journey."

As we might say today, trains were changing the work/life balance.

'On this leg, I'll pick up the scent underground in Brighton...'

I had no idea that sewage had such a sweet tinkle to it.

'..visit a palace that didn't amuse a queen...'

As the royal pair approached Castle Square,

the crowd pressed forward more closely and some

errant boys rudely peered beneath Her Majesty's bonnet.

How frightful!

'..and pass the chequered flag in style.'

Down the straight in the revival, they're doing 180mph.

I can't believe it.

I'm touching just over 60 now and enjoying it.

-That was 70, come on.

-Ha, ha!

My journey began in the cathedral city of Norwich.

I travelled south through East Anglia to Ipswich and Chelmsford.

Crossing the Thames at Tilbury, I continued through Kent to Dover

and then headed inland to Tonbridge.

I'll return to the coast at Brighton, before ending

my journey in another cathedral city.

Now I reach the seaside at Brighton and visit Bramber and Arundel,

before arriving at my final destination - Chichester.

My first stop will be what Bradshaw's calls "the marine metropolis".

And here's an interesting social comment.

"Merchants who formerly made Dulwich or Dalston

"the boundaries of their suburban residences

"now have their mansions by the south coast and still get

"in less time, by a less expensive conveyance, to their counting houses in the city."

What's more, Brighton had a royal seal of approval.

The railway arrived here in 1841

and by the mid-1840s, the journey time from London

was just over an hour.

Brighton Station was soon bustling with day trippers and commuters.

My guidebook comments that, "The Brighton terminus is

"an elegant structure, fitted up in the most convenient manner."

Hear hear.

Originally called Brighthelmstone, as a fishing village

Brighton avoided the limelight until the late 18th century.

That changed after the Prince Regent,

later King George IV, first visited Brighton in 1783.

He began to spend time here.

As a man devoted to elegance and pleasure,

he decided in 1787 to create this whimsical pavilion.

The Brighton Pavilion, says my guidebook, "Rises with domes

"and minarets, and is fretted with greater variety than taste.

"Erected for George IV, after a fanciful oriental model."

You sense here the disdain that every generation

feels for the fashion of its predecessor.

'I think I'll ask some of today's visitors what they think...'

-Hello.

-Hello, how are you doing?

I'm using a 19th-century guidebook

which says that the exterior of the building displays more variety than taste.

What do you think of that remark?

I think taste is in the eye of the beholder, really.

I actually think it's really nice to look at, so I'd disagree with that.

I think the variety actually adds to the taste, really.

It makes it quite unique and different. Definitely.

What do you think of the pavilion here in Brighton?

I am Italian. We usually have good taste, like French.

And I think that...

so mixing things, not very good taste.

I think that the outside is beautiful

but the inside is a bit eclectic.

It's just like a mishmash of styles.

I'm going inside to find out more about this extraordinary

building from Alexandra Loske.

Alexandra, I think this is the most exotic,

not to say over-the-top, building that I have ever been in.

What made the Prince Regent - George IV -

choose Brighton for his residence?

Well, he came down as a very young man,

the young Prince of Wales in 1783, really to get away from London.

He rented a farmhouse, substantial house, which was on this site,

and later transformed it into this exotic,

Indian-looking building.

And of course the architect of that was the famous John Nash.

That's extraordinary because I associate John Nash with

the very symmetrical buildings of Regent's Park,

Buckingham Palace and so on.

This was his walk on the wild side.

It was, both for John Nash and for King George IV.

This was a place away from London where you could, you know,

let your imagination run wild.

I don't think this building could have been built in London.

Brighton suited George's louche lifestyle.

With a passion for fashion, the arts

and good living, he was a rebel against his strict upbringing.

He threw himself with enthusiasm into drinking,

gambling and womanising.

Was he able to enjoy the building?

He did. He used it really for entertaining.

And you can tell by the way the building looks and how it's laid out

that it was really a party palace.

The extraordinary style - what were the inspirations for it?

Well, the inspirations were India, any exotic country,

mostly the Far East,

and that was fashionable, so he wasn't alone in this.

It's a style called orientalism or chinoiserie

and it was hugely popular in the mid-18th century

but nobody did it on this scale.

So this was a fantasy vision of the east, as imagined by the Europeans.

At the ceiling here we have,

supposedly holding this gigantic chandelier, a dragon.

And, of course, you associate China with dragons.

But if you look closely, it's actually a Welsh dragon.

It's what the artist knew about dragons.

Very few people had solid knowledge about the Orient

and Chinese mythology and symbolism.

George IV didn't have long to enjoy his pleasure dome,

which was completed in 1823.

Perhaps his extravagant lifestyle caught up with him

and his health failed.

His last visit to Brighton was in 1827

and he died three years later.

In 1837 the Victorian era begins.

How did the young queen take to this building?

Well, she comes here just a few months after her coronation - she's still only 18.

And she has mixed feelings and views on the building

but it's probably best to tell you more about this in her

-private apartments here in the building.

-Excellent.

George IV's palace by the sea expressed one man's

personal taste for Oriental splendour.

It was too flamboyant

and too much associated with decadence for Queen Victoria.

So here we are in Queen Victoria's private apartments on the

-upper floor of the royal pavilion.

-Did she like Brighton?

She tried to like it but it had various problems.

The place was too small for her,

certainly not good for a growing number of children.

But it was mainly the lack of privacy here.

And did the railways contribute to this loss of privacy?

Of course, absolutely. Because from 1841

when the line opens between London and Brighton,

many, many more people come to Brighton on day trips.

It's mostly Londoners and they can afford to now.

It's quick, you can come for a day or a weekend, it's cheap

and the place gets swarmed with ordinary people.

And of course, Victoria does object to that.

Did the Queen herself use the train to come to Brighton?

She did at least once.

On the way down she likes the comfort

of the saloon she's travelling in.

On the return journey she says,

"Oh, it only took us an hour and six minutes.

"This is rather too quick, I think."

Yeah, Queen Victoria did not like fast-moving trains.

'But then came the final straw.

'On her last visit here in 1845,

'Victoria and Albert went for a walk incognito.

'Word got around that the royal couple were on the pier.

'The Illustrated London News reported the story.'

"As the royal pair approached Castle Square, the crowd

"pressed forward more closely

"and some errant boys rudely peered beneath Her Majesty's bonnet".

-How frightful.

-It is a bit.

And then Victoria writes a letter to somebody saying, "The people in

"Brighton are terribly indiscreet

"and it feels very much like a prison here."

She sells the entire estate here in Brighton - and the buildings -

in 1850 to the town of Brighton.

After Queen Victoria abandoned Brighton

and sought privacy on the Isle of Wight,

the hoi polloi continued to delight in

the pleasures of this seaside town.

This is my guidebook's description of Brighton,

"Pleasure seekers out for the day and eager to be ubiquitous,

"hurrying to and fro, through the market to the spa,

"to the racecourse,

"the windmill, the beach, the shops, and the chain pier,

"in as rapid succession as the most ingenious locomotion could devise."

Some of the attractions have changed but the nature of Brighton hasn't.

But my Bradshaw's reveals another layer to this town.

Here's a change of tone in my guidebook.

"A twang of saltiness greets the lip."

There is another Brighton burrowing beneath the royal palace

and my journey today will take me from the sublime to the slime.

The rapid expansion of towns such as Brighton

demanded wonders from Victorian engineers.

Some of the most impressive are hidden deep underground.

I'm descending into the sludgy, Victorian bowels of the earth...

'to meet Stuart Slark to find out more.'

Stuart, what a charming place to meet.

Turn our stomachs a bit -

what was Brighton like before it had a sewerage system?

Very bad, very smelly because all they used to do in the old days,

they used to drain it to the top of the beach.

So at the beginning of the 19th century,

tourists would come down to Brighton and find what?

A lot of messy stuff all over the beach. It was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting and smelly.

And so what was it that the Victorians did about it?

Well, they built these magnificent sewers

that you're going to see today.

A wonderful piece of engineering from Sir John Hawkshaw.

Can we go and witness this glorious Victorian engineering?

-Of course you can. Come with me.

-Thank you.

-That's it.

'44 miles of sewers were constructed in 1865

'followed by this enormous intercepting sewer,

'completed in 1874,

'which took the waste water out of the town altogether.'

Stuart, that was a very slippery and slithery tunnel

but now we come into this magnificent vault!

I mean, the engineering here! The scale of it! Fantastic!

Yeah, this is... We are now 40 feet underground.

We're right by the side of the steam fountain in Brighton.

You've got the Victorian sewer running down the side.

Also, we have got two big sewers coming down into this,

that when they have heavy rain, it will overflow into where we

are standing and then go down these two barrels behind us

towards the sea.

Wait a minute, so we're standing here...

What happens if that overflows while we're standing here?

We'll have the ride of our life down those tunnels.

It would be better than your train journeys.

Frankly, has this been over-engineered?

For some unknown reason they really went to town on this.

They over-engineered it

and even to this day, it still copes with the present

climate of the heavy rains that we're getting now.

So I understand this has been built to last for 500 years.

And how does it actually work? Because I don't see any motors.

I don't see where there would have been a steam engine. What's the power?

It's all gravity-fed. Normally, it's falling down one foot per mile

for seven and a quarter miles down to Portobello.

And that pleasant sound of tinkling water

is actually the sound of Brighton's sewerage going past, is it?

That is correct, yes. Everything else coming down as well, yeah.

I had no idea that sewage had such a sweet tinkle to it.

Brighton needs its sewers, as society needs politicians.

Now it's time for me to return to Brighton Station

to travel on to my next stop.

My overnight rest will be in Bramber. Bradshaw's tells me that,

"It's a place of no particular note beyond the remains of a castle,

"which dates from about the time of the conquest."

Still, shortly after this guidebook was written,

tourists were flocking in by train.

Bramber Station closed in 1966 as a result of the Beeching axe.

So I'm disembarking at nearby Shoreham

and travelling up to what remains of Bramber's Norman castle

to meet museum curator Chris Tod.

Hello, Michael. Good to see you.

What was it that brought the tourists in their large numbers?

Well, there was the castle

and subsequent to Bradshaw's publication,

there was a museum of taxidermy known as Potter's Museum.

Taxidermy was very popular with Victorians but why would it merit a museum?

Well, he had a twist on it.

He created tableaux telling stories with numerous different animals.

Mimicking either a poem

in the case of Who Killed Cock Robin or a rabbit's schoolroom

or a kitten's croquet party.

Some of which had mechanical bits which you could activate.

Tell me what Bramber was like when these waves of tourists

were descending upon it.

The tourists came by train. There was

the line running from Shoreham to Horsham, which stopped at Bramber,

and they constructed an extra-long platform at Bramber,

so that they could take an extra couple of coaches.

Well, I'm staying tonight at the Castle - is that one of your historic inns?

It is. Its history goes back, as far as we know, to Tudor times

but in the mid-19th century when its name was still different - it was called the White Lion -

Walter Potter's father, James Potter, ran it

and Walter Potter was a servant at the inn.

-I will potter off. Very good. Thank you.

-Nice seeing you.

Potter's museum of taxidermy has long since closed.

'But the Castle Hotel is just the place

'for a generously-stuffed pillow.'

Good evening.

It's the final day of my journey

and I'm heading back to Shoreham Station.

My first stop today will be Arundel.

I'm told that, "It's situated on the declivity of a steep hill.

"At the foot runs the river Arun,

"over which is built a handsome stone bridge.

"The appearance of the town with its stately castle

"and winding river is singularly beautiful."

As I near the end of my journey, my eyes are going to feast.

Arundel can thank the Duke of Norfolk for its railway station.

The Howards' impressive castle overlooking the Arun river

was begun in 1068

and partially destroyed during the English Civil War.

The family rebuilt in the 19th century

in this Victorian Gothic style.

I'm starting my tour in the library with my guide, Brenda Thompson.

What a beautiful library, Brenda.

The restorations that my Bradshaw's are referring to -

those before, say, 1864 -

these were various dukes restoring,

in inverted commas, to a gothic style?

Yes, yes. Starting probably with our 11th duke -

he was the man who also built this beautiful library.

Took about 13 years to complete.

How many books does it have?

We have 10,000 in here.

I'm very interested in the doings of Queen Victoria.

Did she get to visit the castle?

Yes, she did, in 1846 with Prince Albert.

They had... They were given two years' notice that she was coming

so they had time to prepare.

And so this room in particular,

all the red furnishing was put in for her visit.

They had some furniture made for the state bedroom,

they also put some little stoves along the picture gallery

because they thought she might get a bit chilly.

Did the queen enjoy her visit?

Yes, I believe so because we have copies of her diaries.

A couple of things she thought a little boring

and she thought her rooms were very comfortable, but rather small.

-It's wonderful to have the frankness of Queen Victoria's diaries.

-Yes.

Then there was a huge restoration, wasn't there?

Well, Duke Henry decided to continue the restoration work,

enlarge the castle and he

wanted it all in this Gothic style so it had this flow throughout.

All this work was made far easier by the proximity of the railways,

allowing building materials to be transported from the nearby station.

The duke did some very progressive renovations here,

including a steam-pumped water supply, central heating,

a hydraulic lift and 1,000 electric light bulbs.

A great supporter of the railways, the duke was happy for the line

to cross his land as long as the timetable met his convenience.

He made sure all the trains stopped here in case he wanted to go to London.

I think you can divide the dukes of the 19th century into two sorts -

those opposed to railways and those who were in favour of them -

-but they all liked the train to stop where they wanted it.

-Exactly.

I know the train won't wait for me,

so I must be at the station in time to catch

the last train of this journey.

I'm now approaching my last stop,

Chichester, which Bradshaw's tells me,

"Is an old town on the square Roman plan.

"It's a clean and neatly-built cathedral city." And so my journey

that began in Norwich has taken me from one cathedral to another.

Well, I've made a long journey to see this wonder

and I'm not disappointed.

It has a slender refinement to it.

Bradshaw's tells me that it was built in the 12th century.

It's 377ft long including the Lady Chapel here.

Norman and Early English work prevail.

The fine eight-sided spire is 300 feet high.

In fact, the spire collapsed dramatically in 1861, was rebuilt

by the architect Gilbert Scott with a donation from Queen Victoria.

An event in the British social calendar draws

thousands of visitors every summer.

To find out more, I'm heading up into the South Downs

to a ducal estate with long-standing passions for fast horses,

and fast cars - Goodwood.

It all started with the first Duke of Richmond's passion for hunting.

These splendid kennels for foxhounds were built by the third duke.

I'm meeting Hilary Sloan to find out more.

-Hello, Hilary!

-Hello, Michael.

Erm, Bradshaw's tells me

about horse racing here in July at Goodwood.

But we're meeting by some kennels.

How do we move from fox hunting to horse racing?

Well, the third duke was passionate about horses.

He'd been exercising his own horses

on the sands down at Itchener, close by, since 1783.

And in 1801 he was asked

if the Sussex militia could exercise their horses up on the Harrow Way,

which is where the horse racing still takes place today.

This was such a great success, this private meeting.

1802, he established the first public meeting

and the rest really is history.

For the best outlook on the racecourse, Hilary takes me

up to a viewpoint known as the Trundle.

A glorious view of Glorious Goodwood.

Who would have had this view in the 19th century?

It was most definitely both sides of society.

Royalty, aristocracy and

the locals and even Londoners and people from Brighton.

Now if you were up here, viewing the races for nothing,

you were not only looking down on horse racing -

you were looking down on the British establishment, weren't you?

Most definitely and this was the place, the favourite

playground for the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.

What did Queen Victoria think of his racing passion?

Ah, well, I get the feeling she was not amused.

Horse racing did not interest her at all and of course she felt that

her son - often called Bertie - was playing around a little too much.

How did the hoi polloi on the Trundle

and the establishment down there make their way to the racecourse?

I hope they came by train.

Well, of course, let's talk about the royalty first.

The Prince of Wales - he would arrive on the train,

the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

But he wouldn't come in to Chichester -

he would stop at a halt called Drayton, about two miles to the east of Chichester.

And the etiquette would be that the Duke of Richmond would have arranged

for a carriage to go and collect him.

He even went to the trouble of watering the road

between Goodwood and Drayton to make sure there'd be no dust in the way.

The plebeian hordes would trudge up to the Trundle from the station

and gaze upon the grandees from this vantage point.

I'm getting the impression that Goodwood's always evolving.

It started with fox-hunting then there was horse racing -

why does it keep changing?

This is really something of the passions,

the different passions, of our various dukes

and by the time of the 20th century

our 9th Duke of Richmond was mad keen on everything to do with motor racing,

and that was the start of the motor passions here at Goodwood.

So these days the Goodwood Estate also draws the crowds

for a different type of horse power.

Chris Taylor is going to fill me in.

-How's it going? Hello there.

-It's going very well.

-Good.

I've been thinking about the horse racing here, but now

you have a motor circuit too - how did Goodwood make the transition?

The airfield was set up to be a fighter base during the Second World War

and afterwards when all the planes had gone, the Duke of Richmond was

driving round here with a friend and the friend said to him,

"I say, old chap, this place would make a jolly fine motor circuit, don't you know?"

The first meeting in 1948 here, was the first meeting,

first race meeting, after the war in all of the UK.

And now you have these great gatherings, don't you? What are they called?

You're talking about the Goodwood Revival, which is the race meeting

which has been set up by the Earl of March to recreate

the races that took place between the '50s and '60s.

So it's the same cars, in some cases with the same drivers,

and everybody dresses up in period gear.

All the cars that are on site are pre-'66.

I mean, if you were to parachute in here during the meeting,

you'd think you'd fallen in another world.

I have actually attended. I came as a teddy boy, I...

I'd like to have seen that...

Yeah, I had winkle-picker shoes and I had sideburns painted on with

cork of course and masses of attitude.

And did you feel that you fitted in?

Yeah, no, it was a great day out.

What is this lovely machine?

This is your original cops and robbers car,

It's a Mark 2 Jaguar 3.8 litre. First of all the baddies bought them

and then the police all had to go out and buy them to keep up with them

and in those days it must have seemed like an absolute rocket ship!

Do you mind if I take it for a spin?

-Put your seat belt on.

-OK.

Just put Bradshaw in the back.

Right, let's go.

You're not going to scare me, are you?

Fasten your seat belt.

Chris gives me an accelerated course to get me up to speed.

OK, so this is the main straight, or the pit straight.

The first corner we come to is a right hander.

So the thing about driving on a race circuit is always be looking ahead.

OK, first corner's a right hander.

Ease over to the left and keep your hands at the quarter to...

That's it, perfect.

Sign there saying "brake". Tiny bit of brake.

Tiny bit of brake, now back on the power.

Cos that balances the car and you're driving through the corner

rather than rolling through the corner

and the car will feel much more stable.

You know, down the straight in the Revival,

they're doing 180mph.

I can't believe it. I'm touching just over 60 now and enjoying it.

-Come on, that was 70, come on.

-Ha, ha, ha!

And what do you think Bertie, the man who became Edward VII...

What would he have thought of this? He was a good racy fellow, wasn't he?

Oh, he would have absolutely loved it and, you know,

it's a shame you can't bring those guys back and say, "Hey, have a look at this.

"How much fun is this? You know, your horses are fine

but isn't this fun too?"

Superb. Though I remain more of a rail anorak than a petrolhead.

On this journey from Norwich to Chichester I've steered clear

of the factories and chimney stacks of Bradshaw's Britain,

focusing instead on country pursuits and places of pleasure.

But the railways changed everything everywhere,

making people physically and socially mobile.

Monarchs and commoners alike travelled by train.

And here at Goodwood, the masses could look down upon

the royals as they enjoyed the sport of kings.