Episode 2 A House Through Time


Episode 2

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When we live in a house, we're just passing through.

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People have occupied it before us

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and others will take our place when we leave.

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100 human dramas played out in every room.

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Every house in Britain has a story to tell but, in this series,

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I'm going to uncover the secret life of just one -

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a single town house here in Liverpool.

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A city that rivalled New York in the 19th century,

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yet, 100 years later, was one of the poorest places in Europe.

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In many ways, 62 Falkner Street is an ordinary house but,

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as I'll show you, in reality it is an amazing treasure trove.

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Cos he leaves them not just £100,

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but also number 62 Falkner Street.

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In March 1885, again in this house,

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"Grabbed her by the throat and assaulted her."

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The life that you can see recorded in these old documents

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is extraordinary.

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Delving into the archives, I'll use the personal histories

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of the residents of this house

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to reveal the story of Britain over almost 200 years.

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It's a period of seismic social change,

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from the early years of Victoria's reign...

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..right through to the present day.

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In this episode, a terrifying disease stalks the house.

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Lives are wrecked by domestic violence and adultery.

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"This affair had been conducted at the Hanover Hotel,

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"Hanover Street, Liverpool."

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And a mysterious body is pulled from the Mersey.

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"A man unknown."

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I'm going on the ultimate detective hunt to uncover lives

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that haven't been recorded in the history books,

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but which can tell us a new version of our nation's past,

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a new history of Britain hidden within the walls of a single house.

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Welcome to 62 Falkner Street.

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It's a busy family home.

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So far, we know it was constructed as one of a terrace in 1840.

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In its first decades, the door number wasn't 62, it was 58.

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It was designed to appeal to the rapidly growing middle classes,

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in an upmarket, new neighbourhood.

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But this oasis of privilege was just a mile down the road

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from the city's lifeblood - the docks.

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Here, trade and wealth

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rubbed shoulders with some of the most extreme poverty in the country.

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We left the house in 1853.

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Cotton broker Wilfred Steel had just moved out.

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Who would be the next resident?

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To find out, I'm going to delve deep into the archives.

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If you know where to look, official records,

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old newspapers and court documents

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hide clues about the past inhabitants

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of every home in Britain.

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But, in Liverpool, there's also a unique, local source.

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This is Gore's Directory.

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Believe it or not, this is the Victorian equivalent

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of a search engine.

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It lists all the businesses and all the businessmen in Liverpool

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by street, by surname and by the type of business,

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and this was updated and re-published every couple of years.

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And it tells us that the new resident of the house is...

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..one John Bowes.

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Now, that's all this directory can tell us.

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So we still need to find out who he was,

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what sort of job he did and who else is living in the house with him.

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The census reveals more.

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It captures John just four years earlier living nearby.

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So, this document tells us that John Bowes is married,

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that his wife is Elizabeth Bowes.

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And it also gives us his profession down here as brewer's agent.

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Which means he's selling alcohol.

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As an agent, John was the public face of a brewery,

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convincing people to buy more beer.

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At other times, he also sold wine and spirits.

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He picked a great town to be plying his trade.

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1850s Liverpool had a reputation for heavy drinking.

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John most likely went all across town selling beer everywhere

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from the most exclusive hotels

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and poshest houses, to the hundreds of pubs

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in the poverty-stricken streets behind the docks.

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To live in such an expensive and desirable house,

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John must have been earning far more than the average worker

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could ever have dreamed of

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and I think we need to picture this couple able to enjoy

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all the trappings of the respectable, Victorian,

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middle-class life.

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In fact, John and Elizabeth's new house

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was the ideal place to entertain and impress potential business clients.

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We think it had kitchen and a scullery in the basement

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with a fresh water supply.

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A dining room, morning room and a flushing toilet on the ground floor.

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A grand drawing room and master bedroom

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with en-suite bathroom above.

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And an upper floor for servants -

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most middle-class homes had one or two.

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Researching how people in the past lived in houses like this

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has been the life's work

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of design historian Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan.

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If I were visiting John and Elizabeth Bowes in the 1850s,

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I would be let into the house by a maid, not Elizabeth.

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I would be led along the hall, past the front room, the dining room,

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up the stairs to the first floor.

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And the drawing room is, of course, the best room in the house.

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When Elizabeth and John Bowes were living here,

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this would have been the formal drawing room.

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It would have felt like a very feminine room

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and it would have very much been Elizabeth's domain.

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The central feature would have been the fireplace.

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So we would have had a really grand fireplace.

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This would have very much been a room kept for best,

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to really show John's status and wealth.

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This middle-aged couple seem to be well-settled in their new home.

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This is the 1857 directory and, when I look up 58 Falkner Street,

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what I find is that only Elizabeth Bowes is listed.

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There's no mention of John.

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Now, the couple only moved in here in 1854,

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so it's a bit sudden and a bit of a mystery as to why John

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seems to have disappeared.

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This document provides the answer.

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It's a death certificate.

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It shows that John Bowes died on 15th September 1854.

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So, not long after he's begun his new life in Falkner Street.

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And it gives the cause of death as being the disease

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that the Victorians feared more than any other - cholera.

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John was one of 20,000 people to die in a cholera epidemic that ravaged

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Britain in 1854.

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It's a terrible way to die.

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Uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhoea

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are followed by severe dehydration.

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Even a perfectly healthy person can be killed by cholera

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in a matter of hours.

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But the surprising thing to me is this disease was associated with

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the dirt and squalor of poverty in Victorian times.

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I want to find out how John -

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well off, with an upmarket home - could have died of it.

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Professor Sally Sheard

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is a leading historian on health in 19th-century Liverpool.

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John Bowes and the other residents of Falkner Street must have thought,

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even though they could see cholera coming,

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that they were going to be safer - they were in a cleaner part of town,

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they were up on the hill.

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Absolutely, the whole idea of disease transmission

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at this time is that it's done by miasmas, by bad gases.

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So they're convinced that all diseases are the result of smell.

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So, the further away you can get from smell...

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-The safer you are.

-..the safer, in theory, you should be.

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So, this map is later,

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but the earlier epidemics would have looked pretty much the same.

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What you see on this map are the red dots,

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which are cholera deaths, and there is a really clear pattern here.

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There's a real cluster around here, down towards the docks,

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in the poorest, working-class parts of Liverpool.

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But the interesting thing is that around Falkner Street

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and this Georgian quarter, there are very few cholera deaths.

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Could this cluster be the clue to John's death?

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This warren of streets contained many of the town's pubs.

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We can't know for sure,

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but it is likely John would have come here to sell beer.

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Down here, very poor-quality housing.

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You might have 10, 20 families using one cesspit privy

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and the cesspit would only be emptied maybe once a year.

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So you can imagine the smell.

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Perhaps John took precautions to protect himself from bad smells,

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but it would have been for nothing.

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Because what he didn't know - what almost no-one knew at the time -

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was that cholera wasn't coming

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from the stench of human waste in the air.

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It was coming from waste seeping into the water.

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When he stops and has a drink of water,

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he doesn't understand that that's the real risk?

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No, he wouldn't have understood it as being a water-borne disease.

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So, when the news that John Bowes,

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the gentleman at number 58, had died of cholera,

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there must have been a moment of real fear in the street.

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I'm sure there was, yeah.

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I think the sense would have been, "Well, if he can die,

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"then none of us are safe up here."

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The threat of this horrendous disease was just one of the fears

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facing John's wife, Elizabeth.

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The sudden death of her husband

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meant she was now alone in their new house.

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We can find no evidence that John left her any money.

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She was 54 years old, with no obvious way of earning a living.

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I've tracked her down in the census from 1861,

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seven years after her husband died.

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What this tells us is that Elizabeth is still in Falkner Street,

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but now she lists her occupation as lodging house keeper.

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Now, this was by far the best option available to Elizabeth -

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a widow in the middle of the 19th century -

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because she has a big house in a fashionable part of town

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and it's in a port town.

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It's in a city in which there are constantly people coming and going,

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and in need of somewhere to stay.

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So, thanks, really, to the house,

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she's able to have a grip, a tenuous grip, on middle-class life.

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The adverts that Elizabeth placed in the local newspapers still exist.

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"Apartments to be let.

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"To be let, a front sitting room

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"with two or three bedrooms or partial board

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"for two or three young gentlemen."

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It's interesting that she doesn't want a family,

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she obviously wants young men who are unattached,

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who don't have children.

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And what she would have offered them would be the drawing room here

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to use as a communal space.

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She would have kept the back room, the morning room,

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for herself as her own space.

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This would have been quite a change for Elizabeth.

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And, all of a sudden, this space was no longer hers,

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but was inhabited by these young men.

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The drawing room would have been the place where they pursued things

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like card games, smoking,

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drinking, and it accumulated this clutter of masculinity.

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I think Elizabeth may have been rather lonely in this set-up,

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because although the income the young men brought

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would have been very welcome to her,

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in some senses, she'd lost her status as mistress of the house,

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because she was occupying this very peculiar position

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where she was undertaking some paid work as a landlady

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and, of course, the lady of the house was supposed to be

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a lady of leisure.

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Elizabeth was seeking lodgers in a booming rental market.

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She had some competition from other landladies in the street.

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But there were still plenty of tenants to go around.

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The town's population was expanding.

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Over 10,000 ships a year were using the port.

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And it seems Elizabeth's advertisements paid off.

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The 1861 census reveals the house is full.

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One of the three lodgers shown living with her in this document

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is a 25-year-old named Edward Lublin.

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By tracing Edward's family tree, we've found this image,

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believed to be him, taken around the year he lived in the house.

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This is the first time I've seen a photograph of one of the residents

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of our house on Falkner Street.

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It came from a branch of Edward's family now living in Australia,

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but that's not where he himself started out.

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What's interesting about Edward Lublin is his place of birth,

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which is listed here as Nakskov.

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Now, I'd never heard of that and I think we can be pretty sure

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that the census officer in 1861 hadn't heard of it either,

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because he writes it down and then he puts a question mark beside it,

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as if he thinks he's misheard.

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But it's a small town in southern Denmark.

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And he won't have been that surprised to have encountered a Dane

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on Falkner Street, because, around that point, there was a huge wave

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of immigration from the Scandinavian countries.

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Now, today Denmark and Sweden are famous as being

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some of the wealthiest and happiest societies in the world,

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but, in the 1860s, their economies were in real trouble.

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Arriving as a young migrant, Edward found a ready-made community.

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He was Jewish and became a member

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of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation.

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The house was just a ten-minute walk to their synagogue on Seel Street.

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Here, Edward met some of the town's Jewish community,

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around 2,000-strong.

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Many were shop owners or merchants.

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But I want to find out what Edward was up to.

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By searching for Edward's name in the advertisements in the Liverpool

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press, we can piece together how he was making his living.

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He was a ship broker and frantically busy selling space for cargo

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on vessels going to and from ports all over Europe.

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Anything could be moved in these holds, from gunpowder,

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to wool, to bricks, to gold.

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But, as well as selling space, he was also selling goods,

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because here's an advertisement where he is selling

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railway and colliery grease - that's grease from the mining industry -

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white sulphate of ammonia and lubricating oils.

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These items may sound a bit niche,

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but they tell us that Edward was trying his luck in one of the most

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exciting markets of the 1860s...

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..steam trains.

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The very first railway had opened just 35 years earlier.

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And by the time Edward was in business,

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a network of tracks had been built across the country.

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Thousands of locomotives carried passengers and freight every day.

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Like those now preserved at the East Lancashire Railway...

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..where Paul McManus is a volunteer.

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-Hi.

-Hi. You look like you would be able to tell me

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what it is that Edward Lublin is trading in here.

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This is railway and colliery grease, and lubricating oils.

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How are they used on locomotives like this?

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Any moving part on the locomotive requires

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a certain amount of lubrication.

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Everything that you see that moves needs oil.

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So the lubricants are used on a daily basis?

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Yes, every day. Depending on the distance that the locomotive

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was travelling, you could use three, four, five, six gallons,

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depending on distances.

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-Really?

-Yes.

-That's every day?

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-Every day, yes.

-So this isn't like your car,

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where you put in some oil when you remember every few months?

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-No.

-Somebody like Edward Lublin dealing in these lubricants

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would never have been short of customers, would he?

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No, never. Never.

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He's in a very good market,

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a very good niche, and it will just continue to grow.

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So I would imagine he'd become very rich.

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By getting involved in the supply chain behind the railways,

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Edward Lublin was staking a small claim in what was perhaps

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the most dynamic and the most important industry of his age.

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Because, increasingly, it was the railway that carried the goods

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that landed in Liverpool around the country.

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TRAIN WHISTLE BLASTS

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That was wonderful.

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But Edward wasn't all about hard work.

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While his business was taking off, he also had a personal life.

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The synagogue would have been a central pillar of his world.

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The congregation he belonged to still exists.

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Now it's on Princes Road.

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-David.

-Hi.

-Pleased to meet you.

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-Come in.

-Thank you.

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Senior warden Saul Marks is well-versed

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in the community's history.

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-If I can just ask you to pop that on.

-Great.

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The synagogue's archive reveals Edward met a young woman

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named Esther Benas.

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In 1865, they got married.

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The bride was 18 years old.

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Do you know much about this couple?

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I can tell you a bit - I can tell you quite a bit, in fact.

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They were married at Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation,

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which is where we are.

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This is actually the congregational marriage register.

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So if we look in here...

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-There we go.

-Oh! So this is the original.

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This is their signatures on the page.

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Where does the Benas family stand in this community?

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Well, the Benas family is one of the most prominent families

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in the community. They were particularly wealthy,

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they were very well set.

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The wedding of this well-known family's eldest daughter

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to Edward Lublin was written up in the local press

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as a kind of general interest piece.

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It's entitled "A Jewish Marriage."

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I'll read it out to you, if you like.

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"The Jewish mode of marrying, as most people are aware,

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"is a very extraordinary one and peculiarly solemn.

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"The bride was dressed in a most chaste and beautiful manner,

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"and elicited the admiration of everyone who saw her."

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She comes from a good family, she's got a good wedding dress,

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she looks the part.

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"The Rabbi after this again prayed and chanted a hymn."

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And we actually have recordings of the hymns that would have been sung.

0:21:470:21:51

So, in some ways,

0:21:510:21:53

you can actually feel like you were there at the wedding.

0:21:530:21:56

CEREMONIAL HYMN SUNG BY CHOIR

0:21:560:22:01

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Reverend, Mr Prague,

0:22:160:22:19

addressed a few remarks to the newly married pair

0:22:190:22:22

saying to the couple,

0:22:220:22:24

"We're relying on you to build a Jewish home, to stay together -

0:22:240:22:28

"you are the next generation of Jews in Liverpool."

0:22:280:22:32

And it actually says here,

0:22:320:22:34

"The remarks of the Rabbi were feelingly and solemnly expressed

0:22:340:22:38

"and the eyes of the fair bride were not the only ones

0:22:380:22:41

"that were filled with tears."

0:22:410:22:43

So, at this moment, Edward Lublin has really become a full member

0:22:430:22:48

-of this community in this city?

-Yes, absolutely.

0:22:480:22:51

He is, he's married into one of most well-known families.

0:22:510:22:55

-And a wealthy family?

-Yes.

0:22:550:22:57

Edward's rented rooms at the house weren't right for the newlyweds.

0:22:590:23:03

But perhaps Esther and Edward liked Falkner Street,

0:23:050:23:08

because they set up home just a few doors down at number 82.

0:23:080:23:12

Within a year, they had a baby daughter

0:23:140:23:16

and two more swiftly followed.

0:23:160:23:18

Judging by the newspapers, Edward was busier than ever at work.

0:23:200:23:25

For an ambitious Victorian man in his 30s, life was going well.

0:23:250:23:29

But, then, something seems to change.

0:23:310:23:34

What I've got here is an article from The Times

0:23:400:23:43

and what it reveals is that Edward Lublin,

0:23:430:23:46

who, on the surface, was an astute

0:23:460:23:49

and adaptable businessman,

0:23:490:23:51

got into financial trouble back in 1869

0:23:510:23:54

when he racked up debts of £12,000.

0:23:540:23:57

Now, he appears to have come to some sort of gentleman's agreement

0:23:580:24:03

with his creditors. It says "a private arrangement".

0:24:030:24:06

And that would allow him to stay in business.

0:24:060:24:08

With a growing family to support, and creditors on his back,

0:24:100:24:13

it seems to me Edward must have been under enormous pressure.

0:24:130:24:17

His trading partners were mainly in France.

0:24:190:24:22

To get back on his feet, Edward desperately needed to

0:24:220:24:26

communicate with them quickly and reliably.

0:24:260:24:29

And, for that, he needed the electric telegraph.

0:24:290:24:32

By the 1860s, thousands of miles of telegraph wire

0:24:330:24:37

snaked around the globe.

0:24:370:24:39

Messages could be sent round the planet in minutes.

0:24:390:24:42

But, in the archives,

0:24:430:24:44

I've discovered Edward was having issues with this technology.

0:24:440:24:48

I've come to Milton Keynes Museum to meet Bill Griffiths,

0:24:490:24:52

an expert on Victorian communications, to find out more.

0:24:520:24:56

If I may, I'd like to read a letter that Edward Lublin sent

0:24:580:25:01

to one of the Liverpool newspapers in 1870.

0:25:010:25:04

Cos what he says is,

0:25:040:25:05

"Sir, permit me through the medium of your paper

0:25:050:25:08

"to make complaint of the present telegraphic system.

0:25:080:25:11

"It seems that instead of the promised efficiency

0:25:110:25:14

"in the transmission and delivery of telegrams,

0:25:140:25:17

"the rule is greater delay.

0:25:170:25:19

"I suffer prejudice and loss.

0:25:190:25:22

"I am, Sir, yours respectfully, Edward Lublin."

0:25:220:25:26

He sounds like me. I'm almost in tears

0:25:260:25:28

with half an hour without Wi-Fi.

0:25:280:25:30

And he sounds frustrated here.

0:25:300:25:32

From this, I deduce that the telegraph

0:25:320:25:35

is absolutely critical to Edward's business.

0:25:350:25:38

Yes, I think it must be likened to the internet today,

0:25:380:25:41

and the mobile phone, and all the things that we think

0:25:410:25:44

are wonderful and have changed our lives.

0:25:440:25:46

And I think people saw this as a great way

0:25:460:25:49

of expanding their business.

0:25:490:25:51

All of a sudden, they could communicate with each other.

0:25:510:25:54

And Edward's problem here is that this has

0:25:540:25:56

a real business implication,

0:25:560:25:58

that it's not working or it didn't work for one day.

0:25:580:26:01

Yes. I mean, information was key.

0:26:010:26:04

People could gain an advantage by just having an hour or two

0:26:040:26:07

so they could clinch the deal over someone else.

0:26:070:26:10

And if they lost that advantage, other people would beat them.

0:26:100:26:13

Someone would buy it from somewhere else. So it really was important.

0:26:130:26:16

As Edward battled to keep his business afloat,

0:26:170:26:20

he was hit by another circumstance beyond his control.

0:26:200:26:23

In 1873, in America, an investment bubble in the railroads burst,

0:26:270:26:33

triggering a run on the banks

0:26:330:26:35

and major panic on the New York Stock Exchange.

0:26:350:26:38

This was followed by a period that the Victorians called

0:26:410:26:45

the Great Depression.

0:26:450:26:47

A name it held in popular memory

0:26:470:26:49

until the crisis of the 1930s took that title.

0:26:490:26:52

Even under these circumstances,

0:26:520:26:55

he might have been able to keep his head above water

0:26:550:26:58

but what it looks like is that he keeps on taking financial risks.

0:26:580:27:03

And, in 1875, he's declared bankrupt and he loses everything.

0:27:030:27:07

For a proud Victorian businessman, this must have been a terrible blow.

0:27:090:27:14

And, at home, his relationship with Esther

0:27:150:27:18

also seems to have been under pressure.

0:27:180:27:20

This is the last will and testament of Esther Lublin,

0:27:210:27:25

made in the midst of Edward's financial crisis

0:27:250:27:29

when she was 36 years old.

0:27:290:27:31

And what comes as a bit of a shock reading this is that it says here,

0:27:310:27:36

"For many years, I and the said Edward Lublin

0:27:360:27:39

"have lived separate and apart from each other by mutual consent."

0:27:390:27:44

This must have been a really painful decision for the Lublins.

0:27:470:27:52

The society they lived in put huge pressure

0:27:520:27:54

on unhappily married couples to stay together.

0:27:540:27:58

But, interestingly, at the time they separated,

0:27:590:28:02

public opinion was starting to question if that was always

0:28:020:28:05

the right thing to do.

0:28:050:28:07

Perhaps Esther and Edward knew this,

0:28:090:28:11

and knew they had other options.

0:28:110:28:13

I've done some more digging and discovered that Esther

0:28:220:28:25

seems to have been someone who embraced new ideas.

0:28:250:28:28

The archives of the Jewish Chronicle reveal that she dedicated herself

0:28:280:28:32

to the education of her three daughters.

0:28:320:28:35

At a time when just a few universities

0:28:360:28:38

were opening up to women,

0:28:380:28:40

all three went on to study at famous institutions.

0:28:400:28:44

And in 1886, Esther and one of her daughters

0:28:460:28:49

were even introduced to Queen Victoria at the grand opening

0:28:490:28:53

of Royal Holloway College for Women.

0:28:530:28:55

The more I've uncovered about Esther,

0:29:010:29:03

the more exceptional she seems to me.

0:29:030:29:06

I want to know what happened to her in the end.

0:29:060:29:08

This document is Esther Lublin's death certificate.

0:29:090:29:14

What I've discovered is something

0:29:140:29:16

that I personally find really horrific.

0:29:160:29:19

She died young. She died at just 44.

0:29:190:29:22

And what killed her was a condition called Graves' disease.

0:29:220:29:26

That's when the thyroid gland in the neck just spins out of control

0:29:260:29:30

and it poisons the body.

0:29:300:29:32

And, by this list of symptoms,

0:29:320:29:34

Esther Lublin had this condition really badly.

0:29:340:29:37

And what is horrific about this, to me,

0:29:370:29:40

is that I've spent four years of my life, by chance,

0:29:400:29:43

living with the same condition.

0:29:430:29:44

I've had Graves' disease and I know something of the pain

0:29:440:29:48

that Esther Lublin will have experienced with this condition.

0:29:480:29:51

But what I can't imagine, what I don't know,

0:29:510:29:54

is how frightened she was.

0:29:540:29:56

Because, when I had this condition,

0:29:560:29:58

the doctors could tell me that it was probably going to be OK.

0:29:580:30:01

But, for her, she must have been told the opposite.

0:30:010:30:04

So, to hold the death certificate of a woman who's younger at death

0:30:040:30:09

than I am now, hammers home that point that we all know, in theory,

0:30:090:30:13

which is that a lot of things in life are just about chance and luck.

0:30:130:30:17

The reason... The reason Graves' disease killed her and spared me

0:30:170:30:22

was cos that she was born in the 19th century

0:30:220:30:25

and I was born in the 20th century. That's it.

0:30:250:30:28

After he and Esther had separated, Edward had stayed in Liverpool.

0:30:300:30:34

Living close to Falkner Street, he'd become a lodger again,

0:30:340:30:39

before eventually moving back to Denmark for good.

0:30:390:30:42

By now, it was the 1880s,

0:30:470:30:49

and the house was going through some changes.

0:30:490:30:51

Widowed landlady Elizabeth Bowes had moved out and lived

0:30:530:30:57

just round the corner until she left Liverpool

0:30:570:31:00

to set up home with her sister.

0:31:000:31:02

More buildings had been added to the street

0:31:040:31:08

and the houses had been renumbered. 58 had become 62.

0:31:080:31:12

Living next door were hard-working professionals -

0:31:150:31:18

a French teacher, a senior policeman, a tailor.

0:31:180:31:21

The house had become a single dwelling again.

0:31:240:31:27

And, in 1883, new residents had just moved in.

0:31:280:31:32

Alfred Robinson, aged 37, and his wife Ann, aged 32.

0:31:360:31:40

They were Liverpudlian born and bred.

0:31:420:31:45

According to the 1883 Gore's Directory,

0:31:470:31:50

Alfred worked as a watchmaker.

0:31:500:31:52

His business premises were in Church Lane.

0:31:540:31:57

This is my first clue about the Robinsons.

0:32:000:32:03

To find out more, I've tracked down

0:32:030:32:05

one of the last watchmakers on Merseyside...

0:32:050:32:08

..Jeff O'Dowd.

0:32:110:32:12

-So, Alfred Robinson.

-Yes.

0:32:150:32:17

CLOCK CHIMES

0:32:170:32:19

-I can stop that, if you want.

-That's rather lovely, I think.

0:32:190:32:22

The first document I've seen for Alfred Robinson describes him

0:32:240:32:27

as a watchmaker living in a pretty nice house in a pretty nice part

0:32:270:32:30

-of Liverpool.

-Yes.

-Does it look like he's doing pretty well?

0:32:300:32:33

I think he's doing very well. Absolutely. I mean,

0:32:330:32:35

he's in a thriving community in Liverpool.

0:32:350:32:37

The demand for pocket watches at that time would have been high.

0:32:370:32:40

You know, if you had a job

0:32:400:32:42

and you needed to be somewhere at 12 o'clock,

0:32:420:32:44

the best way to tell that is if you have your own watch,

0:32:440:32:47

-your own pocket watch.

-They are incredibly intricate things.

0:32:470:32:50

-They are, yes.

-I mean, I imagine...

0:32:500:32:52

I mean, this is one I've been working on quite recently.

0:32:520:32:55

So, they are very small parts

0:32:550:32:59

and require a certain degree of dexterity.

0:32:590:33:02

But if you handle them right, as you can see straight away,

0:33:030:33:06

the watch will almost always work for you.

0:33:060:33:09

So, Alfred Robinson would have known most of these tools?

0:33:090:33:12

He would have known the majority of these tools, yes.

0:33:120:33:14

-And used them on a daily basis?

-Absolutely, yeah.

0:33:140:33:17

In the records, it says that his wife,

0:33:170:33:19

her job title is "watch examiner."

0:33:190:33:22

Is that like quality control?

0:33:220:33:25

It is like quality control, as far as I understand it.

0:33:250:33:28

In fact, I have a box here...

0:33:280:33:29

It's a tray from the Lancashire Watch Company.

0:33:320:33:35

-And, in the back, we can see...

-The components.

0:33:350:33:39

On the back of it here is a label that has

0:33:400:33:44

all the different assembly stages on it.

0:33:440:33:46

And then the initial of the person who examined it.

0:33:460:33:49

So here's the relationship between the maker and the examiner.

0:33:490:33:51

The examiner. So the examiner was the last line of defence

0:33:510:33:55

for the production process being correct.

0:33:550:33:57

So it might have been quite cosy. There might have been Alfred

0:33:570:34:00

making the watch and then putting it along for Ann to check it.

0:34:000:34:03

-Yeah. Yes.

-So, the future does look pretty good for them.

0:34:030:34:06

I would say so. Yeah. I think they would be doing

0:34:060:34:08

very well for themselves at that time.

0:34:080:34:10

When they move in to 62 Falkner Street in 1883,

0:34:120:34:16

life seems to be pretty rosy for the Robinsons.

0:34:160:34:20

The house was easy walking distance to Alfred's business,

0:34:200:34:23

just off the shopping hub of Church Street.

0:34:230:34:26

According to probate records,

0:34:280:34:30

he had recently inherited more than £6,000 from his father.

0:34:300:34:34

That's over half a million in today's money.

0:34:340:34:37

Perhaps Alfred and Ann were hoping the house would be the ideal place

0:34:390:34:43

to start a family.

0:34:430:34:44

But then things take an unexpected turn.

0:34:460:34:49

I found this document in the archives.

0:34:520:34:55

This is a divorce petition that Ann Robinson of 62 Falkner Street,

0:34:550:35:01

Liverpool, submits on the 10th day of June, 1885.

0:35:010:35:06

In this document, Ann claims that her husband Alfred

0:35:060:35:10

had committed adultery with Alice Savage, a widow.

0:35:100:35:14

And that this affair had been conducted for months

0:35:150:35:19

at the Hanover Hotel, Hanover Street, Liverpool,

0:35:190:35:23

and various other places in Liverpool.

0:35:230:35:26

I can only guess how devastating

0:35:290:35:31

it would have been to discover this affair.

0:35:310:35:33

But I find it remarkable that Ann took this radical step.

0:35:350:35:38

Divorce had only been available to people like her since the 1850s.

0:35:400:35:44

And when she filed these papers in 1885, it was still incredibly rare.

0:35:450:35:51

Ann was one of only 196 wives in the whole of England and Wales

0:35:520:35:57

who tried to get a divorce that year,

0:35:570:36:00

out of more than 4 million married couples.

0:36:000:36:03

How did she even go about starting this process?

0:36:040:36:07

Professor Rebecca Probert

0:36:090:36:10

has studied thousands of Victorian divorces and is the country's

0:36:100:36:14

foremost expert on the history of marriage law.

0:36:140:36:17

In 1885, if your marriage has broken down

0:36:190:36:21

and you want to obtain a divorce, there's just one court in England

0:36:210:36:25

and Wales that has the power to grant it.

0:36:250:36:27

-And that's here in London.

-So, no matter where you are in the country,

0:36:270:36:30

you have to come to the Royal Courts of Justice...

0:36:300:36:33

-Yes, absolutely.

-..to seek a divorce.

-Yes.

0:36:330:36:35

And this building was very new in 1885.

0:36:350:36:39

It had only been constructed a few years earlier.

0:36:390:36:41

And, obviously, deliberately designed to be imposing

0:36:410:36:45

and quite intimidating.

0:36:450:36:47

Even today, it's not the warmest place I've ever been to.

0:36:480:36:52

It's not easy to get a divorce in 1885.

0:36:560:36:59

As a woman, she has to prove more than she would have to prove

0:36:590:37:03

-if she was a man. So...

-Right.

0:37:030:37:05

..husbands can divorce wives on the basis of their adultery.

0:37:050:37:09

Wives have to prove adultery plus one of cruelty, desertion, bigamy,

0:37:090:37:16

incest, sodomy or bestiality.

0:37:160:37:20

So, it's much more difficult

0:37:200:37:22

for a woman to obtain a divorce in this period.

0:37:220:37:25

Ann had clearly stated that her husband had committed adultery.

0:37:270:37:31

And her petition goes on to reveal more details about their marriage.

0:37:320:37:37

Ann states on the 12th day of January 1885,

0:37:380:37:41

Alfred Robinson struck and assaulted her.

0:37:410:37:44

That she was severely bruised, and her neck and arms were scratched.

0:37:440:37:49

And then she says it happens again in March 1885,

0:37:500:37:53

again in this house in 62 Falkner Street.

0:37:530:37:57

That, again, she's bruised, her arms are scratched

0:37:570:38:00

and that Alfred has grabbed her by the throat.

0:38:000:38:03

"Severely bruised and scratched her neck."

0:38:030:38:06

And that on the 30th day of May 1885,

0:38:080:38:10

"The aforesaid Alfred Robinson dragged her by the hair of her head

0:38:100:38:15

"and violently assaulted her."

0:38:150:38:17

Middle-class domestic violence stayed firmly behind closed doors

0:38:200:38:25

in Victorian society.

0:38:250:38:26

But Ann was bringing it out into the open.

0:38:270:38:30

Clearly, adultery and there's clearly cruelty, as well.

0:38:300:38:34

-So she's got a case.

-She has a case for divorce.

0:38:340:38:39

And this document's full of payments, as well.

0:38:390:38:42

-Yes.

-So, Ann can afford to begin this process.

0:38:420:38:46

Well, that is an interesting point.

0:38:460:38:49

Because, at this stage, it's not Ann who's paying for the divorce,

0:38:490:38:55

it's Alfred. Because, traditionally, on marriage,

0:38:550:39:00

any property a wife owned became her husband's.

0:39:000:39:04

So, husbands had to pay the costs of their wives divorcing them.

0:39:040:39:09

But you can see how quickly the costs mount up in this case.

0:39:090:39:13

Even a simple divorce, costs may be £40 or £50.

0:39:130:39:18

That is more than the annual wages of the majority of the population.

0:39:180:39:23

Surprisingly, despite the nature of Ann's accusations,

0:39:240:39:28

the court papers reveal that Alfred didn't contest

0:39:280:39:31

her version of events. It looks like Ann could get a divorce

0:39:310:39:34

-cos Alfred's not going to pretend this hasn't happened.

-Yes.

0:39:340:39:37

-Absolutely.

-So, do we know what happens,

0:39:370:39:39

do the documents tell us that?

0:39:390:39:41

Well, they tell us that...

0:39:410:39:45

..upon hearing the solicitor for the petition,

0:39:450:39:49

the judge orders that the proceedings be discontinued.

0:39:490:39:52

-Discontinued?

-Yeah.

0:39:530:39:55

It doesn't go to trial.

0:39:550:39:57

But we don't know why it's discontinued.

0:39:580:40:02

Because it does seem odd that it's undefended,

0:40:020:40:07

there seems no obvious reason.

0:40:070:40:09

It seems hard to imagine they reconciled.

0:40:090:40:11

I don't know why I find that difficult.

0:40:110:40:13

They were obviously a lot more forgiving people

0:40:130:40:15

in the 19th century than I can imagine.

0:40:150:40:18

Either a lot more forgiving or just fewer options.

0:40:180:40:20

I suppose so, that's the other thing.

0:40:200:40:22

The economic options of divorce mean that reconciliation might not be

0:40:220:40:26

about an emotional reconciliation but a...

0:40:260:40:28

"What else am I going to do?"

0:40:280:40:29

It's a financial calculation, in a number of cases, I imagine.

0:40:290:40:33

So, Ann and Alfred might be back together

0:40:330:40:36

because Ann's got no property, she's got nowhere to go.

0:40:360:40:40

Yeah. The professions aren't open to women at this period.

0:40:400:40:43

There's a limited range of, sort of, more manual jobs that she can do.

0:40:430:40:49

So it's poverty,

0:40:490:40:50

-or stay with a man who's been violent towards you?

-Yeah.

0:40:500:40:53

To try to find out what happened to Alfred and Ann,

0:41:050:41:08

I've called up a copy of the census from the year 1891.

0:41:080:41:12

So, five years after Ann's divorce petition was discontinued.

0:41:120:41:17

And what it reveals is that they are still together.

0:41:170:41:20

They're still married and they're still living on Falkner Street.

0:41:200:41:23

But, more than that, they have two children.

0:41:230:41:27

Sarah, who's five, and Alice, who's just three.

0:41:270:41:31

It does seem that there has been some form of reconciliation,

0:41:320:41:38

and perhaps they have given their marriage a second chance

0:41:380:41:42

and gone on to have a family.

0:41:420:41:45

So, after a really horrible, unpleasant divorce,

0:41:490:41:53

abuse, violence,

0:41:530:41:55

this does seem like a second act

0:41:550:41:57

in their lives, and maybe a happier one.

0:41:570:41:59

The census suggests that their eldest child Sarah

0:42:010:42:04

might have been born soon after the divorce proceedings.

0:42:040:42:08

This document is the birth certificate of the older of the two

0:42:110:42:15

children who's recorded as living here in Falkner Street

0:42:150:42:18

in the census. Her name is Sarah Frances.

0:42:180:42:21

And under the column for father is Alfred Robinson.

0:42:210:42:25

Occupation, watchmaker.

0:42:250:42:27

But in the column for mother, the name that appears

0:42:270:42:31

is not that of Ann Robinson.

0:42:310:42:33

The name is Alice Adeline Brown.

0:42:330:42:36

And the birth certificate of the younger of the two children,

0:42:370:42:40

again, a girl,

0:42:400:42:41

her name is Alice and her mother again is Alice Adeline Brown.

0:42:410:42:47

The certificates shows that Alice Brown is actually Alice Savage,

0:42:490:42:54

the woman who was named as Alfred's mistress in the divorce petition.

0:42:540:42:58

And that she died.

0:42:590:43:01

Other records reveal she passed away just five weeks after

0:43:030:43:08

the second baby was born.

0:43:080:43:10

Alice's sudden death means that these two children

0:43:130:43:18

have nothing other than their father.

0:43:180:43:21

And that is the terrible set of circumstances that leads to

0:43:210:43:25

them being brought into this house

0:43:250:43:28

to live with Alfred and his real wife, Ann.

0:43:280:43:32

I have to admit, I am struggling to even imagine what took place

0:43:440:43:50

in this house in those years in the 1880s.

0:43:500:43:53

Because, at some point,

0:43:530:43:54

Alfred Robinson would have had to have walked through that front door

0:43:540:43:58

with his two illegitimate children.

0:43:580:44:01

A little girl of two and a baby in his arms.

0:44:010:44:04

And he was bringing them to live in the family home,

0:44:040:44:08

in the marital home. What on earth could he have said?

0:44:080:44:12

What on earth DID he say to his wife Ann at that moment?

0:44:120:44:16

Whatever he said, the girls and Ann did end up living together.

0:44:190:44:23

But probably not for long in 62 Falkner Street.

0:44:250:44:28

The Robinsons moved out of the house and set up home just next door

0:44:300:44:34

at number 64.

0:44:340:44:36

As far as we know, they lived here as a family for the next five years.

0:44:390:44:44

But then, Alfred disappears from the street directories.

0:44:450:44:49

This is Alfred Robinson's death certificate.

0:44:500:44:53

He was just 46. And his two daughters were still young -

0:44:530:44:56

six and eight. But after that, the information

0:44:560:45:00

on this death certificate becomes really confusing.

0:45:000:45:04

We only know it refers to Alfred because of a scribbled note

0:45:040:45:07

in the margin. Where his name should be it says, "A man unknown."

0:45:070:45:13

And, for cause of death, it reads,

0:45:140:45:16

"Found dead on the cattle slip of Bramley Moore Dock.

0:45:160:45:20

"Died from drowning.

0:45:200:45:21

"But there's insufficient evidence to show how he got into the water."

0:45:210:45:27

This is a document that raises far more questions than it answers.

0:45:270:45:30

For a start, I don't know how this mystery body

0:45:330:45:36

was even identified as Alfred.

0:45:360:45:39

But there's one man who might be able to help.

0:45:400:45:43

Retired detective superintendent Albert Kirby

0:45:430:45:46

worked for Merseyside Police for 34 years

0:45:460:45:49

and knows the docks like the back of his hand.

0:45:490:45:52

He's got an article from the Liverpool Courier

0:45:540:45:56

which appeared a few days after the body was pulled from the Mersey.

0:45:560:46:00

The deceased was 5'6",

0:46:010:46:04

proportionate build, dark hair,

0:46:040:46:07

whiskers and moustache.

0:46:070:46:10

He was wearing a black cloth-ribbed suit,

0:46:100:46:13

black tie and yellow Merino socks, quite stylish.

0:46:130:46:18

But the crucial information found on the body was this piece of paper -

0:46:190:46:23

part of an envelope with the name A. Robinson.

0:46:230:46:27

-So his wife might have read this newspaper report?

-Could well have.

0:46:270:46:30

-And then that would have led to his identification.

-Yeah.

0:46:300:46:33

So we know how the police worked out,

0:46:330:46:36

or we can guess how the police worked out it was Alfred.

0:46:360:46:39

-But they still don't know what's happened.

-No, no.

0:46:390:46:42

-And that's...

-That's the mystery.

-That's the mystery.

0:46:420:46:45

As a watchmaker,

0:46:480:46:50

it's plausible that Alfred would go to the docks for work.

0:46:500:46:54

Ships' masters were reliable customers,

0:46:540:46:57

dependent on accurate timekeeping for navigation at sea.

0:46:570:47:01

Every day the one o'clock cannon was fired at the docks

0:47:010:47:05

for the ships to set their time by.

0:47:050:47:07

CANNON FIRES

0:47:070:47:09

But I wonder if there might have been another reason

0:47:100:47:14

he came down here.

0:47:140:47:15

It feels like a place you go to be alone.

0:47:160:47:19

Maybe if you were feeling depressed.

0:47:190:47:22

Yeah, when you look around here now, it's just pure dereliction.

0:47:220:47:25

But all this lot here was just absolutely bustling with activity.

0:47:250:47:30

You have the cattle coming in,

0:47:320:47:34

the Bramley-Moore Dock was where all the coal was coming in.

0:47:340:47:38

It was just intense, the amount of work that was being done here.

0:47:380:47:42

It was just bustling.

0:47:420:47:44

So rather than being a melancholy place where you come to be alone,

0:47:440:47:48

this is a busy place and therefore a dangerous place?

0:47:480:47:51

It is dangerous because you can see where we are here now, can't you?

0:47:510:47:55

There's no protection along here now even.

0:47:550:47:58

-It's very easy to see how you'd fall in.

-It is.

0:47:590:48:02

Like you, I feel giddy looking down there.

0:48:020:48:05

We don't know what his motivations are

0:48:050:48:07

but everything that you've learned as a detective

0:48:070:48:10

tells you this was a tragic accident rather than a suicide?

0:48:100:48:14

This place around here, and any docks,

0:48:140:48:17

was just a recipe for disaster and accidents.

0:48:170:48:20

And I think that that's probably what's happened to him.

0:48:200:48:24

He's come down here

0:48:240:48:26

and his death has been a dreadful, dreadful accident.

0:48:260:48:29

I suppose, what you have to hope, is that...

0:48:290:48:32

..the bond that we hope has developed between Alfred's wife

0:48:320:48:36

and his illegitimate daughters is strong enough

0:48:360:48:39

to survive his passing.

0:48:390:48:41

It's a strange family.

0:48:410:48:42

It's not the ideal situation.

0:48:420:48:44

But I guess I'm hoping that they've managed, despite all of this,

0:48:440:48:47

to form a bond that's going to keep them together now they're on their own,

0:48:470:48:51

even though Alfred wasn't there to provide for them.

0:48:510:48:54

I'd like to think that, as well.

0:48:540:48:56

Frustratingly, the records can't tell us for certain

0:49:010:49:05

what happened to Ann and the girls.

0:49:050:49:07

But I think Ann was courageous.

0:49:090:49:11

A pioneer of the divorce courts.

0:49:110:49:14

And I hope this courage stood her in good stead.

0:49:140:49:18

While all this was unfolding next door,

0:49:220:49:25

62 Falkner Street was transforming once again.

0:49:250:49:29

A new landlady had taken over - Catherine Robertson.

0:49:290:49:33

She'd carved the house into rented rooms again

0:49:330:49:36

and, in 1889, a new lodger had moved in.

0:49:360:49:40

Nathan Hart.

0:49:400:49:42

Nathan was a widower in his early 60s with no children.

0:49:440:49:48

He was Jewish, born and bred in London's East End.

0:49:480:49:52

He'd been in Liverpool for many years.

0:49:530:49:56

He worked as an emigrants' outfitter.

0:49:560:49:59

In the late 1880s, thousands of people from across Europe

0:50:000:50:04

and the UK were passing through Liverpool

0:50:040:50:07

on their way to new lives in North America.

0:50:070:50:11

Nathan made his living selling these emigrants everything they might need

0:50:120:50:16

for their adventure, including tickets to make the crossing

0:50:160:50:19

on ships like the SS Great Britain, now in Bristol.

0:50:190:50:23

Nathan was a big player in this business.

0:50:260:50:29

To understand his world, I'm meeting Dr Nick Evans,

0:50:300:50:34

a leading expert on migration in the 19th century.

0:50:340:50:37

Nathan would have distributed these emigrant guides to his customers

0:50:390:50:42

to take away with them.

0:50:420:50:44

It's the type of information they needed.

0:50:440:50:46

What the new state-of-the-art vessel would have looked like

0:50:460:50:49

with steam and with sails,

0:50:490:50:50

but also what the trains in America would look like.

0:50:500:50:53

So, if there was an onward journey from New York to the interior of America, to the west,

0:50:530:50:57

then you would know exactly what information was provided.

0:50:570:51:00

As well as selling tickets, Nathan also sold equipment

0:51:020:51:06

that emigrants would need to take with them, from clothes to tools.

0:51:060:51:10

Hart would make a lot of money.

0:51:100:51:12

He was actually quite affluent in his earnings.

0:51:120:51:15

But there's an inherent moral hazard in this profession

0:51:150:51:19

because the man who's advising you what to take

0:51:190:51:22

is also the bloke who's selling it to you.

0:51:220:51:24

Yeah. And you could infer that there was some duplicity there

0:51:240:51:28

or there was some often underhand activity.

0:51:280:51:30

And certainly one newspaper from the time does paint a different picture.

0:51:300:51:34

If you see here, it's a charge against an outfitter.

0:51:340:51:38

"Nathan Hart, an outfitter of the emigrant area

0:51:380:51:41

"of Waterloo Road in Liverpool,

0:51:410:51:43

"was charged by an intending Irish emigrant

0:51:430:51:45

"of robbing her of nine shillings."

0:51:450:51:48

So this is Nathan in the newspapers being accused of doing over, really,

0:51:480:51:52

somebody who's supposed to be a customer.

0:51:520:51:54

Yeah, but it's not as straightforward as it might seem.

0:51:540:51:58

We don't know if the accuser was actually a reputable individual.

0:51:580:52:01

Emigrants could be convicts themselves.

0:52:010:52:04

They could be unscrupulous people.

0:52:040:52:06

And at other times newspaper accounts from the period

0:52:060:52:08

show how he was the victim of crime. People stole from him.

0:52:080:52:11

So it was a very dangerous and volatile business.

0:52:110:52:15

Emigrant outfitting was a seasonal job.

0:52:170:52:19

Nathan's customers chose mainly to travel in the spring and summer,

0:52:190:52:24

when the Atlantic shipping lanes were free of ice floes.

0:52:240:52:27

It seems that the rest of the year he may have had to find other ways

0:52:270:52:31

of making money.

0:52:310:52:33

Ways that sometimes brought him into contact with the law.

0:52:330:52:37

A few years before he moved into the house,

0:52:390:52:41

Nathan was accused of running an illegal gambling den.

0:52:410:52:45

According to the police, young men were using his shop

0:52:450:52:49

to place bets on horse races, like those at nearby Aintree.

0:52:490:52:53

On that occasion, Nathan escaped punishment.

0:52:530:52:56

Every spring, his outfitting business picked up again

0:52:580:53:01

when the year's first wave of travellers

0:53:010:53:04

piled into the docks in preparation for their journey.

0:53:040:53:07

The conditions on the passage were diabolical.

0:53:080:53:11

-Not much room here.

-Precisely, not much room at all.

0:53:110:53:15

The top bunk was more desirable because if you vomited over here,

0:53:150:53:19

you can reach the floor.

0:53:190:53:21

For the person below, reaching out being seasick,

0:53:210:53:24

they had the risk of you vomiting on top of them.

0:53:240:53:27

So it was these really awful conditions

0:53:270:53:29

in which people would have been transported.

0:53:290:53:31

It was very cramped, you can see.

0:53:310:53:33

Very cramped indeed.

0:53:330:53:35

People complain about the conditions.

0:53:350:53:38

When they went to people like Hart, they would have actually been told

0:53:380:53:41

this is the berth you would have been allocated.

0:53:410:53:44

But, actually, the maps, the sales literature at the time

0:53:440:53:47

doesn't reveal there's a bunk on top of you.

0:53:470:53:49

So they thought they'd got this area of space.

0:53:490:53:52

-They thought they had some privacy.

-They thought they had some privacy,

0:53:520:53:55

and, as you can see, there is nowhere where there is privacy.

0:53:550:53:58

So people like Nathan Hart are trying to make this sound

0:53:580:54:02

as good as they can,

0:54:020:54:04

to encourage people to take that leap and emigrate.

0:54:040:54:07

Yeah, they've got to sell, effectively, the space of a coffin

0:54:070:54:10

in which you're going to travel for some three or four weeks

0:54:100:54:13

to cross the Atlantic.

0:54:130:54:15

As the 1880s came to a close, Nathan was doing well.

0:54:200:54:24

Several hundred emigrants were leaving Liverpool every day.

0:54:240:54:27

Hi-tech steamships were smashing the speed records,

0:54:280:54:32

but this ever-more connected world

0:54:320:54:34

was creating dangerous openings for an old enemy.

0:54:340:54:38

I've got an article here from the Liverpool Mercury from August 1892

0:54:390:54:44

and it's a report of an outbreak of cholera.

0:54:440:54:47

The disease had been found in New York

0:54:470:54:49

and it's been traced back to the German port of Hamburg,

0:54:490:54:52

where 8,500 people have died.

0:54:520:54:54

And what this epidemic does is effectively shut down

0:54:540:54:57

transatlantic emigration.

0:54:570:54:59

And the port of New York just stops - halts all immigration.

0:54:590:55:03

What that means is that if you are in the emigrant outfitting business,

0:55:060:55:10

this epidemic is potentially a disaster.

0:55:100:55:13

Nathan would need all his entrepreneurial spirit

0:55:140:55:18

to get through this crisis.

0:55:180:55:20

Two years later, in the Gore's Directory of 1894,

0:55:220:55:25

he is listed as having not one but two new professions.

0:55:250:55:29

He is Nathan Hart, financial agent, and Nathan Hart, picture dealer.

0:55:290:55:34

He has diversified.

0:55:340:55:36

He's got out of emigrant outfitting

0:55:360:55:38

and into financial services and the art world.

0:55:380:55:42

To me, this seems to be classic Nathan.

0:55:470:55:50

Fearless and enterprising.

0:55:500:55:52

At the age of 65, he'd spotted a new opportunity and gone for it.

0:55:520:55:56

In the late 19th century, there was a huge and growing appetite for art.

0:55:570:56:02

Many new public galleries opened at this time,

0:56:030:56:06

including Liverpool's Walker Gallery,

0:56:060:56:08

which is still going strong today.

0:56:080:56:10

A private market for art was also growing fast.

0:56:100:56:14

Nathan appears to have been active in this world.

0:56:140:56:18

We know this because three years after he launched his new venture,

0:56:190:56:22

he died, and left behind him an inventory of artwork and antiques.

0:56:220:56:27

This document lists the collection of oil paintings,

0:56:270:56:31

watercolours, drawings, clocks,

0:56:310:56:33

presentation plates and jewellery

0:56:330:56:35

that were in Nathan Hart's possession

0:56:350:56:37

at the time that he died.

0:56:370:56:39

Among his paintings was at least one by William Etty.

0:56:400:56:44

Although today Etty is regarded as one of the first

0:56:440:56:48

significant British painters of nudes,

0:56:480:56:50

in the late 19th century his work was seen by many as scandalous.

0:56:500:56:55

Nevertheless, there were still buyers for Etty's paintings,

0:56:560:56:59

and perhaps Nathan knew where to find them.

0:56:590:57:02

His instincts didn't let him down because he died a wealthy man,

0:57:030:57:07

leaving over £200,000 in today's money

0:57:070:57:11

and bequeathing to his synagogue a scholarship for studious boys.

0:57:110:57:15

He was able, through the scholarship he funded,

0:57:170:57:20

to ensure that his memory lived on.

0:57:200:57:23

And I think if you're going to look for a reason why Nathan Hart

0:57:230:57:26

was so successful, why he made so much money,

0:57:260:57:28

it would have to be adaptability.

0:57:280:57:31

He was a businessman who was constantly reshaping

0:57:310:57:34

and reimagining his business,

0:57:340:57:36

changing it to find new ways of making money.

0:57:360:57:39

And that's why his story is so perfectly fitting

0:57:390:57:42

to the story of Liverpool.

0:57:420:57:44

Because, more than any of the residents of 62 Falkner Street

0:57:450:57:49

that we've met so far, he was a man who made the most

0:57:490:57:53

of being in Liverpool,

0:57:530:57:55

who made the most of being in the greatest port in the world.

0:57:550:57:59

Next time, the residents of 62 Falkner Street

0:58:050:58:08

are threatened by technological revolution.

0:58:080:58:11

"We have nothing at all to fear from motor carriage."

0:58:110:58:14

And two World Wars change Liverpool and the house forever.

0:58:160:58:21

The bombs fell right here.

0:58:220:58:24

Our house is metres away from being destroyed.

0:58:240:58:27

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