0:00:03 > 0:00:08I'm on a journey through Britain to find the buildings that have made us who we are.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18This week I'm in the north of England -
0:00:18 > 0:00:22the powerhouse of Queen Victoria's Britain.
0:00:22 > 0:00:29The technology and wealth generated here made Britain the richest and most powerful nation on Earth.
0:00:29 > 0:00:35The merchant princes of the north built grand warehouses,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38imposing monuments
0:00:38 > 0:00:42and pleasure palaces to mark their success.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46But progress came at a price.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55Some people felt that the north of England was in danger of spinning out of control because the people
0:00:55 > 0:00:59who were creating that wealth, the miners, the mill workers,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03the factory hands, were, according to reports at the time,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07living like savages. Something had to be done.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55For hundreds of years, rural Britain had changed very little.
0:01:57 > 0:02:03But the nineteenth century was consumed by a passion for progress
0:02:03 > 0:02:06that reached every corner of the country.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13One invention captured the spirit of the age.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:02:29 > 0:02:35Steam trains have a kind of golden glow of nostalgia about them for us now but you imagine,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38when they first came in they must have been terrifying.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41I mean they'd ripped apart the towns and the countryside
0:02:41 > 0:02:48to make the railway line and then along came this great monster, belching smoke and steam,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52whistle blowing, thundering along in a way that nobody understood
0:02:52 > 0:02:58at two, three, soon four or five times the speed that anybody had ever travelled before.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06It all began in the north of England.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Here, the engines were invented...
0:03:09 > 0:03:13And the first passenger lines were built.
0:03:14 > 0:03:21In no time at all Britain gave way to what was known as railway mania.
0:03:21 > 0:03:27For the first time it was possible to cross the country in a day.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30It meant Britain was becoming one nation.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41- Can I have a go?- Yes, it's your turn now. I want you to come over there,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45put the seat down, lift this up and sit on the seat like a professional.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47- Can I use this?- Yes.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49WHISTLE BLOWS
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Have a look where you're going now.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59I can't do anything about where we're going, we're on a railway!
0:04:11 > 0:04:17The railway capital of the world was Newcastle Upon Tyne.
0:04:19 > 0:04:25It was home of the pioneering father and son team, George and Robert Stevenson.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33This handsome city still owes its appearance to those days.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39The railway brought the wealth that funded great building projects.
0:04:39 > 0:04:46It treated the city as its own, straddling the Tyne with iron bridges.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It soared across the streets on mighty viaducts.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00It sliced through the historic castle.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08And it arrived finally at one of the greatest of all stations.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Three acres roofed in glass.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32There's a terrible temptation getting off a train
0:05:32 > 0:05:35just to rush immediately through the ticket barrier.
0:05:35 > 0:05:42Newcastle, you just have to stop and look around you, cos this is the most glorious building.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The magic of Newcastle is this lovely curve. Look.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Lovely place.
0:05:57 > 0:06:04The station's builders adapted the style of ancient Rome to celebrate the modern age.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17The roof is supported by classical columns but they're made
0:06:17 > 0:06:21as no Roman column could be, from iron,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25allowing for the vast roof span here.
0:06:31 > 0:06:37Even the front of the station wouldn't have looked out of place in Ancient Rome.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46What I like about the Victorians is this extraordinary self-confidence.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49This is like a temple of a new age.
0:06:49 > 0:06:55They're saying, you know, we're the cathedrals of the future and the railwayman is the priest.
0:07:21 > 0:07:28The railway brought people together but also tore communities apart.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Villages emptied as people flocked to the towns
0:07:37 > 0:07:42to find work in the new factories and the mills.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46I'm on my way across Yorkshire.
0:07:46 > 0:07:53On the way to a place which of itself tells the story of Britain's great industrial adventure.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14In the 1780s, Manchester had a population of less than 50,000.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20In 60 years it increased six fold, to over 300,000.
0:08:22 > 0:08:29An ugly, sprawling city of mills and factories,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32roads, railways and canals.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39The main industry was cloth-making and Manchester became known as cotton-opolis.
0:08:53 > 0:08:59It's a great mystery why Manchester became this huge industrial city.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01I mean, there were some obvious reasons.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07The climate's damp so it was good for cotton manufacture, which they'd been doing for many years.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10There was coal nearby and when steam came in
0:09:10 > 0:09:15the water was soft so the machines could work day and night without corroding.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18But nevertheless, why Manchester?
0:09:18 > 0:09:25And the curious thing is once the process had started, it was virtually unstoppable.
0:09:32 > 0:09:39In the 1830s stories began to emerge of the true horror of Manchester's streets.
0:09:39 > 0:09:46According to one report they were unpaved and without drains or mains sewers
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and were so covered with refuse and excrement
0:09:50 > 0:09:53as to be almost impassable.
0:09:53 > 0:09:59In 1841 the average life expectancy here was 26.5 years,
0:09:59 > 0:10:04the lowest in Britain since the plague in the Middle Ages.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14Murray's Mill opened in 1801.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Like so many of Manchester's old buildings
0:10:16 > 0:10:23it's being renovated and cleaned up, making it difficult to get a sense of what it was once like.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32Nothing remains of what was here 200 years ago except the slight whiff of engine oil coming off the floor.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37But then it would've been row after row after row of spinning machines,
0:10:37 > 0:10:43a terrible din, clattering machines, the air like a snowstorm full of cotton dust.
0:10:43 > 0:10:491,300 men and women employed here, and children, running backwards and forwards at speed,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53under the machines to retie the cotton or get rid of the rubbish.
0:10:53 > 0:11:00George Murray, the owner, said, "I never knowingly employed any children under the age of nine."
0:11:17 > 0:11:21Manchester became so crowded that many people were forced
0:11:21 > 0:11:26to rent space in these cellars under the houses - windowless, airless
0:11:26 > 0:11:32and they say number 33 has still got a cellar that's in the condition it was in those days.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39I've come to see your cellar if I may.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42By all means.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47Which I'm told is in its original condition as it was in the 19th century.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51- I believe so, yes, yes.- Is it true? Great, can I have a look?
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Of course you can. Come through. It's down here, young sir.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59- That's not how they used to go down surely?- No, but...
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Well, I may go down here...
0:12:03 > 0:12:05..and never come back up!
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Cor blimey!
0:12:10 > 0:12:11That's all right.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16I can just do it I think, ah!
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Be better if I lost a kilo or two. Oh, there we are.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51It's thought that 16 families
0:12:51 > 0:12:53lived in this space.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Just imagine it.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01The only facility at all they had is this
0:13:01 > 0:13:02brick oven here,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09which probably filled the place with smoke and just think of the stench
0:13:09 > 0:13:11and the noise
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and the damp.
0:13:14 > 0:13:1616 families.
0:13:22 > 0:13:30In the 1830s they said that 50,000 people were living in conditions like this in Manchester.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53While the workers lived in squalor their employers,
0:13:53 > 0:13:59grown rich beyond their wildest dreams, were throwing money around.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04They wanted to imitate the great trading cities of medieval Italy,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08to suggest that they were the natural heirs
0:14:08 > 0:14:12of the powerful and cultured Italian merchants.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17By the end of the 19th century
0:14:17 > 0:14:22some even saw Manchester as the Florence of the north.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34This building belonged to James Watts,
0:14:34 > 0:14:39owner of the largest wholesale drapery business in the city.
0:14:39 > 0:14:45It cost nearly £900,000, an unheard of sum at the time.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49The architecture is bold.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Every floor is in a different style -
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Elizabethan,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57Italianate,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59French Renaissance.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15These warehouses weren't just for storing goods, they were for displaying and selling them as well,
0:15:15 > 0:15:20and this must rank as the most sumptuous of them all, it's so grand it's now a hotel.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25When Charles Dickens came here he called it the merchant palace of Europe.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Each of the floors sold different goods.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38Carpets and linens on the ground floor, dresses on the second,
0:15:38 > 0:15:43shirts and underwear on the third and furs and lace on the fourth.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47It was like an early department store on a huge scale.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Just imagine coming to shop here, I mean you'd be completely bowled over by it.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00It's a knockout, which is what the designer meant it to be.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02I mean these bridges, which looked rather like
0:16:02 > 0:16:06bridges over the canals of Venice, are a kind of platform
0:16:06 > 0:16:09from which you can see right down there,
0:16:09 > 0:16:14right down there, acres and acres of silks and satins and furs...
0:16:14 > 0:16:15Brilliant!
0:16:30 > 0:16:34- This is a fine old place to keep clean.- Hello, it certainly is.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36- What do you think about this? - I love it, me.- Do you?
0:16:36 > 0:16:40- Yeah. I like the old buildings. - What do you like about it?
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Just the staircase and the chandelier as you come in the entrance.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49- It could do with a good... - It could do with what?
0:16:49 > 0:16:52- A good decorate but... - A good decorate.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56- What, just a touch up? - Oh, more than a touch up.- Really?
0:16:56 > 0:16:59It's good looking down as well. Have you been up on the five?
0:16:59 > 0:17:01- I tried.- You tried?
0:17:01 > 0:17:04- To look down.- Can you not look down?
0:17:04 > 0:17:06- Can't look down.- Can't you? Why?
0:17:06 > 0:17:10I...my hands go... I get pins and needles in my hands.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12- Can you look?- Do you want me to go up with you?- Yeah.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15- Can you look down? - Yeah, course I can. Come on.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- I'm not walking.- You're not walking?
0:17:18 > 0:17:21So we're off on an adventure,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Bridget and me.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Come on.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Oh, no. You'll have to hold my hand.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32- Come on then.- Ah!
0:17:32 > 0:17:37- There you go. That better? - It's all right, isn't it? Oh, thank you very much!
0:17:37 > 0:17:41- All right now?- Well, I wouldn't like to do it without you.
0:17:41 > 0:17:42Oh, thank you very much.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Manchester was improving, at least in the eyes of the powerful merchants,
0:17:49 > 0:17:55but it still didn't have a building that really represented the power and wealth of the place.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58So in 1864 the town council announced
0:17:58 > 0:18:04that they would build a town hall the equal if not the superior of any similar building in the country.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08And the result was this, one of the great buildings of the Victorian Age.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21The new town hall gave Manchester an imposing air.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25It had been an industrial powerhouse for barely 20 years
0:18:25 > 0:18:27but seeing this building,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31you'd think it was the most important city in Britain.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17It's really strange coming into this building.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20I mean, you know it was built in the 1870s
0:19:20 > 0:19:25and yet it feels like the Middle Ages, 500 years earlier.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30Isn't it extraordinary that people who were so proud of the modern, of everything they were achieving,
0:19:30 > 0:19:36when it came to building their big public buildings built them to look out of date?
0:19:45 > 0:19:49The great theme of the town hall is cotton.
0:19:49 > 0:19:57It's displayed on the windows, carved on the walls and decorates the floor.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04They wanted to make this wonderful old-fashioned look but they had a problem.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08They were also very modern, the Victorians. How do you get the modern and the old to mingle?
0:20:08 > 0:20:11They were ingenious. They wanted central heating for instance.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15They couldn't obviously put it in this stone hall as it would look too
0:20:15 > 0:20:20obvious so down here, if you look right to the bottom of the staircase
0:20:20 > 0:20:22you'll find a cluster of radiators
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and the heat came up and wafted up to the top.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29It's not very warm but it was no doubt quite effective.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33And they wanted gas lighting. How do you get the gas?
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Well, under this banister rail is a pipe and that pipe
0:20:38 > 0:20:43carried the gas right to the top of the building, look there it is, going up here to the lamp.
0:20:56 > 0:21:03Until the Industrial Revolution, most people lived in the countryside.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05The problems of city life were new.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10But the Victorians were determined to grapple with them.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12I travelled east from Manchester
0:21:12 > 0:21:18to see one of the boldest attempts to change the world for the better.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23There was a growing feeling in the 19th century that society really ought to do something about
0:21:23 > 0:21:29people who had fallen through the net, the destitute, the very poor, but it was quite an uphill struggle.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34When the young Queen Victoria said to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne,
0:21:34 > 0:21:40"Why don't we educate the poor?" He replied, "Why bother the poor? Leave them alone."
0:21:45 > 0:21:50Victorian philanthropists thought differently.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58This is the village of Saltair, really more like a town.
0:21:58 > 0:22:06It was built by Bradford textile king and millionaire Titus Salt.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Salt was appalled by living conditions in Bradford
0:22:10 > 0:22:16and decided to create a model community for his workers outside the city.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25The factory opened in 1853, providing work for 3,000 people.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33He built houses for his workers in grid formation,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37with service alleys at the back for good hygiene.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44He built a church.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47He built a school.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53He built a grand village hall.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56And even retirement homes for the elderly.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Hello.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Salt believed buildings must do more than house people.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05They had to inspire them.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11There are four rather charming carved lions,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15one here, one down the hill, two on the other side of the road.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21And the story goes that these were entered for the competition for the lions in Trafalgar Square in London
0:23:21 > 0:23:24but that competition was one by Edwin Landseer with those rather
0:23:24 > 0:23:30grand, powerful lions, and these charming little cats ended up here.
0:23:32 > 0:23:39Salt took more care over his workers environment than any other employer at the time.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44And it worked. The mill closed only in 1987.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52It's difficult to know what to make of Titus Salt.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54On the one hand, of course, he was a great reformer.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58The people who worked for him and lived in Saltair lived in conditions
0:23:58 > 0:24:03undreamt of at the time and far more hygienic than anything that was available anywhere else.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05On the other hand he was very demanding.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08He was a bit of an autocrat. He wanted his own way.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12For instance, there were no pubs allowed in Saltair cause he didn't want people getting drunk.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14And then he had this funny obsession about washing.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18He didn't want anybody to hang their washing out in the street
0:24:18 > 0:24:21cos he thought it would spoil the look of Saltair,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26and the people who lived here said that he built this tower at the top of this house
0:24:26 > 0:24:31so he could look over the neighbourhood and check that nobody had put their washing out.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33I can't believe that's true.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Oscar Wilde said that work was the curse of the drinking classes.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58But I'm on my way to see a little town called Rawtenstall in Lancashire where I'm told
0:24:58 > 0:25:01there's a reminder of what the Victorians believed,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05which was that drink was the curse of the working classes.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10And this is one of the ways they tried to put an end to the use of the demon drink.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19As a nation we'd never consumed as much alcohol as we did in Victorian times.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25Drunkenness, with all its dire social consequences, was rife.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33The Temperance Movement was founded to counter the crisis.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43Course, it was all well and good to try and stamp out drink but the problem was the great British pub,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47which everybody went to because it was the centre of social life of the town and the village.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52So they scratched their heads and they came up with an ingenious solution.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56They would have pubs but without the alcohol.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04At one time there were many temperance bars in Britain,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06particularly in the north.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Fitzpatrick's, which opened in 1891, is the last one left.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Evening, hello.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- Well, can I have a drink? - Course you can, what would you like?
0:26:18 > 0:26:23Well, I'd normally ask for a whisky and soda or half a pint of bitter.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26- Sarsaparilla maybe. - Is sarsaparilla your favourite?
0:26:26 > 0:26:29- It's my favourite, yeah.- It's nice. - Is it a good seller?
0:26:29 > 0:26:32- Yeah.- I'll try the sarsaparilla.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36It's a fascinating idea this, a pub with no alcohol and it still goes.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38- You still have people come in. - It's been going, well...
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Since when the Temperance Movement brought it in, as far as I can gather.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45It's, er, 1890s, something like that.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49They abolished the tax on alcohol and everybody sort of went bonkers
0:26:49 > 0:26:52and made their own in the cellar and...
0:26:52 > 0:26:55The gin was the main thing, as far as I know.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59People were obviously being late for work and not turning up at all
0:26:59 > 0:27:05till the Methodists and other groups decided to bring in something called the Temperance Movement.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08- Cheers.- Cheers.- You're allowed to say cheers, are you?
0:27:08 > 0:27:09Yeah, you say cheers.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Um, that's sweet.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Ugh!
0:27:17 > 0:27:19- It's like eating... - That'll be the sarsaparilla.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22It's like eating melted ice cream.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24- Put a lining on your stomach that, David.- I bet it would.
0:27:24 > 0:27:32- It has been professed to be the liquid alternative to Viagra.- Oh, really?
0:27:32 > 0:27:36- Yeah. It was in a newspaper a few years ago was that.- Really?- Yeah.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Have you tried it out on that basis?
0:27:38 > 0:27:41I've been told I don't need to. I don't know what that means but...
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Or not to bother or something. It may be the other case, yeah.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01At the heart of Yorkshire is Leeds.
0:28:02 > 0:28:09Where Manchester seemed to have sprung up from nowhere, Leeds had a long history of cloth manufacturing.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13For centuries the cloth merchants of Leeds had grown up with money and were comfortable with it.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18Their buildings showed a playful self confidence,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21with factory chimneys built like Tuscan bell towers
0:28:21 > 0:28:25and mills like Moorish palaces
0:28:25 > 0:28:27or Egyptian temples.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39But the merchants of Leeds preferred not to live near their factories, but in the hills above the town.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43They say and Englishman's home is his castle
0:28:43 > 0:28:46and in this suburb of Headingly,
0:28:46 > 0:28:53the rich built their own castles, dozens of them, each in it's own style.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59The Victorians weren't afraid to experiment with their buildings.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02They were willing to try anything.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04A bit of Mock Tudor here,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07a bit of Greek there
0:29:07 > 0:29:10and plenty of Medieval Gothic.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24This extravagant building was the home of the industrialist William Joy.
0:29:24 > 0:29:31On either side of the front door, cast as Medieval heroes, are busts of himself and his wife.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35Of course, not everybody was equally rich.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40This house looks like a mansion but in fact it's divided into two.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42It's a semi detached mansion.
0:29:42 > 0:29:48One family took one side, had their own grand entrance, the other side had their own grand entrance
0:29:48 > 0:29:53and both families could hold their heads up high and pretend they lived in this huge house.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12If you keep your eyes open you see some extraordinary details.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16Take this cottage for instance. Simple four bedroom stone cottage.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Walk down the garden path
0:30:18 > 0:30:21and look what we have here.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24The privy is a castle,
0:30:24 > 0:30:30proving that if an Englishman's home is his castle, his toilet must be too.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Did you use this toilet?
0:30:36 > 0:30:39Yes. Up to about eight years ago.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43It's very grand going into a castle.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Isn't everybody can do that, is it?
0:30:46 > 0:30:50No, from a cottage to a castle when you want to use the toilet.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52That's right, yes.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Did it make you feel very grand?
0:30:55 > 0:31:01No, it made you feel horrible cos everybody knew where you were going!
0:31:01 > 0:31:05And in the night, or in the winter, must have been a bit difficult getting down there.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Well, you made certain you didn't want to go.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13- How old are you then?- 99.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15- 99?- In a fortnight.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Well, just as well you aren't still using it.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Listen, if I've nothing else it wouldn't stop me -
0:31:23 > 0:31:26I'd get there somehow.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29- Where there's a will there's a way, you know.- Is that right?
0:31:29 > 0:31:30Yes.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39Back towards the centre of town
0:31:39 > 0:31:44are the homes built for the less pretentious citizens of Leeds.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51The Victorian terraced street is still at the heart of many of our cities.
0:31:57 > 0:32:03The ideal of the Victorian home was that you shut the door on the outside world,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06with all its noise and its smoke and its smells,
0:32:06 > 0:32:11and you came into the home, which was a place of order, tranquillity
0:32:11 > 0:32:16and to our eyes, of the most amazing amount of clutter.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05My great aunt lived in a house not unlike this.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10I remember it. I just remember it having these dark...
0:33:10 > 0:33:15paint, this sort of brown paint streaked to look like wood.
0:33:28 > 0:33:34In the centre of the city, Leeds traders tried to part the middle classes from their money.
0:33:36 > 0:33:42Leeds has the finest array of Victorian shopping arcades anywhere in the country.
0:33:43 > 0:33:51Large glass and iron palaces that provide a warm and pleasant place to pass the time.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00It was the start of a new national hobby.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06- I've never understood window shopping.- It's a woman thing. - Is it?- Yeah.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09- What do you do, just look and think. - Yeah, think.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13- And think oh, I might.- Oh, I could. - Oh, I could.- Yeah.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Best of them all is the city markets.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Pick your own strawberries for a pound today.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Two bags for a pound, have a look, last few to clear out, all to go!
0:34:39 > 0:34:42- What's your best line?- Pork pies.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45- Pork, just straight pork pies.- Just straightforward pork pies, yeah.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47- Can I have a straightforward pork pie, please?- Yeah, if you like.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53- What do you think of it?- It's great, isn't it? There's nothing like it.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58It's like giant Meccano set, isn't it?
0:34:58 > 0:35:01- I haven't thought of it like that. - Yeah.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05It's, it's also like the interior of a theatre.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10- With the gallery round?- Yeah, the Leeds crest is up there.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13- I like the dragons.- Yeah, they're marvellous, aren't they?
0:35:14 > 0:35:17Not enough people look up when they walk around.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20- It's true. - They don't look up enough.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25It's your fault because you put pork pies all the way along the front and they look at your pork pies.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27No, people just don't look up.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39After a hard day's shopping, Leeds had other attractions to offer.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42There were, of course, pubs galore you could go to the opera,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46go to the theatre, but perhaps the best fun would be had here,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Thornton's new musical and fashionable lounge.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57# One that Oliver Cromwell knocked about a bit
0:35:57 > 0:36:02# In the gay old days oh there used to be some doings
0:36:02 > 0:36:06# No wonder that the poor old abbey went to ruins... #
0:36:09 > 0:36:15Built in 1865, Thornton's is the finest surviving music hall in Britain.
0:36:15 > 0:36:21Here people could escape their regimented working lives and enter a world of dreams.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27Charlie Chaplain and the escapologist Harry Houdini both trod the boards here.
0:36:27 > 0:36:32# The boy I love is looking down at me
0:36:32 > 0:36:35# Oh, there he is, can't you see?
0:36:35 > 0:36:39# Waving of his handkerchief
0:36:39 > 0:36:47# As merry as a robin that sings on a tree! #
0:36:47 > 0:36:49Bravo!
0:36:49 > 0:36:53What do you think the appeal of music hall really was?
0:36:53 > 0:36:59I think the audience could get very much involved with the artiste
0:36:59 > 0:37:05and also the words of the songs would mirror everyday life so they became very involved.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08And they were good tunes and they could clap and they could sing along,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11which is the magic of the music hall.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14They were a very important part, the audience.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18And the theatre is actually designed for music hall, isn't it?
0:37:18 > 0:37:23Yes, yes, it's the intimacy - getting people close to the performers.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28That's why in some of these very modern theatres there's that awful gap, you know, it doesn't...
0:37:28 > 0:37:31These theatres have hearts and the people are sort of part of you.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36I think, David, that you should stand up here and see what it's like looking out at this theatre up here.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40- That's a very, very bad idea! - It's a very good idea.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44- So you know the feeling that we get up here. Feel that.- It's lovely.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48And then what we do is I put my arm in there and then we go.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51# My old man said follow the band
0:37:51 > 0:37:56# And don't dilly dally on the way
0:37:56 > 0:38:00# Off went the van with me home packed in it
0:38:00 > 0:38:03# I followed on with me old linnet
0:38:03 > 0:38:05# I dillied, I dallied
0:38:05 > 0:38:07# I dallied and I dillied
0:38:07 > 0:38:10# Lost me way and don't know where to roam
0:38:10 > 0:38:13# Listen here Oh, you can't trust the specials
0:38:13 > 0:38:20# Like the old time copper When you can't find your way home! #
0:38:21 > 0:38:26Thank you very much, ladies and gentleman.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41The Victorians had a wonderful way of celebrating.
0:38:41 > 0:38:47In the centre of their cities it was all excitement, gaiety, success.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50The more sombre side of life
0:38:50 > 0:38:52they tended to keep to the outskirts.
0:38:56 > 0:39:02The Lawnswood Cemetery was opened in 1875 just outside Leeds.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18In the past people were usually buried in the graveyard of their
0:39:18 > 0:39:25parish church but the population boom of the 19th century meant there was often no space left.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Commercial cemeteries provided an alternative.
0:39:32 > 0:39:38For the first time these public cemeteries weren't in the hands of the church.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42They were privately run by a cemetery board and the result was
0:39:42 > 0:39:47that the Victorians who buried their families here were no longer bound by the constraints of the church
0:39:47 > 0:39:50in terms of the design and the look of the memorials.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53They could actually let rip, do exactly what they liked
0:39:53 > 0:40:00and the result was these wonderfully extravagant, flamboyant memorials to their families.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04In fact, at times you almost get the feeling that they're competing,
0:40:04 > 0:40:09one family against another, for the grandest and best tombstone they can provide.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28If you want to understand the Victorian attitude to death you don't just look at a cemetery.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30You have to read it.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Take this for example, the Firth family of Leeds.
0:40:34 > 0:40:42One, two, three, four, five children on this left hand side, all died before the age of 40.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46One, one year old,
0:40:46 > 0:40:4920, 18, 29, 34.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52So no wonder they wanted
0:40:52 > 0:40:56to remember them and put up a proper memorial to them
0:40:56 > 0:41:00because the Victorians, in a way that we really aren't, were surrounded by death.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02It happened at every age.
0:41:02 > 0:41:09There was no way of treating all sorts of illnesses so that this kind of catalogue of families,
0:41:09 > 0:41:14big families, with only one or two left alive, was quite normal.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23- Hello.- Good morning.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26- Keeping it in good nick.- Trying to.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28- Who's your helper?- My son, Richard.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31- It's a family business?- Yes.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33It's a rather grisly business to be in.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35All your life in a cemetery.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38No, it's quite peaceful at times actually.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40Yeah. Especially on a day like this.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Do you like the way they look? Do you think they're better than ours?
0:41:46 > 0:41:51Yeah. Ours are more uniformed, they're all one size and certain shapes.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57- Are they?- These are all... Yes, I mean, we can't now go above four feet in height,
0:41:57 > 0:42:02- six inch in thickness, three foot wide.- Who says?
0:42:02 > 0:42:05It's all to do with regulations with the council.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09Do you mean you can't make an angel on top of a...
0:42:09 > 0:42:13like these, or an urn with a clock, you can't do that any more?
0:42:13 > 0:42:15No, no. Nothing above four feet in height.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18- Pathetic. Health and safety. - A lot of money and all.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23I would imagine there's a lot of people wouldn't be able to afford such as this now.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27What would you like to have if you could spend as much as you wanted on your own grave?
0:42:27 > 0:42:32To be quite honest it's something I've never thought of. I'll leave that to me son.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34What would you like to have written on it?
0:42:34 > 0:42:36"I told you I was poorly."
0:42:50 > 0:42:56From sewers to workhouses, from churches to prisons, the Victorians believed that
0:42:56 > 0:42:59for every new problem there was a building that could solve it.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06If you look over there,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09you see that line of towers.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14It looks like a sort of fairytale town.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17It is a town but no fairytale.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19It's a town for the insane.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31In 1850, there were 12,000 people in Britain's lunatic asylums.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36By 1900 that number had grown to 100,000.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
0:43:42 > 0:43:47provided 800 beds when it opened towards the end of the century.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Inside the asylum feels like a museum or a school.
0:44:23 > 0:44:29Until you come across reminders of its real function...
0:44:29 > 0:44:32with the restraining cells.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It was even equipped with its own mortuary.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04This is the big surprise of the asylum.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07A full scale ballroom
0:45:07 > 0:45:13with a stage for theatre there, orchestras or bands.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16Now why would they put this here?
0:45:16 > 0:45:19And the reason is really quite simple.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22The people who lived here, lived here virtually forever
0:45:22 > 0:45:28and they didn't want to just leave them in their wards so every Friday there'd be a dance.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31From one side of the asylum the men would come,
0:45:31 > 0:45:36from the other side the women would come and sweep round the floor,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38have an hour or two of happiness.
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Looking at photographs of asylum patients can be a harrowing experience.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55But the evidence is that these vast asylums
0:45:55 > 0:46:00attempted to look after patients better than ever before.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06However cruel it may seem to us today, the intention was benign.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23West Riding Asylum was used until 2003.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29'Today only the caretaker remains.'
0:46:29 > 0:46:33How many people would there be in this bit?
0:46:33 > 0:46:37A dormitory like this would probably accommodate about 30 people, possibly
0:46:37 > 0:46:40in some other wards a dormitory of this size would house as many as 40.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And do you remember it when it was full?
0:46:44 > 0:46:48- Yes.- How many people were here altogether?
0:46:48 > 0:46:52In its prime in 1945
0:46:52 > 0:46:57- it's quite well recorded there were about 2,420 plus patients here.- Really?
0:46:57 > 0:46:58How long have you been here?
0:46:58 > 0:47:0035 years this month.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Do you feel affection for the buildings?
0:47:04 > 0:47:10Oh, you've got to do, if it's a structure like this that you've actually been associated with
0:47:10 > 0:47:14in a maintenance tasks for like 35 years yeah, of course you do.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19And you look at the main building, you know. It's just pure
0:47:19 > 0:47:21sort of magic, innit?
0:47:21 > 0:47:23And what's its future?
0:47:23 > 0:47:29The future is to be a redevelopment site where there's 500 plus apartments and houses created.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32- And are you going to remain an inmate?- Who knows?
0:47:32 > 0:47:34- Would you like to?- Yeah, why not?
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Why not? Nowhere else to go, have I?
0:47:56 > 0:48:00If the insane worried the authorities,
0:48:00 > 0:48:05so did the growing number of people who turned their backs on religion.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10As families moved from villages to the cities, church attendance plummeted.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15It began to look as though the industrial revolution had killed off God.
0:48:21 > 0:48:28One man determined to reverse the trend and save the soul of Victorian England was the architect WN Pugin.
0:48:28 > 0:48:34One of his finest buildings is in the village of Cheadle in Staffordshire.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Pugin was passionate about his buildings.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53He believed that the materialism of the industrial age was creating
0:48:53 > 0:48:57an uglier world and it was his mission to offer an alternative.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15Pugin designed over 100 churches but he considered St Giles to be his best.
0:49:15 > 0:49:23It was, he said, "A perfect revival of an English parish church of the time of Edward I,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26"600 years earlier."
0:49:35 > 0:49:40The interior of St Giles is unlike anything else in Britain.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42Every surface explodes with colour.
0:49:48 > 0:49:54Pugin wanted to bring excitement and delight back into religion.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32If you want to know why a building like this was put up in the middle of the 19th century,
0:50:32 > 0:50:37I think you have to cast your mind back to what it must have been like to live at that time.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42To have seen the England that you know virtually wiped out with these
0:50:42 > 0:50:48huge new cities belching smoke, people working in factories, not for themselves any longer.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54And these people saying, well let's revive the spirit of old England.
0:50:54 > 0:51:00Let's look back to what it was like then because they, after all, were the good old days.
0:51:04 > 0:51:09But clocks cannot so easily be turned back.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11Britain's ways were changing.
0:51:30 > 0:51:37Coming towards the end of this journey I'm travelling west to the seaside.
0:51:37 > 0:51:43There's an old tradition up here of wakes weeks, when the whole town closed down, all the factories,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46all the suppliers and everybody locked up their houses
0:51:46 > 0:51:49and traipsed off for a fortnight by the sea.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06Blackpool was the most popular destination.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11By the end of the 19th century 2.5 million people a year
0:52:11 > 0:52:15were visiting Britain's most famous resort.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45The oldest ride on Blackpool's Pleasure Beach is the flying machine.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51Designed by the aviator Sir Hiram Maxim to provide the illusion of flight.
0:52:51 > 0:52:58Britain was on the eve of yet another era of change, led by technology.
0:52:58 > 0:53:04Machines which had enslaved one generation were setting the next generation free.
0:53:22 > 0:53:29Underneath Blackpool Tower is a more staid attraction, the elaborate ballroom built in 1895.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32In a palace embellished with gold
0:53:32 > 0:53:37and illuminated by the new fangled electric light,
0:53:37 > 0:53:40people could spin away the hours.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04The Blackpool Tower was built in 1894, a copy of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and it was a unique building
0:54:04 > 0:54:11for Britain because it was saying life can be fun, this building is fun, it has no other purpose.
0:54:11 > 0:54:16The north of England may be hard graft but it can also be a place for pleasure.
0:54:32 > 0:54:39When Queen Victoria died in 1901 and people looked back over the many, many years of her reign,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43they must have noticed the most astonishing change.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47You think at the beginning, the north country in particular,
0:54:47 > 0:54:53all industrial sprawl, slums, no proper sanitation.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56By the end of it, this.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Well, it may not be perfection but it's a whole lot better.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25In the next programme, on the final leg of my journey,
0:55:25 > 0:55:31I'll be in the south to see how the architects and visionaries of the 20th century
0:55:31 > 0:55:33planned a brave new world,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37only to discover that we didn't always want it.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd