0:00:04 > 0:00:08For Victorian Britains, George Bradshaw was a household name.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10At a time when railways were new,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14Bradshaw's Guidebook inspired them to take to the tracks.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide to understand how trains
0:00:19 > 0:00:24transformed Britain - its landscape, its industries, society
0:00:24 > 0:00:26and leisure time.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31As I crisscross the country 150 years later, it helps me
0:00:31 > 0:00:33to discover the Britain of today.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57All week, I've been using Bradshaw's to rediscover
0:00:57 > 0:00:59London as it was in the Age of Steam.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08I'm now concluding my rail journeys around the world's first
0:01:08 > 0:01:13metropolis. Today, I want to look at great institutions born in
0:01:13 > 0:01:17or which flourished during the reign of Queen Victoria -
0:01:17 > 0:01:22a variety of cultural, charitable and popular organisations
0:01:22 > 0:01:27that to this day define the capital more than rhyming slang
0:01:27 > 0:01:29or the sound of bow bells.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Alongside my usual guidebook, I've been delving into other
0:01:40 > 0:01:42historic Bradshaw's publications,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46including a later edition from 1875,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49to shine a light on Victorian London.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Today, I'm tracing a route from affluent Kensington
0:01:52 > 0:01:54to Battersea and Vauxhall,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58finishing up at one of Britain's busiest stations, London Bridge.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03'On this stretch, I'll be getting a fresh perspective
0:02:03 > 0:02:05'on a Victorian landmark...
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Oh, that is a long way d... Oh, I mustn't look down.
0:02:09 > 0:02:10I mustn't look down.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13'..learning how London's most famous flower market
0:02:13 > 0:02:16'had a darker side in Bradshaw's day...'
0:02:16 > 0:02:21Flower sellers would use it almost as a cover for begging
0:02:21 > 0:02:23or at worst prostitution.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28- Oh, so to be a flower girl had a sort of double meaning?- Absolutely.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32'..and discovering how the capital's 19th-century railways
0:02:32 > 0:02:34'are being equipped for the 21st.'
0:02:34 > 0:02:36What we see here is the new platforms
0:02:36 > 0:02:38that we're just preparing at the minute.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And the scale of this enterprise, the scale of this vision,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43it is positively Victorian.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54I'm on the Circle line, heading for High Street Kensington.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58This stretch opened in 1868
0:02:58 > 0:03:01and was soon being used by well-to-do commuters,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05who might well have passed the journey flicking through the pages
0:03:05 > 0:03:07of an irreverent publication.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12"Ascending Fleet Street,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16"we pass on the left the office of the inimitable Punch
0:03:16 > 0:03:19"and a few doors beyond, that of Bradshaw's Guide."
0:03:19 > 0:03:23I'm not at Fleet Street, but near the home of a Punch cartoonist,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28who, as reliably as my handbook, steers us through the Victorian age,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30albeit sardonically.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Today's popular satirical television and radio shows can trace roots back
0:03:39 > 0:03:43to the lampoonery of the magazine Punch.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47I'm unearthing its Victorian origins in Kensington,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49where, encouraged by the new railway,
0:03:49 > 0:03:5319th-century property developers built smart homes by the hundred
0:03:53 > 0:03:55for the burgeoning middle classes.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02In 1875, artist and Punch cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne
0:04:02 > 0:04:05moved in to number 18, Stafford Terrace.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08His home has been beautifully preserved as a museum,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12and I'm taking a tour with cultural historian Clare Horrocks.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Clare, politicians had been satirized and caricatured
0:04:19 > 0:04:23long before the invention of Punch. What is special about Punch?
0:04:23 > 0:04:27I think what's special about Punch is that it's reaching out to a much
0:04:27 > 0:04:31more middle class audience. It's much more of a family magazine,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34particularly as you move through into the 1850s and 1860s.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37But it does pack a punch, doesn't it? I mean, it's something
0:04:37 > 0:04:39that the ruling class have to be wary of?
0:04:39 > 0:04:41Very much so.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Before the advent of Punch in 1841,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48satire often took the form of crude pamphlets, bawdy in tone
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and frequently libellous.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Employing top artists and generally skirting around libel,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Punch became the respectable face of the genre.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Alongside biting political commentary,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Sambourne and his colleagues gently lampooned the preoccupations
0:05:05 > 0:05:07of the weekly's refined readership.
0:05:07 > 0:05:13What we can se here is the use of the spider to satirise the chignon
0:05:13 > 0:05:14and female fashion.
0:05:14 > 0:05:20- What's quite interesting is you can see the flies as earrings.- Ha-ha.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24An early version of Spider-Woman.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27A keen observer of the changing face of Victorian Britain,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Sambourne took advantage of modern technology
0:05:30 > 0:05:33including photography, which by the late 19th century
0:05:33 > 0:05:35had reached the mass-market.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Sambourne's studio.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Indeed, this is where he worked from 1899, and here's some examples
0:05:45 > 0:05:49of how he would use the photography to help him get the shape
0:05:49 > 0:05:52of the characters that he was sketching
0:05:52 > 0:05:56- and an example of one of his cameras. - Ah, an unusual camera.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00- It's got lenses on two sides. - This was the secret side panel,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04which gave him a secret and more genuine view, it could be argued,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09on subjects, such as the schoolgirls walking along that we have here.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Punch took a keen interest in the railways, which were then
0:06:12 > 0:06:16transforming Britain and even my guidebook found itself subjected to
0:06:16 > 0:06:19the magazine's playful wit.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24As we can see here, from September, 1877, we have a piece about
0:06:24 > 0:06:28The Continental Bradshaw, which has an initial letter
0:06:28 > 0:06:30by Sambourne himself.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33"Oh, shall we take a circular ticket carrying us everywhere,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35"over everything in all sorts of conveyances?
0:06:35 > 0:06:38"Shall we not consequently be haunted with the regret
0:06:38 > 0:06:42"that wherever we may be going, we would far sooner go somewhere else?
0:06:42 > 0:06:47"Will the Continental Bradshaw be of the least use to us?"
0:06:47 > 0:06:49What a heretical question! Ha-ha.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58I have never regretted following my trusty Bradshaw's,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01and it's now leading me back onto the Circle line.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08I'm heading south to learn how royal passions shaped this part
0:07:08 > 0:07:12of London in the mid-19th century.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14The relationship between Queen Victoria
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and her husband Prince Albert could be stormy.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20He doubted that the duties of a monarch could be performed
0:07:20 > 0:07:24by a weak and feeble woman, and her efforts to perform them
0:07:24 > 0:07:29were hampered by nine pregnancies and bouts of post-natal depression.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33But after his death, she devoted her life to worshipping him,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37and London enjoys the monuments built to Prince Albert.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42An 1870s version of Bradshaw's talks about the Royal Albert Hall
0:07:42 > 0:07:44"being 150 feet high to the lantern
0:07:44 > 0:07:47"and 800 to 900 feet round, it is an oval
0:07:47 > 0:07:51"ranking next to the Coliseum at Rome for size."
0:07:51 > 0:07:56Ah, yes, but this wasn't built by a Caesar but by a queen.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59- TUBE PA SYSTEM:- The next station is South Kensington.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08With the Natural History, Science
0:08:08 > 0:08:10and Victoria & Albert Museums nearby,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14as well as Imperial College and other educational institutions,
0:08:14 > 0:08:18the Royal Albert Hall is at the heart of a cultural
0:08:18 > 0:08:20and scientific quarter.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24The area owes its origins to The Great Exhibition,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26the international industrial showcase,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28which had been the brainchild of Prince Albert.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35I'm hearing the story from the Hall's archive manager Liz Harper.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Liz, what a stunning auditorium.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44So in 1851, there's The Great Exhibition, in the Crystal Palace
0:08:44 > 0:08:45- in the park.- Yes.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Now, what role does Prince Albert play after that in this area?
0:08:48 > 0:08:53So, with the profits from The Great Exhibition, his dream was
0:08:53 > 0:08:57to buy up land in this area to promote the arts and sciences
0:08:57 > 0:08:59as The Exhibition had done.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02And so, with the money, they bought up 86 acres
0:09:02 > 0:09:05and bought what's nicknamed Albertopolis.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And he was the driving force behind that,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12- including the Royal Albert Hall? - Exactly. Building a central hall
0:09:12 > 0:09:16for further exhibitions and for music events was part of that ambition.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18And what we see here today,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22this 5,000 seat auditorium, was that his original concept?
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Erm, originally, the plan was to build a much grander theatre
0:09:26 > 0:09:30for almost 30,000 people, but the plans were reduced
0:09:30 > 0:09:34because they felt that it could never be filled.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Alas, Albert didn't live to see his vision made reality.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Aged just 42, he died of typhoid in 1861.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48But Victoria ensured that his name lived on in this building.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51This illustration shows Queen Victoria in 1867,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54laying the Hall's foundation stone.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59But it was at this ceremony in front of 7,000 people that Queen Victoria
0:09:59 > 0:10:03decided without telling anyone at the hall that it would be changed from
0:10:03 > 0:10:07the Central Hall Of Arts And Sciences to the Royal Albert Hall.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Ha-ha. That's what they call a 'fait accompli' - a royal edict!
0:10:11 > 0:10:16The Hall finally opened in March, 1871, and a year later,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20just across the road, it was joined by the lavish Albert Memorial,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24whose considerable expense Prime Minister Gladstone was reluctant
0:10:24 > 0:10:26to fund from the public purse,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29thus deepening his rift with Queen Victoria.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35The Hall required a million bricks and 80,000 blocks of terracotta.
0:10:35 > 0:10:41Its most remarkable feature was the 185-foot-wide dome of glass
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and wrought iron that crowns the building.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Oh, my goodness, this fantastic span!
0:10:49 > 0:10:53At the time, it was the largest unsupported dome in the world
0:10:53 > 0:10:57and it was made in Manchester and brought down to London
0:10:57 > 0:11:00- on horse and cart. - What on earth does it weigh?
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Well, including the glazing, the roof weighs an astonishing 600 tonnes!
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Liz is leading me to the apex of the dome,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12suspended high above the auditorium.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Oh, that is a long way d... Oh, I mustn't look down.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22- I think I might have to ask for your arm.- Right. Let's tr...
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Oh, my goodness! This is weird.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28- Let's walk across the poles. - (Oh, dear.)
0:11:28 > 0:11:30- Ah! - HE GROANS
0:11:30 > 0:11:33How high above the auditorium are we?
0:11:33 > 0:11:38- We're 44 metres to the arena floor.- Oh, my goodness.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Now why was this built?
0:11:40 > 0:11:43This was built really as Victorian ventilation for the Hall,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48- so the hot air would rise and come out the top.- Hmm, yes.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51The Victorian engineering is extraordinary,
0:11:51 > 0:11:56but I'm thankful to be returning to terra firma to continue my journey.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11I'm boarding the Underground for the last time on this London tour
0:12:11 > 0:12:14because, to reach my next stop, I need to join the mainline network
0:12:14 > 0:12:15at Victoria.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28I'm bound for Battersea, where the railway arrived in 1867.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31- TUBE PA SYSTEM:- Next station is Battersea Park.
0:12:31 > 0:12:37My 1870s Bradshaw's notes its gardens, park and old church,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41but this quiet village was turning into an industrialised suburb.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Between 1841 and 1901,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49the population grew from 6,500 to nearly 170,000.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53And as Victorian London's human population soared,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56so did the numbers of stray animals on its streets.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01I'm hearing from Claire Horton how this situation gave birth
0:13:01 > 0:13:03to a Battersea institution.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07So, Battersea Dogs Home was actually found in Victorian period, was it?
0:13:07 > 0:13:12Mm-hm. We were founded in 1860 by a lady called Mary Tealby,
0:13:12 > 0:13:18who came to London after her divorce and was just really concerned
0:13:18 > 0:13:22by the numbers of stray, starving and lost dogs on the streets
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and wanted to do something about it.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30The Home moved this site in 1871, and from the early 20th century,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33there have been kennels in these railway arches.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36They're now being refurbished to improve the dogs' accommodation,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41but in Victorian times, not everyone saw the necessity of treating
0:13:41 > 0:13:42stray animals kindly.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48There was a rather scathing article in The Times in the very early days
0:13:48 > 0:13:52in 1862 saying that it felt our founders had taken leave
0:13:52 > 0:13:54of their sober senses.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57But we were pretty much saved by Charles Dickens,
0:13:57 > 0:14:02who came to the rescue of the Home by actually writing an article
0:14:02 > 0:14:07really almost contrasting the lives of pedigree dogs
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and their aristocratic owners with the lives of stray street dogs
0:14:11 > 0:14:15and the people who lived in sort of the poorer areas of London.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20And he was very, very positive, very supportive of the Home.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24And so the whole attitude to animal welfare really started to shift
0:14:24 > 0:14:26as a consequence of that.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30By the late 1880s, the problem of stray dogs was so bad
0:14:30 > 0:14:33that the police were authorised to impound them,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38and soon up to 25,000 animals a year were being brought to Battersea.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41People would often have their dogs seized from them,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44from railway stations if they were trying to travel with their dogs
0:14:44 > 0:14:47and they didn't have a muzzle on the dog as was a legal requirement
0:14:47 > 0:14:52at that time. And at one point during 1898, in 50 days,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55we took almost 11,000 dogs.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Thankfully, London these days has fewer strays.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Even so, the Home admits about 9,000 animals annually.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11- Hello.- This is Lucy. Lucy's actually a typical stray come in,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15- found at Pimlico railway station. - Ah, were you, Lucy?
0:15:15 > 0:15:17She's about 18 months old.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21- LUCY BARKS - Good girl.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Before a dog can be given a new home, it is carefully assessed
0:15:25 > 0:15:30and given much-needed affection by staff and volunteers.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33DOGS BARK AND WHINE
0:15:33 > 0:15:36- And who's this?- This is Sheba. - Hello, Sheba.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40She's one of our current residents. She's now ready to find a new home,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44so we're giving her a bath. Hey, sweetheart.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47- Is she enjoying it?- Yeah.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51- That's a good girlie.- It's a thick coat, isn't it?- It is a thick coat.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Good girl.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Former politician comes off the tracks and goes to the dogs.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08- Lovely! - THEY LAUGH
0:16:11 > 0:16:16With a bit of luck, spruced-up Sheba will soon find a new home.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Home's where I'm bound to sleep
0:16:19 > 0:16:22before embarking on the last day of my tour of London.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37A new dawn, and I'm back on the South Bank of the Thames
0:16:37 > 0:16:40to track down the story of an industry that was blooming
0:16:40 > 0:16:43back in Bradshaw's day.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47According to Bradshaw's, "Covent Garden is celebrated as being
0:16:47 > 0:16:50"the mart for the most delicate and choicest flowers grown
0:16:50 > 0:16:53"or imported into England."
0:16:53 > 0:16:57A visit to a flower market, now wouldn't that be lovely?
0:17:04 > 0:17:08The Central London market described in my guidebook dated back
0:17:08 > 0:17:12to the Middle Ages, when it was the convent garden of an abbey.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15But 40 years ago, it was relocated here,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19down the line from Vauxhall Station.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Helen Evans has researched its history.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Now, the image I have of Covent Garden based on My Fair Lady,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30a poor flower selling girl,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33that's typical, I suppose, of the late 19th century,
0:17:33 > 0:17:34even the early 20th century.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Yes, you would have had two types of girls selling flowers.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42You'd have had the waifs who were very much on the breadline,
0:17:42 > 0:17:47just selling and making very, very small amounts on the posies,
0:17:47 > 0:17:53but you would also have others who would use it almost as a cover
0:17:53 > 0:17:57for begging or at worst prostitution.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02- Oh, so to be a flower girl had a sort of double meaning?- Absolutely.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05For middle and upper class Victorians,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08fresh flowers were a mark of status.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12No gentleman would venture forth without sporting a buttonhole.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16And city-dwellers gained access to a wider variety of blooms
0:18:16 > 0:18:18than ever before.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Pre-railway, it would have all been locally grown.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And it was only with the onset of the railways that they were able to bring
0:18:25 > 0:18:29in product from further afield - from the south-west,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33the Channel Islands even, and particularly France.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37- In fact, I have luggage labels here. - Oh, my goodness.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41This is from a grower who, in Provence, who was growing violets
0:18:41 > 0:18:44that they'd send up to markets in wicker baskets.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48And these are the luggage labels for the Boulogne boat train,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50and they would have come on into London.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56From London's various stations,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58the flowers were transferred by horse and cart
0:18:58 > 0:19:01and later lorries to Covent Garden.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05By the 1960s, this traffic was clogging the streets.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09And in 1974, the market finally moved to the site
0:19:09 > 0:19:11of the former goods yard
0:19:11 > 0:19:14of the London and South Western Railway Company.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19The modern market is carefully temperature- and light-controlled
0:19:19 > 0:19:21to keep the flowers at their peak.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24But traders like Bob Cooley have fond memories
0:19:24 > 0:19:26of the rough-and-ready market
0:19:26 > 0:19:30that readers of my Bradshaw's would have known.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33- How do you do?- Hello, Bob. My name's Michael.- Hello there, Michael.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36How long have you been in the business?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39- 43 years.- No?!- Yes!
0:19:39 > 0:19:43- Anyone before you in your family? - Grandfather.- Yeah.- Dad.- Really.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Had a brother up here. One time, I had two uncles up here.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47Yeah, there's quite a tribe of us at one time, Michael.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50- Obviously, you remember the old Covent Garden?- Very much so,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53love it. When we had the three-day week, which your opposition...
0:19:53 > 0:19:57- In the early 1970s.- ..which your opposition made available for us,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00we put all lanterns up. So if you can imagine old Covent Garden,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Dickensian, with Tilley lamps, it was like going back in the day.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07- Do you miss that place? - Ah, it's a different world.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09This is business business.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13I once found from the Opera House, I'm sure it was a fella's skull,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17I took it home, wrapped it up and gave my mum it for her birthday!
0:20:17 > 0:20:21She wasn't too pleased, but you used to find all sorts of things
0:20:21 > 0:20:24like that from all the different theatres.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26The stars used to get over there and you'd see them.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28My dad would point out to me, "See that man over there?"
0:20:28 > 0:20:30And I was some 15-year-old boy.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32"That's Lionel Bart, he wrote Oliver!"
0:20:32 > 0:20:36Fantastic, you're rubbing shoulders with very famous people, aren't you?
0:20:36 > 0:20:37It was great!
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Bob also remembers the days when lorries filled with boxes
0:20:41 > 0:20:44of flowers left New Covent Garden three times a day,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48bound for the London termini, where trains would carry them on
0:20:48 > 0:20:50to destinations across the land.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54- You can write 'Sym's of Aberdeen' on there.- Is that with an 'I'?
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Whatever. My spelling might be different to yours!
0:20:57 > 0:21:00- I'll put it with a 'Y'.- Sym's.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04- Aberdeen.- Yeah. And a special word at the bottom,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- I'll tell you what it is.- Oh, I hope it's a nice word!- It is.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11TBCF.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15- To be collected?- Called for. - Called for.- That's right.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17- There we are.- There you go.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Would you like to take it out to the loading bay now? Deliver it?
0:21:20 > 0:21:22Absolutely.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Shall we pop your book on there, Michael,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28so you can take that with you?
0:21:32 > 0:21:36Since the 1990s, the trains no longer play a big role
0:21:36 > 0:21:40in the flower trade, but who knows what the future holds?
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Right now, London is in the midst of a railway renaissance,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56and the very last leg of my London itinerary takes me to a station
0:21:56 > 0:22:00with a crucial role in the capital's future development.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Bradshaw's tells me that "the London terminus
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"of the Southeastern railway is situated on the Surrey side
0:22:13 > 0:22:17"of London Bridge. It's been enlarged to meet the requirements
0:22:17 > 0:22:20"of the various lines of which it is now the conjoint termini."
0:22:20 > 0:22:23That's been one of the problems for London Bridge.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26It has this dual personality as both a terminus station
0:22:26 > 0:22:28and a through station, too.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31And Bradshaw's remarks that it's not spectacular,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34but I have a feeling that's about to change.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47As suggested by my guidebook, since Victorian times,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50London Bridge has stood at the nexus of railway lines feeding in
0:22:50 > 0:22:52from across the South East.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57But the tangle of tracks that grew up in Bradshaw's day
0:22:57 > 0:23:02was not built with 21st-century commuter traffic in mind.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Today this vital junction is a bottleneck
0:23:05 > 0:23:11and the station is ill-equipped to handle the 277 passengers per minute
0:23:11 > 0:23:14who arrive here at peak times.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18London Bridge station, at a point
0:23:18 > 0:23:21where, what, six or seven pedestrian tunnels converge in one place,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23and people just kind of bump into each other
0:23:23 > 0:23:26like chaotic streams of ants.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33Thanks to a chequered past,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36with competing companies running services here,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39for much of its history, London Bridge has effectively
0:23:39 > 0:23:40been two stations.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Until recently, there were six through platforms in one half
0:23:45 > 0:23:49and nine terminating platforms in the other, linked by a footbridge.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53But now, as part of the £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme
0:23:53 > 0:23:57to expand London's north-south railway capacity,
0:23:57 > 0:23:58that's all changing.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Andrew Hutton has been working on the project for five years.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05What a mammoth building site!
0:24:08 > 0:24:11What we've got to do is get a lot more trains through London Bridge,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15so London Bridge unlocks the whole of the Thameslink project.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19So the work going on now really is to create more through platforms
0:24:19 > 0:24:22and thereby reduce some of the terminating platforms.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25This enables us to put the 18 trains an hour extra
0:24:25 > 0:24:27we've got to put through for the Thameslink Programme.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30At the minute, there's just no room to do that.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33The Victorians ran the first North-South through services
0:24:33 > 0:24:37via London Bridge, crossing the Thames at Blackfriars.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Nowadays, a maximum of four trains an hour ply the route,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45with barely one an hour at peak times.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48To rectify that severe shortage of capacity,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51the platforms are being completely reconfigured
0:24:51 > 0:24:53to provide nine through lines -
0:24:53 > 0:24:57all while London Bridge remains open to passengers.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00It's a huge game of chess really, which I always describe to people
0:25:00 > 0:25:04in some sense is brilliant, makes you come into work every day and think,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06"Wow," and in the other sense, it keeps you awake at night thinking,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08"How on earth are we going to do that?"
0:25:08 > 0:25:11- MICHAEL LAUGHS - It's leaving you apparently
0:25:11 > 0:25:13with a lovely big...what, kind of underpass here.
0:25:13 > 0:25:14What's that going to be, then?
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Well, basically this is a brand-new concourse that we're building.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20It's bigger than the size of Wembley Football pitch.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24We have this huge area that will link the whole station,
0:25:24 > 0:25:26so for the first time in its history,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30you'll be able to access any of the platforms from the same level.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34So that little warren that I came trough earlier, that disappears?
0:25:34 > 0:25:36All that goes.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43The new concourse must be carved out of the Victorian architecture
0:25:43 > 0:25:45that underpins the existing station.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51- It's a real labyrinth under here, isn't it?- Indeed, I think actually
0:25:51 > 0:25:54this is a very good place to just to stop, to show you an idea
0:25:54 > 0:25:57of how the station's been developed with different sets of arches
0:25:57 > 0:26:00depending when they were built. If you look into the distance,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03you can see about three different variations of arch,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06and behind that, the new concourse is starting.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10So it'll work its way, gnawing through all these arches,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12right through to the other side on Tooley Street.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15So alas, we're going to lose these Victorian arches?
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Well, yes, you'll lose some.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21We have to take arches out to enable us to put the big concourse in,
0:26:21 > 0:26:23but leave them all around the edges.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29The new concourse will be spectacular,
0:26:29 > 0:26:34and the project also addresses the nuts and bolts of railway operation.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Every last rail and sleeper is being replaced
0:26:37 > 0:26:42in one of the largest track renewal and re-signalling projects ever.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Right, Michael, what we see here is the new platforms
0:26:45 > 0:26:48that we're just preparing at the minute. We've got about a month left
0:26:48 > 0:26:51to get this ready to give over to the track guys,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53put all the ballast down, put the tracks in.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56The scale of this enterprise, the scale of this vision,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58it is positively Victorian.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08The Thameslink project is one of many
0:27:08 > 0:27:10that are refashioning the capital.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Where better to take stock of the transformation
0:27:13 > 0:27:16than from London Bridge's newest neighbour, the Shard?
0:27:20 > 0:27:24As a Londoner, I try to sense the excitement that the Victorians felt
0:27:24 > 0:27:28as they built the cathedrals of steam like London Bridge station,
0:27:28 > 0:27:32800 feet beneath me, and The Royal Albert Hall.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35But in truth, it takes little imagination.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Standing at the top of Europe's tallest building
0:27:38 > 0:27:41and having seen the works that are being done
0:27:41 > 0:27:44to create new railway lines from north to south and east to west,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48I believe the metropolis is undergoing its greatest renewal
0:27:48 > 0:27:51since Queen Victoria graced the throne.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02'Next time, I help to give an old engine a fresh start...'
0:28:02 > 0:28:09Ooh, my goodness! George is getting appallingly damaged here.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13'..discover the macho side of the poet Baron...'
0:28:13 > 0:28:16He was a fantastic boxer. He had the champion of England,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Gentleman Jackson, actually teach him how to box.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20'..and find that my cooking skills
0:28:20 > 0:28:22'aren't what they're cracked up to be.'
0:28:22 > 0:28:25There's a bit of egg shell in there, Michael. That's a point deducted.