0:00:02 > 0:00:04London, in 1886,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07then, the largest city in human history
0:00:07 > 0:00:10and the centre of the known world.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14With its self-importance, its dirt, its wealth and awful poverty,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18it seems a mystery to us now.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21It was a different world, an entirely different world.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25But there is a guide to this human jungle.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Charles Booth, Victorian London's social explorer.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32Booth produced a series of pioneering maps that colour-coded
0:00:32 > 0:00:34the streets of his London,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38according to the ever-shifting class of its residents.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Booth's maps are like scans, X-rays that reveal to us
0:00:42 > 0:00:46the secret past beneath the skin of the present.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48If people knew how many cattle was killed there,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50I don't think they'd live there!
0:00:53 > 0:00:58He wanted his maps to chart stories of momentous social change.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00And those houses were the lowest of the low.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05The ebb and flow between enormous wealth and terrible poverty.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09How easily desirable or well-to-do neighbourhoods could descend
0:01:09 > 0:01:13into the haunts of the vicious and semi-criminal, and back again.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Now the maps can help us reveal the changes
0:01:18 > 0:01:21that have shaped all our lives,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and made the story of the streets the story of us all.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Oh, my goodness! The old toilet's gone.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34So we're going back to one of the tens of thousands of streets
0:01:34 > 0:01:37Booth mapped - Portland Road, Notting Hill.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Full of multimillion-pound houses,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46it's the ultimate London banker street.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48But it was once the worst slum in London.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Portland Road was a slum as far as other people was concerned.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55As far as we were concerned, it's where we lived.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58And, today, living on the same street,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01some of the richest people in Britain,
0:02:01 > 0:02:03and some of the poorest.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06My village is that way. Their village is that way.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Houses on Portland Road don't come cheap.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24In this one, you can practically grab both walls
0:02:24 > 0:02:26with outstretched hands.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30But it's on the market for just under £3 million.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35A few doors down, this derelict shell went for 3.1 million.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41And this extravagantly decorated house is up for five million.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44I'm totally and utterly appalled.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48It really makes working in other areas fairly pointless.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50If you can buy the right property,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53it's pretty pointless going out and doing anything else.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Well, it's a financial ghetto.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56If you want to live in a ghetto,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00then there's a limited number of houses that you can live in,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02and this is inside the ghetto.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Portland Road was built in the 1850s,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12in the middle of the most frantic housing boom in London's history.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Its houses were put up by speculative developers,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21on a strip of wasteland between the grand new Ladbroke Estate,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23which became Notting Hill,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27and the much more down-market Norland Estate,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31home to the Piggeries and Potteries, London's most squalid Gypsy camp.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Almost everyone rented rather than bought,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and Portland's developers built grand houses to attract
0:03:39 > 0:03:43the same posh tenants who were moving into the Ladbroke Estate.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51At the south end of Portland, the investment paid off.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Census returns from the 1860s show the houses being rented to
0:03:56 > 0:04:00a surgeon, an art dealer and a fundholder.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Booth's map, made around 40 years after Portland was built.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12At the south end of the street,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16well-to-do and comfortable residents are living alongside each other.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25But as you go further north, the class of resident drops dramatically.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29The people living in this part of the street are poor.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31The further north you went,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35the closer you got to the Gypsies and stench of the piggeries.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40And, up here, the hoped-for posh tenants had failed to materialise.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Investors left holding houses on north Portland found
0:04:44 > 0:04:47that only the poorest wanted to move here,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51families who couldn't afford more than a single room.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Houses built as big family homes slipped into multiple occupancy,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00and a little slum was born.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10When you look back, we lived in a shack. We lived terrible.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Portland Road was a slum, as far as other people was concerned.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23As far as we were concerned, it's where we lived.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44We had my mum and dad and six of us kids living in the ground floor,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46which was only two rooms.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10We had two people live on the floor above us,
0:06:10 > 0:06:11and at the top of the house,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14we had an old soldier from the First World War.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17And we all shared that same toilet.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22No bathroom. Tin bath. You fetched it in, put it in front of the fire.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34The rent was about 12/6 a week, for each family.
0:06:34 > 0:06:3812/6, by the way, is 65 pence in today's money.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42They weren't getting £2 rent a week from the house,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45so they done no repairs, they done nothing.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48157 Portland Road - look at that house now.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Should have seen it when I lived there.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53It was a tip, but it was lovely.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00My dad was offered to buy that house for £300.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02157 - £300.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05My dad had never seen £300 in his life.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18This is the bit of Portland Road I lived in.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20157 - we lived there.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22This is where my grandad lived.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25My nan and grandad lived in the middle.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28My uncle there, uncle Fred lived there.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31My aunt Joan lived right at the very top.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33My grandad was a rag-and-bone man,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35and he used to have a barrow outside here.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39On a Saturday, he'd have all the old clothes, jerseys, shoes,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and you could buy a pair of shoes for sixpence.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45And nobody wore underwear. No boys wore underwear.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48WOMAN LAUGHS Nobody had pants and vests.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52- Why not?- You couldn't afford it! Pants and vests?! You're joking.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57- You never had pants and vests. - You're kidding.- I'm not kidding.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59We never had pants and vests.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02The girls, the girls had knickers and things like that.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05The girls are different, you know. They had to have them.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07But the boys - long trousers or trousers.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11What do you want pants underneath for? You can save ten bob. You know?
0:08:11 > 0:08:13EVERYBODY LAUGHS
0:08:13 > 0:08:16- Do you remember your first pair of pants?- Yeah.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Well, no, I don't remember 'em. I don't remember 'em,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21but I think I got 'em from the Red Cross or something.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23WOMAN LAUGHS EVEN LOUDER
0:08:23 > 0:08:26I got 'em from the Red Cross. My mum used to go begging, you know.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Would you say you were working-class people?
0:08:30 > 0:08:34- Is that what you called yourselves? - Yeah. Lower-working class.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36But it didn't worry me. It didn't...
0:08:36 > 0:08:40Cos there were lots of people like me. There was lots low like me.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47See, my dad couldn't read or write, nor could his brother,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50because they never went to school after the age of ten.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56George's street had fallen dramatically downhill
0:08:56 > 0:08:57since Booth's time.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Just a few years before George was born,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06one of Booth's researchers came back to Portland Road
0:09:06 > 0:09:08to update the original survey.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14The south end was now occupied entirely by skilled workers.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18The well-to-do residents from Booth's time had all fled.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21And at the north end,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24the road was being dragged further down
0:09:24 > 0:09:27by a new group settling on the street.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30My other grandad used to live third door from the end,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31with my gran.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36They were Gypsies, both full-blooded Gypsies. That was my mum's family.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41The north end of Portland Road in about 1935,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45just a few yards from George's great-grandad's house.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49There's an abandoned brewery at the end of the street
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and tenement houses built for brewery workers.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Gypsies and other families from the slum,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59a few streets to the west, are migrating to this north end.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04The slum-dwellers are dragging the street further down
0:10:04 > 0:10:08and the 1929 study has a new label for this black end of Portland,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10degraded and semi-criminal.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The slum conditions in some Notting Hill streets
0:10:17 > 0:10:20had been a national disgrace for 100 years.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25And by the '30s, the housing trust movement
0:10:25 > 0:10:29had begun to rehouse the district's most destitute.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32On Portland's north end, both the brewery,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and many of the tenement houses, are about to be demolished,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39to make way for Portland Road's first social housing block,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Nottingwood House.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Nottingwood is followed by Winterbourne House a few feet away.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50The blocks are to provide a new life
0:10:50 > 0:10:53for the people of the Notting Hill slum.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59This scene from the film Turn The Key Softly
0:10:59 > 0:11:03shows the north end of Portland in a state of transition.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06The nearly new Winterbourne House is on the left.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11On the right, some of the old tenement houses are still standing.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16In the distance, on the site of the old brewery, is Nottingwood House.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26This is Nottingwood flats, the Nottingwood House.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28This is where we all got moved to.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31I was on the second balcony.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34The Reeveses lived up the top there.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Then you had Georgie Price and his family.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Then you had the Townsalls next door to me,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42the Kirbys at this end and that was our little group.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The only trouble with this place was it was built on a brewery,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and we had a lot of trouble with cockroaches.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53I used to wake up in the morning with 'em caked all down me leg.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57We used to have races with them, us kids, down the passageway,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59and see who could get further.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03And we'd cook 'em, watch 'em pop! It was a big slum, yeah.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06So, now, do you know much about Nottingwood House today,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08the kind of people that live there or anything?
0:12:08 > 0:12:15No. I heard it was mostly Moroccans and, um, ethnic majorities, I think.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18I thought it all got nobby, but it hasn't.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20- What was on this side?- Old houses.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24There was houses there.
0:12:25 > 0:12:31In Turn The Key Softly, an unlikely convict is released from prison
0:12:31 > 0:12:34and returns to her room on Portland Road.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43- Oh, it's you.- I did write. Please can I have me old room back?
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Well...some people would say I was a fool to have you back.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49I never took anything from 'ere.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Well, you better come on in.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55Well, I'm taking you back on one condition, see?
0:12:55 > 0:12:57That you keep out of trouble.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01To the film's audience, Portland would have seemed like an obvious
0:13:01 > 0:13:04location for a film about an impoverished semi-criminal street.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07And as the country went to war,
0:13:07 > 0:13:12Notting Hill's squalid reputation was spreading internationally.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15'Germany calling, Germany calling.'
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Lord Haw-Haw, who was a propagandist for Germany,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21used to give out messages.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23'The British Ministry of misinformation has
0:13:23 > 0:13:26'been conducting a systematic campaign
0:13:26 > 0:13:30'of frightening British women and girls...'
0:13:30 > 0:13:33And he did say, "Germany calling, Germany calling.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37"We're coming over to Notting Hill tonight because we're going to
0:13:37 > 0:13:40"bomb you and we're going to get rid of all the rats and the bugs."
0:13:40 > 0:13:42And, sure enough, it got bombed.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48That was one of our best playgrounds cos that was bombed.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51- That was an 'ouse. - This was a bomb site?- Yeah.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Yeah, this was the bomb site.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00We all hung out together, sort of thing, you know.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03We used to have our fights over the bombed end.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06This lot, we would meet over at the bomb debris.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09We had our little camp, they had their little camp,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13and we'd throw bricks at each other with dustbin lids to, you know.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17I remember cutting Georgie Price's head open with a brick.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29We was young tearaways, you know.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33We'd stand in sixes and eights,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35talking and nagging, and making a hell of a noise.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43When I was 17, we had the teddy boy era, you know.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51You'd find a caff and you'd all congregate there.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01And then all of a sudden the door would open up and say,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03"You boys from Notting Hill, you're going to get a fight.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07"We're coming from Paddington." And in would rush about ten, 15 boys.
0:15:07 > 0:15:08And there'd be an almighty fight,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12all the tables and chairs would go over, blah blah blah,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14and then they'd leave as quick as they came.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18You know. Some of the time you got a whacking, some you didn't.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21- That's got to be scary. - Course it was scary.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24- Do you belong to a gang? - Well, we did.
0:15:24 > 0:15:25What happened to it?
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Some of them went down and the rest are still out. About five left now.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33When you say "went down", you mean they went up?
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Well, the Scrubs ain't up, is it?
0:15:36 > 0:15:40And what does your gang do, or what did it do?
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Anyone. LAUGHTER
0:15:51 > 0:15:54With the rise of the teds,
0:15:54 > 0:16:00Notting Hill was cementing its century-old reputation as a pit of unruliness.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05It was the last place any prudent Londoner would visit by choice.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13Which is why no-one could ever have expected what was about to happen.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23We were, I should think, the second or third of the settlers.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28We were living in Chelsea,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30too many children in a tiny house,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and we were desperately wanting to find a bigger house,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and we wandered down here and we thought it was quite a good place, Portland Road,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40because you come off Holland Park Avenue,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42which has always been fairly pleasant,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46and then go into grot-land, which it was in those days.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49We sort of took a chance that it was going to go up,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51because they were all in multiple occupation, virtually.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53My mother wasn't too pleased.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57She couldn't understand why we wanted to leave Chelsea,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59where we had a house, which was dinky-sized,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01but nonetheless Chelsea,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03and come here in the wilds of W11.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06- She couldn't imagine it but I'm glad...- What did she say?
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Oh, she said, "Well, you can't possibly live there, darling."
0:17:13 > 0:17:19Tim and Penny Hicks had moved into 157 Portland Road,
0:17:19 > 0:17:20George's old house.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28They were among the first of a new wave of settlers
0:17:28 > 0:17:30who were to change Portland Road for ever,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33the vanguard of a revolution
0:17:33 > 0:17:36that had been set in motion a few years earlier.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40'Rent control was abolished for accommodation let after 1957.'
0:17:40 > 0:17:44In 1957, the Rent Act had swept away rent controls,
0:17:44 > 0:17:48enabling private landlords to charge whatever rent they liked.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Portland Road's houses, which,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53for 100 years had been practically worthless,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55suddenly became cash cows.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'The new de-controlled rents were soon three times as high
0:17:59 > 0:18:00'as the controlled rents.'
0:18:00 > 0:18:03But those who rented before the Act were
0:18:03 > 0:18:06still protected by the old rent controls,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08so the only way for the landlords to cash in
0:18:08 > 0:18:11was to get the sitting tenants out.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15For landlords like Peter Rachman, who owned a house on Portland,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19it was a cash incentive to drive the original working-class residents out.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23'Unwanted tenants would be encouraged to go,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25'property decayed round them,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29'and by the sort of intimidation that became notorious through Rachman.'
0:18:29 > 0:18:32A man bought the house and came on the Friday evening to say
0:18:32 > 0:18:35he'd bought the house and would take it over the next morning.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38And I told him it was controlled before he bought it,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42but he said he'd got other people out of houses and he'd get us out.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45He knocked the garden wall down and threw it all over the garden
0:18:45 > 0:18:47and it looked like a bomb site.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50He said if we did anything to the wall, or my brothers did,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52he would beat us up or shoot us.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54'This house has recently been sold
0:18:54 > 0:18:57'and will shortly be converted into luxury flats.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01'The last controlled tenant is still there, moved down to the basement.'
0:19:01 > 0:19:05Mrs Jones, why did you move down to this basement?
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Pardon?
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Because she ordered me, you know.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13- Was that the house agent?- Yes.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18I had to come down here or go out.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22- See?- Did you want to move down?
0:19:22 > 0:19:27Well, it ain't cos I wanted. I had to. See?
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Or go out in the street.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33We highlighted the handsome wood floor by sanding it and sealing it
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and just threw rugs on it like this one.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40'The face of the borough is being changed by a new
0:19:40 > 0:19:44'kind of resident, the middle-class invasion.'
0:19:51 > 0:19:54'As more and more people moved in, prices began to rocket.'
0:19:54 > 0:19:59- So you bought your house in 1968, is that right?- Yeah. Yes.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03- Was it '68? Yes.- Do you mind me asking how much you paid?- 11,750.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10'But even at prices like this, the houses were as attractive,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14'once renovated, as any in Hampstead and two thirds the price.'
0:20:14 > 0:20:17They've got the sale board up there.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19That's the house.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21That was 1960-odd.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24I think it's October 1960.
0:20:24 > 0:20:275,550.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30The place was absolutely a dump.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34We were really the first people in who started to posh the place up.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40I think my parents were a little bit concerned about it.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43My father said, "If you want to go and live in a slum,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46"go and live in a slum, if that's what you want to do!"
0:20:46 > 0:20:51What did the local school say when we took one of our first children to the local school?
0:20:51 > 0:20:53Oh, yes, the local primary school.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56One of the teachers, when we were being shown round,
0:20:56 > 0:20:57one of the teachers said to me,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01"You do appreciate, Mrs Hicks, that this is not working class?
0:21:01 > 0:21:02"This is criminal class."
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Punishment books from St Clement's School in the '40s and '50s
0:21:08 > 0:21:12seemed to confirm the teacher's alarming description.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19"Robert - disgusting behaviour and foul talk to woman bath attendant."
0:21:19 > 0:21:21"4 on the hands."
0:21:21 > 0:21:26"William - urinating on another boy. 1 on each hand."
0:21:26 > 0:21:32"Group of nine boys - disgusting language and conduct to the wife of the school keeper."
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Punishment not recorded.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37This was the school where you were thinking of putting your son?
0:21:37 > 0:21:41Well, he went there. It was the local primary school.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44- So he was educated at a school for the criminal classes?- Yes.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46He got to Westminster in the end.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Oh, shush! That spoils it.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53So when these posh people first started moving in,
0:21:53 > 0:21:54did you treat the kids all right?
0:21:54 > 0:21:58They didn't mix with us. Nah, didn't mix with us.
0:21:58 > 0:21:59They didn't come out.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02God, it sounds awful, you can't say these sort of things today,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05but, you know, they liked to sit on their doorstep,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07with their children wearing nothing but vests,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09running up and down, you know.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Well, you know, that's not the way you live your life.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19The pub was still a lovely old pub
0:22:19 > 0:22:22and we could see the people,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25a lot of heads bobbing up and down.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39My daughter was absolutely enthralled after asking me.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42She said, "Who's that singing Knees Up Mother Brown?"
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Well, of course, they're loving it, you see.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51There always used to be some sort of trouble outside at night.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54There was always some shouting when they came out drunk.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57GEORGE: Many a time, my mum found drunks sleeping in our passage.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00I'd go and shout at them to get up and kick them out in the mornings.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03They'd come from the Portland, halfway home, and they fancied...
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Then they fell down in our passage.
0:23:06 > 0:23:07It was tough.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Well, there was a brothel.
0:23:09 > 0:23:10SHE CHUCKLES
0:23:10 > 0:23:11Opposite.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15We had some friends who lived with us in a parallel street in Chelsea
0:23:15 > 0:23:19- and they bought, literally, bought the house next door.- That side.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21So he did up the house himself and, one day,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24he was sort of looking at his house and admiring it,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27and the paintwork he'd just done, having a cigarette.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31And this lady from the brothel came out and said, "Can I help you, dear?"
0:23:34 > 0:23:35He beat a retreat.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39He couldn't believe there was a brothel next door to him!
0:23:39 > 0:23:44- Oh, we had lots of totters. We had dear George.- George and Dolly.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47- They were fantastic. - They lived opposite.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49'The newcomers are not hostile to the working class,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52'often quite the reverse, but the housing shortage makes them
0:23:52 > 0:23:56'compete for the same homes and the middle class generally win.'
0:23:56 > 0:24:00Of course, property developers started to move in opposite.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04There was one guy who bought four of these houses opposite...
0:24:04 > 0:24:06And sold for, presumably, a fortune.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09- And bribed old George and Dolly out.- Yes.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17They moved on. I don't know whether they were pushed out. They moved on.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19A lot of them got council flats.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28If you moved out of one of those dumps and got a council flat,
0:24:28 > 0:24:29you got a bathroom.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32You got hot water. You got central heating.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Can you imagine that, after living in a dump like that?
0:24:35 > 0:24:38You know, they couldn't wait to move, some of them.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Not because they didn't like the area, they didn't like the people,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44it's just that they were bettering themselves.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48They were coming up a step. They were getting a council house.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56One's so much better than the other one.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59This was old decrepit houses
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and moved into a luxury brand-new flat, with all mod cons.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05You can't compare them.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10We had to get out because they were going to rehouse my mum,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12but they wouldn't rehouse me and Jean.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15And that was the end of us in Portland Road.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Everybody went their own way, from Portland Road.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27My brother moved out.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31My sisters just went and we just drifted apart over the years
0:25:31 > 0:25:34and never got back together.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39The dispersal of working people from Portland Road
0:25:39 > 0:25:43meant the demise of a hundred-year-old community.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52The south and middle sections of the street were finally being
0:25:52 > 0:25:55occupied by the class for whom they were intended,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58and ordinary people would never come back.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02But there was one part of Portland that,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04in the face of unimaginable social change,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07was destined to cling to its impoverished roots.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Here, at the north end, in the blocks built to rehouse
0:26:17 > 0:26:21the slum-dwellers in the '30s, there were to be no gentrifiers.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Housing trust flats were not for sale,
0:26:25 > 0:26:32and Nottingwood and Winterbourne were too new and small to attract middle-class restorers.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35And so the original working class stayed put,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39a vestige of a disappearing culture,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43and watched on as the south end of the street was transformed.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Well, right down the bottom there, we used to call that the Nob End.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52- The Nob End?- Yeah, the nobs, all the, you know, the flash people.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54And if we went down there in gangs of us,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57they used to shoo us away, you know. "Bugger off."
0:26:57 > 0:26:59I better not say this but we used to go down there
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and get our revenge by smashing windows and things.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Well, there was a pub on the corner there we used to go to.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08And after that it was all sort of, you know...
0:27:10 > 0:27:13- ..nobs. It was still... It was when they started coming in.- Who?
0:27:13 > 0:27:17The yuppies, buying the properties up cheap.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19They'd come out and go, "Go away."
0:27:21 > 0:27:22We'd say, "Piss off!"
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Then they call the police, then they take us home,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28then I'd get a clip round the earhole from my mum.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29Well, more than a clip.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34The slum area was sort of that end, all the way down.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36It's like the borderline.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39Just cuts off there, doesn't it?
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Start getting posher and posher and posher.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44It was them and us, you know what I mean?
0:27:44 > 0:27:47They left us alone, we left them alone.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56The divisions between the different parts of the street were becoming starker.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02In 1975, the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea built a traffic barrier,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06dividing the mid and southern sections of the road.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12It was a decision that surprised residents, reinforcing, as it did,
0:28:12 > 0:28:17the hundred-year-old social division between the two parts of the street.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21But it was a help to Julie's,
0:28:21 > 0:28:25a wine bar just opening on the site of an old builders' yard.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Well, it was known as East Berlin and West Berlin.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33This was East Berlin at the barrier of Julie's.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38There was now a physical boundary between the midsection
0:28:38 > 0:28:42of Portland and the grander, posher southern end.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45And, for those at the south end,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48there was a deeper sense of security,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51cut-off from the estate culture of north Portland.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54It was gentrifying more rapidly.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58I've walked and cycled around this area which I loved,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03and I saw a little notice up, and I went to see it with the estate agent.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06And I never gave the key back!
0:29:06 > 0:29:08We moved in early '77.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12£18,000, which was a hell of a lot of money.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14It was absolutely wonderful.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18This room was completely with lino, and a bed in it.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21And this was partitioned. It was another room.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24All the woodwork was covered up with plasterboard
0:29:24 > 0:29:28so you didn't have the original doors and everything.
0:29:28 > 0:29:35But it was still an incredibly relaxed, Bohemian, crazy,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39fabulous, uh, different street.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43The settlers had built a middle-class enclave
0:29:43 > 0:29:49in working-class Notting Hill, with Julie's as its social club.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52So we're here to celebrate 40 years of Julie's.
0:29:52 > 0:29:53I'm the next-door neighbour.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58But it must've been a strange place to have
0:29:58 > 0:30:00a posh restaurant in those days.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02It was very much frontier land.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Behind me was Gypsy land.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13A female friend of mine, she said, "If a man brought you here,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16"you kind of knew where it was going to end up."
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Did you get any kind of hostility from the local community
0:30:23 > 0:30:26when you first arrived?
0:30:26 > 0:30:29They were very puzzled by this sort of strange invasion
0:30:29 > 0:30:33of fashionable people that seemed to come in here.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37Have you seen changes to it, over the years?
0:30:37 > 0:30:40Oh, yeah, the whole place has changed completely.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42I've been here about 30 years
0:30:42 > 0:30:45and obviously 30 years ago it wasn't gentrified.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49- You know what the engine behind that change has been?- Money.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03Portland Road was becoming fashionable.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06House prices were rising steeply.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09And some serious money was moving in.
0:31:09 > 0:31:15My mother's family really helped found the modern banking system in this country.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20They also teamed up with the Rothschild family
0:31:20 > 0:31:24and became a very, very powerful financial institution.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26Part of that is now Barclays Bank today.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32My great-great-great-great- grandfather Samuel Gurney,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35he earned about £4 million during the 1840s.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38He would have been one of the world's top financiers at that time.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41That business then became Barclays Bank.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43- Did that help pay for this house? - Yeah, of course it did.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46It helped pay for everything I am, everything I do.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48As a consultant, I've worked for some banks
0:31:48 > 0:31:53but I haven't been involved in the family's bank and, in fact,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57a couple of years ago, I sold the last of my Barclays shares,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59partly to invest in this property.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02But you probably paid quite a lot of money for this house, right?
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Well, it adds up, doesn't it? Everything adds up.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09You could have maybe got a much nicer house in another part of town for a similar price.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12- Exactly. Yeah. - What did you do that for?
0:32:12 > 0:32:14I didn't. My wife forced me into it.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21My wife thought that this house in this area was a good investment
0:32:21 > 0:32:24since property is THE British investment.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27She wasn't going to let sentiment stand in the way of a good deal.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32The old Bohemian atmosphere was fading.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35A new kind of buyer was arriving on Portland
0:32:35 > 0:32:40and houses here were becoming spectacular investments.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43'House prices are soaring at their fastest rate
0:32:43 > 0:32:45'since the boom of the '80s.'
0:32:45 > 0:32:47'House prices in London are likely to be pushed even higher.'
0:32:47 > 0:32:50'16% over the last year.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54'The spending spree is being fuelled by huge City bonuses.'
0:32:54 > 0:32:58'500 people earn bonuses of a million pounds or more.'
0:32:58 > 0:33:02There's an awesome wall of money about to hit the top end of the London market.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Still looking up to two million? And you need some staff accommodation?
0:33:06 > 0:33:10'Huge city pay packets push house prices through the roof.'
0:33:10 > 0:33:11It changed a lot.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15There used to be a mix of people but most of them have cashed in now,
0:33:15 > 0:33:20so it's just factory workers now, bankers and their molls.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23If LS Lowry was painting today, he'd be painting this area,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27not Manchester, because this area is the dormitory for
0:33:27 > 0:33:31the biggest factory in this country - the factory of finance.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33And Hugh Grant would be making his programme,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35his film Notting Hill, in Hackney.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38He's moved on. It's all sloped shoulders, factory workers,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40getting up at six o'clock in the morning.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42The guy next door gets up at 4.30 in the morning,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45his taxi arrives at 5.15, every flipping morning,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47with its engine running outside.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50And then he comes home, sloped shoulders, slop, slop, slop,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53back from the Tube, slam the telly on, that's it.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55They get paid very, very well,
0:33:55 > 0:33:57but it's really, really, really expensive for them
0:33:57 > 0:34:02to buy private education in London, the chauffeurs, just everything.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Paying for the gear for the missus.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06It adds up. It's not cheap.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09It costs millions of pounds to be a top banker.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11It's very, very expensive.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16The arrival of the bankers on Portland,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and the house price boom they brought with them,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23left some of the earlier settlers sitting on top of astonishing capital gains.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29There's one notorious - what do you call? - estate agent.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34I could not leave my house at one point without him saying,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37"You know how much you could get now?"
0:34:37 > 0:34:42And, one day, I metaphorically slapped him and said,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45"If you once more address me, I will take you to the police."
0:34:45 > 0:34:48- It was appalling, his aggression. - And what's it worth today?
0:34:51 > 0:34:57Disgusting amount of money. It's, it's horrible. I don't even want it.
0:34:57 > 0:34:58I wish it was the same amount.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02It's, it's terrible that the housing market has gone
0:35:02 > 0:35:04so completely ridiculous.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07I don't need to tell you what this is worth.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10You know what it is worth and it is appalling.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12I honestly don't know.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15- Two million, three million?- More.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18More than three million?
0:35:18 > 0:35:19Yeah.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24It's ugly. Because, for some people, that is nothing.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26Everyone said, "But what's the trouble?
0:35:26 > 0:35:30"You're sitting on a gold mine." But what would I want?
0:35:30 > 0:35:32I would like this home, if I had a lot of money.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36A home like this.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Portland's character was changing once again.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45The old Portland Arms was given a face-lift,
0:35:45 > 0:35:49transformed into a high-end beauty spa, the Cowshed.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58That was Hope's, the dairy.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Right over the road from there was an oil shop.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Next door was Eric's, the sweet shop.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Cross over, it was Estee's. That was Eric's wife.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Next to him was Jones' the dairy.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14That was dairy again.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21You're at 129 Portland Road, which,
0:36:21 > 0:36:2430 years ago, was a dairy.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28We now sell works in excess of a million quid.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31There are the uber-rich.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35The designer will be sent in to look for specific works of art,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39to go with the design for their drawing room or their dining room,
0:36:39 > 0:36:41or their kitchen area.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45So some of your clients wouldn't even see the piece before they bought it?
0:36:45 > 0:36:47I have a sneaking suspicion that is the case, yes.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52Even at these hard times now, people are prepared to spend money
0:36:52 > 0:36:55because it's a one-off, it's an original.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59It's something that will not date and it's going to last for years.
0:36:59 > 0:37:00And that is what we try and do...
0:37:00 > 0:37:03How much would that set me back, if that's not a rude question?
0:37:03 > 0:37:05- It's very rude.- Sorry.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Let me have a look. Erm, I don't even know. Isn't that terrible?
0:37:08 > 0:37:10OK, that's £420.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15We work with a lovely woman called Shirley McLauchlan who knits.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19People can order these and put the child's name and the date of birth.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Well, you know I'm going to ask how much that one is.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24I know. This is hideous. Hold on.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27That's £870.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29- Let's go and find some cheap things.- OK, yeah.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34Every single petal is cut out by hand.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37- You're hiding the price tag! - I know I am.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39This is really stunning and...
0:37:39 > 0:37:41OK, you can tell me the price of that one.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44- No, I'm not going to tell you the price.- Why not?- And then...
0:37:44 > 0:37:47So we're trying to pioneer younger designers now.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I'm wearing two today so you can layer them.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54- Are we allowed to know how much that one is?- Yes. They're about £200.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57- That's reasonable.- It is reasonable, but that's the whole thing.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01We've got expensive things but we've got things that aren't so expensive.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04There's ten to 15 shops and nowhere sells a paper.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08Nowhere sells a cigarette. Nowhere sells a pint of milk.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10You can't get a pound of potatoes.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Not one of these shops!
0:38:12 > 0:38:16And there's 16 shops here. They're all... What are they?
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Who are these shops for? There ain't no customers in 'em.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29Before the '80s recession, the houses, like, trebled
0:38:29 > 0:38:32and then a lot of people sold then.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35And then came the '80s recession.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40And then the lucky ones who couldn't sell hung on for two years and the houses doubled again.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41People kept on saying,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45"Well, the property bubble's going to burst, blah blah blah."
0:38:45 > 0:38:48And in Notting Hill Gate, the property bubble went on bubbling.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53I mean, it's really horrific.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55I mean, not for us.
0:38:55 > 0:38:56THEY ALL LAUGH
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Basically, yeah, we're cashing in.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03You look at it from the outside and it's the only house
0:39:03 > 0:39:07on the street that hasn't been, like, totally done up.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Well, I don't think Chards could have put on their details,
0:39:10 > 0:39:14"immaculately decorated". It's not falling to pieces.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18It's an old house, which has been well lived in.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21We had people coming and offering us really stupid money,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25saying they'd need to spend £500,000 redecorating
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and remodelling the house which I found very insulting.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32So they certainly weren't going to be allowed to buy it.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36I think if you go around somebody's house, you should respect them
0:39:36 > 0:39:40because it's their gaff, and we had quite a few monsters coming round
0:39:40 > 0:39:44the house who I wouldn't have sold to even if they'd offered us the price.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50I think they're bullies and they make me really angry.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56The new people who've arrived don't seem to want to know anybody.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01And all the really smart houses that are now well in to ten, 12 million,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03you know, every single one has a blind.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07The whole area seems to be becoming a gated community.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14But that's why this area's changed. It's greed. It's nothing else.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18What are these?
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Oh, well, I'm moving out
0:40:21 > 0:40:24so these pictures are just being got ready to go in the van,
0:40:24 > 0:40:28and shift them on. I'd like to find somewhere to put them.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30Like all the trendy areas of London,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33it's just lived in by investment bankers now,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35so it just becomes very, very boring.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39I mean, you don't know how boring it is until you actually experience it.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44It is amazing to see how one industry has completely
0:40:44 > 0:40:47dominated the best housing in this city.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50Property prices have never been higher for banker properties.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Since the taxpayer got involved in helping bankers out, the prices of these houses have rocketed.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59Where do you think that taxpayer money went? Into bankers' housing.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03Do you think they're lending to small business? That's not how it works.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10This house appeals to international bankers
0:41:10 > 0:41:13and businesspeople who want to come to London
0:41:13 > 0:41:16because London is a tax haven for them,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19so these houses are particularly valuable.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24I don't want to boast, but it's now worth several million pounds.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28- Several million?- Well, I say several million. Just under £3 million.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30It's quite a small house, isn't it?
0:41:30 > 0:41:33It's a tiny house, it doesn't have any foundations,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35but it's a tax haven.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37You come and live here on Portland Road
0:41:37 > 0:41:40and you don't have to pay tax in Russia or wherever.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43'It's a £3 million penthouse right in the heart of London
0:41:43 > 0:41:46'but the estate agent and the couple she's showing round
0:41:46 > 0:41:48'aren't speaking English.'
0:41:48 > 0:41:50SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE
0:41:50 > 0:41:54'So, why have this couple chosen London?'
0:41:54 > 0:42:00INTERPRETER: It's the culture, the history and the people.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03INTERPRETER: Yes, I agree with my wife.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09The time's come to move out to a trendier place.
0:42:09 > 0:42:10I want to live somewhere more artistic
0:42:10 > 0:42:13and just generally have a different lifestyle.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26I work in finance. I've always worked in finance.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And I was in finance, up until we had our first child
0:42:30 > 0:42:32and then I moved into fashion.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41- Nico's just given a quick tidy-up, as you can see.- This is our bedroom.
0:42:42 > 0:42:48- Nice bath.- Yeah, we like a good bath, don't we, Nico?
0:42:48 > 0:42:50I wanted a bath that at least two people could fit in,
0:42:50 > 0:42:54and you can imagine how many times we've used the two shower heads.
0:42:54 > 0:42:55- Oh, yeah.- I think maybe once.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58So you have a double bath and a double shower.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01- Here's Vera, our nanny from Brazil. - Hiding in the corner there.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Hide in the other corner!
0:43:04 > 0:43:06- Tits out.- Yeah.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09This is where you can see the whole length of Portland Road and this
0:43:09 > 0:43:12little park called Avondale Park,
0:43:12 > 0:43:14which has been here for 200 years, I guess.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16So how do you like living on this road?
0:43:16 > 0:43:20We don't want to leave it, actually. Maybe get a slightly bigger house.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23What do you need a bigger house for? It's massive.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26We'd like a garden but aside from that it's perfect.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29We were thinking, actually, of buying Avondale Park
0:43:29 > 0:43:31but don't tell the council yet.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35It's actually not a joke. We were thinking of... Cut!
0:43:35 > 0:43:37You know the Hicks, don't you?
0:43:37 > 0:43:40We know Emily which is... I think Emily is in...
0:43:40 > 0:43:44So you're in, like, the Bohemian section, aren't you?
0:43:44 > 0:43:45I think I am, yeah. I like that.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Yeah, we're the Bohemian part of Portland Road, yeah, the dodgy end.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51SHE LAUGHS
0:43:51 > 0:43:55The road's split into three so I think the first part of Portland Road,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58the houses are much grander, they're bigger.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03The second part of Portland Road, they're slightly smaller.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08And then the third part of Portland Road, it's just totally different.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11But would you quite like to move a bit further down this way?
0:44:11 > 0:44:15I want to move only for the sole reason that I want more space.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17I want a garden.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20To move towards this end is a pretty big financial commitment, isn't it?
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Yeah. I'd say it's double the financial commitment.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27They go between four and five.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31That seems to be the value on this side of Portland Road, yeah.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33And then in the edgy part that you live in...?
0:44:33 > 0:44:36The "Bohemian" part - they're more between two and three.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Why do you think they're so expensive?
0:44:39 > 0:44:42It's, um, it's much, um, it's much further away from
0:44:42 > 0:44:44the council housing on this end of Portland Road,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46and you can say what you like,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49but there is a level of snobbery associated with that.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52I feel really guilty to say this but I didn't even realise that
0:44:52 > 0:44:54that was Portland Road cos I never go over there.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57I just... II-I... Well, I have no reason to but, yeah,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00it's only when we started filming that I started to look around
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and I realised that there was a third part of Portland Road.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15Portland Road's three divided sections are the direct result
0:45:15 > 0:45:18of its history, which still, today,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21continues to shape the street's property market.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27Its southern end has always been the richest
0:45:27 > 0:45:30because it was furthest away from the slum.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33The average price of a house here today
0:45:33 > 0:45:35is three and a half million pounds.
0:45:37 > 0:45:43In the midsection, fear of the nearby Gypsy camp dragged down
0:45:43 > 0:45:45house values from the beginning.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49The average house price today is 2.1 million.
0:45:49 > 0:45:50And the north end,
0:45:50 > 0:45:54originally tenement housing for brewery workers,
0:45:54 > 0:45:58locked into poverty by the building of social housing in the 1930s.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06Today, the average price of a flat here is only 340,000.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08For central London, a bargain.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Today, a deprivation map made by the Kensington and Chelsea Council
0:46:16 > 0:46:20shows a dramatically divided road.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Some of the richest people in England
0:46:23 > 0:46:27and, living on the same street, some of the poorest.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32I never go past that line. There'd be no reason for me to do that.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36It's not because I'm any more snobbish than anybody else.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39We're all human beings. It's just that I have no...
0:46:39 > 0:46:43There is nothing at the end of that line that I have any involvement in.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46It's just a few hundred yards. You can see it from here.
0:46:46 > 0:46:47Why would you...?
0:46:47 > 0:46:51Yeah, well, London's a series of villages and my village ends at that line.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54My village is that way. Their village is that way.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05It doesn't really matter where your block is.
0:47:05 > 0:47:10If something's ugly, you just don't want to look at it, so you blank it.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12We don't exist.
0:47:17 > 0:47:23It can be very disconcerting when you can hear your neighbour peeing.
0:47:25 > 0:47:31It's little things like that that chip away at your spirit.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38It's dark, dingy, microscopic.
0:47:39 > 0:47:47People have to walk by those very affluent houses every day,
0:47:47 > 0:47:52which is a constant reminder of how poor they are.
0:47:55 > 0:48:01There is that invisible line. It's like a force, an invisible force.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04We're talking about just a few feet away.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07For some reason,
0:48:07 > 0:48:12the antisocial behaviour doesn't cross the invisible line.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14It's just amazing how it works.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21The other night, I saw two youths
0:48:21 > 0:48:27and they had thrown something at a window on the corner there.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31It was a Rolex watch.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33They had mugged somebody
0:48:33 > 0:48:41and chucked that evidence for some reason at that window.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44And that was just on the border of the invisible line.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47It's just weird how it works.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56It's safe in principle but, as usual, in every part of the world,
0:48:56 > 0:48:57you have to be careful.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01- I think we both know that it's not that safe.- Cos you've had...
0:49:01 > 0:49:05Yeah, I got attacked, I got robbed, but...
0:49:05 > 0:49:07It's not I think that...
0:49:07 > 0:49:08It just can happen, I think.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11I mean, that was a very upsetting moment. We'd just moved in.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13It happened a few months after we'd moved in.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17But I knew immediately they were trying to rob something
0:49:17 > 0:49:20and I only had the watch so what do you do?
0:49:20 > 0:49:23- I just gave the watch and they ran away.- What did they do to you?
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Nothing. They just... Whatever.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28In the running, it just fell on the floor.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31- Well, they put a gun to your head. - Yeah, they put the gun on my head.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33I mean, that was quite scary.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35- That's OK.- Well, it wasn't OK but...
0:49:35 > 0:49:37It's OK. It can happen.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40I mean, what happened to Nico was, was, pretty, pretty awful.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44And it was very scary. I-I've become quite obsessive about checking
0:49:44 > 0:49:48locked doors and checking the cars are locked and checking the kids.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50You know, I check on the kids at least six times a night
0:49:50 > 0:49:53before I go to sleep and I check the roof terrace is closed.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56You know, I've become quite obsessive about it but, then,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58we've heard some pretty scary stories.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12Leaving his house on Portland Road in the hands of his estate agent,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Henry Mayhew has escaped to the country.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19So how long has your family had this land here?
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Well, I don't want to discuss any particular land,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25if you don't mind, Joe, but we've been here for a long time, since...
0:50:25 > 0:50:29- Generations?- Well, we were certainly here in the medieval time.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31So your family owns this wood. Or you own this wood?
0:50:31 > 0:50:34No, nothing is owned by...
0:50:34 > 0:50:37These kinds of assets aren't owned by people any more.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39We've had 100 years of socialism.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Everything's owned by trusts and companies,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43so you'll have to make inquiries.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45You don't even know who owns this place?
0:50:45 > 0:50:47It's owned by a trust, young man.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Yeah, so here's the cabin.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54And it's the kind that's used on motorways.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58I'm just going to be stripping it out over the next few weeks and months,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00turning it into a really nice place.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02I got sick of my life in Portland Road.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06The thing is, the culture in Holland Park is very, very female because
0:51:06 > 0:51:09the blokes are out making the money and the women are nattering along
0:51:09 > 0:51:12about whether the elite schools the kids go to are good enough,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15and whether, you know, the sports teacher's a lesbian or not.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Who cares?
0:51:17 > 0:51:20The thing is, the only reason I lived there in the first place
0:51:20 > 0:51:23was because my wife wanted to live there.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26But that's why a lot of blokes are living there,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28living a battery hen lifestyle.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31They go out to work in the bank, they come back... I don't know.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34It just doesn't appeal to me any more, that's for sure.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43I had a need to show off and to be part of the gang.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47I then found out it wasn't actually my gang.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51There's more to life than the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02- Cos you haven't been back for a long time, right?- Yeah.- How long?
0:52:02 > 0:52:04HE EXHALES
0:52:04 > 0:52:08Well, I moved to Hornsey when I was 20,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10then I met my wife now, Maggie.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Then we moved from St Charles Square to Heathrow,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18and from Heathrow we went to Cornwall cos I lost the house.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22I lost me job and I lost me house so I said to her,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24"We might as well be skint in Cornwall than here,"
0:52:24 > 0:52:26you know what I mean?
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Because I was intending to retire to Cornwall when I was 65
0:52:29 > 0:52:32but then I lost me job and that was it.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35I had to sell the house cos I owed too much money,
0:52:35 > 0:52:40bought myself a little mobile home for 30 grand, paid for, that's it.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42That's where I am now.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44At the bottom of a field in a mobile home.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47- What's that like?- It's lovely.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51I mean, you know, it's lovely but I get nostalgic when I come home.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54You know, because...I love it here, you know what I mean?
0:52:54 > 0:52:58It's part of your... Well, it's your blood. It's in your blood, innit?
0:53:00 > 0:53:02You know, I miss it.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05I think Notting Hill's become nobbish.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09Since Notting Hill the film, it's got worse.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Up the Goldwyn, you've got little artistic places, you know,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15like, you know, art studios.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17I mean, who wants them?
0:53:28 > 0:53:32We used to say Notting Hill, you know. You come from Notting Hill.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34That's what it's all about, Notting Hill, West 11.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37If you say to someone, "Where do you come from?"
0:53:37 > 0:53:38and they go, "Notting Hill,"
0:53:38 > 0:53:39"Oooh, very posh."
0:53:39 > 0:53:43You know what I mean? You got a nice house and things like that.
0:53:43 > 0:53:44They go and buy the film.
0:53:44 > 0:53:45No, mate!
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Yeah, I miss all the old times there, I do.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58I probably live in the past, that's what my problem is.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03Living in memory lane.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07You've got to think about this Portland Road, though.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17That's their road now. It's not Portland Road.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22It belongs to them now. They buy their own houses and shut you out.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25I mean, my kids say, "Mum, you've got to go with the times."
0:54:25 > 0:54:27I can't go with the times. I don't like it.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31The past is here. I had a happy past.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36I'm still staying back. I can't come forward.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39When we moved out of 157, it was gutted.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43The whole floorboards up, the lot, all went.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47And suddenly, it was a lovely house.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50And you think, "That's what it needed all the time."
0:54:50 > 0:54:53But our landlords never had the money to do it,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56we never had the money to do it. Somebody had money to do it.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01And they could afford it. They don't do houses like that for nothing.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09I'm glad we moved on. It's part of life, you move on.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11We're happy now.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13We'll finish our days here.
0:55:13 > 0:55:21# I would rather not go back to the old house
0:55:27 > 0:55:30# I would rather not go back... #
0:55:30 > 0:55:33So did they turn into hooligans, your kids?
0:55:33 > 0:55:36In their time, but they came out of it, like all children, you know.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41The eldest was a banker before it became a dirty word.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43Then the second one's a literary agent.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46The third one is head of screen - what is it called? -
0:55:46 > 0:55:50screen, television and radio at RADA.
0:55:50 > 0:55:56And the youngest runs his own production company in New York and LA.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59- So they've all come good. - The banker's retired.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01- The banker's retired, yes.- At 40!
0:56:01 > 0:56:02THEY LAUGH
0:56:02 > 0:56:04And lives in Suffolk.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06And dabbles in property, but you can't say that.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Banker's a dirty word today.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Good old school round the corner.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Tim and Penny Hicks are celebrating their 44th year on Portland Road.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28Jean Dawes is still living just one street away from Portland Road
0:56:28 > 0:56:29where she was born.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32All her old friends have left the area.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41John Wakelin is enjoying his retirement in Cornwall with his family.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49Nico and Natasha are looking for a house at the south end of the street
0:56:49 > 0:56:52and planning their retirement there.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01Henry Mayhew is loving his new life away from Portland Road.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09I said to my mum once, "Look where I come from.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11"I've improved in where I came from."
0:57:11 > 0:57:14I said, "And look at where my kids are now.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16"My kids have improved on me."
0:57:16 > 0:57:20You know, we was almost on the bottom, if not the bottom,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24and those houses were the lowest of the low, those houses.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26And you move up a step.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30All my children all own their own houses.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32From nothing, we've improved.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34What shall I get them to say, cheese?
0:57:34 > 0:57:35MAN: Sex!
0:57:35 > 0:57:37LAUGHTER
0:57:41 > 0:57:45Next week, we go south of the river to Bermondsey
0:57:45 > 0:57:48and meet the people of Reverdy Road,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51quiet, respectable and proud of their roots.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54I'm working class. I always will be, you know.
0:57:54 > 0:57:55Waterbed.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58'Who wants to be middle class anyway?'
0:57:58 > 0:58:00And, in a very different kind of house,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04we'll meet the direct descendant of the people who built Reverdy Road.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06Pretty special, isn't it?
0:58:06 > 0:58:08As I say to everyone, "The day that I wake up
0:58:08 > 0:58:11"and I don't enjoy the view is the day I need to retire."