0:00:02 > 0:00:03BBC Four Collections -
0:00:03 > 0:00:06archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10For this collection, Simon Jenkins has selected programmes
0:00:10 > 0:00:13celebrating the people and places of London.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16More programmes on this theme and other BBC Four collections
0:00:16 > 0:00:19are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38Bedford Square.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43This really is what Bloomsbury, in its heyday, was all about.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Lovely rows of Georgian houses surrounding a garden.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51The garden itself, providing an oasis against all the hubbub
0:00:51 > 0:00:56of urban life and aesthetically pleasing, as well.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00These marvellously elegant Georgian houses
0:01:00 > 0:01:04are a superb example of how the great families in England,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07in this case notably the Russells, Dukes of Bedford,
0:01:07 > 0:01:08laid out their estates.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14It's seen some extraordinarily famous people.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17The home of Forbes-Robertson is here.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20The Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Eldon, lived here
0:01:20 > 0:01:22and on that side, Lady Ottoline Morrell,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26who threw those marvellously extravagant and opulent parties
0:01:26 > 0:01:28for the cognoscenti of the day.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31But my view of Bloomsbury begins somewhere else
0:01:31 > 0:01:33and is a little less grand.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Cromer House is where I came to live when I was very young
0:01:38 > 0:01:41and from that window where you can see the red geraniums,
0:01:41 > 0:01:42I used to through flower pots
0:01:42 > 0:01:45onto the heads of the unsuspecting passers-by
0:01:45 > 0:01:46and one of them happened to be Florrie Plume,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48who was a great friend of my mother's.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51And she said afterwards, "It was only wearing that thick felt hat
0:01:51 > 0:01:54"that saved me from a terrible injury from your boy."
0:01:59 > 0:02:04My missile throwing was not the result of wickedness,
0:02:04 > 0:02:09it was simply because I suffered from insomnia, and frankly I still do.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13There you are, you see. An enclosed community.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16And built like the squares of Bloomsbury were built,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19on the principle of the interior quadrangle.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Here the walls, providing shelter from the wind,
0:02:21 > 0:02:23and the open space in the centre.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28I'm not trying to romanticise these living conditions, of course.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31When they were built there were no bathrooms
0:02:31 > 0:02:33and my mother had to make do with one tin bath
0:02:33 > 0:02:35hanging up behind the kitchen door
0:02:35 > 0:02:37and, of course, the rooms were cramped,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39but they were not jerry-built.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41They've stood the test of time marvellously
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and on these balconies there was a great deal of good-neighbourliness
0:02:45 > 0:02:46and probably a lot more friendliness
0:02:46 > 0:02:49than you'd find in your present modern, high-rise blocks.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52And we didn't have far to go to school.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55It was on that roof that I rehearsed Princess Angelica
0:02:55 > 0:02:57in Thackeray's Rose And The Ring.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Very good notices I got for it too, deservedly.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04At the back here, of the playground,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07was the old Regent Theatre, which has now gone.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09And you'd think, wouldn't you,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12that they were going to build places for the homeless
0:03:12 > 0:03:14with the kind of housing problem they've got in this area?
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Well, they're not. This is to be an extension for the town hall.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20They've got three blocks in the same road already,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22so instead of places for the homeless,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26there'll be bureaucrats discussing the plight of the homeless.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31The whole thing lies in the fairy-like turrets and splendours
0:03:31 > 0:03:34of St Pancras station, designed by Gilbert Scott,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36who did the Albert Memorial.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38There were incredible scenes at the opening.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Cries and sobs of, "Oh, it's too beautiful!"
0:03:42 > 0:03:45As, of course, for the London and North-Eastern Railway,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48it certainly was.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50One of the pleasures of growing up in Bloomsbury
0:03:50 > 0:03:55was being surrounded by these lovely squares and their gardens.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Like the garden in Tavistock Square with its statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04When these estates were originally laid out, the great landlords,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08like the Russells, leased the houses rather than sold them,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11in the interest of preserving the symmetry of the squares
0:04:11 > 0:04:13and the architectural harmony.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15But, sadly, leases don't last for ever
0:04:15 > 0:04:18and many of them have been ruined.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20Look at Russell Square.
0:04:30 > 0:04:31On that side, there's nothing now
0:04:31 > 0:04:35except a vast sort of laboratory in concrete for London University.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Next door to that, a huge office block.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Here, nothing but office conversions,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and very dreary at that - how sad they all look.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46And where there was once this wonderfully extravagant facade
0:04:46 > 0:04:49of the old Imperial Hotel with architectural conceits all over it,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52you've now got this bed and breakfast vulgarity
0:04:52 > 0:04:54which would be more at home in the Costa del Sol.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57I mean, Torremolinos is full of this kind of rubbish.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Thank goodness they've left the Russell Hotel alone,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03which has four charming niches,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05housing Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Queen Anne
0:05:05 > 0:05:07and, of course, Queen Victoria.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Woburn Square has been hopelessly bashed about,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18and by the London University,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21because, not content with taking over houses
0:05:21 > 0:05:24for departments of this and departments of that,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27they've actually bashed the houses down. And to make way for what?
0:05:27 > 0:05:28Well, for this sort of thing,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33which doesn't even belong in an area like this.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35And that appalling conglomerate mass of concrete behind there,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38well, that has nothing to do with Bloomsbury at all.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40And there used to be a lovely little church there.
0:05:40 > 0:05:41A charming little Gothic church
0:05:41 > 0:05:43with a tower that almost dominated the Square,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46and now, apart from the portico, there's nothing left.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51The tentacles of London University seem to have spread even to here,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Gordon Square.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56And though no-one seems to actually reside here any more,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58I can never walk these pavements without thinking
0:05:58 > 0:06:00of those incredible and eccentric and brilliant people
0:06:00 > 0:06:02who once did live here.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04I think of Virginia Woolf and Leonard Woolf
0:06:04 > 0:06:06who ran the Hogarth Press and printed, incidentally,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09the first edition of TS Eliot's The Waste Land.
0:06:09 > 0:06:10And the Strachey family
0:06:10 > 0:06:13who were so intimately connected with The Spectator,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16whose offices in Gower Street are just over the way even to this day.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20I once knew a lady who had to read to old Lady Strachey
0:06:20 > 0:06:24who was rather deaf, and she said, "I called out to her,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28" 'I won't bother with the chapter headings, Lady Strachey.' "
0:06:28 > 0:06:32And the reply was, "Well, they're the only bits I enjoy."
0:06:32 > 0:06:37And here we are at the house in which Lytton Strachey lived.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Lytton, that loveable eccentric.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43I think of Lytton at the conscientious objectors' tribunal,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46with his inflatable rubber ring, saying,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49"It's the piles! The dreadful piles!"
0:06:49 > 0:06:53And, when his Rolls Royce failed to start, saying,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55"We'll have to turn it into a greenhouse."
0:06:55 > 0:06:58The Lytton Stracheys and their friends
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry, EM Forster,
0:07:01 > 0:07:06all of them seem to epitomise Bloomsbury, intellectually.
0:07:06 > 0:07:07And within a few yards of here,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10the architectural apotheosis of Bloomsbury itself,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12the British Museum.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18It has a fine Greek facade, as you can see.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20It was designed by the Smirke brothers.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23The whole thing's really a crib from the Parthenon
0:07:23 > 0:07:28and it's ironic that this museum should house the Elgin Marbles,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31those curious pieces of statuary
0:07:31 > 0:07:35which were in the frieze, originally, of the Parthenon itself.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39In the Assyrian section here, there's a fine head of Hadrian,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42who ruled over us as proconsul and built that incredible wall
0:07:42 > 0:07:45from Solway to Tyne against the barbarians.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49That's a Greek word that was coined by the dwellers of the city-state
0:07:49 > 0:07:52in derision of those outside who looked after the sheep
0:07:52 > 0:07:54and, they said, could only make noises like sheep
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and went, "Baa-baa!" Thus, barbarian,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00to indicate all the uncivilised values.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03As opposed to Hadrian who was eminently civilised
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and dead right for Bloomsbury.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35MUSIC PLAYS
0:09:16 > 0:09:18MUSIC CONTINUES TO PLAY
0:09:37 > 0:09:44I wanted to build a museum up round the nucleus of reproducing pianos,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47which, of course, are the most important item,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49so to speak, in the museum.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54We've added to the museum since, all of these other instruments
0:09:54 > 0:09:56which of course are not reproducing ones
0:09:56 > 0:09:59but which, nevertheless, are very attractive.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Now, we have husbands and wives who come along here.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The husband might come along to have a look at the works in a piano
0:10:05 > 0:10:07whereas the wife likes the music.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10PIANO AND VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYS
0:10:29 > 0:10:33MUSIC CONTINUES TO PLAY
0:10:53 > 0:10:59In about 1890, Henry Conrad Sandell emigrated from Sweden to America.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03In four...three years, between 1904 and 1907,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06he contrived the whole of this instrument,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09with the Mills Novelty Company in Chicago, here, where he worked.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Out on the left here, are the weights
0:11:12 > 0:11:14which keep the strings of the violin at constant tension,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16regardless of atmospheric conditions.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18This is the after-play mute.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Here, in the centre, are the fingers
0:11:21 > 0:11:24which stop off the strings from underneath, like that,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26instead of on top, as usual.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Here is the automatic resin device,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31which comes down in between the tunes.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33And a very clever violin it is, too.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36It can play both outside strings at once, if it wants to.
0:11:36 > 0:11:37You try that with a bow.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS
0:11:52 > 0:11:55MUSIC CONTINUES TO PLAY
0:12:05 > 0:12:09PERCUSSION IS ADDED TO THE MUSIC
0:12:54 > 0:12:58MUSIC CONTINUES TO PLAY
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Before I found this church,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23they were stored in vicarages and garages all over the country.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Then one day, I noticed a piece in the paper
0:13:26 > 0:13:28about there being 800 redundant churches,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30so I started looking around.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34In the end, I was successful in getting this one, down in Brentford.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37It was in a shocking condition when I first came into it.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39The roof was leaking, the pews were awash,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42the hymn books were thrown all over the place by vandals,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45the organ pipes were out, some of the windows were out,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48the floor blocks were all up.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50I think the vandals were coming back to set fire to them,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52but luckily they didn't.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57Anyhow, after going up on the roof and repairing the leaks myself,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59I eventually got an old pensioner
0:13:59 > 0:14:01who came along and helped for a year or two.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04And then, now, we're quite... we're very well set up
0:14:04 > 0:14:07with a fine band of voluntary helpers who come along
0:14:07 > 0:14:09and just love doing the work
0:14:09 > 0:14:13and establishing the museum on even a firmer basis still.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Village cricket is the best form of cricket there is.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35A classless game, played by sturdy yeomen and country vicars,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37by men on the dole and well-to-do commuters.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40It's a game in which accent and income count for nothing
0:15:40 > 0:15:43and the only men worth knowing are those who score a few runs,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46take a few wickets and manage, somehow, to hold their catches.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48In recent years, this most satisfying form
0:15:48 > 0:15:50of the most beautiful of all games
0:15:50 > 0:15:52has been given particular significance
0:15:52 > 0:15:55by the Haig Village Cricket Championship, a knock-out competition
0:15:55 > 0:15:58which culminates on August 30th with the final at Lords,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01the Mecca of all cricketers, everywhere.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04This year, 808 teams took part.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08Teams with glorious names, like Nettlebed and Old Botley,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Burnt Yates and Thorpe Hesley,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Chaddesley Corbett and Coalpit Heath,
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Tolleshunt D'Arcy and Helions Bumpstead.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16You could write poems about names like that
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and John Betjeman probably has.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Well, this Sunday, eight of those teams will be
0:16:20 > 0:16:23fighting out the quarterfinals and if one of the games
0:16:23 > 0:16:24is in your district, rush to the ground
0:16:24 > 0:16:26and shout for your local side.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29If the match is anything like the one we saw in the area finals
0:16:29 > 0:16:33between Langleybury of Hertfordshire and Isleham of Cambridgeshire,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35you'll see a contest of fluctuating fortunes
0:16:35 > 0:16:38between men of steely determination and rugged skill,
0:16:38 > 0:16:42fought to an exciting and, I fear, slightly bitter conclusion.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:16:55 > 0:16:57CHURCH BELLS RING
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Howzat!
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Dangerous this, dangerous.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36BELLS CONTINUE TO RING
0:17:42 > 0:17:44Howzat!
0:17:44 > 0:17:46APPLAUSE
0:17:51 > 0:17:53HE MOUTHS
0:18:08 > 0:18:10Nobody's got any sleep here, this afternoon,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12because of the excitement of the game,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15but I gather you don't get any sleep the night before the game, either.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17No, I don't get a lot.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20You know, you usually try and think how the game's going to go
0:18:20 > 0:18:23and toss and turn for most of the night.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26In fact, this morning, I finished up in the bath with cramp,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29- believe it or not. Yeah, yeah. - What time was this?
0:18:29 > 0:18:33About twenty past six, I suppose.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35I come straight back, went to bed
0:18:35 > 0:18:38and damn me if I didn't dream about the game in between that time.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41I was having a row with my brother and Geoff Riddick.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43I most probably will after this game tonight, now.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Why do you get so worked up?
0:18:45 > 0:18:48People will say, "Well, it's only a game."
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Well, I think the thing is, they rely on me being the main bowler,
0:18:52 > 0:18:54you know, and...the pressure's on me,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and yet I feel for the other lads, you know,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00because they get so keyed up and nervous in the game.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04I mean, I've seen positions where we've handed the ball to a fella
0:19:04 > 0:19:07and his hand's gone like that when he's got to bowl.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10It's unbelievable how it gets you sometimes, you know?
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Gordon, do you feel the same way? Do you get that kind of tension?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Yeah, much the same, really.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19I think it's an effect that you've just got one chance of...
0:19:19 > 0:19:22of getting to Lords.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25This is what everybody dreams about, isn't it, if you play cricket?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28And, you know, at this level, it's a wonderful dream, isn't it?
0:19:28 > 0:19:33And you feel, if you lose out on this particular game, that's it.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39There was a year when one of the sides that reached the Haig final
0:19:39 > 0:19:42included about nine men who'd played Minor Counties cricket.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44We true village cricketers disapprove of that.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47The true village cricketer dreams of playing for his minor county
0:19:47 > 0:19:50the way a first-class cricketer dreams of playing for England,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and with even less chance of fulfilment.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56But Langleybury and Isleham, they're real village sides.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58And what a game they put on and what a finish they provided.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Each side, according to the rules, bowl 40 overs
0:20:01 > 0:20:03and around about seven o'clock
0:20:03 > 0:20:05we came to the 80th and last over of the match.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Six balls to go and Langleybury needing three to win.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Well, two would be enough if they could level the scores
0:20:10 > 0:20:12and still have a wicket in hand.
0:20:12 > 0:20:13But, alas, it was not to be.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Off the last ball, the 480th ball, they still needed two.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21They ran one, they tried for a second but the throw was quick and accurate.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23The wicket was down, the last man was run out
0:20:23 > 0:20:26and Isleham had won by one run.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Well, nothing could be more exciting than that.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30But, as I said, there was bitterness, too.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32The turning point of the game had come a few overs earlier
0:20:32 > 0:20:34with another run out.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Langleybury's skipper, all fierce concentration
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and bristling moustache, had looked to be winning the game,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42when the rival captain and wicketkeeper hurled the wicket down
0:20:42 > 0:20:43and he was given out.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45To no avail did Langleybury protest
0:20:45 > 0:20:49that their captain had merely strayed from his crease to pat the pitch.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Whatever the moral rights or wrongs of the situation, he had to go.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54We Hertfordshire men didn't think much of that.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57"Not on," we said. "Not cricket," we muttered into our beer.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00But there you are, there was nothing we could do about it.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Nothing, that is, except congratulate Isleham and dream about next year.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I should like to thank Langleybury for a great game.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12I'm sorry we play it hard, but that's our way.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15CHEERING
0:21:17 > 0:21:18Well done, Billy.