0:00:03 > 0:00:05150 years ago,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09Victorian Britain became the world's first industrial superpower
0:00:09 > 0:00:14and, as the country thrived, London, the beating heart of Empire,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16became the world's richest city.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20But this was a city divided.
0:00:20 > 0:00:21For the first time,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24geographical lines were drawn between those
0:00:24 > 0:00:27enjoying the nation's wealth in the west
0:00:27 > 0:00:30and those who weren't, in the east.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36This is the story of one poor community
0:00:36 > 0:00:38living in London's East End.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42In the heart of modern Stratford...
0:00:44 > 0:00:46..a Victorian slum has been recreated...
0:00:48 > 0:00:51..and a group of 21st-century people are moving in.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56- Oh!- Absolutely awful.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59I'm just a bit dumbstruck.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04To survive, they'll have to work to keep a roof over their heads...
0:01:04 > 0:01:06It's absolutely shattering.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11..and put food on the table.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14I'm starving. It's making me a bit emotional, to be honest.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18And they'll learn first-hand what life was like...
0:01:18 > 0:01:19You will call me ma'am.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22..for those at the bottom of the economic pile.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24If they were disabled, they couldn't do it, they didn't eat.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26They didn't eat - they died.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30They'll live through five decades of turbulent history...
0:01:30 > 0:01:31Look at the newspaper.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34..and seismic social change.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I am proud to be an East End suffragette.
0:01:39 > 0:01:40Power to the people.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44This is the story of how a quarter of a million slum-dwellers
0:01:44 > 0:01:48in the East End changed our attitude to poverty forever.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52This is The Slum.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Last time, the slum-dwellers endured the hardship of the 1880s...
0:02:03 > 0:02:06As soon as you start getting behind here, you're never going to get back.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08..when soaring unemployment...
0:02:08 > 0:02:10There seems to be no end to the cycle.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13You go out, look for work, there is no work.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15..and a growing population...
0:02:15 > 0:02:17God, this is so weird.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19Not what I necessarily expected.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21..heaps pressure on the East End.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24The slightest little thing can push you over the edge
0:02:24 > 0:02:25and you've lost everything.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30- Welcome to the slum.- Slum tourism brought unwelcome visitors.
0:02:30 > 0:02:31- Like entertainment.- Zoo animals.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Yeah.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37People do suggest that the poor are thick and stupid
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and, actually, we're not.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42I'm going to throw you out, I'm afraid.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44And there was revolution in the air.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Lower classes, the poor, the have-nots will not be trodden on.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50The slum-dwellers fought back.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Strikes,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54publicity and protest...
0:02:54 > 0:02:57They have no right to take our living away from us.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00..all helped to highlight their plight.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02Victory! Yay!
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The slum-dwellers are waking up to a new decade - the 1890s.
0:03:16 > 0:03:17How was your sleep, Becca?
0:03:17 > 0:03:21- Awful.- Dad's snoring, Mum's shouting at Dad cos he's snoring,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23you were kicking me in the face.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Surprisingly, I managed to get a couple of hours' sleep.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31I got no-one in the doss-house at the minute
0:03:31 > 0:03:33and each empty bed means I don't earn money.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38I mean, I'm nervous about what is in store.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41I really don't know what's coming.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45During the 1890s, Britain finally emerged from the Long Depression
0:03:45 > 0:03:49and with new prosperity there came signs of modernity.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53There were electric lights in the streets, motorised buses,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57and the first cinema opened on London's Regent Street.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59New technology meant cheaper,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02mass-produced goods filling the shops.
0:04:02 > 0:04:03Even in the poorest areas,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07there were small signs that things were getting better.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08Oh, my goodness, look at this.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11- Tinned pineapple.- People would never have had pineapple before
0:04:11 > 0:04:12- in their lives, would they?- No, no.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15For slum shopkeepers Adrian and Wiebke Bird...
0:04:15 > 0:04:17Ah-ha!
0:04:17 > 0:04:20..the new decade has brought a delivery of new stock.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Cadbury's Cocoa Essence?
0:04:24 > 0:04:26It's real. It's real.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Wow.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31And extras as well - look at the flowers.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34And then little bits and pieces for decorating your clothes
0:04:34 > 0:04:36and fixing things. And a clock.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39That's something to display proudly on the mantelpiece.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44International trade and domestic manufacturing rallied,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48providing cheaper goods and foods to Britons with more disposable income,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51but this new wealth did not touch everyone.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Divisions are beginning to appear between those who have enough
0:04:57 > 0:04:59and those without.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01The Howarths have been the lucky ones
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and now they have a new family business.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Look at that - Howarth & Son Ltd.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10- That's quite nice, isn't it? - It is, isn't it?
0:05:12 > 0:05:14- Oh, my God.- Wow!
0:05:15 > 0:05:18- Fantastic.- Isn't it? Really good.
0:05:18 > 0:05:19This is more my environment.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21This is more what I'm used to.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25I love how it's just all classy, like we actually look kind of well-off.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29It looks like a professional tailor's, it looks like you're meant...
0:05:29 > 0:05:31It's meant to be worked in, not like a sweaters' den.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34It looks like it's a nice environment to make clothes in.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36I'm actually just blown away.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39I don't really know what to say, I actually don't.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42I'm actually quite emotional.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52This is just nearer to what we would have hoped for.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55I know for Russell, since he's been here, he's worked really hard.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00And also, for my ancestors, it's what they would've worked for,
0:06:00 > 0:06:01and they worked so hard.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The Howarths' journey from sweat shop workers to owning
0:06:06 > 0:06:09their own business mirrors that of many Jewish migrants,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13including Mandy's own ancestors, who settled in Britain after fleeing
0:06:13 > 0:06:15religious persecution in Russia.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21By 1890, Spitalfields and Whitechapel were home
0:06:21 > 0:06:24to a thriving Jewish tailoring industry, making suits
0:06:24 > 0:06:28in the East End for those who could not afford to shop at Savile Row.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33- Wow, you have come up in the world. - Morning, how are you?- Morning.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35So, you've got the skill, you've moved beyond sweated labour.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Are you actually feeling more affluent now?
0:06:38 > 0:06:39We are feeling more affluent.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42It's a light at the end of the tunnel that we can actually get out
0:06:42 > 0:06:44- of the slum...- Yeah. - ..and work our way up,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46- which is what we've been working towards.- Yeah.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48And have the other people been finding it tough -
0:06:48 > 0:06:50- people without skills? - Some have found it very tough,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54and my heart really goes out to them because they work so hard,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56they're not lazy people at all,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58and there's been massive struggles for them.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02One such family are the Potters.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Hello, how are you?
0:07:05 > 0:07:08- Oh, look at this.- Ooh. It all looks very nice and colourful.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12- Welcome to the new shop - with stock!- Stock, yes.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14- With stock!- Excellent.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17What other bits and bobs have you got on the back shelves, Adrian?
0:07:17 > 0:07:21Alison and her family are finding out what the 1890s has to offer.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24We were selling products that we know today,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26like Oxo Cubes.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28You know, we would sell them by the box,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31but we would probably sell them by the single unit as well.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Have you noticed the porcelain dogs up on the shelf?
0:07:34 > 0:07:36- I did.- How much are you selling those for?
0:07:36 > 0:07:38- Hold on to your bonnet...- Mmmm.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41- £17 each.- No!
0:07:41 > 0:07:44That's more than the Potters' entire week's rent.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47I mean, that would feed us for three weeks, wouldn't it?
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Surprising that even within the slum, at this point, people got to
0:07:50 > 0:07:53a certain point when they had all of their basic needs covered
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and then they had extra spending money.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00I don't think I could spend anything on any...
0:08:01 > 0:08:03..frivolous items.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06- Well, we haven't got that sort of money, have we?- No.- And we haven't
0:08:06 > 0:08:09got that sort of income where we would have that money,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12cos currently none of us are working anyway.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15The new luxuries available at the shop
0:08:15 > 0:08:17would have been well beyond their means.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19We have these advertising posters back here
0:08:19 > 0:08:21and those are left over from putting up.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Do you think you might want to try one of those in your room,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26or a couple of them? You like some as well?
0:08:26 > 0:08:28So, you've got Bovril, Pears soap...
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Oh, Pears soap, I like that.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34- Just take one of each, yeah. - Thank you.- Bye-bye.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37- Bye-bye. - Thanks.- Bye.- See you.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Beecham's pills.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41- Yeah, that's fine.- About there?
0:08:41 > 0:08:44The Potters have scraped through the decades.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Since injuring his back shortly after arriving,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49grandad Graham has struggled to find work.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53At a time when men were the main breadwinners,
0:08:53 > 0:08:58old age or injury could seal a whole family's fate.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03My fears would be to lose the house, the room.
0:09:03 > 0:09:04And this is it, you know,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07we put posters up to make it brighter.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09It's not the most fantastic place,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12but it's home and I don't want to lose that.
0:09:12 > 0:09:13It adds a bit of...
0:09:14 > 0:09:16..brightness to the room.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18- What do you think?- Yeah.
0:09:18 > 0:09:19Makes it look a bit brighter.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Yeah, I think it turns in quite well with the mildew.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26But for siblings John and Maria, who do have an income,
0:09:26 > 0:09:28things are on the up.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31We have enough for the rent and we have extra money,
0:09:31 > 0:09:32but we won't be silly with it.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35We'll get our breakfast every morning, two slices of bread,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37and then in the evening two bowls of soup.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Plus, if we just get out there and work and work and work and make more
0:09:41 > 0:09:45and more and more. We have come such a long way from the doss-house.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48We're in our own room now, which is comfortable.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53We are comfortable, but comfortable is not good enough, we want more.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Or at least I want more.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58You have to keep working, get out there,
0:09:58 > 0:10:00do what we can and go as far and as high as possible,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03because this is the time to do that.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Like many slum women would have,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Maria has been taking in her neighbours' washing
0:10:08 > 0:10:11and she now has a burgeoning small business.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Of London's 51,000 laundry workers,
0:10:16 > 0:10:1995% were women.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Many were able to grow their enterprise from washing
0:10:21 > 0:10:23for neighbours to washing uniforms,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26bedding and tableware for small-scale eateries
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and lodging houses.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31By expanding her business,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Maria has just enough work coming in to hire some extra help.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39They're bedsheets - I don't know how they're this disgusting.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Fellow slum-dwellers Alison and Heather Potter.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45The sheets are maggoty, girls.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46Ooh.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51So the boiling water into here and then we've got a dolly.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Like this. Practise the movement, girls, together.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57- Swing your hips.- That's it, yeah.
0:10:57 > 0:10:58We're good at this.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Good, I think I've employed well.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06My laundry business is doing quite good and I got two really good girls
0:11:06 > 0:11:09to help me today, and I loved giving them the work.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11It's like my hard work has paid off, really,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14cos I started from the bottom and now I'm the boss.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Hold it in and wheel this around, like this.
0:11:18 > 0:11:19Yeah.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25Colour is absolutely wonderful.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27You know, we haven't had colour.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31With a few managing to scratch out a living in the slum...
0:11:31 > 0:11:34- Hello. - Mrs Howarth, how are you today?
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Oh, wow, look at all this stuff.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39..there are some takers for the new products in the shop...
0:11:39 > 0:11:43I just want to treat us to something nice.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Yeah, I'll definitely have a tin of corned beef, definitely.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Corned beef, that's £2.38.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48That's fine.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52..including newly available homewares,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55now being manufactured cheaply for the mass market.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I'm so excited to have flowers in my house, that's the one thing.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00- How's that for you?- Lovely.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03- Good.- Can't go wrong. - How much is the clock?
0:12:03 > 0:12:06The clock is £17.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09That's over half of Mandy's weekly rent.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12I think we have to wait till our first suit's done before
0:12:12 > 0:12:15I can stretch to that, but I've got my eye on that.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18To walk in the shop and actually know that I've got some money
0:12:18 > 0:12:22in my purse for the first time, to not just necessarily buy the basic
0:12:22 > 0:12:24bread and butter...
0:12:25 > 0:12:28As soon as I saw them, I knew exactly where
0:12:28 > 0:12:32I was going to put them, and they're going to go on my table in a vase,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34and the vase is going to go on a doily,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36so as you open the door, the first thing you will see,
0:12:36 > 0:12:38your eye will go straight to the flowers.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41That's where they're going, as soon as I get home.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44I've got to make a suit and embellish a hat.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The challenge is embellishing the hat.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50The Howarth men are starting work on their first order -
0:12:50 > 0:12:53one embellished bonnet and one lounge suit.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59An order like this can earn Russell up to £200 in today's money.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02I am taking pride in this work.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05It's a lot more enjoyable, running a family business.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07We're just working for us, rather than it being a sweater,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09working for other factories.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Been really good, sort of showing Jamie bits and pieces today.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14I'm going to cut a hole so you can actually see out of it,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18but it's going to go all the way... It's just going to drape down
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and there's going to be a bow at the back cos the Victorian people did love their bows,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24so hopefully it's going to turn out all right.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26That father and son thing, like,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28"My son goes fishing with me every weekend" -
0:13:28 > 0:13:31me and my dad don't have that... cos I don't like to go fishing,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I like to go shopping. So I think it meant a lot to him to actually see
0:13:34 > 0:13:36that sign on the wall.
0:13:36 > 0:13:37Dad?
0:13:38 > 0:13:40It's like something from the desert.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Lawrence of Arabia. That looks embellished, doesn't it?
0:13:43 > 0:13:46It looks reasonably embellished.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48While Russell runs the business,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50the family's relative prosperity
0:13:50 > 0:13:53means they can afford for Mandy not to work.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59The Victorian ideal was that married women should remain at home
0:13:59 > 0:14:03to look after any children and keep a clean and tidy house.
0:14:05 > 0:14:06Put some elbow grease in it.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12Not only is she OTT, she's actually OCD, so it's like...
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Everything has to be right.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Being a respectable woman in the Victorian era -
0:14:18 > 0:14:19it's a really tough job.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23But being able to stay at home was a luxury that most slum women
0:14:23 > 0:14:25could not afford.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27I think this one's all right.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29- Yeah?- To fold, yeah.- So's this one.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31Ready? Three, two, one!
0:14:31 > 0:14:36Working for Maria is earning Heather and Alison Potter a badly needed income,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38but, without Graham working,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40they won't have enough to keep the family afloat.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43- 26.- 27.- 28.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46- 29.- 29.- 29.
0:14:46 > 0:14:4729.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49- Yes!- Yes, well done.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51So it's been a good day, considering.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53- It has been a good day. - Power of the Potters.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55- Yes.- Potters' Power.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58There is a hierarchy to the slum
0:14:58 > 0:15:01and we're at the bottom of the pile, again.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06The Victorian elite were puzzled by the fact that,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09although society as a whole was getting richer,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12there was this growing population of poor.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14London, the greatest city on earth,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17was creating an underclass of savages.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20They called them the residuum, literally the dregs of society,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and the worry was that they would somehow
0:15:23 > 0:15:26drag the whole population down with them.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Determined to find out the scale of the problem,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33one man set out to investigate.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Businessman and statistician Charles Booth
0:15:36 > 0:15:39started in the East End and hired researchers to collect
0:15:39 > 0:15:43extensive data on every household,
0:15:43 > 0:15:45from how much they earned to how they lived.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55In 1891, his findings for wider London were published.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Historian Jerry White has come to the slum to tell the residents
0:15:58 > 0:16:01what he discovered.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Booth set out to be the first person to define what poverty was
0:16:05 > 0:16:08and how many were living in poverty.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13It was a massive inquiry - it ran to 17 volumes -
0:16:13 > 0:16:18but the great iconic product of his investigations
0:16:18 > 0:16:24was the London poverty map, where he set out to colour-code
0:16:24 > 0:16:28the streets of London according to the class of the people
0:16:28 > 0:16:31who lived in London, street by street.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37On his map, streets coloured yellow, red and pink represented
0:16:37 > 0:16:41the wealthy, middle class and the comfortable working class households.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Light blue were families living on the poverty line,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48which Booth defined as those earning between 18 to 21 shillings a week.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Dark blue, accounting for around 100,000 people in East London,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57was the very poor, in chronic want.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The black streets were inhabited by the much-feared residuum,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06who Booth described as "vicious" and "semi-criminal".
0:17:06 > 0:17:10But Booth concluded that this was just 1% of the population,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13not the majority of the poor as people had assumed.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Booth thinks northing can be done with the blackest streets
0:17:19 > 0:17:23except demolish the streets and disperse the people.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25But if you demolish the black and disperse them,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28where are they going to go? They'll just move to a blue or...
0:17:28 > 0:17:30They will, but they won't, as it were,
0:17:30 > 0:17:35create this difficult problem which the Victorians saw as the
0:17:35 > 0:17:39semi-criminal and degraded classes clustering in particularly difficult
0:17:39 > 0:17:43streets which posed, as it were, a threat to people around.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Demolition wasn't the only solution proposed.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Booth suggested setting up labour camps,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53where the unskilled would get training.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Others favoured deportation.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01The Evangelical School Of Industry shipped 12,000 poor children
0:18:01 > 0:18:05from London's East End to countries like Canada and Australia.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10There was even a Eugenics Society, who recommended mass sterilisation.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13They were going to contemplate sterilising them? For God's sake.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15- You know, I mean... - What on earth is that all about?
0:18:15 > 0:18:17- You know?- Dreadful, really.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Sending them... Sending them abroad, you know, just don't make any sense.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26The slum-dwellers would've been horrified to have known that
0:18:26 > 0:18:29the forces that had oppressed them in so many ways so far,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32that they were the people talking about classing them
0:18:32 > 0:18:35as a different race and exterminating them, basically.
0:18:35 > 0:18:36It's horrifying.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42I wonder where you would have put your streets.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Where was the black ones again?
0:18:44 > 0:18:46I don't think we're black, are we? I think we're dark blue.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50- Dark blue.- Cos I don't think we're vicious semi-criminals, are we?
0:18:50 > 0:18:51No, there's no crims in here, is there?
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Vicious, semi-criminal and degraded, he called them.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56"The lives of savages," Booth said.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58I'd say we're dark blue, certainly dark blue.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02You're absolutely right. I would've said this is a dark blue street.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04I just wondered because it's only the two of us, you know,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06and we're making...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10..good money, although it's casual labour that it's based on
0:19:10 > 0:19:13at the moment, so that may have brought us into the light blue.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17- Yellow.- With the new laundry business and so on then, yeah,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20I mean that's... It wouldn't be long before you got there.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But, yeah, I'm certainly dark blue.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29The news that the poorest made up just 1% of the population went some
0:19:29 > 0:19:33way to allay Victorian concerns about a vast and vicious underclass.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37But Booth's research went further.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Well, what Booth found, and it was an astonishing finding of the time,
0:19:43 > 0:19:49was that one in three of the East London population
0:19:49 > 0:19:51was living in poverty,
0:19:51 > 0:19:56and, for the first time I think, he gave a human face to the poor.
0:19:56 > 0:20:02The myths that these were people who were feckless, drunken, lazy,
0:20:02 > 0:20:03didn't want to work.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07What he showed was that one of the fundamental problems of London
0:20:07 > 0:20:12was low wages. That even if people were working 70 hours a week,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14they were working for a pittance
0:20:14 > 0:20:17and that meant that London was never seen in the same way again,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and the London poor were never seen in the same way again.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Booth's work encouraged other social reformers to start
0:20:23 > 0:20:25their own investigations.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Confectioner Seebohm Rowntree discovered that the poor in York
0:20:29 > 0:20:33faced almost identical problems to those in London.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36A survey in Manchester came to the same conclusion.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38The genie was out of the bottle -
0:20:38 > 0:20:42this wasn't a local issue but a national epidemic.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Poverty was in the spotlight as never before,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49but the question for the authorities was what to do about it.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52There seems to be a bit more hope in the community, a bit more spirit,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54a bit more...
0:20:54 > 0:20:57A bit more of a feeling that we can actually go out
0:20:57 > 0:20:58and make something of ourselves.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02It really makes the '90s feel like there is new hope.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14It's a new day in the slum and, in the 1890s,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Booth's findings were beginning to have an effect.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Britain's attitudes towards the poor were slowly shifting.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24It was no longer seen as simply part of the natural state but the product
0:21:24 > 0:21:28of social, environmental and economic factors.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32One way to help people out of poverty was education.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36Girls, you're going to school.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Wash your hands and faces and get you sent off to school.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Come on, love, you first.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44- Why me?- Good girl.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49Oh, it's cold.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52In the past, schooling was either provided by charities or had to be
0:21:52 > 0:21:55paid for by the pupil's family.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Then the nation's first Education Act provided subsidised schooling
0:21:59 > 0:22:02for most pupils and made it free for the very poorest.
0:22:05 > 0:22:06During the 1890s,
0:22:06 > 0:22:10schooling became free for all and compulsory for all children
0:22:10 > 0:22:12between the ages of five and 12.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17It also put an obligation on families to make sure their kids
0:22:17 > 0:22:19actually went to school.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23This was a shift, the state was intervening in family life,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27and this had a big impact on the lives of the working poor.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Right, behave yourself today, do you understand me?
0:22:30 > 0:22:31- I'll try.- I'm not joking.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33- I'll try.- Right? Do as you're told.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35I'll try and behave myself.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Don't show me up.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Could you just let me do it?
0:22:40 > 0:22:41No...!
0:22:41 > 0:22:43James, James!
0:22:43 > 0:22:44No!
0:22:45 > 0:22:47You've got to have a clean face.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49- Just one sec.- No, please...
0:22:51 > 0:22:52Stop!
0:22:52 > 0:22:54- You're unhygienic.- Don't show me up.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56- I won't.- Love you.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59- Go.- Bye, James.- Bye, Jamesie, have a good day at school.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Come on. Hurry up.
0:23:09 > 0:23:10Good morning, children.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12- ALL:- Good morning, Ma'am.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Very quietly, sit down.
0:23:16 > 0:23:23If you do not work well in class then you may be given the cane,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25and it's very painful.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29So we're going to start with some arithmetic.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Two times seven equals...
0:23:32 > 0:23:33Hands up.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Pupils were rigorously drilled in the three Rs.
0:23:37 > 0:23:38By the end of the century,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42an astonishing 97% of the population could read -
0:23:42 > 0:23:46an increase of more than 30% since the 1850s.
0:23:46 > 0:23:47Very good.
0:23:52 > 0:23:53While James is at school,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Mandy and Rebecca are getting to grips with more housework.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00- What are you doing?- You've got to turn it down and then put your...
0:24:00 > 0:24:03- What do you mean, turn it down? - Like that. See?
0:24:03 > 0:24:04Oh, it's a bit posh, isn't it?
0:24:06 > 0:24:07Even at the best of times,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11keeping a slum dwelling clean was an uphill struggle,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15but in the 1890s this was to become more difficult than ever.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Does this water normally take this long to pump?
0:24:17 > 0:24:21It doesn't normally, does it? I don't think it's working properly.
0:24:21 > 0:24:22How are we going to get that fixed?
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Shall we call Andy?
0:24:24 > 0:24:25Yeah, we could do that.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Cos he's the one that collects the rent from us.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31I suppose, if nothing's working here, he's the one that's got to come and try and sort it.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35- You seen the sign out the front? - No.- No.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43In the mid-1890s, London suffered a drought.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49"Notice is hereby given that it is found necessary to restrict the
0:24:49 > 0:24:53"supply of water to use for strictly domestic purposes."
0:24:53 > 0:24:57The East London Waterworks Company supplied water from the River Lea.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01It had spent little on maintaining infrastructure and had already been
0:25:01 > 0:25:05fined for supplying contaminated water in the 1860s.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10Now it restricted supply in the East End to just six hours a day.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13I bet the ban wasn't done equally, so I bet the rich
0:25:13 > 0:25:16were given some leeway and the poor got the brunt of it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19It would be easier to regulate their usage, wouldn't it?
0:25:19 > 0:25:22- Yeah.- Cos they've only got the standpipes.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24To add insult to injury,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28the East London Waterworks even published propaganda
0:25:28 > 0:25:32blaming the poor for contributing to the problem by wasting water.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36For the struggling Potters, reliant on work from Maria,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38it's a particular blow.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41This is going to affect us, isn't it, greatly?
0:25:41 > 0:25:44We can't clean clothes without water, can we, at all?
0:25:44 > 0:25:46We need boiling water, we need clean water,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49we need water for soap, everything.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53I'm angry because we wanted to get this washing done,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58we wanted to earn some money, and now we're thwarted,
0:25:58 > 0:26:03and back in 1896 there was nothing you could do.
0:26:03 > 0:26:04Who could you go to?
0:26:05 > 0:26:07The lack of water posed a threat
0:26:07 > 0:26:10to more than just the poor's livelihoods.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15Sanitation in the East End slums was already rudimentary.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18One outside privy could be shared by scores of people.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Cesspits were rarely emptied and, when it rained,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24sewage overflowed into houses,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28leaving families three-foot deep in human waste.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32The water shortage made the situation even more deadly.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39While wealthier households had baths in which to store supplies
0:26:39 > 0:26:41and money to buy bottled water,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45in the slums sewage stagnated and diarrhoea deaths tripled.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Most slum housing was owned by absentee landlords,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53who made little or no effort to maintain their properties
0:26:53 > 0:26:56and put profits before the welfare of their tenants.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Protected by their anonymity,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02there was little recourse for the suffering slum-dwellers
0:27:02 > 0:27:06until a campaigning journalist decided to bring the poor's plight
0:27:06 > 0:27:09to the public's attention.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Bennett Burleigh, a war reporter for the Daily Telegraph,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16decided to investigate one of London's most notorious slums -
0:27:16 > 0:27:18the Old Nichol.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23He wrote of finding 108 people in 39 rat-infested rooms.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Burleigh exposed dozens of slum landlords in his articles.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32As well as aristocrats like the Duke of Buckingham,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37he discovered that some local councillors were also implicated.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41But most shocking to the God-fearing Victorians was that some of
0:27:41 > 0:27:46the worst properties were on land owned by the Church of England.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49One of the biggest difficulties in dealing with the appalling living
0:27:49 > 0:27:51conditions in the East End slums
0:27:51 > 0:27:54had always been the lack of a single regulatory body.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01Until the 1890s, London was governed by 43 separate vestries,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03underfunded and often corrupt.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07And then, finally, 50 years after Glasgow and Liverpool,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11London got its own administration - the London County Council.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Funded and elected by London's rate payers,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19it was responsible for overseeing all city planning.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Its first priority was the housing crisis.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26The LCC made funds available to employ extra sanitation inspectors.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31The precursor to our modern environmental health officers,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35their job was to investigate conditions in the slums.
0:28:35 > 0:28:36So we'll have a look at the privies.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Women had often been at the forefront of charitable crusades
0:28:40 > 0:28:43to improve the health of the poor,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46but, during the 1890s, middle class women were employed
0:28:46 > 0:28:49for the first time as sanitary inspectors.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53Mandy's new-found Victorian respectability has landed her
0:28:53 > 0:28:54a new profession.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56It's so unhealthy in there.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59There's not even a gap for the air to come out.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02- It's just rotten, the whole thing's rotten.- Yeah.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06Some slums were home to over 20,000 people
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and rubbish disposal was a big problem.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12You've got all the food from I don't know how many days ago...
0:29:12 > 0:29:15- Yeah.- Flies and rats.
0:29:15 > 0:29:16It just needs all to be cleared.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Let's get it collected, yeah.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Rubbish should've been collected by dustmen,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24but because their wages were topped up with tips,
0:29:24 > 0:29:28which no-one in the slums could afford, it often festered for weeks.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32- The dustman wouldn't have come to pick this up because it wouldn't have been worth their while.- No.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34And nobody was there to enforce it.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36- And nobody cared.- Cos the poor like to be dirty(!)- Yeah.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40The London County Council was also put in charge of the city's
0:29:40 > 0:29:42common lodging houses,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46with the power to prosecute owners and shut down properties that didn't
0:29:46 > 0:29:48meet the required standards.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54- Oh, dear.- Next on Mandy's round - Andy's doss-house.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56- Oh, this is awful. - How many beds are in here?
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Five, six, seven, eight.
0:29:58 > 0:29:59That's a foul one from that side and,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01look, these have not been cleaned.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03It's just a breeding ground for disease.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07It wouldn't surprise me if they have mice and rats coming in here.
0:30:07 > 0:30:09The floor hasn't been mopped, I think, ever.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12And then we've got this here. Oh, and it just stinks, doesn't it?
0:30:12 > 0:30:15- Look, and look at the floor. - Just with that damp itself,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17people will get ill, they'll get infections.
0:30:17 > 0:30:18- Yeah.- It has to be shut down.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20I've got the authority now -
0:30:20 > 0:30:22having gone through my checklist and looked at all of this,
0:30:22 > 0:30:23I'm shutting this place down.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25I don't think you have any alternative.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28No, I've got no alternative, none at all, unfortunately.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30OK.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32So much mould in here.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Hundreds of doss-houses were given formal warnings
0:30:36 > 0:30:38and the worst closed down.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40Despite the council's best intentions,
0:30:40 > 0:30:42this only made the housing problem worse
0:30:42 > 0:30:47because 31,000 of London's poor relied on them each night.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51The LCC did open its own boarding house on Drury Lane.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56It had room for 240 lodgers and boasted individual cubicles
0:30:56 > 0:30:59with beds, sinks and lockable doors.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04But at 6p per night, it was 50% more than a common lodging house -
0:31:04 > 0:31:07too expensive for the very poorest, who had to make do with
0:31:07 > 0:31:13the remaining doss-houses or resort to sleeping on the streets.
0:31:13 > 0:31:14They've shut me down.
0:31:14 > 0:31:15Fabulous(!)
0:31:19 > 0:31:20So that's less money now.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24- You seen this?- What?
0:31:27 > 0:31:28They've shut me down.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31It was a hole, wasn't it?
0:31:31 > 0:31:34But it's still money I can't earn from it now.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37That's right, they've stopped your income.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39You'll find another job, don't worry.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41We've had to.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43Diversification is going to be the key.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48In a time before the welfare state,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52disabled people who found themselves without an income would've had
0:31:52 > 0:31:53very few options.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58If I'd have been a real Victorian,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01there's no way I'd have been like I am now,
0:32:01 > 0:32:0911 years post-injury and still alive and relatively healthy.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Do you know what I mean? There's no way.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Many had to resort to work considered either dishonest or demeaning.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20So I think the first thing we'll make is some kind of ointment...
0:32:20 > 0:32:23- Yeah?- ..and sell it as a joint reliever.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26Some became quacks -
0:32:26 > 0:32:29street doctors selling home-made medicines,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32which were often little more than sugar pills.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Well, it's survival of the fittest and you've got to diversify.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37If you don't diversify, you don't earn.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41We will now do what we need to do to get by.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44I would've been so brow-beaten,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48so told by society that, cos I'm disabled, I was nothing anyway,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52so I'd have been very happy that I'm able to go out and make some potions
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and earn some money that way.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Thank you very much indeed.
0:32:56 > 0:32:57All right.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02In 1890, if you need to make money and you've got slightly low morals,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05it's probably a very acceptable way to do it.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Graham, you're my board man, so you go out advertising.
0:33:09 > 0:33:10Bring people in.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Without state pensions to live on, the elderly, too,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16had to take what work they could find.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20Gardiner's wonder potions.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Victorian potions.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25Do you want to try some of my potions?
0:33:25 > 0:33:28- What about you, young man? - No, I'm OK.- Are you sure?
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Described by Dickens as pieces of human flesh between
0:33:32 > 0:33:36two slices of board, these were the sandwich board men.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40In an era obsessed with respectability and reputation,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44these were humiliating and desperate ways to make money.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Victorians knew that men and women in these jobs were just
0:33:47 > 0:33:50one small step away from the workhouse.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52A lot of people just ignored us.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54Some people pull faces.
0:33:54 > 0:33:55Yeah, that's when you find it hard.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Yeah.
0:33:57 > 0:33:58Walking around with an A-board on,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02although to some people would be the worst thing you could possibly do,
0:34:02 > 0:34:03to me, I knew I was earning money.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09And, as the head of the household, that's what I feel I should do.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13Gardiner's wonder potions.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14My legs are hurting now.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Back at the slum, with the drought dragging on for years,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24a successful laundress like Maria would have had little choice
0:34:24 > 0:34:28but to move on if she wanted to continue running her business.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32We came with goals and we've done what we set out to do,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34and now we've made...
0:34:34 > 0:34:36Five times our weekly rent and now it's time to go.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Thank you. So long.
0:34:41 > 0:34:42Goodbye, slum.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47Women with the means could leave the water shortages of the east behind
0:34:47 > 0:34:49and move west,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52where industrial laundries had tanks in which to store water.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57In the 1890s, the laundry industry expanded rapidly.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00New, larger laundries sprang up in clusters,
0:35:00 > 0:35:05in places like Kensal New Town, known as Soapsud Island.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Here they received orders from places as far afield as Scotland
0:35:09 > 0:35:10and even Paris.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13- Hello.- Hello. - We're getting out of here.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16- You're leaving?- We're going. We're getting out of the slum.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18We're going to go off into the sunset.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19Oh, well done. Well done.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Well done as well. Thanks.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23- Take care.- See you later. - See you later, darling.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25I've got full respect for John and Maria.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28I think they did the Irish immigrants absolutely proud.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31I think their ancestors would look on what they've done and be
0:35:31 > 0:35:37very proud that they've got two people like that in their family.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39- Bye, guys.- Are you off?
0:35:39 > 0:35:40We're going.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Aw, safe journey.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46I think the Irish would have felt extremely proud of themselves
0:35:46 > 0:35:48because they really did start from the bottom,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52and then to work their way up with all their strength, all their fight,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55no matter how starving, no matter how tired or cold they were,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58to be able to then work their way up would've been the most proud feeling
0:35:58 > 0:36:01I think they would've felt in for ever.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04- Right.- Love you. Bye.- Take care.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11I really see everyone diverging.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16Now you have some who are possibly skyrocketing in their success
0:36:16 > 0:36:18and others still struggling.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26For the Potters, Maria and John's departure
0:36:26 > 0:36:30throws yet more uncertainty over their future.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34We have relied on Maria, who was running her laundry business,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36to give us some work.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39But they're going to move on to better things
0:36:39 > 0:36:43and they're not going to take us with them,
0:36:43 > 0:36:48so we're going to find ourselves not having any work again.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54And a family in our position would never have been able to work
0:36:54 > 0:36:55their way out of the slum.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09In the 1890s, new social reforms
0:37:09 > 0:37:13were starting to make irrevocable changes to slum life.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21But compulsory schooling put pressure on families like the Potters.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23We're not going to earn as much money if the children aren't with you.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Yeah, but that doesn't matter.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Today's not about earning money, it's about learning.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30You don't want to be making matchboxes for the rest of the days,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32- do you?- No.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34With James going to school,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Russell is also under more pressure to finish his order on time.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Rebecca is definitely going to have to work harder
0:37:41 > 0:37:44cos she'll have to pull the weight of both the family members.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50The school-age children were working hard, too.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Some sewing for the girls.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54As well as academic lessons,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58they were taught gender-specific practical skills.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And for you, James, we have some woodwork.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03I want you to do some sanding for me.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05'I find it pointless.'
0:38:05 > 0:38:09I'd rather be working because I'm bringing home something.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13This incensed some poor parents, whose children were being taught
0:38:13 > 0:38:17things they already knew and got paid to do at home.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23My girls enjoy earning the money so they know that they're contributing
0:38:23 > 0:38:24to the family pot,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28so they feel that they're somehow letting us down by going to school
0:38:28 > 0:38:31because they're then not able to earn money for us,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34but I don't see it like that.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38However, for the Victorian poor people, they had two, three,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41maybe four children out there earning money for them,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44so they would be losing half of their family income.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Well done, I'm pleased with that.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50So now I want you to do some hammering for me. We've got...
0:38:50 > 0:38:53Many refused to send their children to school,
0:38:53 > 0:38:58but the law came down hard on truancy with fines of five shillings,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01the equivalent of a child's average weekly wage.
0:39:01 > 0:39:07I'd rather be back in the slum than here because I'd rather be working
0:39:07 > 0:39:12with my family and getting money and surviving than learning things.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Compulsory schooling also exposed to the state the terrible conditions
0:39:17 > 0:39:20in which many slum children were living.
0:39:20 > 0:39:21One in three was malnourished,
0:39:21 > 0:39:26only one in 81 children owned a toothbrush and many suffered
0:39:26 > 0:39:28from poor eyesight and rickets.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31End of school for today, so class rise.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34But even for children in poor health,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38the end of lessons marked the start of their working day.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Some managed 40 hours of labour a week outside school.
0:39:46 > 0:39:47Even with Rebecca's help,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Russell is struggling to get his order done on time.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55It's a sad life to have, being cooped up all the time and having
0:39:55 > 0:39:57to work day in, day out.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59It's the first order we've done in the shop.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01It was meant to be finished the end of today,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03and I was rushing to do something, picked the iron up,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06didn't check it properly, and put the iron on it and it burned.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09It's just... I'm devastated.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11I've never used anything like this before.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13I'm adapting myself to use these techniques
0:40:13 > 0:40:18and just the fact you can burn something just like that, it just...
0:40:18 > 0:40:20I'm absolutely... I want to cry.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22I've got to undo it and then start again.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25It's really grating on my dad, like, you can really tell,
0:40:25 > 0:40:30and he's going stir crazy, like, he's not even talking to any of us,
0:40:30 > 0:40:31like, "Dad, are you all right?"
0:40:31 > 0:40:33He's just cutting away, it's like he's gone mental.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35I'm genuinely quite worried for him.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38- We haven't got no buttons to go on. - Look, buttons are here, Russ.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I can get you some buttons, I can find.
0:40:41 > 0:40:42Show me.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46They're trouser buttons.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48All week, I've not stopped.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Everything I do... I'm in a bad mood.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55Have a couple of pints, maybe calm myself down.
0:40:55 > 0:41:01For many, one way to escape from the drudgery of slum life was to drink.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05It was estimated the poor spent a fifth of their income on alcohol...
0:41:06 > 0:41:10..and working class drunkenness was another target for
0:41:10 > 0:41:11Victorian social reformers.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16- Drop more?- Yes.- To another long day of alcoholism.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22Within a quarter of a mile of the Old Nichol, there were 112 pubs.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26With East End pubs shutting for just five hours each night,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29drunkenness was rife.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Many middle and upper class Victorians thought poverty
0:41:32 > 0:41:34was caused by excessive drinking.
0:41:34 > 0:41:35Easy, tiger.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42A movement was formed to encourage the poor to turn teetotal.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46It produced propaganda to highlight the destructive effects of alcohol
0:41:46 > 0:41:48on the drinker and their family.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53The Temperance movement urged people to sign a pledge to give up drink.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57In return, they promised that a life of sobriety would bring
0:41:57 > 0:42:00self-respect, self-improvement and a happy home.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Would it help our plight if we signed this?
0:42:03 > 0:42:06It would certainly help our plight in the long-run, yes.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07How? In what way?
0:42:07 > 0:42:09So they can't blame us then that drink's causing everything.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12- No, I'm not going to sign it. Hell, no.- OK.- No, I'm not, no.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14Not today.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17I think as an 1890s man living in the slum,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20beer was probably a fundamental part of their life -
0:42:20 > 0:42:23they drank it constantly, day in, day out.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26And when the Temperance movement came about, they were probably...
0:42:27 > 0:42:29..not too keen on it, to put it mildly.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Throughout the second half of the 1890s, London's drought continued.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41The worst thing is the cleanliness, it's disgusting.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45I can't...
0:42:45 > 0:42:48tell you how bad it makes me feel.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51It's unsanitary, it's revolting.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Just to get up and smell yourself in the morning makes you feel awful.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02My body hasn't seen decent water for weeks
0:43:02 > 0:43:04and the water it has seen has been stone-cold.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07The feeling of not being clean
0:43:07 > 0:43:09and being able just to jump in the shower,
0:43:09 > 0:43:11it's just soul-destroying.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17Despite the intermittent water supply, the Victorian middle
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and upper classes at least had indoor bathrooms.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24If the poor wanted to get clean, they had to look further afield.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28This is bath time.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33Public bathing had been popular in British cities since the 1840s,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36when the urban population began to explode,
0:43:36 > 0:43:41but Bethnal Green would have to wait until 1898 before it got its first
0:43:41 > 0:43:43locally funded public baths.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Feel good?
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Bathhouses provided facilities to wash and, at some sites, to swim.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54Two pence paid for a hot bath and a clean towel.
0:43:57 > 0:43:58A cold bath was just a penny.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01I just feel elated.
0:44:01 > 0:44:06I felt my skin squeak for the first time in two and a half weeks.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08It's beyond brilliant, it really is.
0:44:14 > 0:44:15As the decade drew to a close,
0:44:15 > 0:44:19the work of social reformers began to have a direct impact
0:44:19 > 0:44:21on the East End.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23- You all right? - Oh, we have a letter.- Oh.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28What's that all about, then?
0:44:28 > 0:44:29"Messrs Gardiner and Potter,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32"we would like to inform you of your immediate employment as general
0:44:32 > 0:44:36"labourers. We are desirous of the communal areas of the dwelling house
0:44:36 > 0:44:39"being whitewashed as part of the sanitary improvements that have
0:44:39 > 0:44:42"been ordered. You will both be remunerated to the value
0:44:42 > 0:44:44"of fivepence for each full hour."
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Either they want to put rents up
0:44:47 > 0:44:50or they're scared about that Telegraph bloke.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52I think they've got to make improvements.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55- Let's get cracking, I suppose. - Right, let's go.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59With the publicity generated by figures like Burleigh and Booth,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02the London County Council forced more and more slum landlords to make
0:45:02 > 0:45:04improvements to their properties.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07It's looking a lot better.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09At least it's put a bit of brightness in here.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11It just seems to be a false air of cleanliness, doesn't it?
0:45:13 > 0:45:16In many cases, the improvements were superficial and did little
0:45:16 > 0:45:19to improve conditions as a whole.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21We're paid by the hour, slow down.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24For Andy and Graham, it does at least provide some income.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29At Howarth and Sons, Russell's finished the suit.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Well done, Russ. It was a tall order, that was.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36If you think about the tools that you've had,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38I think you've done a great job.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Yeah, it's all done.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44A lot of the skills I've used, I've not used for a long time.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46It's sort of nice to revisit those.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49It's what made me fall in love with tailoring in the first place.
0:45:49 > 0:45:5120, 40...
0:45:51 > 0:45:52They've been paid enough
0:45:52 > 0:45:55to comfortably cover their costs for the week.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59It's definitely benefited the family, this skill, over the decades,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03and it's come to fruition, and we're now moving up into the middle class.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05£83.45.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07- Brilliant.- Fantastic, well done.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09- Good. Well done.- Well done, Daddy.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Well done. Well done, James.
0:46:11 > 0:46:12I'm quite proud of the hat.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14- You should be. - It wasn't the best hat...
0:46:14 > 0:46:17You earned £10 for that hat, towards the family.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22So now we have money to put away, we have money to treat ourselves with,
0:46:22 > 0:46:26we've already got the rent money, so life is good.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35As the end of the 19th century approached,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38Victorian society turned its attention to something
0:46:38 > 0:46:41that had become one of the biggest problems of all.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44London's population hit 5.5 million.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49Queen Victoria asked Prime Minister Gladstone to start an urgent inquiry.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52The Housing Of The Working Classes Act swiftly followed.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56It gave London County Council the right to demolish the worst slums,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59like the Old Nichol, and replace them for the first time
0:46:59 > 0:47:01with social housing.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11"Dear Mrs Howarth, It is with great pleasure that I wish to inform you
0:47:11 > 0:47:15"of the compulsory purchase of the dwelling houses of which you
0:47:15 > 0:47:17"are the sanitary inspector.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21"The purpose of the purchase is for immediate demolition
0:47:21 > 0:47:24"and reconstruction of houses for the respectable,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26"artisan and working classes."
0:47:26 > 0:47:29So it's so it's all going to be knocked down and rebuilt,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32and we've got to be re-housed.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34I can't believe it!
0:47:34 > 0:47:38This was a watershed moment for the East End urban poor.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41The Victorians must have felt overjoyed that, finally,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44the wretched accommodation where they'd been living is going to be
0:47:44 > 0:47:46demolished and something is going to be done,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49but it's still their home and there must've been this nervousness around
0:47:49 > 0:47:52what are they going to do, where are they going to go, and also,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55can they afford the new place where they potentially would be going to?
0:47:55 > 0:47:59So they must've had this mixed emotion of happiness,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02but really frightened.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05The London County Council used Charles Booth's poverty maps
0:48:05 > 0:48:08to identify the areas to demolish and redevelop.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12They started with the Old Nichol slum in Shoreditch.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15It had become a warren of overcrowded narrow streets,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18full of filth and desperation.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21An inspection of its housing reported 43%
0:48:21 > 0:48:23unfit for human habitation.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33Demolition began in the 1890s
0:48:33 > 0:48:37and in its place rose London's first ever council housing.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42The Boundary Estate was opened in 1900 by the Prince of Wales
0:48:42 > 0:48:43to cheering crowds.
0:48:43 > 0:48:44- Pleased to meet you.- Hi.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Historian and leading expert on the Old Nichol, Sarah Wise,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50is showing the slum residents
0:48:50 > 0:48:52what potentially could have been their new home.
0:48:53 > 0:49:00The Boundary Street Estate was 20 blocks of about 1,000 flats
0:49:00 > 0:49:04that was going to be home for 4,700 people
0:49:04 > 0:49:08and the idea was they wanted something that was going to be
0:49:08 > 0:49:10morally uplifting for the poor,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13so they really wanted this idea of lights and fresh air,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16and that's why you've got these amazingly broad streets
0:49:16 > 0:49:18and this central circus.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22The mound for the central circus was made using the bricks
0:49:22 > 0:49:24and rubble from the demolished slum.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Compared to what we've been living like,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30to come to something like this is just mind-blowing, really.
0:49:30 > 0:49:31And just to be able to get in the fresh air...
0:49:31 > 0:49:34- Yeah.- ..see the sun, something green.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38For the Victorians, it just must've been like heaven for them.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41One of the reasons it looks as good as it does is that
0:49:41 > 0:49:45the County Council wanted it to act as a flagship to charitable
0:49:45 > 0:49:49and philanthropic developers, or even to private builders,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53just to show them, "This is how good urban living can be."
0:49:53 > 0:49:57The LCC made sure the estate housed facilities, which they believed
0:49:57 > 0:50:00addressed many of the problems that faced the urban poor.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05As well as 1,000 flats,
0:50:05 > 0:50:11the model development included a huge central laundry, a school,
0:50:11 > 0:50:14and a parade of shops.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17They ensured there was no pub onsite, but provided a club room
0:50:17 > 0:50:19where residents could socialise.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23And the improvements didn't stop there.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Each flat, you had gas and your own running piped water.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34- That must've been amazing. - Yeah. No, absolutely.
0:50:34 > 0:50:35And the gas was for the lighting,
0:50:35 > 0:50:40and also there was a gas ring on top of a specially designed
0:50:40 > 0:50:44kitchen range, so you had your own little oven, and some flats
0:50:44 > 0:50:47had their own loos. They wanted to do everything
0:50:47 > 0:50:50they could to make sure that cleanliness was given priority.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55But life on the Boundary Estate came with a long list of regulations.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00As a costermonger, we were selling eels and sheep's trotters.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04Would we have been able to prepare them in the accommodation?
0:51:04 > 0:51:06- That would've been frowned upon. - Yeah, yeah.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09It's what would've been called a "noxious trade"...
0:51:09 > 0:51:10- Yes.- ..back in those days,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13and they would not have wanted that going on in the premises
0:51:13 > 0:51:16cos, apart from anything, it would be seen as antisocial.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20Amongst the rules residents had to abide by were no subletting,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24no keeping of livestock, and, most significant for the slum-dwellers,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28no running of any kind of business or trade from their homes.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32That's why the council built four runs of workshops -
0:51:32 > 0:51:3490 workshops in total.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38The problem with that was they cost an extra four shillings a week
0:51:38 > 0:51:40on top of your weekly rental,
0:51:40 > 0:51:44so that's really pretty pricey when you're used to paying only
0:51:44 > 0:51:47two and six a week all in.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49Then this building wouldn't have been an option...
0:51:49 > 0:51:51- I think that's right.- ..for us. - Yeah.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53You see a big split then, don't you?
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Because it would be all right for us,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57we'd probably love a place like this.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00- Yeah, we'd love it.- But then, for you, it would be impossible.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03- It wouldn't work for me at all. - How are they going to live?
0:52:03 > 0:52:04It's almost as if,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08whilst the accommodation in the tenement is awful,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10at least they had a way of making a living.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13At least they... You know, the few pennies that they may have earned,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16it kept at least one meal on the table per day.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19They've got no chance.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23The estate planners never consulted with the slum-dwellers about their
0:52:23 > 0:52:28specific needs and it turned out they got it seriously wrong.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Sad fact is that, of the 5,700 people in the Old Nichol,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37only 11 took a flat on the estate.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39- What? 11?- Yeah, just 11.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42- God, that's awful.- Yeah. - Absolutely disgraceful.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46Cos what the London County Council hadn't realised was over half
0:52:46 > 0:52:49of people in the Old Nichol lived in a one-room home,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52so there was 750 one-room homes in the Nichol,
0:52:52 > 0:52:57but on the new estate there were only 15 one-room flats.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59I think that is a travesty...
0:52:59 > 0:53:03- Yeah.- ..because everybody must've had their hopes raised,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07they felt they had been promised this accommodation.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10They must've felt as though they'd been lied to.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13They may well have thought that finally they've been noticed,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17that there's going to be change, and then it's whipped from underneath
0:53:17 > 0:53:19them in a most devastating way, actually, because, you know,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21they lived in the most atrocious conditions,
0:53:21 > 0:53:23but at least they had somewhere to live.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25And now they had nowhere.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28Without enough affordable homes at the Boundary Estate,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32most of the former Old Nichol residents were forced into
0:53:32 > 0:53:35other slums in nearby Bethnal Green.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40Overcrowding became worse than ever, accommodation even more squalid and,
0:53:40 > 0:53:45due to the high demand, rent rose by almost a third within ten years.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47It's just such a wasted opportunity.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51What a beautiful project this was, it would've made a real difference
0:53:51 > 0:53:53to the way people lived their everyday lives, but the fact
0:53:53 > 0:53:57that only 11 families could actually afford to live there
0:53:57 > 0:53:58is such a shame.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01We're starting to get used to this pattern of people trying to do good
0:54:01 > 0:54:05for people in the slum and it not working out or causing
0:54:05 > 0:54:08even more problems than they had to begin with.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12Back in the slum, the demolition order hangs over them.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15When properties were knocked down, landlords were paid
0:54:15 > 0:54:19extra compensation for homes in a habitable condition,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22which triggered a rush of superficial patching up,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26so Andy and Graham are still whitewashing.
0:54:26 > 0:54:33Landlords were actually paid 10% extra compensation
0:54:33 > 0:54:36if they had tried to improve living accommodation.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39Oh, really? Is that the case? Graham, brush down.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43Is that the truth?
0:54:43 > 0:54:44Yes, that's the truth.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46So, basically, you've been painting all day...
0:54:46 > 0:54:50- For nothing.- ..to give the landlord an extra 10% more money.- Again.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52And then they're just going to pull it down anyway.
0:54:52 > 0:54:53End of. Finished.
0:54:53 > 0:54:54They've conned us yet again.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56As the residents in here,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01we've been ordered to paint it and it's going to be condemned,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03so, you know, we've lost out both ways, haven't we?
0:55:03 > 0:55:05- We knew something was up. - Yeah, we did. We said, didn't we?
0:55:05 > 0:55:10I'm not painting with this, struggling up and down them stairs,
0:55:10 > 0:55:13and Graham with his back, struggling to do walls for them to earn
0:55:13 > 0:55:15more money. Nope, I'm not doing one more lick.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18- No, neither am I, mate.- There was me thinking that the 1890s was actually
0:55:18 > 0:55:21showing a little bit of social conscience and a little bit of care
0:55:21 > 0:55:24- towards the poor. - Well, it was, wasn't it?
0:55:24 > 0:55:25- Yeah.- Till this.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31That's foul, to do that to people that thought maybe this was the
0:55:31 > 0:55:34start of something good for their tenement, and to turn round and,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37"No, we're knocking it down anyway, but thanks for doing that.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39"We pay you a pittance. We won't ask you if you want to do it.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42"We tell you you've got to do it, we will pay you a pittance."
0:55:42 > 0:55:44And they get 10% extra on the price?
0:55:46 > 0:55:50I think 2016 me and 1890s me would probably have to pay him a visit,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53and I don't think he'd like the result of that.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57The residents have called a meeting to discuss their fate.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01As a community, we're a community, we're all going to be split up,
0:56:01 > 0:56:02they would've all been split up,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04the friends they would've made.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06The children would all have been split up.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10People like yourself, you may have somewhere to go
0:56:10 > 0:56:14and money to go out and be able to find new lodgings - we wouldn't.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17I mean, it must have been terrifying for the Victorians at this time,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20you know, especially people that are in my situation
0:56:20 > 0:56:22that have got young children.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26God, it must've been awful to just...
0:56:26 > 0:56:30another cloud of uncertainty over their head about,
0:56:30 > 0:56:32"God, what is my future going to be like?"
0:56:36 > 0:56:38As the 1890s come to an end,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42the slum community faces an uncertain future.
0:56:42 > 0:56:43Corned beef pie?
0:56:45 > 0:56:48I think it was the first time that poverty had actually raised its head
0:56:48 > 0:56:53above the parapet and to actually say that poverty's not a decision
0:56:53 > 0:56:57that you take, it's circumstances forced upon you due to lack of work.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02The biggest change, for me, is the fact that I've lost my income
0:57:02 > 0:57:06and going from doss-house keeper to nothing, really.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10But you can start to see little bits of change,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13maybe a couple of chinks of light at the end of the tunnel
0:57:13 > 0:57:15for the slum-dwellers.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17When I heard that the slum was going to be demolished,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20my upset came for those that wouldn't be sure where they were going,
0:57:20 > 0:57:21if they could afford anywhere.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24I know that we could move to somewhere better.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26I'd be devastated to leave everybody here,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29but ultimately luck has always been in the slum.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31It is each family for themselves.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33You have to look after your own, first and foremost,
0:57:33 > 0:57:35cos nobody's going to do it for you.
0:57:35 > 0:57:36Then comes the community.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42My worries for the next decade are having somewhere to live,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44to have enough money to feed the family,
0:57:44 > 0:57:49and my fears are that we will end up without a roof over our heads.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Next time, the residents change decade for the final time.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58It's a new century.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01- "The monarchy goes on." - Long live the King!
0:58:01 > 0:58:03A time of huge upheaval.
0:58:03 > 0:58:04THEY GASP
0:58:04 > 0:58:07I feel like it's progress.
0:58:07 > 0:58:08It's like a new adventure now.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10While some exercise their rights...
0:58:10 > 0:58:13The poor were desperate to voice their opinion.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15..others still have a fight on their hands.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18I've just heard the men - they're talking about politics.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19Shame we can't vote.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22And a lucky few experience life beyond the slum.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25For the actual Victorian kids that got a chance to do this,
0:58:25 > 0:58:28it must've been a whole new world for them.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30Yes, run! Woo!