:00:09. > :00:16.Hello. Here is what is coming up on Tonight Show. It is home to some of
:00:17. > :00:22.the UK's rarest wildlife but is it under threat from a proposed new
:00:23. > :00:28.airport? 300,000 birds come here for the winter. To place an airport here
:00:29. > :00:34.is of grave concern to us, this is of international significance. We
:00:35. > :00:39.unveil how London plans to become the dance capital of the world. We
:00:40. > :00:42.have the artists, the audience, we just need a bit more space and
:00:43. > :00:49.infrastructure and then we will take London to the top of the Premier
:00:50. > :00:54.League. And find out how the Post Office helped win the First World
:00:55. > :00:59.War. Just five months after the outbreak of the war, 28,000 postal
:01:00. > :01:14.workers have signed up to fight. The postal brigade made a fine site.
:01:15. > :01:22.If London is going to keep pace with its European rivals, then expanding
:01:23. > :01:26.its airport capacity is crucial. But deciding on the best way to achieve
:01:27. > :01:32.this is a source of much heated debate. Now the Airports Commission
:01:33. > :01:35.has already short listed proposals for new runways at Heathrow and
:01:36. > :01:39.Gatwick. But it hasn't ruled out plans for a completely new airport
:01:40. > :01:42.on the Isle of Grain in the north Kent marshes. We sent Naturalist
:01:43. > :01:44.Mike Dilger to find out what this could mean for the large areas of
:01:45. > :02:01.protected natural habitat there. It's this dramatic landscape that
:02:02. > :02:09.inspired Charles Dickens in the opening sequence of Great
:02:10. > :02:12.Expectations. "Ours was the marsh country?. The dark flat wilderness,
:02:13. > :02:16.intersected with dykes and mounds and gates." It's not the most
:02:17. > :02:23.romantic of places ` in essence it's wild, wet and windy. But alongside
:02:24. > :02:37.that industrial backdrop the wildlife thrives.
:02:38. > :02:41.There Roberti from all over the world, they're coming from
:02:42. > :02:50.Greenland, Arctic Russia, Norway, Finland. Alter North Kent for the
:02:51. > :02:55.winter. We're on a great flyweight, one of the five great migrator
:02:56. > :03:00.re`routes on the planet. Some of the populations are core populations.
:03:01. > :03:06.Third of all those birds that were here last winter were at this single
:03:07. > :03:09.site. I have to say as a bird watcher this is as exciting as it
:03:10. > :03:14.gets ` there is a massive swirling flock of Dunlin. But this special
:03:15. > :03:22.area of conservation is currently being considered as a site for
:03:23. > :03:26.London's largest airport hub. This is the Isle of Grain and if the new
:03:27. > :03:29.proposed airport plans go ahead I'll be standing right at the centre of
:03:30. > :03:31.an international hub with four runways and carrying over a 150
:03:32. > :03:38.million passengers a year. The ambitious plans put forward by
:03:39. > :03:42.architect Lord Foster include not just an airport but a new tidal
:03:43. > :03:51.barrier to protect London from flooding and a high`speed orbital
:03:52. > :03:56.railway. Over the next 20 years there will be a 20% increase in
:03:57. > :04:01.population. We are talking about the region of the Medway towns.
:04:02. > :04:06.Statistically, they are deprived, relative to the rest of the nation.
:04:07. > :04:10.So there is an opportunity here to use the airport development to
:04:11. > :04:15.regenerate those towns. Businessman Clive Lawrence believes the airport
:04:16. > :04:22.is just what the area needs. He's set up the campaign group Demand
:04:23. > :04:26.Regeneration in North Kent. Much as we love the area, this is not
:04:27. > :04:31.paradise on earth. There are tens of thousands of people who are in
:04:32. > :04:36.poverty. There is a lot that needs to be done. We need good management,
:04:37. > :04:39.money, and neither is here. So when a project comes along like the
:04:40. > :04:43.airport which promises to deliver something in the order of ?100
:04:44. > :04:48.million a year to the local council for better public services, you can
:04:49. > :04:57.begin to see what an attraction that can be. But those that live on the
:04:58. > :05:02.doorstep of where the airport would be built disagree. This is already a
:05:03. > :05:09.harp, it is a hub for birds, it is no place for an airport. It has
:05:10. > :05:15.never come here. The proposers of the airport will say this area needs
:05:16. > :05:20.recommit regeneration. We are south east of London. But I'm a realist. I
:05:21. > :05:27.know if there was an airport Hilton head, I would move away and find
:05:28. > :05:31.somewhere else to live. The new Forest is no place for an airport.
:05:32. > :05:42.This is like the new Forest but even better. But nobody wants an airport
:05:43. > :05:46.on their doorstep. Of course, but not everyone has a world`class
:05:47. > :05:50.wetland. This is protected under local, national and international
:05:51. > :05:52.law. It must be protected motors for the birds and wildlife but for
:05:53. > :06:02.future generations to enjoy. It is a sky full of wings. That is
:06:03. > :06:16.really, really nice. One of the biggest supporters of the
:06:17. > :06:22.Isle of Grain airport is London Mayor Boris Johnson. Daniel Moylan
:06:23. > :06:26.is his aviation advisor. I think the Isle of Grain is the only option
:06:27. > :06:30.actually, because I think if you look at it, and realise Heathrow is
:06:31. > :06:36.never going to be expanded, and that expanding Gatwick is not the right
:06:37. > :06:42.answer. A new runway at Gatwick does not provide the hub capacity we need
:06:43. > :06:46.to survive. The right place to go with the right support and services
:06:47. > :06:49.from a social and economic point of view, would be to the eastern side
:06:50. > :06:52.of the capital. Building an airport here would have a huge impact on
:06:53. > :06:59.this internationally protected marshland. The reason why the north
:07:00. > :07:03.Kent Marshlands are such a Mecca for birds from all over the northern
:07:04. > :07:07.hemisphere is down to mile upon mile of this stuff mud glorious mud. It's
:07:08. > :07:21.so chock`full of molluscs, crustaceans, lugworms `plenty of
:07:22. > :07:25.food for a vast array of birds. I'm looking out on a big flock of waders
:07:26. > :07:28.and there are primarily two species ` the black and white oyster catcher
:07:29. > :07:32.with the orange bill and they are probing just under the surface and
:07:33. > :07:35.then the other bird is the curlew with the huge anchor bill and they
:07:36. > :07:46.are probing much deeper looking for lugworms to gobble down. The idea
:07:47. > :07:49.that all of this would need to be destroyed and removed to make it
:07:50. > :07:54.safe to fly aircraft, let alone build an airport on top of all of
:07:55. > :07:58.this, it would be environmental vandalism, because this is one of
:07:59. > :08:03.the most important sites are these migratory birds in the world. It is
:08:04. > :08:09.on their flight path. To remove this chunk from their flight path would
:08:10. > :08:12.be an absolute disaster. Under European Law, if this protected
:08:13. > :08:18.marshland was built on, developers would have to relocate these birds.
:08:19. > :08:23.Habitat relocation is something that is well understood because it has
:08:24. > :08:29.been practised successfully on a large number of other projects, both
:08:30. > :08:33.in the UK and elsewhere. Completely in compliance with European law.
:08:34. > :08:39.There is no reason to think that can't be done in the estuary. But
:08:40. > :08:44.the RSPB claim it's not that simple. The magic of this place and the
:08:45. > :08:47.mystery is that in the heads of the birds behind this is a genetically
:08:48. > :08:53.programmed flight plan, so they will be coming back, if the airport was
:08:54. > :09:01.built here, these birds cannot be moved. If you satisfy European law,
:09:02. > :09:09.then these birds are programmed to come back here, genetically. It
:09:10. > :09:12.takes centuries to change that. The future of the Thames estuary remains
:09:13. > :09:14.uncertain. The airport commission will decide by September if the Isle
:09:15. > :09:25.of Grain is a viable option. The light's fading and it's just
:09:26. > :09:41.about dusk at the end of a memorable day bird watching. And just out here
:09:42. > :09:45.are a couple of Marsh Harriers. Just quartering the Marsh, looking for an
:09:46. > :09:49.unwary prey it ` males with their lovely black and white wings. And
:09:50. > :09:57.that shallow wing so distinctive. And the females, all brown with a
:09:58. > :10:04.yellow head. Such a smart bird, a bird of the marsh land. And a great
:10:05. > :10:11.end to the day. Still to come... The war meant that
:10:12. > :10:17.Londoners saw something we weren't used to. Women were being employed
:10:18. > :10:24.in temporary roles, they felt they needed to simplify the job so these
:10:25. > :10:35.districts like N one, started to be introduced and carried on to this
:10:36. > :10:41.day. Contemporary dance might strike some of you as a niche art form, but
:10:42. > :10:44.things are changing. An exciting new wave of dancers and choreographers
:10:45. > :10:48.have been pulling in record audiences for their shows, so much
:10:49. > :10:52.so that the hunt is now on for a brand`new theatre to help establish
:10:53. > :10:53.the capital as a global dance powerhouse to rival New York and
:10:54. > :11:16.Paris. Audiences have been flocking to this
:11:17. > :11:19.part of London to be entertained since the 17th Century. That means
:11:20. > :11:24.punters have been buying theatre tickets here for more than 300
:11:25. > :11:33.years. Today Sadler's Wells is on something of a roll. The audience
:11:34. > :11:35.has come to see a piece by one of the most significant contemporary
:11:36. > :11:42.dance choreographers of the last 40 years, Pina Bausch. Whatever is
:11:43. > :11:47.going on here it seems to be working. Over the last few years
:11:48. > :11:50.ticket sales are up by a third, and Sadler's Wells recently announced a
:11:51. > :11:56.relatively rare event in London, plans for a new theatre. The success
:11:57. > :12:00.at Sadler's Wells has been masterminded by this man. Alistair
:12:01. > :12:12.Spalding is celebrating ten years as the theatre's Artistic Director, and
:12:13. > :12:19.has plenty to smile about. Why is now the right time to look for a new
:12:20. > :12:24.theatre? There is something going on now, dance is the thing, and we need
:12:25. > :12:27.more room for expression and creation for more audiences. It
:12:28. > :12:31.feels like this is an energy we want to go along with. Contemporary dance
:12:32. > :12:33.has always had this reputation amoung mainstream audiences of
:12:34. > :12:38.perhaps being a bit self`indulgent, inaccessible, maybe even
:12:39. > :12:42.unwatchable, is that fair? I think people do have that perception of
:12:43. > :12:47.dance, but it is a very different art form now. Matthew Bourne, his
:12:48. > :12:54.Swan Lake is not like what you would see at the Royal Ballet. It is a
:12:55. > :12:59.different art form now. Pina Bausch has led the way in combining speech,
:13:00. > :13:06.music, movement and imaginative sets to appeal to audiences. The whole of
:13:07. > :13:10.the stage is covered in real grass setting Sadler's WellS technical
:13:11. > :13:14.director, Emma Wilson something of challenge. We have never done this
:13:15. > :13:18.before. We are in the middle of the football and rugby season so we can
:13:19. > :13:23.get turf and we got it delivered. Every four or five days we may have
:13:24. > :13:27.to change it. Over the two weeks we might get away with two coatings of
:13:28. > :13:33.turf on the stage. We may need to have three. How does the audience
:13:34. > :13:36.react to it? If you like at projection and digital imagery. All
:13:37. > :13:46.of those are quite interesting. You might have a performer that is
:13:47. > :13:50.interacting with animated movement. He is alone on the stage, but with a
:13:51. > :13:55.huge amount of animation on stage that he can interact with. This
:13:56. > :13:58.gives it a new dimension. It is not something you could do ten years
:13:59. > :14:03.ago. It is an exciting time to be working in theatre.
:14:04. > :14:08.Sadler's WellS is one of London's oldest theatres. Its current
:14:09. > :14:11.incarnation, this modern design opened in 1998.
:14:12. > :14:16.There have been six different theatre buildings on this site since
:14:17. > :14:21.it was founded in Islington in 1683. How did this theatre come to be
:14:22. > :14:25.here? Well, it is because there was a well. There was a man called
:14:26. > :14:32.Richard Sadler and he discovered a well and you get Sadler's WellS. And
:14:33. > :14:36.it was a time when taking the waters was popular. He thought it would be
:14:37. > :14:39.nice if he built a music house on the side to entertain people and
:14:40. > :14:45.that's how it starts. It had more colourful episodes in
:14:46. > :14:53.its history, didn't it? They started to use the water to brew beer. At
:14:54. > :14:57.that point it really rowdy. There was a stampede in which 18 people
:14:58. > :15:03.died and there was also things like they used to flood the area and put
:15:04. > :15:09.sea battles in and the crowd were really, really rowdy. Charles
:15:10. > :15:14.Dickens said that it was famous for its rowdiness and a fight could
:15:15. > :15:24.break out at any moment! Fights and rowdy behaviour are a thing of the
:15:25. > :15:29.past. But saddlers wells hasn't lost its ability to surprise. This is the
:15:30. > :15:36.company of Elders, rehearsing for a hip`hop performance, all the dancer
:15:37. > :15:40.are over 60. Pam Zinkin is 82! I don't like ballroom dancing. I don't
:15:41. > :15:46.like being pushed around by a man! Good for you!
:15:47. > :15:50.Contemporary dance is a lot of freedom and creativity. Do you get
:15:51. > :15:56.the sense that contemporary dance is becoming more popular? Oh
:15:57. > :15:59.definitely, yes. This group for instance, it has closed. There is a
:16:00. > :16:05.waiting list and people can't join us. We would love them to come, but
:16:06. > :16:09.there isn't any room. The contemporary dance now featuring
:16:10. > :16:15.can trace its race back to the turn of the last century. The bare feet,
:16:16. > :16:25.loose hair and free flowing dresses, a rebellion against the rigid
:16:26. > :16:29.formality of classical ballet. This wall has the faces of today's
:16:30. > :16:38.leading lights of contemporary dance. They are associate artists
:16:39. > :16:45.performing here and across the world. They include Sylvie Guillem
:16:46. > :17:01.who continues to mesmerise audiences in her late 40s.
:17:02. > :17:11.This is the choreographer. The young Israeli choreographer who whose work
:17:12. > :17:15.brought him worldwide acclaim. I caught up with him on the stage
:17:16. > :17:21.that helped make his name. How important has this place been to
:17:22. > :17:27.your career? It was part of a project where my work performed in
:17:28. > :17:32.three differe theatres, from a small one to a medium one and the last
:17:33. > :17:35.performances were here. Since then my company has grown and
:17:36. > :17:42.become really international. They are continuing the journey with me.
:17:43. > :17:51.So yeah, invaluable. Really amazing. Hot new choreographers like Hofesh
:17:52. > :17:57.Shechter have helped Sadler's Wells become a powerhouse. New York and
:17:58. > :18:07.Paris have lots of different spaces of different sizes for dance to go
:18:08. > :18:12.to. We are lacking that in London. We have the artists. We have at
:18:13. > :18:16.audience. We need more space. If we have that, we will take London to
:18:17. > :18:19.the top of the Freeing the Premier League of dance cities around the
:18:20. > :18:25.world. There is the issue of finding the money to build the venue which
:18:26. > :18:29.could be ready 2018. There is a more immediate problem to solve. So what
:18:30. > :18:35.are you going to do with the grass once it is finished? We are trying
:18:36. > :18:37.to dispose of it as sustainably. We have contacted local farms,
:18:38. > :18:41.allotment societies, anybody in the staff who knows local schools.
:18:42. > :18:45.Anybody that can come and take it, they are welcome to. The more it
:18:46. > :18:50.gets reused, the less we have to compost. I like the idea of having a
:18:51. > :18:57.bit of turf in my garden that's been danced on? It is theatrical turf. It
:18:58. > :19:03.might inspire you in the summer. You never know!
:19:04. > :19:09.The First World War began 100 years ago this year. Back here in London,
:19:10. > :19:13.the general post office played a vital role in keeping the war effort
:19:14. > :19:21.moving as well as boosting people's morale. Lucinda visited its archives
:19:22. > :19:30.to find out more and unearthed a few surprises along the way.
:19:31. > :19:38.On my way to the fighting lines, I found the body of Captain H Peel who
:19:39. > :19:45.I gather from the letters lying on his side was your husband. Captain
:19:46. > :19:50.Peel was killed in action and a died by the wounds received without
:19:51. > :19:54.suffering. That was one of the many millions of letters that were sent
:19:55. > :20:01.and received during the horrors of the First World War and one I fear
:20:02. > :20:05.that poor Mrs Peel would not have wanted to get. As well as bringing
:20:06. > :20:10.horrific news, the post was used to keep morale up and convey military
:20:11. > :20:14.information and it went through the GPO in London. The sorting office in
:20:15. > :20:21.Mount Pleasant is one of the largest in the country and in its basement
:20:22. > :20:25.lies the archive, a murky and yet intoxicatingly room that holds the
:20:26. > :20:33.secrets of what the Post Office did 100 years ago. So how was the GPO
:20:34. > :20:37.affected by t first war? In a big way. It was a huge impact on the
:20:38. > :20:42.Post Office and the effect of the whole process of sorting and moving
:20:43. > :20:45.the mail was on a massive scale that the Post Office never encountered or
:20:46. > :20:52.experienced before. At one time you are having 19,000 mailbags crossing
:20:53. > :20:59.Channel and in the run`up to 1915, you were looking at 500,000. The
:21:00. > :21:03.sorting office at Mount Pleasant which was a massive sorting office,
:21:04. > :21:08.it wasn't big enough. They had to build a brand`new temporary
:21:09. > :21:11.structure in Regent's Park. It was the largest wooden building anywhere
:21:12. > :21:16.in the world. The largest wooden building in the world? Yes. That's a
:21:17. > :21:23.thrilling statistic that it was. You have got a wondrous mass of stuff in
:21:24. > :21:28.these archives. How do you come by most of it, any of it, all of it?
:21:29. > :21:37.Most of the archives are transferred from Royal Mail. We acquire material
:21:38. > :21:42.from auction. A lot of items people have given us to safe keep for the
:21:43. > :21:47.future. This item related to William Cox. This is a letter that Cox wrote
:21:48. > :21:52.back it his brother and sister. He writes, "One of our fellas was
:21:53. > :21:58.killed and I'm sending you one of his waistcoat buttons as a relic. He
:21:59. > :22:05.was struck by a shell and his body was blown to pieces. I'm sending you
:22:06. > :22:10.a small piece of a small that went over our office." 28,000 postal
:22:11. > :22:14.workers had signed up to fight. Their postal brigade made a fine
:22:15. > :22:21.sight, but this meant the Post Office suddenly became very short of
:22:22. > :22:32.staff and so, for the first time ever, female postmen were seen on
:22:33. > :22:40.the streets. There were sorting duties to be done which necessitated
:22:41. > :22:45.duties at the office at 5am or 6am. I thought I knew my London well. In
:22:46. > :22:48.the early morning when there is a quality of freshness and cleanness
:22:49. > :22:53.in the air that strikes one with wonder, this was written by Mary
:22:54. > :22:57.Hughes a post woman at the time and it shows that they took to the job
:22:58. > :23:03.with vim and with vigour and with much delight. You might like to see
:23:04. > :23:08.this. What I have got in this box is a post woman's hat from 1916. Look
:23:09. > :23:14.at that. You can see this hat is made from straw. It has got this
:23:15. > :23:19.lovely ribbon and the GPO badge which let people know these were
:23:20. > :23:24.post women and they were one of the many thousands of post women who
:23:25. > :23:28.joined up. How many thousand? At the start of the war there were about
:23:29. > :23:32.2,000. By a year later, there were 22,000 more and by the end of the
:23:33. > :23:37.war, there were 53,000 more in temporary positions. So by the end
:23:38. > :23:41.of the war, they made up half of the workforce. As if having women
:23:42. > :23:45.delivering our mail wasn't change enough, the war meant that Londoners
:23:46. > :23:51.were to see something that now we take for granted, the postcode, it
:23:52. > :23:56.was introduced for the first time. London was already divided down into
:23:57. > :24:02.a number of districts, north district, south`east district, as a
:24:03. > :24:06.consequence of the First World War and temporary workers felt they
:24:07. > :24:10.needed to simplify the job to allow for the fact that people were new to
:24:11. > :24:15.it and so they introduced the districts as a consequence of that
:24:16. > :24:20.change and so these numbered districts like N1 started to be
:24:21. > :24:27.introduced and carried on through to this day.
:24:28. > :24:31.So the First World War is responsible for London's postcodes,
:24:32. > :24:37.but it turns out it was also responsible for some of our first
:24:38. > :24:41.bomb shelters. At the time, the Post Office was developing its own
:24:42. > :24:49.underground railway for moving mail and it was used to store some of the
:24:50. > :24:56.nationa portrait gallery's most precious art. So this is where they
:24:57. > :25:00.brought all the paintings. Tell me more? Correct. Well, for the first
:25:01. > :25:04.part of the war, the gallery was storing its collections in the
:25:05. > :25:07.gallery's basement, but by August 1917, they were increasingly
:25:08. > :25:11.concerned about the threat of aerial attacks. They were advised to move
:25:12. > :25:19.the collections underground. There was only one member of gallery staff
:25:20. > :25:23.who was on duty at any one time. Government advised we may want to
:25:24. > :25:27.arm them with revolvers to maintain the security of the portraits, but I
:25:28. > :25:33.don't think they wept ahead with that. Was it top`secret? I think it
:25:34. > :25:37.was top`secret. A lot of the records we have are stamped secret and in
:25:38. > :25:40.confidence and there was a very small list of people who were
:25:41. > :25:46.authorised to come down into these tunnels and to be around the art
:25:47. > :25:49.works. Top`secret, those words made me
:25:50. > :25:55.think. Surely all this letter writing backwards and forwards and
:25:56. > :26:00.to and from the front would not go uncensored. Censorship was very much
:26:01. > :26:05.in force from the beginning of the war and the Post Office were
:26:06. > :26:10.responsible for managing and overseeing that service. This was
:26:11. > :26:13.from a chap called Harry Brown who was writing to his mother. It gives
:26:14. > :26:18.a limited range of information that one can write. If you put anything
:26:19. > :26:23.on it other than that it he wouldn't be sent. It would be destroyed. It
:26:24. > :26:34.was to enable people let people know all was well.
:26:35. > :26:40.The war went on for four ghastly long years with the GPO beavering
:26:41. > :26:46.away to keep things going. Sad news was being delivered of lost loved
:26:47. > :26:57.ones with a consistency, but the letter to Captain Peel's, which I
:26:58. > :27:03.read earlier, shows there was a modicum of decency. I feel it as a
:27:04. > :27:08.human duty to communicate you this sad news. The letter was in fact
:27:09. > :27:18.written unposted by a German soldier.
:27:19. > :27:29.If you want more stories about world war one, there will be more on the
:27:30. > :27:32.BBC website. If you missed that, I will give it to you before the end
:27:33. > :27:36.of the programme. That's about it. Let's have a look at what's coming
:27:37. > :27:41.up next week: We join the Fraud Squad and reveal
:27:42. > :27:45.the latest council house scam. We have five cases this morning. All of
:27:46. > :27:50.allegations that the property has been sublet. We are hoping to catch
:27:51. > :27:54.the sub tenant in the property. Why these gardeners are fighting the
:27:55. > :27:59.Government to save their athe lotments. Add `` allotments. Adding
:28:00. > :28:05.700 houses this this area is madness. Building houses on an
:28:06. > :28:18.allotment site is immorale. And when brains meet brawn, the rise
:28:19. > :28:26.of chess boxing. It goes back to an old concept of warrior poet who is
:28:27. > :28:31.emotionally sensitive and capable of thought and planning.
:28:32. > :28:34.That's all from this week's Inside Out London. If you missed any of
:28:35. > :28:45.tonight's show, catch up on the iplayer. Go to:
:28:46. > :29:05.Thank you very much for watching. See you next week.
:29:06. > :29:09.Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update. Two women and four
:29:10. > :29:10.dogs have