20/02/2012 Inside Out London

Hello, you are watching Inside Out London. Here is what is coming up

on tonight's show. The Olympics are greatest logistical challenge

London has faced since World War Two. We are going to the command

centre to find out how London will cope. We are trying to bring

together the operators into one place so we can have a co-ordinated

response. Why this thriving High Street is in danger of becoming

ancient history. We have been here for 78 years. You can't replicate

that in another location. Has the mystery of Lord Lucan finally been

sold? Instructions were to make arrangements for Lord Lucan to see

In a little over five months, London will be hosting one of the

largest sporting extravaganzas of all time, and it doesn't take a

genius to work out that the transport system is going to be

absolutely chocker. But, despite being under immense strain, it's

still got to get 9 million spectators, as well as hundreds of

thousands of athletes and officials, to the Games on time. Truly an

awesome task. So, what plans are Olympic organizers making to

prevent the capital going into meltdown? Marc Ashdown went to find

out. London, 1948. The 14th Olympiad of

the modern era. They say the past is a foreign

country. They do things differently there. Back then the roads were

empty, and the Tube, well it only carried 145,000 passengers a day.

Today it's 28 times that, a whopping 4 million. And during the

Games it'll be even busier, with the road and rail network stretched

to breaking point. And remember this? Olympic organisers in Atlanta

have been heavily criticised. Redgrave described transport

arrangements to and from the rowing venue as diabolical. The Atlanta

Olympics in 1996 - a transport nightmare. Spectators couldn't find

the venues, bus drivers got lost and some athletes even missed their

events. Now London 2012 organisers are determined not to make the same

mistakes, so they've come up with this - the Olympic Transport Plan.

Now it is quite heavy reading, and worth a go if you can't sleep, but

then the Olympic and Paralympic games is reckoned to be the largest

logistical challenge the country's faced since World War Two. And it's

being masterminded from here - TFL's state of the art Transport

Co-ordination Centre in Southwark. We're investing �6.5 billion in the

transport network to ensure that we're ready to host a great Olympic

and Paralympic games this summer, just as importantly as making sure

that we're able to keep regular users of the transport network on

the move as well. And one of the key things we've done is to try and

bring together all of the operators responsible for moving people about

London into one place so that we can come up with a co-ordinated

response to making sure the transport network functions really

well during the Games. If there is an incident, we're able to focus in,

see what's actually happening there and then we're able to tweak

traffic signal timings around there, dispatch police, make sure we can

relieve pressure in that particular part of the network so that London

keeps on moving. Central to the plan is the Olympic Route Network,

or ORN. It's a relatively small part of the road network, 109 miles,

linking the key venues in London. The whole purpose of the ORN is to

make sure that athletes, officials, and media get around London for

events reliably. Controversially, a third of the Olympic Route Network

has been set aside exclusively for Olympic traffic, the so called

Games Lanes. All traffic is able to make use of the Olympic Route

Network. It's only Games Lanes that Games family vehicles and emergency

services vehicles only have access to. So that means, if you're an

athlete at the peak of physical fitness, one of several thousand

Games organisers, or one of the copious corporate sponsors checking

on how your money's being spent, you could be travelling in

chauffeur-driven luxury, safe in the knowledge you'll get to your

VIP seat or starting blocks in good time. And that makes sense. After

all, no one wants the athletes missing out on medals. Now we won't

be able to use the Games lanes, but if you fancy chancing it, think

twice - there'll be lane cameras and �200 fines. Many people aren't

happy. This is John Lewis from Cheshunt. He's been a cabbie for 26

years and goes all over, wherever the fares take him. So what do you

think of these Olympic lanes then? I actually think they're going to

be a nightmare for my customers, there's going to be so much

disruption and it's going to give a lot of delays getting people to

where they need to be, to stations, to business meetings and just

getting into the office in the mornings. One big worry for John is

that the Games lanes will end up squeezing more traffic into less

road. They're just going to be very restrictive in that you can't cross

them. You wont be able to. Mainly going to be that you can't turn

right because the Olympic lane is always going to be the outside lane

so all the normal traffic will be moved to the inside. But say like

you live in Wapping, if you're travelling from the west to the

east you won't be able to turn right to get into Wapping, you're

going to have to go through the Limehouse link, out to Cotton

Street, round the roundabout, back through into the Limehouse link,

back onto the highway and then turn left to where ever you live.

that's going to be a nightmare of a journey? Absolute nightmare, yeah,

absolute nightmare. And it's not just London's cabbies who could

fall foul of Olympic congestion. Lunchtime at the Plume of Feathers,

the oldest pub in Greenwich. It's a good old fashioned London boozer.

Behind the bar is Susan Rose. She's been pulling pints here since the

'80s. I take great care of the beers and the pipes so that we can

really produce, we hope, the best pint in London. And since 1691, the

beer has kept flowing. Yes, for over 300 years these cellars have

never run dry. But the pub faces its biggest challenge yet. It's on

the Olympic Route Network and there's no stopping, which means

deliveries from the drey men might dry up. We're only 150 yards

approximately from the gates of the equestrian eventing. It would be

disastrous for us if the deliveries couldn't get through or my staff

couldn't get through to work. I could be the pub with no beer, the

pub with no pork pies, the pub with no nothing. Because of parking

restrictions, the only way of getting the beer through is at

night. But the brewers are finding this hard to swallow. It's not been

handled anything like as well as it could be. This is the thing that is

really worrying some of my members. It is very, very expensive to put a

night shift in, and also if they lose 20, 30, 40% productivity

during the day, we are not going to be anybody who is making money out

of the Olympic Games. Well let's hope night deliveries do the trick.

As for TFL, well they're confident they can keep the beer and traffic

flowing. How? By asking spectators to leave their car keys at home -

none of the venues have car parks anyway. London is going to be a

100% public transport Games. All of the venues are fantastically well-

served by public transport. Obviously we've got the Tube - key

lines, jubilee, district and central lines serving the park and

other venues. There's the DLR, there's national rail services.

We'll also be promoting people to walk and cycle to venues. For those

people coming from further afield there'll also be park and ride

facilities. Now if you are going to the Games, there's a handy website

with all the information you need. Just go to

www.getaheadofthegames.com. And it tells you how to avoid getting

snarled up in all the pinch points. Two of the busiest days to steer

clear of are the 3rd and the 13th of August, the day after the

closing ceremony. Of course nobody knows for sure but at key stations,

places like Waterloo, Canary Wharf, London Bridge, there could be

delays of up to half an hour, and that's got some people thinking we

should have a new Olympic sport - things to do while you're stuck on

the underground. Freestyle fencing. Synchronised sudoku. And let's not

forget the three-yard dash. Seriously though, the transport

network needs to cope with an extra 3 million trips on the busiest

games days, and despite all the upgrade work, at peak times it'll

come under pressure. TFL says we all need to plan ahead. People can

sort of actually think about what makes most sense for me during the

Games, and it's not going to be the same answer for everyone. For some

people it may well be, you know, starting their work day a little

bit earlier and finishing a little bit earlier. Others it might be

starting a bit later and finishing a bit later. For some, they might

be able to walk or cycle to work, as opposed to taking the Tube.

There's no escaping that some parts of London are going to be really

busy, but by planning ahead we're confident that the transport

network is going to cope. And one final piece of advice from TFL...

If you are worried about the rush hour crush, grab a pint, relax and

go home a bit later. That is assuming the drey men haven't got

snarled up in the Olympic Route Network. Cheers.

Still to come: the council now wants to demolish this entire row

of shops. Prime minister, I challenge you to come over here.

Lord Lucan has been the subject of feverish fascination ever since he

disappeared in 1974, shortly after the murder of his children's nanny.

Since then, his mysterious fate has been the subject of endless

speculation and innumerable unconfirmed sightings. Now, Inside

Out has uncovered fresh evidence as to what really happened in the

Cold cases don't get any colder than this one, and they don't get

any more mysterious either. But with the passing of time, the truth

has a habit of surfacing. Now, this is a brave claim to make,

but I think I can tell you what happened to Lord Lucan after he

fled this house on the night of 7th Early on a theory was put forward

that Lord Lucan committed suicide after attempting to murder his

estranged wife. But nobody was ever washed up. The second theory was

that John Aspinall, casino owner and founder of Howlett's Zoo in

Kent and Sir James Goldsmith, multi-millionaire businessman,

somehow smuggled Lucan out of the country to escape justice. John

Aspinall for one, made no secret of his loyalty towards his old

gambling friend, Lord Lucan. John Aspinall and Sir James Goldsmith

are now both dead. Neither uttered a word in public about the role

they played in Lucan's disappearance. But behind closed

doors, both Aspinall and Goldsmith knew far more than they were

letting on and this woman was party to some of those secret

conversations. She has asked that we change her name and conceal her

identity as she recounts the inside story as to what really happened to

Lord Lucan. Instructions were to make arrangements for John Bingham,

also known as Lord Lucan, to see his children. And to do that I had

to book his two eldest children on flights to Africa. Now I don't know

the exact dates, it was between '79 and '81 and it was two occasions

that I booked the flights. We had duplicate passports for the two

older children. I did ask why Camilla, the youngest one, wasn't

going and it was said that she was on her mother's passport and she

couldn't. Anyway, she was too young to travel on her own, so just the

older two. They would go to Kenya to the Treetops resort, they would

have a little holiday there. As far as they were concerned, they were

going on a safari type holiday. And they would also fly internally to

Gabon, at some point. And I believe it was in Gabon, from what I

understand, their father would observe them and see them which is

what he wanted to do. Just see how they were growing up and look at

them from a distance. It was quite clear that he wouldn't meet them or

speak to them or make himself known to them, because that would make it

difficult for them going back to their mother saying, "I've seen

daddy" or something, so that was it. Did you realise that this was a

huge manhunt? Lord Lucan was still in '79 and '80 the most wanted man

in Britain and here you are arranging for him to go and see his

children furtively over in Africa? I just had no idea of the enormity

of it, as you say now. It was just me doing a job amongst many other

things that I did in that casino world were quite alien to me, you

know. And it seemed in a way quite a nice thing to do, to facilitate a

father seeing his children. If I now put it in the context that he

was a murderer or there was a murder committed and Sandra

Rivett's family have obviously suffered enormously. It doesn't

seem the same. But how do we know that what Jill

says is true? Well what I can tell you is that she certainly did work

for John Aspinall here at his Casino in Knightsbridge. And I can

introduce you to this man. His name is Bob Polkinghorne and he's the

former Detective Inspector in charge of the Lucan case file

during the 1980s. Now retired and living in Kent, we tracked Bob down,

hoping he could shed more light on what really happened to Lord Lucan.

This is the first time he's publicly divulged what his

investigation unearthed. I made a few inquiries around and

it was quite obvious that people were aware that Lucan wasn't dead

and the word was he was in Africa. Lady Lucan, I am quite convinced,

didn't think he was dead. In fact, she said to me he was a gambler,

gambler's don't commit suicide, they always win the next hand.

Shortly afterwards, Bob received further confirmation that Lucan was

indeed alive and well. This time, a sighting from a reliable source, an

eyewitness who had followed one of Lucan's close acquaintances as he

holidayed in Africa. He was surprised to see this

acquaintance standing on a bridge. After two or three minutes, he was

joined by another man who he is adamant was Lord Lucan. What did

you do with this new evidence? For some reason I was then later told,

a few days later, "Discontinue the inquiry, you haven't got approval

to continue". Why do you think that happened? I definitely think he was

spirited out of the country, I think he was his gambling

fraternity friends spirited him out the country. But in hindsight, do

you wish that you hadn't sat on this information for so long?

knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have sat on it for so long,

definitely. Yes, there is some regrets. Why have you asked us to

conceal your ID? We haven't paid you any money for this interview,

you could have gone to one of the national newspapers and made

thousands. I don't want to make anything from it. I simply want to

pass on a message, that is all. it sunk in now that you assisted in

a conspiracy when a man who was wanted by Scotland yard for murder

was alive in '79 and 1980? I mean, does that worry you now?

because I have got a clear conscience. It doesn't worry me. I

mean, I wasn't assisting in Lord Lucan escaping or anything. I mean,

it wasn't really all over the press in 1979 and '81 that they were

desperately searching for the runaway Lord Lucan. So my

conscience is clear and as I say, all I want to do is pass on the

information that I have to whoever it may be of interest to.

Some of our capital's High Streets, like Camden's here, are weathering

the economic downturn pretty well, thanks to their fiercely

independent spirit. But in other parts of London, distinctive local

shops are under serious threat. Just at a time, ironically, when

the Government is trying to champion traditional high streets.

Lucinda Lambert visited a parade of Shepherds Bush shops that's deeply

fearful for its future. This is Goldhawk Road, Shepherds

Bush. It has occupied a place in my heart for many years, it was

immortalised in the film Quadrophenia. The original album

was actually dedicated to the kids of the Goldhawk Road.

Today it is not top notch glamour, but it has had such a rich past and

with this somewhat run down row of shops, a unique present.

Eel and Pies have been eaten here since 1891. And in here survives

the only 1960's Wimpy furniture in the whole land. And in there lies

some of the materials that made some of the costumes for the Harry

Potter films. We've had everybody for the last 30

years. We've had Zandra Rhodes, the queen's dressmaker, Stuart Parvin,

Stella McCartney. Ask any designer around the world and they say

Goldhawk Road. Lots of people make pilgrimages to here and

particularly the Mods. Pete Townshend's a regular visitor,

Jimmy Page comes in. Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols likes to have his

lunch here. I love this place so much my wife said to me, "I think

I'm your second wife and Zippy is your first wife." Just around the

corner is Shepherds Bush market. If you want a suitcase of gigantic

proportions, and many more strange and wonderful things, this is the

place for you. But with the massive complex Westfields opening up just

down the road, developers and the local council want to glitz the

market and nearby Goldhawk Road up. Meaning these shops will be pulled

down. Hammersmith and Fulham council want to redevelop this area

and us small businesses, we don't and us small businesses, we don't

want to lose our businesses. And they are going to threaten us with

compulsary order purchase, which we have opposed. It's almost

unbelievable in this day and age. We will be one of the first stages

to be demolished and they want to build 212 flats. 212 flats, instead

of these delightful shops. Because of the associations with this shop,

Quadrophenia was filmed here in 1979, and a lot of people come from

all over the world to see it. It just won't be the same if we are

forced to relocate somewhere else. Of course it won't be the same.

This has got an authenticity that it could never possibly be replaced.

Although it has both feet planted firmly in the past, it is still a

flourishing business and never more so than when local football team,

QPR, play at home. And their fans aren't looking forward to its

proposed demolition. Here, I mean, Rangers fans come

back before home games. It's part of their ritual to pass down. They

come in with their kids as well. There are so many pie and mash

shops around London and the surrounding areas that are just

year by year having to close up. It's not as if it was going down

the spout. They're not. They're up and running there, vibrantly up and

running. The fabric shops, as I understand it, they are a big part

of the fashion business. People travel from all over the place, you

know, to buy their fabrics. Having been working in this been

working in this shop for over 30 years, the council now wishes to

demolish this entire row of shops. When you have developers and the

council working side by side, hand in hand, how can that be fair? We

live in a Millenium age, we get up to find we are now living in feudal

times. The prime minister waffles about saving independent shops.

Well, Mr Prime Minister, I challenge you to come over here.

The Prime Minister's wife is the head of the council. Where's her

sense of support? All the pictures, like at the back,

you'll see they're about 45 years old. I kept it in 1960's style. My

customers, they love it so much they keep telling me, "Don't change

it", because they love it, they like it. I love it so much but

obviously in the business you can't do that just because you like it.

It's because the people love it. After a warming cup of coffee in

Zippy's diner, I couldn't help but agree with his customers. This is

the retro style at its finest. It's not fake, it's the real thing.

These tables, these walls, the signs, these are all from the '60s

the '70s. You can't remake something like that. Places like

this offer something that a modern variation of it can't offer. It is

traditional and it forms the cultural identity of London and its

people. Without places like this, it might as well be any other town

in any other city, anywhere else. At the very beginning of all this,

though, everybody thought, "Great, the council are at last going to

smarten up Shepherds Bush Market without losing its character" and

the community were consulted. Local resident Kimmy De Castro remembers

those consultations. It was like, would you like the

market refurbished? Absolutely. Would you like better lighting?

Hell, yeah. Would you like public toilets? Oh, for sure. And then a

document came out, the final supplementary planning document

came out with all of that in it and on top of that the demolition of

the Goldhawk Road shops and the building of 212 private luxury

flats and immediately people went Based on that document, the

shopkeepers are going to a judicial review. The planning application

has already been approved by Hammersmith and Fulham council,

though. But the council leader was at least able to offer the

shopkeepers some hope. What I'd expect is huge sensitivity

on how we can sustain the heritage of those shop fronts, recognising

they'll now be modern shop units, as opposed to what we have today.

There will be more retail space and so every single shopkeeper on the

Goldhawk Road will be able to return to that parade of shops and

trade again. I was very keen to ensure that we

got these assurances from the developers. I am glad to say that

before that, before the planning application was approved, it was

made absolutely clear that was the case.

The shopkeepers would love it if things were quite that simple.

the moment we're all freeholders, we don't pay rent. The fact that

they're going to build super flats and they're all going to be sold at

premium prices, the chances are that their rents are going to be

premium. And they will outprice us, we won't be able to afford to come

back in. With the new premises you will be

offered, how will the furniture fare in that? First of all, this

furniture I don't think is moveable because it is already stuck on the

floor, so it is very difficult. All this furniture, most of it is

going to be in the bin. If you've had over 10,000

signatures saying we do not wish to be demolished, doesn't that say

something that the council is doing something wrong?

While these shops are not of the same architectural glory and

idiosyncracies as those that I usually celebrate, they are places

with extraordinary individuality, colour, cosiness and charm that do

an inestimable service to the people of west London.

And how awful it will be if one day we walk past here uttering

plaintiff wails of "Why did we let that lovely eel and pie shop go?

How could we have lost it?" Well, that's nearly all for tonight's

programme. Before we go though, here's a quick look at what's

coming up on next week's show. It's the country's biggest

infrastructure project of modern times. But is tearing up the

capital to make way for HS2 really the answer?

Taking the heart out of Euston and turning it into a nightmare for 10

years is not sustainable. The unscrupulous car sellers

shifting their debt to Clonmany clients. I have lost �8,000. And

the secret sanctuary that's offering a lifeline to these

endangered species. This is what it is all about, to produce something

And that's all from tonight's Inside Out London. If you missed