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In 1840, one man transformed
travel in the British Isles.

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His name was George Bradshaw,
and his railway guides inspired the
Victorians to take to the tracks.

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Stop by stop, he told them
where to travel,

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what to see and where to stay.

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Now, 170 years later, I'm making
a series of journeys

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across the length and breadth
of these isles

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to see what of Bradshaw's Britain
remains.

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Armed with my Bradshaw's guide,
I'm now on the second instalment

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of my journey from the Solent
to the Humber,

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with Portsmouth behind me and the
ports of London and Grimsby ahead.

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On today's journey, I'll get close
to some precious Victorian botany.

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So, here you can see a lovely
specimen of a maidenhair fern

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collected by Charles Darwin on
the famous voyage of The Beagle.

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It's quite moving to see this stuff.
Yeah.

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I'll play croquet.
You cannot be serious!

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This is where I get a hammering.

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Ha!

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And in Surrey, I'll visit
a surprising 19th century
place of worship.

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But it's not only
the first UK mosque,

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it's the first mosque to be built
in the whole of Northern Europe.

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Using my Bradshaw's Guide,

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I began on the Hampshire coast
in Portsmouth,

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and travelled up through Surrey.

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I'll push on to London,
and northeast to Cambridgeshire,

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alighting finally in Grimsby
on the Humber.

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This second leg of my journey
starts in Woking,

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heads northeast to Kew
and Richmond upon Thames,

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then Wimbledon and finally
Clapham Junction.

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As I approach Woking, my Bradshaw's
continues to dwell on

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the rural charms of Surrey -
"On both sides of the line, Woking
Common is seen to extend for miles,

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"only broken by the windings
of the Basingstoke Canal."

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And then it notes that the station
is a mile away.

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For old Woking was just
a small village.

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The big Woking that we know today is
only there because of the railway.

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The line into Waterloo from
Southampton via Woking

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opened in 1840, and 19 years later
the line via Guildford to
Portsmouth followed.

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Victorian missionaries must have
travelled these lines to the
south coast ports

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on the first leg of their journeys
to spread the Christian word to
the far reaches of the empire,

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but in Woking, religion from the far
reaches of the empire came to the
mother country.

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I'm meeting Asad Jamil
and Khalil Martin

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who both worship at the town's
Shah Jahan Mosque,

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an important landmark, not only in
Woking but for all British Muslims.

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Hi, Asad. Hi, Michael.
Welcome to the Shah Jahan Mosque.

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It's a wonderful building. What's
its history? When was it built?

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It was built in 1889 by someone
called William Gottleib Lietner,

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of Hungarian origin.

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Actually, his family were Jewish,
they converted to Anglicanism.

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What was his interest
in Islam, then?

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He was an Orientalist, and he spent
most of his life out in India.

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He built institutions out there -
universities, schools,

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he published magazines,

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and then he returned to England
and he wanted to establish
an Oriental institute,

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and it just happened that there was
a building available in Woking
that suited his purposes.

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In 1884, Arabic scholar
William Lietner bought the disused
Royal Dramatic College

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and turned it into an
Oriental institute.

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He intended to satisfy the spiritual
needs of all his students,

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and anyone who lived within reach,
by building a synagogue, a church,
a Hindu temple and a mosque,

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but managed to complete only
the Shah Jahan.

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With Windsor Castle
just 20 miles away,

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its most frequent early worshippers
were Queen Victoria's Muslim staff.

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So, I imagine this Victorian
building must be the first
purpose-built mosque in the UK?

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Yes, that is our claim to fame.
But it's not only the first UK
mosque,

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it's the first mosque to be built
in the whole of Northern Europe.

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With such a beautiful and historic
mosque, is it quite well known
in the Islamic world?

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It's world famous,
because part of its history was

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there was a Muslim mission
established here,

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and they published a journal called
The Islamic Review, which was sent
throughout the world.

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So, yes, it was very famous.

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You're very close here to Woking
station. Do people actually come
to this mosque from far and wide?

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Absolutely. We get people from London
coming all the time,

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and they quite often say,
"We've just come off the train
and we saw this building

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"and we've come in
and come to have a look."

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I find the interesting thing is
so many people that come here

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say it's so peaceful here,
and yet as we stand here there are
planes going overhead and trains.

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It's actually very noisy,
but despite that it has a real sense
of peace. Do you feel that?

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I absolutely do. But, of course,
I have very special feelings about
train noise,

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to me it's not a pollution.
THEY LAUGH

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So, Michael, it's time for prayers.
Would you like to come and join us?

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It would be a great privilege,
thank you very much.

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IMAM LEADS PRAYER

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ALL PRAY

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Thank you very much
for letting us be here.

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Thanks. Thank you for coming.
It is so...

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A great thing whenever somebody
comes, especially our guest.

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You're always welcome.
Thank you very much indeed.

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During the First World War,

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over 800,000 Indian troops
fought in The British Army.

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They were posted to most theatres
of war including Flanders, Gallipoli
and North and East Africa.

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Over 50,000 were classed as killed
or missing in action.

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A large number were Muslim.

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This is another very tranquil spot,
what's the history of this?

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This was built during the First
World War, in 1915, actually,

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And the reason it was built
is that the Germans were putting out

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propaganda that the Muslim soldiers
weren't being given proper
burial rights,

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they were actually
being burned as Hindus,

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and that would have been very
alarming to a Muslim soldier,

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and the idea was to try and
encourage desertion.

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And the war office took it so
seriously that they wanted to put
out the message

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that this wasn't true, so they
created this Muslim burial ground.

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And it's, of course, because
it was adjacent to the mosque
that this site was chosen.

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We have to remind ourselves that
if the Indian army had been led to
mutiny or desertion,

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this would have been incredibly
serious for the British Empire.

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Oh, absolutely. And where were
these bodies coming from?

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Injured soldiers coming back
from the war were being treated
in Brighton Pavilion.

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It's interesting -
part of the counter-propaganda

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was that they turned the Brighton
Pavilion into an infirmary

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because they thought the Indian
soldiers would feel more at home

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in a pastiche Indian architectural
building, and also what they did,

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they put out the message that
the King had actually given up

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his personal residence as
an infirmary for these Indian
soldiers,

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and this went down a treat in India.
As a counter-propaganda,
it was hugely successful.

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Leaving Woking and the first
mosque in Britain behind,

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my journey takes me
towards the capital,

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and to what was in Bradshaw's time
a Thames-side village.

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My Bradshaw's can sometimes be
delightfully half-hearted.

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About my next destination it writes,

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"The gardens are the principal
objects of attraction.

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"They're not very large nor
is their situation advantageous

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"as it is low
and commands no prospects,

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"but they contain the finest
collection of plants in this country

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"and various ornamental buildings."

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Yes, I am on my way to Kew.

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On this journey I have to change,
and if you've got to change train,
where better than Clapham Junction,

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cos it gives you more choice
than probably any other station
I can think of.

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The Royal Botanic Gardens
transferred from the Crown to
public ownership in 1840.

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Nine years later the railways
arrived, and people visited
in droves.

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Bill! Welcome. Smart set of
wheels. Yeah, very nice. Off you go.

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'Dr Bill Baker is going to show
me around.'

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As I came in the gates just now,
I noticed "VR" over the gates,
"Victoria Regina",

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does that mean these are
Victorian gardens?

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The landscape is full of Victorian
buildings and Victorian heritage,

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but actually the gardens' history
goes back a lot further than that.

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Fundamentally, it's really a Georgian
history the gardens has.

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Originally it was two gardens.

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The first of the gardens was
Richmond Garden on that side,

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it's a Capability Brown landscape
that was part of the work
that George III commissioned

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when he was living occasionally
at Richmond Lodge.

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And then on the other side,
you have the garden of the
Prince And Princess Of Wales.

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Frederick Prince Of Wales died young,
but his wife, Princess Augusta,

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she was very interested in plants.

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She appointed the first official
gardener to Kew,

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and that's kind of where
we date our official start.

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My Bradshaw's guide is quite
interested in the buildings here.

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It mentions the orangery,
the pagoda, and the palm house.

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Are they all still here?
They are, absolutely. We're just
coming up onto the orangery shortly.

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You can see the palm house behind us.

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The pagoda is the building in the
long vista beyond the palm house,

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Yeah, they are the really iconic
features of our landscape.

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On my railway journeys,
I come across again and again

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this mania that there was
in Victorian times

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for the collecting of plants
from all around the world. Yes.

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Presumably Kew was a beneficiary,
played a big part in this, as well.

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Well, yes, I mean, much more than
a beneficiary.

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Yes, I mean, not to put too fine
a point on it, it was headquarters
for that kind of thing.

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Since its Georgian inception,
The Royal Botanic Gardens

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has collected specimens of flora
from all over the world,

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and Dr Baker has promised to show me
some of his Victorian favourites.

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You're probably wondering
what's in these cupboards.

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Well, here you can see just a small
sample of our eight million specimens
of plants and fungi

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that we hold here at Kew.
May I see them?

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Of course. In the cupboards here
we have specimens of pressed
dried plant material.

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The methods are not rocket science.

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So, here you can see
just one example -

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a specimen of a plant that was
collected in the wild in Bolivia.

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It's got flowers on it, it's got
notes here all about exactly

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where the plant was collected, who
collected it. It's got information
about the features of the plant.

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These are important bits of
information for a botanist.

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And what did the Victorians
ever do for Kew?

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Well, the quick answer to that is
that they did everything for Kew.

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They laid the foundations
for modern Kew,

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and for the way that we botanists
work today,

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and I've got a whole set of material
out to try and illustrate that
for you. Thank you.

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Some of Kew's most precious
specimens

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were donated by the most celebrated
botanists and explorers of
Victorian Britain.

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So, just to give you an idea as to
the kind of riches that we have here,

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I've pulled out some
particularly special things.

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So, here you can see a lovely
specimen of a maidenhair fern

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collected by Charles Darwin
on the famous voyage of The Beagle.

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It's quite moving to see this stuff.
Yeah, totally, absolutely.

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And then underneath, one also
rather romantic specimen

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collected on one of the
Livingstone expeditions.

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And this is apparently potentially
the first plant collection.

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It's a collection of a mangrove
made by the plant collector Kirk,

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who was quite a talented artist,
as well.

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A lot of our material is accompanied
by these lovely little

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illustrations by
the botanists themselves.

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Considered by many to be the most
important surviving Victorian iron
and glass structure in the world,

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Kew's Palm House was completed
in 1848.

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I'm used to being in awe of
Victorian architecture,

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but this building with its great
heights, this must have been an
iconic building in its day.

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Absolutely. It was a complete
sensation.

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The building was designed to show
palms off to their best
possible extent,

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and it needed a collaboration
between an architect and an engineer

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of the sort that had never happened
before to achieve this.

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by using technology from ship
building, we have these fantastic
spans brought about

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by the use of wrought-iron deck
beams, and it just gives this
wonderful clarity

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as well as the completely perfect
arcs in the ironwork.

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I mean, it's spine-tingling stuff,
really, the Palm House.

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And how did the Victorians heat it?

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Well, there were boilers
in the basement here,

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and they were fuelled by coke
which was ferried over

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from a yard just across the pond,
there, by our own underground
railway.

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A railway. I love it.

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As I leave the lush palms of Kew,
I'm reminded of the huge mark
left by so many Victorian Britons,

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just as I'm confronted by
a miniscule one of my own.

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This plaque commemorates

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that when I was a member
of the government

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I reopened the rebuilt
Kew Gardens Station,

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and that was on 7th of October 1989.

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00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,520
You understand
I was a child minister.

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Originally opened in 1869,
the station is now

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part of the London Underground and
the new London Overground network.

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00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:25,280
I'm bound for Richmond, which
my Bradshaw's says "is a delightful
town in Surrey,

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00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,320
"on the South Western Railway
and the River Thames,

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"in the midst of scenery which,
though often praised and admired,
never grows old or wearisome."

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And I never grow tired
of messing about in boats.

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00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,960
Richmond was originally the site
of royal palaces,

218
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,040
but the train brought
ordinary people.

219
00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,880
Their favourite pursuits?

220
00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:55,120
To promenade along the riverside
and then to row on the waters.

221
00:15:55,120 --> 00:16:01,000
An important local industry grew up
to facilitate that Victorian
pleasure.

222
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,800
Bill Collie is one of the last
remaining boat builders in Richmond.

223
00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:10,360
Bill. Good afternoon, sir.
May I come in? Welcome, please do.
Thank you very much.

224
00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:14,040
Bill, how long have you been
building boats? About 60 years.

225
00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:17,680
And when you started, was there a
lot of boat building going on here?

226
00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:22,560
Oh, yes. This boat here,
what is it and did you make it?

227
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,200
It's called a sculling boat,
but I didn't make it.

228
00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,280
Boats are built, not made.
I stand corrected.

229
00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:32,080
Is this typical of boats
that were built here?

230
00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:36,440
Yes, yes. I think only I,
blowing my own trumpet here,

231
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,200
I'm the only one who built sculling
boats in Richmond.

232
00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,680
I get the impression that at the
time of my Bradshaw's guide
in Victorian times,

233
00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:46,720
coming down to go out on the river
was very popular. Oh, yes, yes.

234
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,000
The trains made it easier
to get to Richmond, and they all
went and hired a boat.

235
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,040
Some of the old fellas, who are all
dead unfortunately,

236
00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:56,360
I'm the only one left,
but they would tell me

237
00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,160
10 o'clock in the morning,
everything was out.

238
00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:03,360
Every boat they had and then
they had a queue waiting for them
to come back.

239
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:07,440
It's not so very hot today,
but I do feel like going on
the river, any chance of that?

240
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,280
There'll be a man waiting for you
down there. Thank you.

241
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:17,480
I've had a fascinating but long day,
and it's time to get my head down.

242
00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,440
My hotel for the night
is on the river.

243
00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,720
What better way to arrive
than being sculled?

244
00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:27,160
Thank you very much.

245
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:44,440
After a good night's rest, I'm up
early for the next leg
of my journey.

246
00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:47,680
Back on the mainline, I'm heading
to a South London suburb.

247
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:54,360
My next destination has long been
associated with physical prowess.

248
00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:59,280
As my Bradshaw's says,
"Wimbledon was formally celebrated
in the annals of duelling,

249
00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:05,120
"a practice which has now become
synonymous with our notions of such
killing being murder

250
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:11,440
"and therefore like many other
customs and habits of
uncivilised beings."

251
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:15,320
Well, as we all know, Wimbledon
subsequently became associated

252
00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:19,160
with a sport of the utmost
refinement.

253
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,440
By the 18th century, Wimbledon was
fast becoming a highly fashionable,

254
00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:28,640
albeit isolated village, where
wealthy Londoners sought country
retreats.

255
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:34,800
The railway arrived in 1838, but it
wasn't until improvements in the
service in the 1850s

256
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,920
that Wimbledon became
a significant suburb.

257
00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,640
I'm here to visit the spiritual
home of British tennis,

258
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:46,080
and to meet Mike Hann, who wants to
put right the common misconception

259
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,040
of the origins of Wimbledon's place
as a centre of sporting excellence.

260
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:55,480
These are the great tennis
trophies, are they?

261
00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:58,160
Yes, here's the men's singles trophy,

262
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,080
and here is the roll of
the ladies' singles,

263
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,840
here are the winners going back,
from 1884 and Miss Kvitova

264
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,520
who won the title in 2011.

265
00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,360
Interestingly, they had the transfer
up just when she was coming off
the court.

266
00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:14,600
So they'd prepared two names?
Exactly.

267
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,640
You may be surprised that
I won't be watching tennis today.

268
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:23,240
But then, this is the All England
Lawn Tennis And CROQUET Club.

269
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,640
Mike, there's no mention of your
illustrious club in my Bradshaw's.

270
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,360
When was it founded?

271
00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:31,400
Well, the club was founded
in about 1869.

272
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,520
It was founded as the All England
Croquet Club, then it became

273
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:37,840
the All England Croquet
And Lawn Tennis Club,

274
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:39,880
and then the All England
Lawn Tennis Club,

275
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:44,400
and finally in 1899 it was settled
on the All England Lawn Tennis
And Croquet Club.

276
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,080
And it's stayed the same ever since,
thank goodness.

277
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,120
The precise origin of croquet
is unknown,

278
00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:54,200
but some historians believe that
the game evolved as a high society
recreation

279
00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:58,280
in Ireland during the first half
of the 19th century,

280
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:03,560
taking England by storm in the 1860s
since it provided men and women,
young and old

281
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:09,240
with an opportunity to compete
outdoors on equal terms.

282
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:13,760
The mechanical lawn mower, invented
by Edwin Beard Budding in 1830

283
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:17,840
allowed the maintenance of fine
turf, and the growing railway
network

284
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,200
enabled players to travel
easily to tournaments.

285
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,000
So, Michael, choose your weapon.

286
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:30,240
OK? Very good. Well, you haven't
chosen mine. I'm pleased about that.

287
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:35,200
Do you think my life in politics
equips me for this vicious game?
Spot on.

288
00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,520
This is where I get a hammering.

289
00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:45,120
THEY CHEER

290
00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:46,600
OK.

291
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:48,600
Ha!

292
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:50,640
You've got tremendous potential.

293
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,880
You've got a good eye,
natural eye, which is...

294
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:58,360
and you kept your head down,
and that's very, very important.

295
00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:01,200
I have not. That was 100% a fluke.

296
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,680
THEY LAUGH

297
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,960
Until today, I associated croquet
with Alice In Wonderland,

298
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,720
but now I see it as a game of
tactics and skill.

299
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,240
Leaving behind the lush lawns
of Wimbledon,

300
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,120
I'm heading to my final
destination - Clapham Junction.

301
00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:27,600
Opened in 1863 and situated,
perversely, in the heart of
Battersea.

302
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,120
I'm keen to find out how the coming
of the railways affected the area.

303
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:37,680
Ruth MacLeod is a heritage officer
at Battersea Library.

304
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:43,880
This is the 1838 tithe map which
shows the whole of Battersea.

305
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,880
It's got the railway line, there.

306
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,960
It starts up at Nine Elms,
and runs all the way to here,

307
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,480
and Clapham Junction station, as
we know it today, is round here.

308
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,440
But at this point in 1838,
Clapham Junction doesn't exist
at all? No.

309
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,600
And the railway line running down
to Southampton,

310
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:06,520
actually, it just ends. This is,
what, Nine Elms? Yes, that's right,
Nine Elms.

311
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:10,800
And all of this is, what, just
fields? Just agriculture?
Just fields.

312
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,560
There are a few houses there.

313
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:16,600
I had no idea that it was
so rural as late as 1838.

314
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,000
And can you show me, then, how the
railways changed south London?

315
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:25,160
Yes, we've got Ordnance Survey
maps from the 1860s and the 1890s
which show a real difference.

316
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,640
So, this is the 1865 Ordinance
Survey map. As you can see it's still

317
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,680
not terribly built up. The area
around here is actually market
gardens.

318
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,120
I find this map particularly
interesting, because 1865

319
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,160
is the same date as my Bradshaw's
guide,

320
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:46,040
and talking about the line
coming down from Vauxhall,

321
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,880
he says that
it enters upon an embankment

322
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:50,520
which indeed I can see here,

323
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,080
and travels through
spacious market gardens.

324
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,560
So, this is an exact transcription
of what I am seeing on the map,
isn't it?

325
00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:58,600
Yes, that is absolutely right.

326
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:02,080
And then if we move to the 1890s map,
you can see there's quite a change.

327
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,120
Another transformation.
It's a lot more built up.

328
00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:09,400
The area round here is actually
the Shaftsbury Park Estate.
And what is that?

329
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:15,320
An estate built in the 1870s
by what is called the Artisans And
General Labourers Society

330
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,760
specifically for working
people to move into.

331
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,600
Skilled working class to come
and live here,

332
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:28,720
maybe out of central London
and into somewhere slightly
more rural, as it maybe then was.

333
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:32,960
Ruth has not only maps of
Battersea's Shaftesbury Park Estate.

334
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:37,240
She also has personal information
about its residents.

335
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:38,680
This is the 1881 census.

336
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:42,120
It's from one of the streets
in the Shaftesbury Park estate.

337
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:44,640
On the right-hand column here
it says where people are born,

338
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,080
so we've got somebody who was
born in Derbyshire,

339
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,560
a whole family from Kent, Berkshire,
somebody from Ireland, Oxfordshire.

340
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,720
And then here we've got their rank,
profession or occupation.

341
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,960
There's a cloth damper,
there's a milliner apprentice,

342
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,400
school master,
engine driver at a factory

343
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,080
and telegraph clerk.

344
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:08,120
So, we're talking here about
artisans, we're talking about people
of some quality.

345
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:11,000
The upper working class, as it were.
Yes, the skilled workers.

346
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:15,600
People who have gone out
and learnt a trade, or in the case
of the apprentice are learning one.

347
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:22,960
Built in the 1870s, the Shaftesbury
Park Estate is laid out in wide
tree-lined streets,

348
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:28,000
and each of the 1,200 two-storey
homes has a front and back garden.

349
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,080
They were the antithesis
of the squalor and deprivation

350
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,960
to which many of the skilled workers
who lived here were accustomed.

351
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:41,240
With just £170, you could buy one.
And Joan Rawson's grandfather
did just that.

352
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,680
Joan and her friend Doreen
still live on the estate.

353
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,480
Doreen, how long have you lived
on the Shaftesbury Park Estate?

354
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,760
30 years now. And you, Joan?

355
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:56,200
I've lived here 83 years. I was
born in the bedroom upstairs.

356
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,080
You were born in this house?

357
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,320
I certainly was, yes. Well,
how have you found living here?

358
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:06,640
You must have liked it.
Well, lots of things have changed,
obviously, over the years.

359
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,880
You know, as a child
we had great fun.

360
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,960
Constructed with the philanthropic
assistance of Lord Shaftesbury,

361
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:19,440
and later managed by the Peabody
Trust, Battersea's Shaftesbury
Park Estate

362
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:24,480
was a model of affordable social
housing, offering security
to workers who'd been forced out

363
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,360
of their central London homes
to make way for the railways.

364
00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:30,200
Was it a neighbourly place?

365
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:36,240
Yes, very. Everybody knew everybody
else, you could go out and leave
your door open.

366
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,520
We were all contented as children.

367
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:44,000
Although we didn't have a lot
in those days, as you can imagine.

368
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:50,160
Like so many outer London suburbs,
Battersea underwent a 19th century
metamorphosis,

369
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,520
much of it driven by the coming
of the railways.

370
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,440
To carry on my journey, I'm heading
back to Clapham Junction station.

371
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:03,680
Opened in 1863, with its spaghetti
of lines emanating from Victoria
and Waterloo,

372
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:10,400
and 20 million passengers changing
trains here annually, it's Britain's
busiest station.

373
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,480
But local activist Philip Beddows
wants to see a big change.

374
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:20,360
Now, I understand you think that
Clapham Junction is misnamed?

375
00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:24,000
It is. Back in the 1860s when they
built this station,

376
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,480
Battersea was expanding from its
river location out here,

377
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,520
and they thought, "How could we get
people to come and use this station

378
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,800
"and make this place seem a rather
nice place to come and live?"

379
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:43,480
So they gave it the name
Clapham Junction in order to attract
people to this higher-branded area.

380
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,360
Clapham was a better name? Yes, in
those days it was very, very smart,

381
00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:51,400
and Battersea was looked down on
as industrial, poor,

382
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:57,560
full of radical politics and not
really such a great place to be
living.

383
00:26:57,560 --> 00:26:59,760
So, if this is Battersea,
where is Clapham?

384
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:02,240
Well, Clapham's about one and a half
to two miles away.

385
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,640
Back in the 19th century,

386
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,280
when Bradshaw did his railway
timetable,

387
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:11,600
he actually recorded a note
to warn travellers that when they
arrived in Clapham Junction,

388
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,360
they were right in the middle
of Battersea, not in Clapham.

389
00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:17,480
And what do you want to
rename this station?

390
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,880
We'd like Clapham Junction to be
"Clapham Junction (Battersea)".

391
00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,120
I can see in the future there
are going to be shoals of confused

392
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:27,520
foreign tourists scratching their
heads as they try and work out where
they are.

393
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,200
Maybe, but they are going to be
less confused than they are today.

394
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,160
Victorian Britain is evoked by the
croquet lawns of Wimbledon

395
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:45,080
and the conservatories of Kew, but
for the working class life was no
bed of roses,

396
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:49,640
and the philanthropy of Shaftesbury
and Peabody also typify the age.

397
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:55,600
Bradshaw's Britain was as grimy
as it was green.

398
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:57,840
On the next leg of my journey,

399
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,400
I'll learn that volunteer Victorian
firefighters liked a tipple.

400
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,560
To encourage people to come
and help pump the fire engine,

401
00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,880
insurance brigades would either take
kegs of beer with them to a fire,

402
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,160
or they would take beer tokens
with them.

403
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:16,680
I'll discover how even 19th century
sewage pumps were a celebration
of design.

404
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:17,920
Open this valve, here.

405
00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:27,720
And I'll put in a shift at the
oldest fish market in Britain.

406
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:29,840
Thank you, Michael.
Let's get them boxed up.

407
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:32,760
The man wants his fish today,
not the weekend.
MICHAEL CHUCKLES

408
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,600
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