0:00:05 > 0:00:07Today, we take it for granted
0:00:07 > 0:00:09that the majority of our shop assistants are women.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15But 150 years ago, being served by a shop girl
0:00:15 > 0:00:17was a strange, new phenomenon.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20And the story of how an army of women
0:00:20 > 0:00:23swept onto our shop floors is an extraordinary one.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30In this series, I want to follow the journey of the shop girl,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34from the almost-invisible figure in the stark Victorian stalls
0:00:34 > 0:00:38to being the beating heart of today's vibrant shops.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45I want to explore the drama behind her history,
0:00:45 > 0:00:47her exploitation by ruthless shopkeepers
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and her enjoyment of selling beautiful objects.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55Her defiant fight against a trashy reputation and class snobbery,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59her romantic entanglements, and her cult status.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I want to hear the voices of the shop girls themselves,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04their bosses and their customers.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08I did feel we were all partners.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10He would walk past a counter,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14and if it was dusty he'd write his initials, HGS,
0:01:14 > 0:01:15- in the dust. - SHE LAUGHS
0:01:15 > 0:01:18"Ordered and paid for - hat at Pontings.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22"Girl tried to stick on three shillings extra. Cheat."
0:01:24 > 0:01:27And, ultimately, through these shop girls' stories,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30I want to understand how society changed
0:01:30 > 0:01:33when thousands of young women surged into shop work.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04This is George Square,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06the heart of Victorian Glasgow.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Just round the corner were the offices of the Glasgow Daily Herald.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14In July 1861, the paper ran a bizarre story
0:02:14 > 0:02:16under the headline
0:02:16 > 0:02:20'Romantic Freak Of A Glasgow Girl Of Sixteen.'
0:02:21 > 0:02:24It reported that a young man had answered
0:02:24 > 0:02:26a provision dealer's advertisement
0:02:26 > 0:02:29and was duly hired as a shop assistant.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31All went well for the first few days,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34the lad giving rather extra satisfaction,
0:02:34 > 0:02:36according to the article.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39But, then, the young man's landlady visited the provisions dealer.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43"Lo and behold, he was told that his young, active shopman,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47"instead of being of the masculine, was of the feminine gender."
0:02:52 > 0:02:55The article goes on to say that the supposed shopman tried to
0:02:55 > 0:03:00deny it but eventually confessed to being a girl of 16.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04The boss fired her on the spot. He only employed men.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Now, we don't know who she was or what was really driving her,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09but, remarkably, she did it again.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12She landed another job in another shop, once more,
0:03:12 > 0:03:13disguised as a shopman.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23This story sums up so neatly attitudes to shop work of the time.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26The fact that she was labelled a romantic freak shows just
0:03:26 > 0:03:28how puzzling people found her.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Why would a girl like this want to break in to such a male domain?
0:03:33 > 0:03:38This girl was ready to do whatever it took to challenge an old order.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Shop work was a closed world for most women
0:03:45 > 0:03:48in the mid 19th century across the country.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02This is Wisbech in the Fens.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06In the 1850s, it was one of the most thriving market towns
0:04:06 > 0:04:07in Cambridgeshire,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10with its elegant Victorian and Georgian buildings,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14rows of shops, and prosperous, independent tradesmen.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18It was also home to local photographer, Samuel Smith,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21who captured street and river scenes from the time
0:04:21 > 0:04:24that give us an insight into the town's shop life.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Wisbech was a typically prosperous provincial town,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and almost all its shops were owned and staffed by men.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47- And this is the map.- OK.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Mike, this is a beautiful town plan of Wisbech from the 1850s.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56So, how would you define the shopocracy in Wisbech?
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Well, there's no legal definition of them
0:04:58 > 0:05:01but they'd be the sorts of people who would inhabit the houses
0:05:01 > 0:05:03on these streets -
0:05:03 > 0:05:06the grocers, drapers, printers, stationers.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08We're very lucky because we've got
0:05:08 > 0:05:11some local photographs of these actual shops.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13These are the ones along here, cos that's the Post Office
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and the Fire and Life office at the end, isn't it?
0:05:15 > 0:05:17- Oh, yes, it is.- Yes, yeah.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I think what's even better is,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21if you look at the census, you can peer inside and go through
0:05:21 > 0:05:24the keyhole and see who's living inside these properties,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28and along this row here there's a shop called Fosters.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30- It's a draper's and a grocer's. - Draper's and grocer's.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34- So, there's Nelson Foster, there's his wife, Eliza.- Yeah.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36- But she's just listed as wife.- Yeah.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38But I bet you she was more than a wife.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40I'm sure she would have helped out in the shop a little bit.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43We know from other censuses that sometimes people are listed
0:05:43 > 0:05:47as housekeeper or wife, but we know that they did assist in the shop.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Yes, the census conceals quite a lot of women's work, doesn't it?
0:05:49 > 0:05:52- It often underestimates it, yes. - Who else have we got?
0:05:52 > 0:05:56We've got two Johns, who are assistants, aged 25, 21,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59one a grocer's assistant, one a draper's assistant.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01So, as far as the census is concerned,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03this business is owned by a man
0:06:03 > 0:06:05- and has two male assistants.- Yeah.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07Do you think that was common that most of these businesses
0:06:07 > 0:06:09- had apprentices?- Oh, yes.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11If you look through the census at other examples,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13quite a lot of them would have apprenticeships,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16invariably, teenage boys or young men.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18And how did that system work, Mike?
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Well, you'd pay a premium to a trader
0:06:21 > 0:06:24to provide board and lodging, and training for them,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28living in, so that they would acquire the skills of the trade.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37The experiences of the teenage boy apprentice in the 1850s
0:06:37 > 0:06:40were described in the diaries of grocer TD Smith.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45"I was curing pigs, cutting sugar from pillars or loaves
0:06:45 > 0:06:47"and grinding it,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49"learning about the origins and natures of products,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53"tea blending, book-keeping, coffee roasting, et cetera.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01"Lived in. Hours 7.30am to 9pm, and to 11.30pm Saturday.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04"Had to dress for meals after closing the shop.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07"Wage - £26, and saved half of it."
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Mike, you said girls tended not to have a career in the retail trade.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Largely so, because they wouldn't view them
0:07:13 > 0:07:15- as having that career path.- Hm.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18But these employers didn't need to hire girls.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22If you could get virtually free young men to do the jobs for you...
0:07:22 > 0:07:25- Either your sons or an apprentice. - Or an apprentice, then
0:07:25 > 0:07:27there's no need to hire cheap labour,
0:07:27 > 0:07:28even if women were cheaper.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Mid-19th century Wisbech reflected the entrenched customs
0:07:40 > 0:07:43of a country where women weren't forbidden from working in shops
0:07:43 > 0:07:46but were virtually invisible on the shop floor.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The old shopocracy was hanging on to its traditions,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52passing everything - trade, business, employment -
0:07:52 > 0:07:54down the male line.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02And in the great metropolis,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04the picture was barely any different.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13London was buzzing, its coffers swelled by money from the Empire
0:08:13 > 0:08:16and Britain's status as the world's most powerful trading nation.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22In the 1850s, it was the biggest city it the world,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25with a population of over 2½ million,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27and its commercial influence reaching across the globe.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31London now boasted a vast array of luxury shops,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34from piano forte makers, to French corset and stay-makers,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37from turtle soup specialists, to exclusive milliners,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and, from gun makers, to purveyors of biscuits to the Royal family.
0:08:44 > 0:08:45From the outside,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48the variety of goods on offer in specialist shops
0:08:48 > 0:08:51seemed delightfully tempting,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54especially to a new middle class with money to spend.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58But, inside, the shopping experience could be quite daunting.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Lady Mary Jeune was a glamorous high-society hostess and journalist.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10But she remembered her shopping experience of the mid-19th century
0:09:10 > 0:09:14as a uniquely unpleasant male-dominated business.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20"An afternoon shopping was a solemn and dreary affair
0:09:20 > 0:09:22"when one was received at the door of the shop
0:09:22 > 0:09:25"by a solemn gentleman in black,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"who, in due time, delivered one over to another solemn gentlemen,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32"and perhaps again to a third, who found one a chair,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34"and in sepulchral tone of voice
0:09:34 > 0:09:38"uttered some magic words, such as 'Silk, Mr Smith,'
0:09:38 > 0:09:40"or 'Velvet, Mr A,'
0:09:40 > 0:09:43"and then departed to seek another victim."
0:09:49 > 0:09:52The idea that shopping could be made a pleasure for a woman
0:09:52 > 0:09:56was still a world away, at least for Lady Jeune.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58London was bursting with shops
0:09:58 > 0:10:01but women were employed in very few of them.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Simon, what's your speciality?
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Well, the speciality of the company is wine.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11But originally this business was founded
0:10:11 > 0:10:14selling the most expensive drinks of the world.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19But, in 1698, that wasn't wine or a whiskey, it was tea and coffee.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22How long has the business been trading from these premises?
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Since 1698.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26It really goes back to the times
0:10:26 > 0:10:29when people weren't expected to come in.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32When these windows were first put in, the idea was,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36we threw the windows wide open and sold onto the streets.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39- So, you served from the windows? - We served from the windows.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41So, display became important much later on.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44It became important around 1800.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47There's a woman called Lady Mary Jeune in the mid 19th century
0:10:47 > 0:10:51who writes that shopping was a rather solemn affair, and it
0:10:51 > 0:10:54was a case of being passed from one solemn gentleman to another.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I mean, is that something that Berry Brothers would recognise?
0:10:57 > 0:10:58Uh, probably, yes.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Did you ever employ women here?
0:11:01 > 0:11:02Yes, we did.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06But, in the shop, the first one didn't come until the 1980s.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09- I can remember, I was working in the shop myself.- 1980s?- 1980s.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12It feels like rather a man's world.
0:11:12 > 0:11:13It may feel a bit like a man's world
0:11:13 > 0:11:16- but almost half the shop staff are girls now.- Mm-hm.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19And it's a much better,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22much less intimidating place as a result of that.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Inside the mid-19th century shop, even here in the city,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32male dominance of the shopping business looked set to continue.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34But, outside, long-held traditions
0:11:34 > 0:11:36of working life were changing rapidly.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44More and more working men were being drawn into the factories
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and offices of the big industrial cities.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Others went abroad to seek new lives and prosperity in the Empire.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Smaller artisan businesses, including shops,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58no longer had the same ready supply of young men as apprentices.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01They now had to compete with the employment might of big industry.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07As for women, the problems they faced in gaining work
0:12:07 > 0:12:10were revealed when the 1851 census was published.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12The results were startling.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16It showed that out of 20 million people,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20there were an estimated 2½ million unmarried women in Britain
0:12:20 > 0:12:22who were self-supporting.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24And, on top of this,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26there were half a million more women than men
0:12:26 > 0:12:27in the population overall.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Without the support of the kindly husband,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33as Victorian tradition would have it,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36the question was what to do with these women.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Just about here, on Regent Street in Central London,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50stood a building whose address was 19 Langham Place.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53In the late 1850s, a group of radically-minded women
0:12:53 > 0:12:56met here to address an urgent problem -
0:12:56 > 0:13:01how to get the huge surplus of unmarried women into work.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05They were known informally as the Ladies of Langham Place.
0:13:09 > 0:13:10At the forefront of this group
0:13:10 > 0:13:13was determined campaigner Jessie Boucherett.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Since the capacity and sheer number of shops had expanded
0:13:18 > 0:13:20with the growth of Britain's cities,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Jessie saw shop work as one of the key areas
0:13:23 > 0:13:25for employing these surplus women,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29so, she formed the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Pam, we're in the rather sumptuous Langham Hotel,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37we can see Langham Place out of the window.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Tell us a bit more about the Ladies of Langham Place.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Well, they were a remarkable bunch.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46They were very, very keen on, sort of, social progress.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49And they were trying always
0:13:49 > 0:13:53to get better education for girls, better training.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Women were working at this time, weren't they?
0:13:56 > 0:13:58- Yes.- You've got the working class professions of service,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01and agriculture, and needlework,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05and middle class women are working as governesses and seamstresses,
0:14:05 > 0:14:06so, what's the problem?
0:14:06 > 0:14:09There were jobs for the women up to a point
0:14:09 > 0:14:14but there were still just hundreds of thousands
0:14:14 > 0:14:19of...often middle class women who had only been trained, as it were,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23to expect to be married and to be supported by a husband,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25to be passed from father to husband.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28So, if something went wrong, if their father went bankrupt,
0:14:28 > 0:14:29if marriage didn't appear
0:14:29 > 0:14:32then they weren't actually trained to do anything.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35They were possibly worse off then than a young working class girl
0:14:35 > 0:14:37apprentice to a milliner.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42So, it's almost as though this... Shall we say, lower middle class
0:14:42 > 0:14:47women were in a very sort of awkward position if they'd had no training.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52We've got a brilliant document here, a statement of the views and plans
0:14:52 > 0:14:56- of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women.- Mm-hm.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Jessie writes in there, "Let us look around
0:14:59 > 0:15:02"and see where the men are never to be found
0:15:02 > 0:15:04"occupying easy, remunerative places
0:15:04 > 0:15:08"that could be as well, or better, filled by women.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12"Why should bearded men be employed to sell ribbon-laced gloves,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15"neck handkerchiefs and the other dozen trifles to be found
0:15:15 > 0:15:18"in a silk-mercers or haberdasher's shop?"
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Some people said, "Well, you know, you couldn't have women,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23they wouldn't stand all those hours standing up,"
0:15:23 > 0:15:25because they had to stand up, just, you know, serve long hours,
0:15:25 > 0:15:26ten-hour days.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And she said, "Well, you know, working class women
0:15:29 > 0:15:31"stand up in factories all day long at machines.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33"Why wouldn't women be able to do this?"
0:15:33 > 0:15:36- And did they also need training? - Yes.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40And she felt that nobody would take on a young woman in a shop
0:15:40 > 0:15:42if they couldn't, you know, for example,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45do the change in their head - mental arithmetic.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49And also measuring and weighing things accurately as well.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52- And didn't she want to set up a school?- Yes.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53She mentions it in here.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59"It is the intention of the society
0:15:59 > 0:16:01"to establish a large school for girls and young women
0:16:01 > 0:16:04"where they may be specially trained to wait in shops
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"by being thoroughly well instructed in accounts, book-keeping,
0:16:07 > 0:16:08"et cetera,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11"and to be taught to fold and tie up parcels,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13"and perform many of the other little acts
0:16:13 > 0:16:15"which a retired shop woman could teach them.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22"The necessity of politeness towards customers
0:16:22 > 0:16:26"and a constant self-command will also be duly impressed upon them."
0:16:26 > 0:16:31She did say that it was beholden on that trained young shop woman,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34shop girl, to always be courteous,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36never, sort of, to react badly,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39because, otherwise, she regarded it as actually
0:16:39 > 0:16:40a crime against the shop owner.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Because if you were once rude to a lady shopping
0:16:43 > 0:16:45she might never come again.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48How important were they in empowering women?
0:16:48 > 0:16:51They're pressing for better education for middle class girls,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53so that it might be as good as the sort of education
0:16:53 > 0:16:55their brothers might get.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57They're trying to get, you know,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00university colleges for women set up, they're trying to get the vote.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02And this is all before the suffragettes, as we know.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Everybody knows about the suffragettes,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09and not so many people know about the Langham Place Group or Jessie.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12So, yes, I think they're terrifically important.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16The women of Langham Place knew they could not educate
0:17:16 > 0:17:18all those who wanted to learn.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21The plan was to start with one school and build from there.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24The aim was to act as a pioneer
0:17:24 > 0:17:25to show that the women they trained
0:17:25 > 0:17:28could carry out shop work, previously reserved for men.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34What Boucherett and her colleagues were suggesting was truly radical,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37not only that women enter a professional man's world,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41but that they shrug off notions of gentility and respectability
0:17:41 > 0:17:44which held that shop work and, indeed, all work,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46was somehow unladylike.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58In the 1860s, thousands of young, aspiring, single women
0:17:58 > 0:18:01flocked into the cities looking for work.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Some found it in domestic service but others found it in shops.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Shopkeeping was expanding, shopkeepers needed staff.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11These young women fitted the bill.
0:18:11 > 0:18:12They were mobile and cheap.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22Trinity College, Cambridge,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25holds a rare account of one typical shop girl
0:18:25 > 0:18:28who travelled from her home farm in the countryside
0:18:28 > 0:18:31to find shop work in the big city.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34The record was made by civil servant and writer Arthur Munby.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38Munby's notorious today.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42He had a fetishistic, often sexual interest in working women.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44He had a forensic fascination for the minutiae
0:18:44 > 0:18:46of their everyday lives.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51He collected photographs of servant maids, pit lasses, acrobats,
0:18:51 > 0:18:53fisher girls.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55But, most significantly, he wrote diaries
0:18:55 > 0:18:58detailing his hundreds of encounters with women,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00including several shop girls.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Well, here are the diaries,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10pages and pages of perfect handwriting detailing Munby's life.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Here's one of his first encounters with a shop girl, Eliza Close.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19He says, "I took refuge under the trees from a long shower
0:19:19 > 0:19:22"which came on, and I fell in talk with a sweet,
0:19:22 > 0:19:27"pleasant-looking young woman who stood next to me in the group.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31"She was dressed in a black silk gown and light-coloured thin shawl,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33"a gay but pretty white and green bonnet,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36"kid gloves and a few cheap, simple bracelets."
0:19:36 > 0:19:40He goes on to say, "Her father, it gradually appeared, is a farmer
0:19:40 > 0:19:45"near Lutterworth, and she, his only daughter, is a draper's shop woman.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48"She likes the country for a fortnight or so
0:19:48 > 0:19:50"but thinks it's so solitary
0:19:50 > 0:19:53"and much prefers her employment here in London.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55"My young friend thought it most improper
0:19:55 > 0:20:00"that women should milk cows or do anything else out of doors."
0:20:00 > 0:20:02So, this is a story of aspiration.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Eliza doesn't want to stay at home in the country milking the cows,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09she wants to come to town, work in a shop and better herself.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12It's a story of social mobility.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16"Her homely prattle made picong by occasional solecisms in grammar
0:20:16 > 0:20:21"and by her perfect naivety was very pleasant.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26"Such girls as she - shop girls, milliners, refreshment room girls
0:20:26 > 0:20:30"and the like, are thoroughly differentiated into a class.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33"Their views and habits and speech come midway
0:20:33 > 0:20:38"between the dignified reserve and fastidious delicacy of a lady,
0:20:38 > 0:20:43"and the honest bluntness and crude vulgarity of a servant."
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Now, Munby's hit on an important point here,
0:20:47 > 0:20:48because if girls like Eliza
0:20:48 > 0:20:53were to give middle class ladies the service they expected and demanded,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57they would have to conceal their lower class origins.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59So, really, they're caught between classes,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and it's that in-betweenness that's so endlessly fascinating
0:21:03 > 0:21:05for men like Munby and so many others.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11It was a difficult line to tread.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13They lacked middle class money and status,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17and many working class people saw them as betraying their own kind.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Some called them counter-jumpers.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26But ingrained social attitudes
0:21:26 > 0:21:29could not get in the way of massive economic growth.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31As successful high street stores expanded
0:21:31 > 0:21:33buying up neighbouring premises,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36two assistants became four, six or eight.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39New, specialist goods,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42display areas and interior designs began to appear.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Drapers moved into haberdashery, millinery and leather goods.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Grocers moved into perfumery,
0:21:48 > 0:21:49and new buildings sprang up
0:21:49 > 0:21:52to accommodate this expanding consumer world.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Shopping had arrived on a grand scale, and a new frontier
0:21:58 > 0:22:01was opening up for the shop girl -
0:22:01 > 0:22:02the department store.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12This is Jenners, on Princes Street, Edinburgh.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16It was founded as a drapery in 1838 by Charles Jenner
0:22:16 > 0:22:17and Charles Kennington.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Its original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1892.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Three years later, it was rebuilt on the same site.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27When the building was designed, Charles Jenner
0:22:27 > 0:22:29insisted that the caryatids,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32the sculpted female figures on the outside,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36should symbolise that women were the support of the house.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Charles Jenner not only founded Scotland's oldest department store
0:22:41 > 0:22:45but was also a philanthropist, botanist and patron of the arts.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49He was a typical example of the moral Victorian proprietor,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52like fellow store owner Robert Anderson
0:22:52 > 0:22:54who was High Sheriff of Belfast,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56or Emerson Bainbridge of Newcastle
0:22:56 > 0:22:59who was a staunch Wesleyan Methodist.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01There was a religious and civic conviction
0:23:01 > 0:23:03about many of these Victorian proprietors
0:23:03 > 0:23:07which would have been reassuring to a young shop girl and her family.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10She was surely entering a safe and virtuous world
0:23:10 > 0:23:12as she made her way from country to city.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16And what Charles Jenner knew
0:23:16 > 0:23:18was that, like the statue supporting his building,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21women should be at the centre of his business
0:23:21 > 0:23:23on both sides of the counter.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25As he put it himself,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29"This is a rock on which some other stores have perished.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32"They concentrated on trying to attract male customers
0:23:32 > 0:23:33"instead of women."
0:23:41 > 0:23:42In the late 19th century,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46the doors to shops across the country were flung open,
0:23:46 > 0:23:47and thousands of single women,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50including self-supporting middle class women,
0:23:50 > 0:23:53poured in looking for work.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56The hierarchy in the department store has changed relatively little
0:23:56 > 0:23:58in the last 150 years.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The floor walkers, department heads and supervisors
0:24:01 > 0:24:04are all visible on the modern shop floor.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06The main difference then was that,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09almost exclusively, it was men who took those roles.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Shop girls could work as counter staff, cashiers,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16clerks, packers and sewing hands.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18Some could rise to become head of department
0:24:18 > 0:24:21but there was no doubt that in rank and pay
0:24:21 > 0:24:23most were at the bottom of the heap.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Wages could vary from store to store
0:24:28 > 0:24:31but a typical shop girl's salary in 1890 was £20,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33including board and lodging -
0:24:33 > 0:24:36only £2,000 a year in today's money,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40and around only half of what her male equivalent was earning
0:24:40 > 0:24:41doing the same job.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45But it was still better paid
0:24:45 > 0:24:48than most jobs in domestic service or agriculture,
0:24:48 > 0:24:49and the working environment of a shop
0:24:49 > 0:24:52was far more attractive than a factory.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55And it now offered the chance to build a relationship
0:24:55 > 0:24:56with the customer.
0:24:57 > 0:24:58Women were deemed to be
0:24:58 > 0:25:02naturally better at selling to women and to men
0:25:02 > 0:25:05as society hostess and journalist Lady Mary Jeune
0:25:05 > 0:25:08reflected on her own shopping experiences.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"Women are so much quicker than men,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19"and they understand so much more readily what other women want.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23"They can enter the little troubles of their customers,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25"they can fathom the agony of despair
0:25:25 > 0:25:27"as to the arrangement of colours,
0:25:27 > 0:25:28"the alternative trimmings,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30"the duration of a fashion,
0:25:30 > 0:25:35"the depths of a woman's purse, and, more important than all,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38"the question as to the becomingness of a dress."
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Shopping was becoming more and more attune
0:25:42 > 0:25:45to the emotional demands of the middle class woman,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48with shop girls at the centre of the experience.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51With money and goods pouring in from the Empire,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55they were the handmaidens of Victorian consumer culture.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06The Victorians were consummate shoppers,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08particularly the aspirational middle classes,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11who packed their houses with an ever-increasing range
0:26:11 > 0:26:13of exotic goods.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22So, here we are in the home of a middle class consumer.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24- Yes, indeed.- We're on the other side of the counter now.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28- Who lived here, Shirley?- Well, it was Marion and Linley Sambourne,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33and they moved in here when they were married in 1875,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35and they furnished the whole house from top to toe
0:26:35 > 0:26:39with everything that an upwardly-mobile artistic pair
0:26:39 > 0:26:41could ever want or need.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43What kind of people were the Sambournes?
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Linley Sambourne was an artist.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48And Marion, did she work at all or was she the lady of the house?
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Oh, no. Her father was a wealthy stockbroker,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56and he did actually pay for half the house, so, that was quite generous.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58What kind of things were in vogue at the time?
0:26:58 > 0:27:02This is largely what we call an aesthetic movement house.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06In this room, he has chosen to furnish it with antiques,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08and I think he's been very clever
0:27:08 > 0:27:11because they look as if they're very good,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14but quite a lot of them are not very good.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16For instance, the clock over there,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20this is in the style of Boulle, who worked for Louis XIV,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23- but it's not genuine Boulle, it's a 19th century copy.- It's a copy?
0:27:23 > 0:27:25But I'm sure you can't tell the difference.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30How about Marion, what kind of shopping trips did she embark on?
0:27:30 > 0:27:35Well, she liked to go and shop for clothes, and, of course,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37on the high street there is an underground station
0:27:37 > 0:27:40which was opened in 1868, so that was very convenient
0:27:40 > 0:27:45for going round what she called the Metro, but we now call it the Circle.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49So, she would've gone to Westbourne Grove to go to Whiteley's, and
0:27:49 > 0:27:54she'd have gone on to Baker Street to go to the Baker Street Bazaar.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58And then she went on to Goodge Street to go to Maple's and Shoolbred's.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01And, of course, it was often very tiring,
0:28:01 > 0:28:04so you had to stop off and have a little refreshment.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09She could go to Gunter's for ices or Charbonnel's for a cup of chocolate.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11So, there was a wonderful choice.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14- So, the Circle line is really the shopping line?- Oh, definitely.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24These are Marion's diaries.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27- Does she write about shopping? - Yes, quite a bit.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31We have an entry here that you might like.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36"Walked down Sloane Street,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38"bought feathers, three and sixpence,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40"and gloves, four and 11.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44"Ordered umbrella to be covered, and bought lace and stamps."
0:28:44 > 0:28:47So, that was a very good day's work, wasn't it?
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Oh, here, she's going to Marshall's, Marshall and Snelgrove.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52She often calls it either Marshall's, or she called is Snelgrove's,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55but it was both. And she bought a dress.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00Here, she says, "Sent back grey dress to Snelgrove's.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02"They promised to send credit note."
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Which shows the power of the woman customer.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Oh, very much so. Oh, yes, yes.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11If you didn't like it, you would either send it back or didn't pay.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14And here, for instance, she goes to Pontings,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18and she bought four pairs of combinations and two silk vests.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21- Combinations are foundation-type garments?- No, underwear.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24- Underwear.- Horrid, scratchy, woolly combination,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26sort of vest and bloomer affair.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Dreadful thing. Had them when I was young, yes.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33"Ordered and paid for hat at Pontings,
0:29:33 > 0:29:34"12 and 11.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38"Girl tried to stick on three shillings extra. Cheat"
0:29:38 > 0:29:40THEY LAUGH
0:29:40 > 0:29:43- She's quite disapproving of the shop girl.- Yes, yes, yes.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46What kind of service did she expect from the shop girls?
0:29:46 > 0:29:48Oh, very obsequious, yes.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52But you have to remember that the shops all had high counters,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55the shop assistant would stand behind the counter,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58you would ask for what you wanted and the shop assistant
0:29:58 > 0:30:01would bring it, and she'd put it on the counter for you to see.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Very often, there was a chair provided for the customer,
0:30:05 > 0:30:07beside the counter, so you could sit down.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10And things don't change, you know.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13I don't know if you want to know what it was like when I was a girl
0:30:13 > 0:30:15but my grandfather
0:30:15 > 0:30:17had a haberdashery shop, and it was exactly the same.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20When I was a little girl, I was carried in
0:30:20 > 0:30:25and sat on the counter while my mother chatted to the shop assistant
0:30:25 > 0:30:28who, of course, could never sit down. She had to stand.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31It's interesting that the chair was provided for the customer
0:30:31 > 0:30:32and never the assistant.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35- Not for the assistant, yep.- Do you think this was all part of it?
0:30:35 > 0:30:39The way that shops created a respectable name for themselves?
0:30:39 > 0:30:41Yes, definitely, yes.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45And the cleaner and smarter you made your shop,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49and the more obsequious and helpful the assistants were,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51um, the better you did.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00Marion Sambourne seems like the classic example
0:31:00 > 0:31:03of an aspiring middle class Victorian.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05Today, it all seems perfectly natural -
0:31:05 > 0:31:07a shopping trip with a friend,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11stopping off for something to eat, taking back unwanted goods.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13But, in fact, it was all new.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22As the world of shopping became more pleasurable for the female customer,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25it was getting more testing for the shop girl.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30The intensity and long hours weren't just tiring for shop assistants,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32they made them physically ill.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36There are vivid accounts of anaemia, severe indigestion,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40headaches - all related to long days upright at the counter.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Some even called it the standing evil.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49This is an article from the Girl's Own Paper,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and it's subtitled A Plea For Shop Girls.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56The article says that conditions are beginning to improve
0:31:56 > 0:31:59in larger stores but it goes on to say,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02"Sadly different, however, is all this from the smaller
0:32:02 > 0:32:06"and second-rate shops, where the hours of closing are very late,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08"the food wretchedly indifferent,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10"and barely time allowed for taking it.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13"No possibility of resting or sitting down,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15"the live-long, weary day..."
0:32:17 > 0:32:18The piece makes some suggestions
0:32:18 > 0:32:20about how to deal with these problems,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23"Severe maladies amongst which swelled feet,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25"legs and varicose veins are the least."
0:32:25 > 0:32:26And I love this one.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29This is a suggestion for a portable shop seat.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32It's a kind of shooting stick that's sewn neatly
0:32:32 > 0:32:35into the back of a bustle. You could just perch on it
0:32:35 > 0:32:38for a few minutes during the day without causing offence
0:32:38 > 0:32:41to customers who didn't like to see shop girls sitting down.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47But the bustle stick was never going to be the answer to these problems.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Death And Disease Behind The Counter was published in 1884.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57It was an often-gruesome collection of testimonies, of illness
0:32:57 > 0:32:58and injury in shop work,
0:32:58 > 0:33:03compiled by liberal reformer Thomas Sutherst.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07For two years, he gathered first-hand accounts of the physical,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10moral, mental suffering of shop assistants in our big cities.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14So, here are some shop girl voices.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17This is Kate, she's 18 and a draper's assistant.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21And she says by the end of the day her whole body aches.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24"I have heard almost all my fellow assistants
0:33:24 > 0:33:27"complain of the pains I have described as feeling myself.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31"I am suffering weak action of the heart and often have fainting fits."
0:33:33 > 0:33:35This is 20-yearold Nelly.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38"I was in good health when I went into business four years ago
0:33:38 > 0:33:40"but now I'm weak and almost worn out.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44"I have, during my short experience, known three deaths through
0:33:44 > 0:33:49"consumption, brought on by the overwork and constant standing."
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Sutherst's own summary of the damaging effects of shop work
0:33:52 > 0:33:54is even more dramatic.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59"The bronchial tubes become clogged, and the blood is speedily poisoned
0:33:59 > 0:34:02"from the continual breathing of air charged with dust and impurity."
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Sutherst was pushing for legal reform, and was joined by other
0:34:09 > 0:34:12eminent doctors, philanthropists and politicians.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15As a result of their campaigning, the government stepped in
0:34:15 > 0:34:19and set up a select committee to look at every element
0:34:19 > 0:34:21of shop work, from working hours and wages
0:34:21 > 0:34:23to the class of assistant employed.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28They scrutinised endless testimonies from the shop floor,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31summoning Sutherst and members of the medical profession
0:34:31 > 0:34:34as expert witnesses.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37And one of the key hazards of shop work they highlighted
0:34:37 > 0:34:41was the particular danger it posed to young women,
0:34:41 > 0:34:42and it was gynaecological.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46They went further, listing pelvic diseases
0:34:46 > 0:34:49and other serious threats to fertility.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53They concluded that shop work reform was no less a question than
0:34:53 > 0:34:56the physical condition of the future race.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But despite the best efforts of the liberal reformers,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03shop work conditions changed little for women
0:35:03 > 0:35:05until well into the next century.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11For many shop workers, the hardship didn't end with
0:35:11 > 0:35:12the long working day.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15That was because many were required to live in.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17That meant they had to live in accommodation
0:35:17 > 0:35:19provided by their employers,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21usually in shared rooms or dormitories
0:35:21 > 0:35:24either above the shop or in hostels nearby.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32Living in had its origins in the apprenticeship tradition
0:35:32 > 0:35:35where unpaid teenage employees took board and lodging
0:35:35 > 0:35:36in their master's household.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40For shop girls, often working far from home, it was an effective way
0:35:40 > 0:35:45for their employer to protect and to control his poorly-paid workforce.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50By the early 1890s, living in had grown on an industrial scale.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Of Britain's one million shop workers, half lived in.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03This is the site of the original Robert Sayle department store
0:36:03 > 0:36:05in Cambridge. It was founded by draper Mr Sayle
0:36:05 > 0:36:07in the mid-19th century.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09It's now become a shopping centre
0:36:09 > 0:36:12but you can still see some of the original features of the building,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15including the living-in quarters above the shop.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Francis Waterson was one of the last ever shop girls
0:36:22 > 0:36:26to live in at Robert Sayles, leaving in the 1960s.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29Does it bring back memories being here?
0:36:29 > 0:36:32Yes. This was the corridor that we would walk down.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36And there was one room there, and that's the window.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Then you had the corridor, and then my room was here
0:36:39 > 0:36:42and there would be another window like that one.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45- So, this was your room pretty much? - Yes, yes.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47What are these photos?
0:36:47 > 0:36:50That's me in the... On the roof.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53- Just out the back here? - Out there, hm.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55It's a gorgeous dress.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58And that was in the rest room.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01- The rest room...- Right.- ..that's the one where the Grand Arcade is now.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Oh, OK. So, it's like a sitting room?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Yes, it was the rest room for the staff during the day.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09- Is that a birthday?- Yes, that's me. That's my 21st.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14In Victorian and Edwardian times the rules were quite strict.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17- How did you find it?- Well, they didn't like gentlemen in the room.
0:37:17 > 0:37:18Did they not?
0:37:18 > 0:37:22It had to be your father or your brother, otherwise...
0:37:22 > 0:37:24Did you have sign people in?
0:37:24 > 0:37:27Um, well, you would have to tell the night watchman.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31- The main rule was that they liked you in by ten.- Right.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34If you were going to be out later you had to say that you were
0:37:34 > 0:37:37- because the back gate was always locked by then.- OK.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40So, Saturday night, you could go out till midnight but you had to
0:37:40 > 0:37:42- let them know?- They didn't like too much of it, you know?
0:37:42 > 0:37:44- Did they not?- No.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46Did they keep a record of who was staying out?
0:37:46 > 0:37:50No, I just think if too much was done then the registrar was told, yes.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Right, OK. Were there other kinds of rules?
0:37:52 > 0:37:55- Did you have to keep your room tidy, that kind of thing?- Yes, you did.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58- You had to keep it clean and tidy. - Did you?- Yes.
0:37:58 > 0:37:59They didn't like it if you didn't.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03- And did people come and have a check?- Yes.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Yes, cos they would leave the clean sheets every week,
0:38:06 > 0:38:10- so when they left them they would observe.- Yes.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13And in the Victorian period it was a source of some kind of contention
0:38:13 > 0:38:16that some employees really enjoyed it, liked it,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20other people felt quite exploited by it because their living costs were
0:38:20 > 0:38:23taken out of their wages, so living in was a way of keeping wages down.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27You still got your... Money came out of your wages for the room.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29- OK. Yes.- Yes, that still happened.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Cos I think you were one of the last generation really to live in,
0:38:32 > 0:38:33- weren't you?- Yes.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37Yes, there was just another elderly lady still here when I left.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39- Really?- Yes.- So, you were last two?
0:38:39 > 0:38:40I think we were, yes.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Back in the late 19th century, living in was more the rule
0:38:48 > 0:38:49than the exception.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52Many found it extremely tough.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56It was a constant struggle to keep yourself clean, warm and well fed.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00And if you stayed out too late, you could find yourself locked out.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Badly paid and trapped in the living-in system,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07some shop girls would have to resort to darker means to make ends meet.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19This is the Burlington Arcade in London.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22It's Britain's first shopping mall.
0:39:22 > 0:39:23Ever since it opened in 1819,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26it's been a high class shopping area,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29linking Piccadilly in the south to Mayfair in the north.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34From its beginnings to the present day, the Arcade's shops
0:39:34 > 0:39:36have been small and exquisite,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39offering high-end jewellery, fashion accessories,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43art and antiques to the sort of clientele able to afford them.
0:39:44 > 0:39:45But from their earliest days,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49some of these shop fronts hid another kind of business.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Upstairs, some shop girls were working as prostitutes.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00- Hi there.- Good afternoon, how are you?- I'm very well, thank you.- Good.
0:40:00 > 0:40:01Beautiful shop.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05The Burlington Arcade's known for selling luxury goods.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07- Well, as I like to call it, fancy goods.- Yes, fancy goods.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09- I think fancy goods has a nice ring to it.- Yes.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11- I think that term should come back. - Yeah, I do too.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13And there's the story, isn't there,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16that some of the shop assistants working in the Arcade had...
0:40:16 > 0:40:19- slightly double lives, let's say, that, you know...- Hm.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23Some things were sold in the shop downstairs, and upstairs other things were sold.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Basically, sex was sold upstairs. Is it that sort of thing?
0:40:25 > 0:40:28That's rather blunt. I think ladies of the night
0:40:28 > 0:40:30is rather a nice way of putting it.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32- They plied their wares.- Yes, yes.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35- Could we take a look upstairs? - Yes, of course you can.- Great.
0:40:35 > 0:40:36- After you.- Sure.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Beautiful staircase this, isn't it?
0:40:42 > 0:40:43- Yes, they're rather a nice shape. - Yeah.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46- I always think I ought to cover it in leather.- Yes, I think you should.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Yes, I know. It's always sort of something that's crossed my mind
0:40:49 > 0:40:51as something to do.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54So, would this have been part of the shop as well, been trading up here?
0:40:54 > 0:40:56- Or a workshop.- OK.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00I think trading on the ground floor was probably the predominant area.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Right. So, she could be working downstairs on the shop floor
0:41:04 > 0:41:07or you could be up here making and finishing goods.
0:41:07 > 0:41:08Or, as I understand it,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10you could also be on the...even on the upper floors
0:41:10 > 0:41:13- selling other services. - It appears to have been...
0:41:14 > 0:41:17..not a place of ill repute but there were opportunities
0:41:17 > 0:41:21for those wishing to find and those wishing to imply.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40In the 1860s Henry Mayhew, writer and chronicler and journalist,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43wrote about the Burlington Arcade and the people who frequented it.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48He says "They", and he is talking about upper class men.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50"They are to be seen between three and five o'clock
0:41:50 > 0:41:52"in the Burlington Arcade,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55"which is a well-known resort of Cyprians of the better sort.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58"They are well acquainted with its Paphian intricacies."
0:41:58 > 0:42:00Paphos was the birthplace of the God of Love,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03so, talking here about sexual desire.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06"They will, if their signals are responded to,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09"glide into a friendly bonnet shop, the stairs of which
0:42:09 > 0:42:11"lead in to the coenacula or upper chambers
0:42:11 > 0:42:16"are not innocent of their well-formed 'bien chaussee' feet."
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Mayhew also talks about the kinds of women that may have been involved.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24"It is true that a large number of milliners, dress-makers,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27"furriers, hat-binders, silk-binders, tambour-makers,
0:42:27 > 0:42:32"shoe-binders, slop-women or those who work for cheap tailors,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35"those in pastry-cooks, fancy and cigar shops,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37"bazaars, servants to a great extent,
0:42:37 > 0:42:39"frequenters of fairs,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43"theatres and dancing rooms are more or less prostitutes and
0:42:43 > 0:42:46"patronesses of the numerous brothels
0:42:46 > 0:42:48"London can boast of possessing."
0:42:53 > 0:42:56The Burlington Arcade was not an isolated example.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00The reality was that many women were so badly paid in shop work
0:43:00 > 0:43:04and its supporting trades, things like millinery, dressmaking,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07trimming and glove making, that many resorted to sex work.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22The result was that these trades and the women that worked in them
0:43:22 > 0:43:25became increasingly associated with prostitution.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36We're in Shepherd Market, which is
0:43:36 > 0:43:40a famous red-light district from the 18th century,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42and possibly even today.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45How widespread was prostitution in the 19th century?
0:43:46 > 0:43:49In the 19th century, prostitution was very widespread,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53- far more so than people realised. - Right.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56We have figures from the 1850s
0:43:56 > 0:43:59which suggest that there was somewhere between 80 and a 100,000
0:43:59 > 0:44:02- professional prostitutes just in London alone.- Really?
0:44:02 > 0:44:04If you were walking down Regent Street at the time,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07say in the 1860s, '70s, '80s,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09would you have been able to tell what was going on,
0:44:09 > 0:44:11or was everything rather beautifully disguised?
0:44:11 > 0:44:14From the reports, it's not disguised in the slightest.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17It's very difficult for a woman to walk down Regent Street any longer
0:44:17 > 0:44:20- without being bothered. - Any woman?- Any woman, yes.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Because the men are said to perceive any woman as being a prostitute
0:44:25 > 0:44:27if she's on Regent Street.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32And at this point, the police make it a ruling that any woman out
0:44:32 > 0:44:35after ten o'clock at night will be a prostitute and...
0:44:35 > 0:44:38- Will be suspected of being a prostitute.- Absolutely.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40Or could be liable to be charged.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42She must be a prostitute, so they can be arrested on the spot.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46You've looked in to the case of one particular woman, Elizabeth Cass.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51Elizabeth Cass, yes. Now, Elizabeth Cass wasn't a prostitute.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57Elizabeth Cass was a dressmaker and she'd only been living in the city
0:44:57 > 0:45:01about three weeks when she decided to go and buy herself some gloves.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04The shops in Regent Street were open very late at night.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07She wanders off down into Oxford Street and turns into
0:45:07 > 0:45:10Regent Street, and then finds herself with a policeman taking her arm,
0:45:10 > 0:45:15who escorts her to the police cells over at Tottenham Court Road.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19She's thrown into a cell and she's then charged as being a prostitute.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23But, then, basically, all hell breaks loose. The Parliament gets involved.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26- Yes.- Why would Parliament get involved?
0:45:26 > 0:45:30Because of this idea of Regent Street becoming a no-go area,
0:45:30 > 0:45:36that a normal, totally innocent, totally respectable woman
0:45:36 > 0:45:41can simply be dragged off the street and charged with being a prostitute.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44And this hits the national news.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48You can see here, this is from the Illustrated Police News,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52- and here we have poor Miss Cass in her cell.- In her cell.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55"Don't put me in there!" And Miss Cass fallen down on the mat.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58- Here she is first being...- Oh, yes.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01"I asked him not to take hold of my arm," says Miss Cass.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05So, she becomes a national figure through stories like this?
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Very much so, yes.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13There's general outrage about this, as you can understand.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19To the point where we find newspaper reports like this one
0:46:19 > 0:46:21from the Pall Mall Gazette,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24explaining how the tradesmen feel
0:46:24 > 0:46:28as though there is a black flag raised over Regent Street
0:46:28 > 0:46:30at ten o'clock every night.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34These tradesmen are very upset about the idea that any woman
0:46:34 > 0:46:37who is out in the street - that includes of course their staff -
0:46:37 > 0:46:40can be accused of being a prostitute.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42This is causing problems with business,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45it's causing problems with the portrayal of shop girls.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50Obviously, some shop girls were prostitutes, but not all.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Well, that's fascinating, Amanda,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56because what you're saying is that there is a connection between
0:46:56 > 0:47:00shop work and sex work, not saying that all shop girls are prostitutes.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03- No, no.- By any means. But that some were,
0:47:03 > 0:47:07and that those that weren't ended up being tarred with the same brush.
0:47:07 > 0:47:08Yes.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Through the second half of the 19th century
0:47:21 > 0:47:22the good name of the shop girl
0:47:22 > 0:47:26risked being dragged down by seedy associations.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30But her risque reputation helped to make her central
0:47:30 > 0:47:32to the country's popular culture,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36in everything from novels, to penny papers, to the stage.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41If they had cash to spare, some shop girls were heading out
0:47:41 > 0:47:45into the lively, often bawdy, Victorian music halls.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57Judith, this is an amazing building. Can you tell us about the history?
0:47:57 > 0:48:01Ah, well, this is the oldest surviving music hall in the world.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04It was originally a warehouse
0:48:04 > 0:48:08and in the 1850s, it came up for redevelopment.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10And originally they were going to convert it
0:48:10 > 0:48:13into a department store,
0:48:13 > 0:48:15but they decided instead to give the people of the area
0:48:15 > 0:48:19something they wanted, so they turned it into a music hall.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21And what were they coming to see?
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Well, they were originally coming to see singers and comics,
0:48:25 > 0:48:26but it was the dancers
0:48:26 > 0:48:31and the salacious lady singers that were particularly popular.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33So who sat where? What was the seating plan?
0:48:33 > 0:48:37Well, down there is the stalls, and in a theatre the stalls
0:48:37 > 0:48:41are the posh, expensive seats, but not in here,
0:48:41 > 0:48:43because of people spitting over the balcony
0:48:43 > 0:48:46to try and hit people down in the stalls.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50And the boys used to love that area at the front of the balcony
0:48:50 > 0:48:54because they could urinate over the edge and try and hit
0:48:54 > 0:48:58whatever comic was on the apron in front of the stage at the time.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00And the far corner there,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02we're sitting quite near
0:49:02 > 0:49:04(prostitute corner.)
0:49:04 > 0:49:08- OK.- And the mashers would bring their Judys into this corner.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Who were the mashers?
0:49:10 > 0:49:13The mashers were the toffs that used to come in here to slum it
0:49:13 > 0:49:16- and also get their Judys. - And who's a Judy?
0:49:16 > 0:49:18A Judy is a Victorian term for
0:49:18 > 0:49:20(a prostitute.)
0:49:20 > 0:49:23And would shop girls have come here? Glasgow shop girls?
0:49:23 > 0:49:24Oh, yes, they would.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Particularly the shop girls that were working in the department stores
0:49:28 > 0:49:32locally. And the girls would quite often not just work there
0:49:32 > 0:49:34but they would live there as well in the dormitories,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36which meant they were away from their families
0:49:36 > 0:49:38and they would come in here,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42probably with their boys that they picked up in the shop.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44These women you're describing, they're out,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47they're earning their own money. Are they a new class of women worker?
0:49:47 > 0:49:49They are very much.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53I mean, by the 1880s, I think the working class woman
0:49:53 > 0:49:57was no longer the mill girl living in the poor house.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01She could afford to have a few beautiful things,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05like a cameo brooch, for example, or a new hat.
0:50:05 > 0:50:06And, of course,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10they would wear their best outfit for going out to the music hall.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13Would the shop girls, the working women in the audience,
0:50:13 > 0:50:15have seen their lives reflected on stage?
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Well, as a matter of fact, in the 1890s there was, in fact,
0:50:19 > 0:50:24a three-act musical comedy called The Shop Girl.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28- It was on at the Gaiety.- And it was on at the Gaiety, in London,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32which was a very different theatre from this one.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34It held 2,000 people,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37it had 2,000 gas jets illuminating it.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42It had a separate restaurant, a separate smoking room.
0:50:42 > 0:50:43And the idea was,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46by producing something like The Shop Girl,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49a musical comedy, it was to attract the ladies in.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51What's the story of the music hall?
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Well, really ,it's about one foundling, Ada,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56who ends up working as a shop girl.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00She gets in with the other shop girls, they're a bit naughty.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03They're there to wink the eye and try and get themselves
0:51:03 > 0:51:06a rich Johnny, because I mean they were shop girls,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09you know. They were, in the working-class world,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11the elite of the working woman.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14And here we actually have a picture of the foundlings.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18And what I love about The Shop Girl is that it was
0:51:18 > 0:51:22so successful that Debenhams and Liberty
0:51:22 > 0:51:26actually used to put their own latest fashions
0:51:26 > 0:51:27on the girls on the stage.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31I knew the theatres introduced matinees for women shoppers.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33- Yes.- But I didn't realise the department stores used the theatre
0:51:33 > 0:51:36- to showcase their fashions. - Taking advantage.- Yeah.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39So, there's a common thread here, in that the working class audience
0:51:39 > 0:51:42in the music hall and the audience in the Gaiety Theatre
0:51:42 > 0:51:45- are both seeing their lives reflected on stage.- Absolutely.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48You've got the shop girl seeing her life reflected,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50and the middle-class lady that shopped there seeing
0:51:50 > 0:51:54her life reflected, and, of course, the fashions on the stage.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56# When I came to the shops some years ago
0:51:56 > 0:51:59# I was terribly shy and simple
0:51:59 > 0:52:05# With my skirt too high and my hat too low and an unbecoming dimple
0:52:05 > 0:52:07# But soon I learnt with a customer's aid
0:52:07 > 0:52:10# How men make up to a sweet little maid
0:52:10 > 0:52:13# And another lesson I've learnt since then
0:52:13 > 0:52:17# How a sweet little maid makes up for men. #
0:52:17 > 0:52:21For a shop girl's life to be reflected, celebrated
0:52:21 > 0:52:25and romanticised in this way seems to me to be hugely significant.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29By the 1890s, we've moved from a world where she was
0:52:29 > 0:52:33almost invisible, an anomaly, to one where she's out on the town,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37going to the music hall, taking centre stage in popular culture.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42And women's presence on the shop floor continued to grow.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46In 1871, there were little over 120,000 women
0:52:46 > 0:52:48working in the shop industry.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51A decade later it was 140,000.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53But by the turn of the century
0:52:53 > 0:52:57nearly a quarter of a million women were employed in shop work.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06The wealth of industry and empire were fuelling a consumer boom.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09The big shops, their proprietors, and their workforce
0:53:09 > 0:53:11now had to rise to the challenge.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20This is Whiteley's shopping centre in Bayswater, London.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24The building dates from 1911, and it stands near the site
0:53:24 > 0:53:28of what was once one of the world's largest department stores,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31founded by the fiery, unconventional,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34charismatic William Whiteley.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Originally a draper's apprentice from Yorkshire,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Whiteley moved to London in his early 20s.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Visiting the Great Exhibition of 1851,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50he was inspired by the exquisite displays
0:53:50 > 0:53:54and range of goods to create the first truly modern department store.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Like so many of the other larger- than-life Victorian proprietors,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03his store was driven by a vast army of shop girls.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08But Whiteley's connections to his female workforce
0:54:08 > 0:54:12were to become deeply and scandalously personal.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27William Whiteley gave himself a rather grand title
0:54:27 > 0:54:31- of the Universal Provider.- Yes. - Why did he call himself that?
0:54:31 > 0:54:32I think he liked to believe
0:54:32 > 0:54:35that he was this wonderful provider of anything for anybody.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38He believed he could provide everything
0:54:38 > 0:54:40that was necessary for life.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42He used to say "from a pin to an elephant".
0:54:42 > 0:54:43- From a pin to an elephant.- Yes.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46And sometimes people tested him out on this.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Somebody did once order an elephant as a joke, and when he got back home
0:54:50 > 0:54:53he found one in his stable and was rather alarmed.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55- He said, "I only did it for a joke." - Oh, I see.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58And he built this store on an army of workers,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00- including an army of women workers. - Yes.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03As the business expanded, so he got more and more girls
0:55:03 > 0:55:06into the shop until there was this row of them,
0:55:06 > 0:55:10shoulder to shoulder, serving all the lady customers, who were eager
0:55:10 > 0:55:13for all the bargains and the trimmings he was selling to them.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15And he had a bit of a mixed reputation as an employer.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19On the one hand, he provided a lot of clubs and social activities.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23- On the other hand, he had some very draconian rules.- Yes.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27Mr Whiteley, his public image was a genial, smiling gentleman
0:55:27 > 0:55:29who provided everything and was kind to his staff,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32and behind the scenes he was really rather unpleasant.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36He had a bad temper, threatened to dismiss people at once.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38I've got this picture here which is actually I think
0:55:38 > 0:55:41almost like a publicity photo for him.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43This was how he liked to present himself,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45the kindly, genial Mr Whiteley.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49- But he had more than a passing interest in shop girls.- Yes.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51He definitely, throughout the whole of his life,
0:55:51 > 0:55:57took a consideration interest in girls probably half his age.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01His wife, in fact, was originally his first shop girl
0:56:01 > 0:56:04and he married her and she gave birth to her first child
0:56:04 > 0:56:06- two months later.- Right.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11And... But then he had affairs with shop girls, he would take them out.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14- His own shop girls from Whiteleys? - Oh, yes, his own shop girls.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17He would take them on trips, they'd go away to the seaside.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22And, certainly, when he went abroad to Paris to see his buyers
0:56:22 > 0:56:26and so on, he expected to pick a girl to take with him.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28They used to hide when they saw him coming round
0:56:28 > 0:56:29so they wouldn't be picked.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32Was all this quite scandalous at the time?
0:56:32 > 0:56:34It wasn't known about at the time.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38People didn't really know about this until after he was dead,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42so it was... His public image had to be protected.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45His end in itself was rather dramatic, wasn't it?
0:56:45 > 0:56:49Yes, he was shot dead in his own store by a man
0:56:49 > 0:56:54who came to see him, and this man claimed later on
0:56:54 > 0:56:57to be Mr William Whiteley's illegitimate son.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00- By one of the shop girls?- Yes.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02I think he wanted to blackmail Mr Whiteley,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05saying that he would reveal all his philandering.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08And Mr Whiteley wasn't having anything of it, called the police,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and this man, whose name was Rayner, took out a gun and shot him.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13- And that was that.- That was that.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16So really, shop girls helped to make Whiteley's fortune,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19but they also were part of his downfall.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21They were indeed.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32We were, we still are, a nation of shopkeepers,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35but one carried by an army of shop girls.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38By the turn of the century, a quarter of a million strong,
0:57:38 > 0:57:40they'd forged new kinds of work for women
0:57:40 > 0:57:44and even helped to transform the experience of shopping itself.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Shop girls were yet to gain the pay, recognition and rights
0:57:48 > 0:57:52they deserved, but their journey had been a momentous one,
0:57:52 > 0:57:56from the margins of the Census to the West End stage.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59From anonymity to visibility.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Shop girls were here to stay.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04In the next episode, I'll discover how shop girls
0:58:04 > 0:58:09in the early 20th century marched in protest against tough conditions.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13Why one daring assistant went undercover.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17And how iconic stores like Harrods, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis
0:58:17 > 0:58:22and Selfridge's transformed shop girls' lives.