Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 5, Episode 11 - Southampton to Basingstoke - full transcript
In 1840, one man
transformed travel in Britain.
His name was George Bradshaw
and his railway guides inspired
the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to go,
what to see and where to stay.
And now, 170 years later,
I'm aboard for a series of rail
adventures across the United Kingdom
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain
remains.
Today, I'm beginning a new journey,
curving my way up the spine of England
using mainly branch lines.
These tracks put local trades
in touch with big markets in the city,
led to the invention of the commuter
and, most importantly,
enabled the Victorian masses
to explore their own country,
an experience which I'm repeating today.
On this stretch, I learn to set table
aboard an ocean linen...
- Thank you very much.
- You're faster than me.
(Michael laughs)
I visit a suspected Solent
smuggler's hideaway...
Whoa. But what a view.
Isn't that magnificent?
“And I discover the tactics employed
by the Victorian temperance movement.
All of a sudden, a group of uniformed
invaders come along shouting,
"Come out of the Devil's house,
you're going to hell,
you will not be saved if you carry on
drinking this foul liquid!"
My journey starts on the south coast,
heads to Hampshire's garrison town,
lakes in the cloth makers oi Newbury,
an engineering triumph in Bristol,
and concludes in the West Midlands
at Wolverhampton.
This leg starts amidst the luxury
cruise liners in Southampton docks,
heads west lo the town of Totton,
south-east to Netley,
and ends in riotous Basingstoke.
My first stop today is Southampton.
Bradshaw's says that, owing to the
advantageous effects of the railways,
"it's become one of
our leading commercial ports
formed on a scale of great magnitude".
I first visited the city when I was a
school child on a primary school outing
and I remember being so impressed
by the scale of everything.
In particular, in those days, by the
magnificent three-funnelled Queen Mary.
Se! upon the River lichen
and adjacent to the Salem,
Saxon Southampton
was such an important port
that in the ninth century
it had its own Royal Mint.
Famous {or its docks
and as the port from which the doomed
ocean liner Titanic sailed in 1912,
Southampton received its railway
in 1840.
But in those Victorian times, a train
ride ended in a different location.
Bradshaw's refers to
Southampton Terminus Station.
This is Southampton Central.
Not, I think, the same place.
I'm going in search of the old station.
A merchant city {or hundreds of years,
Southampton prospered
during the 19th century,
importing the timber, coal and slate
that would build the factories
and urban housing of southern England's
Industrial Revolution.
Many of those buildings still remain.
This street, Oxford Street,
has the feel and shape of a street
that Bradshaw's might have known.
And, unless I'm much mistaken,
that elegant building ahead
must be the old Terminus Station.
When the new docks opened in 1842,
the London & South Western Railway
was here to transport passengers
and freight
from Southampton Terminus Station.
Local historian Dave Marden knows more.
- Dave, hello.
- Hello, Michael.
I feel a tear in my eye because
this was clearly once a railway station.
(Dave) Yes, it was a marvellous station
at one time.
It was the main station
from Southampton.
We're under the canopy.
Where were the platforms?
The platforms were dead ahead.
It was built in 1839
and the railway through to London
was opened completely in 1840.
Southampton Terminus
initially comprised
lust two platforms and an engine shed,
but by the late 1660s, the opulent
Imperial Hotel had been added.
Known as the Ritz of the South,
this glamorous accommodation
catered for a surprising clientele:
not travellers making connections
to far-off destinations,
but fun seekers who flocked to bathe
in the waters of the Solent
and to enjoy the Measures oi
Southampton's Royal Pier,
which they reached by train.
(Dave) Here we are.
This is what's left of the pier.
(Michael)
What was it like in its heyday?
It was generally referred to as
the fun centre of the south.
In the Victorian period,
we had the pavilion with its ballroom,
exhibitions, bandstand,
paddle steamers taking people
on trips up and down the coast.
And the railway came first to the pier
and then ran along the pier?
That's right. Originally they had just
a bare wooden platform on the pier,
but when the pier was rebuilt in 1892
it was expanded into a double platform
with canopies,
a rather grand place for stopping off
and seeing the delights of the pier.
- Thanks so much, Dave. Bye.
- You're welcome.
As well as a holiday destination,
Southampton remained an important port.
By 1830, 100,000 people were travelling
by steamship from here each year.
And in the early 10th century, the
numbers taking their leave of Britain
increased dramatically as first
White Star and then Cunard
made Southampton the place
from which to embark
upon a transatlantic journey
aboard an enormous cruise liner.
That tradition continues today.
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth
has just docked.
- How are you?
- Very well, Mr Portillo.
You've just come off
the Queen Elizabeth?
- Yes.
- How was it?
Very, very good, excellent.
- Where have you been?
- The Canaries and Madeira.
- (Michael) Are you habitual cruisers?
- (Man) Yes.
(Michael) How long before your next?
- Three weeks.
- Three weeks?
- It's only a four day one.
- (Woman) Are you just going on?
I am going on. I'm going to have a
little look around. Thank you. Bye-bye.
When you're alongside
the Queen Elizabeth,
it really does inspire awe,
lowering above me,
as elegant as a cathedral,
as tall as an office block, as long
as a train, and I gel to go aboard.
In 1839, Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard
founded the British and North American
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
to transport post between
Britain and North America.
As the revenue from passenger journeys
gradually outstripped that
gleaned from delivering the mail,
Cunard's steamers became renowned
as the fastest across the Atlantic.
In order lo remain so,
in the early 20th century,
the company built the super liners
Mauretania and Lusitania.
The Queen Elizabeth
entered Cunard's service in 2010,
a tribute to her luxurious
1938 namesake.
The first thing you come to on this ship
is the grand lobby. It is spectacular.
Suspended balconies, suspended
staircases, chandeliers, marble floor,
and this wonderful evocation of
the old Queen Elizabeth,
the one built in the 1930s. One of the
ships I remember from my childhood.
Famous as brave Second World War
troop carriers,
globetrotting ships
have always been glamorous, too.
Cunard's current president
is Peter Shanks.
- Peter, hello.
- Welcome on board.
Thank you so much. You've had
a lot of very famous people on board,
all the way back into the 19th century
and through the 20th.
Who might you pick out?
Well, in 1840, Charles Dickens himself
sailed on the Britannia, our first ship.
We weren't particularly pleased
with what he wrote about the experience.
There have been presidents, Roosevelt.
Churchill was a regular traveller,
and then some famous Hollywood
and British stars, be ii Liz Taylor,
Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra,
many, many people.
Walt Disney himself loved to travel
on the Queen Elizabeth.
Each voyage oi the Queen Elizabeth
sees the consumption of almost
12,000 bottles of wine,
nearly 5,000 toothpicks
and more than 50,000 eggs.
Resupplying and making ready
for each sailing is a mammoth task.
Now, as I came on the ship people were
leaving, they'd come off the cruise.
How long is it until you'll get a new
set of people and you'll be off again?
Two thousand people have left
by about 10 o'clock
and we'll sail at half past four,
full with a new 2,000 people.
In that time, we're working miracles
with the team to get everything ready.
That's an amazing rate of turnaround.
How on earth do you do it?
I thought we could have some fun
by asking you to help do it, Michael,
and what better way than to ask
our maître d' to help you lay a table
- and see how we get on.
- Welcome aboard, sir.
It's lovely to see you.
What do I do, then?
Well,
this is a set of our cutleries here.
If you like to help me out,
you start from the other side,
I will take a set
and I will start from this side.
(Michael) OK, and I suppose
speed is important here.
(maître d') Speed is important, sir.
Very good, sir. Fork goes on your left.
- (Michael) Spoon on the right...
- Soup spoon, sir.
- Soup spoon, right.
- We can put our dessert cutlery on top.
- (maître d') Now the side knife.
- You haven't given me any side...
Oh, yes, you have. There we are.
Thank you very much.
- You're faster than me.
- (Michael laughs)
(Peter) Bravo.
- (maître d') Very well done, sir.
- Thank you very much.
Now, the table isn't complete.
- We don't have any napkins.
- We'll be doing some napkins.
So we're going to fold the napkin
into half.
OK, you can use a chair if you like
so it will be easy for you.
Now, you have to synchronise yourself.
One up, one down, one up, one down,
and the pleats should be nice,
and the same of size.
Leave a little gap.
(Michael) I think mine's going
a little bit wonky.
Turn into half. Very good.
This little quarter of napkin that's
left, we're going to luck it in.
(Michael) Tuck it in.
- Napkin is ready. Oh, yes.
- (Laughs)
Oh, dear.
A little more practice, I think.
Sanjay, that's absolutely brilliant.
That looks beautiful.
The opulence of the Queen Elizabeth
is a reminder that,
for those who could afford it,
passage aboard a liner
was a luxurious experience.
But they were the lucky few because in
Bradshaw's day most travelled steerage.
Your theatre is superb. But it makes me
think, amidst all this elegance,
of people who travelled
in less fortunate times.
They were emigrating away from
starvation and famine in Europe.
Yes, many to North America
and we think that over our history,
over the last 110 years,
around ten million people have emigrated
to North America through Cunard line.
- (Peter) Here we are on the bridge.
- It's an amazing space, isn't it?
What a fantastic position
from which to control this monster ship.
(Peter) This is our captain,
Alistair Clark.
Hello, sir. I find it quite alarming
to park a small BMW.
What does it feel like to bring
one of these things alongside?
- It's a very satisfying experience.
- (Laughs)
And these really rather small levers
control the whole ship, do they?
These do, so although they're small,
it's like power steering in your car,
you don't need to move them far.
- Just a little wiggle.
- Just a little.
If you've got a choppy sea, what do you
do about maintaining stability?
Well, we have stabilisers
which counteract any roll
but generally the ship
is an excellent sea ship
and she rides very well.
As the Queen Elizabeth
sets off on another voyage,
after a long day in this city it's time
for me to head to my next destination.
As my evening train runs alongside
Southampton's busy port
I thought I would find somewhere
more rural to seek my rest
and Bradshaw's tells me there are seats,
meaning country houses,
"and pretty spots in the neighbourhood
such as Eaglehurst near Calshot Castle."
Eaglehurst.
That sounds like a pleasant estate
and there I shall spend the night.
Travelling just three stops
on the mainline toward Poole,
I've crossed the River Test
and I'm alighting at Totton Station
to make my way to Eaglehurst.
But my overnight bolthole
is not the grand bungalow
built here by the 7th Earl of Cavan.
My bed for the night
lies within a tower
whose history is known to Caroline
Stanford from the Landmark Trust.
- Caroline, hello.
- Hello.
Well, what is this?
It looks to me like a folly.
Yes, welcome to Luttrell's Tower.
It is indeed a folly,
castellated, 18th-century
rather picturesque tower
- standing on the edge of the Solent.
- And named after?
(Caroline) It's named after
Temple Simon Luttrell,
who was the gentleman who built it.
He came from an Irish family
of slightly disreputable figures.
He was a very, very quarrelsome,
cantankerous fellow,
so he challenged lots oi people to
duels, including his own son even.
Temple Luttrell wasn't just
a parliamentarian who liked a duel.
He was also a suspected smuggler
whose folly comprises a tower
reaching high 'into the sky for
a bird's eye of view of local shipping
and a tunnel leading suspiciously
to the shore of the Solent.
So do come in.
(Caroline) Surprisingly tall tower
when you're going up the steps.
(Michael) I'm sure the view is going
to make it absolutely worthwhile.
When we get to the very top.
And here we are.
- Right on the top.
- It's smaller than I thought.
Whoa, but what a view.
Isn't that magnificent?
It's rather wonderful.
You can see why he built it here.
Yeah, as follies go
it's really worthwhile.
It's such a great place to watch
the great liners and ships go by.
(Caroline) Yes, there have been
some very famous ships,
including the Titanic.
Radio pioneer Marconi rented Eaglehurst
for his radio experiments
and his wife and his daughter
stood where we're standing now,
as the Titanic sailed from Southampton
on her doomed maiden voyage,
and waved together a red silk scarf,
with all the passengers on the ship
waving back at them
with handkerchiefs and scarves as well.
That's a sad story.
And did the Victorians like this tower?
Yes, even Queen Victoria
liked this tower.
As a young princess she looked at it and
seriously considered buying the estate
before she found Osborne House
on the Isle of Wight.
(Michael) I'm really delighted
to have found such a beautiful place
to spend the night.
Apart from the perfect porridge,
this is perfection in every other way.
The sun is streaming through
the windows,
the view oi the Solent is beautiful
and a few hardy souls are already out
in their sailing boats
just to decorate the view.
Fully-fuelled and ready
for the day ahead,
I'm heading back to Southampton Central
to catch a connection
to my next destination,
located about 20 minutes south-east
towards Portsmouth,
a line my that guidebook recommends
for its aesthetic charms.
Bradshaw has beautiful descriptions.
"On each side breaks in a view of
the Southampton sea,
deep blue,
glistening with silver and vessels."
I'm headed now to Netley.
Bradshaw's tells me that near the ruins
of the old abbey
"a noble military college
has recently been erected,"
and the drum leads me in that direction.
Tickets, please.
- Thank you very much, sir.
- Going as far as Netley.
- OK, nice day for it.
- Do you remember a hospital there?
Yes, there was a wartime
military hospital at Netley.
- The chapel is still left there.
- Interesting history, eh?
- Indeed, certainly. Have a good day.
- Thank you very much indeed.
Upset by the poor standard of care
she saw in Chatham
on a visit to see soldiers
wounded in the Crimean War,
Queen Victoria spearheaded
the development of an institution
that would revolutionise the treatment
of injured troops.
Commissioned in 1856
and set within 200 acres,
the enormous Royal Victoria Hospital
took seven years to build.
Deemed too costly to run,
in 1966 the hospital was demolished
and only the chapel remains.
But curator Captain Pete Starling
knows what once stood here.
- Hello, Pete.
- Good morning. Nice to meet you.
- This was a military hospital here.
- Ll was.
It was our first purpose-built
military hospital.
- It was a quarter of a mile long.
- Amazing.
A hundred and thirty eight wards
and a thousand beds.
If we look down,
you can see this line of bricks here.
Well, this is the extremity
of the hospital.
So if we now look at the chapel
and look that way
you'll see that is actually in
the centre of where the hospital was.
So you've got the same distance
from here to the chapel the other side
and that gives you some sense
on the size of it.
Awe inspiring.
It's in a somewhat remote spot.
How did they bring the wounded men here?
In its heyday,
they brought them here by train.
At the time of the South African war,
1899 to 1902,
they extended the railway line from
Netley into the back of the hospital
and they had this purpose-built
covered platform
and these ambulance wagons would be
shunted up to the back of the hospital.
All the patients would be offloaded
and wheeled in to the reception.
At a time when many thought that faith
was as powerful a healer as medicine,
the chapel, big enough to house
all 1,000 patients,
was at the heart of the hospital.
Even the tower in the chapel is enormous
and it gives you a spectacular view,
doesn't it?
- (Pete) Magnificent, isn't it?
- Particularly over the Solent.
(Michael) You have to admire the scale
of what they attempted to do here.
Even if we can't see
most of the hospital now,
we could attempt to listen
to at least one of its sounds.
But not everyone was impressed.
Florence Nightingale voiced serious
concern that Netley's cramped wards,
long corridors and lack of ventilation
were a perfect breeding ground
for infection.
But the Lady of the Lam's warnings
went unheeded
and Queen Victoria herself laid
the institution's foundation stone.
As she was about to lay
the foundation stone,
she placed beneath it a copper casket,
and we've got the copper casket here,
with one or two objects
that were placed inside it.
- (Michael) A son of time capsule?
- Yes.
She put plans of the hospital inside it,
she put coins of the realm,
a Crimean war medal
with the four bars commemorating
the four great battles on land
of the war.
But, more importantly,
the Victoria Cross.
(Michael) The Victoria Cross,
the highest award
for gallantry in the armed forces.
(Pete) Absolutely. This was one of
the first Victoria Crosses ever made
and she placed it in this copper box
with that Crimean medal
and it was put beneath
the foundation stone
and the foundation stone
was lowered onto the top of it.
(Michael) Amazing.
The wounded of two world wars passed
through the wards of this hospital
and it's become a place of homage.
You've been showing a lot of interest
in the chapel today,
do you have a special reason
for being here?
Yes, I have memories of my grandfather.
He was shell-shocked
during the First World War
and he was in Netley Hospital
for quite a long time.
And because we're on holiday here
I wanted to see Netley Hospital.
(Michael) Where had he been in combat?
(woman) In France.
I remember hearing him speaking about
Mons and the Somme.
And you're clutching some old looking
photographs there. What do they show?
Yes, there is this photograph
of my grandfather in hospital.
This X is my grandfather.
He was in the Black Watch.
- And here in Netley, this?
- Yes,
because on the back of the photograph
this writing is very old writing.
- Yes.
- "Willie in Netley Hospital.“
"Willie in Netley Hospital."
Absolutely clear.
How does it... There's only the chapel
left, but you are in the place
where your grandfather was hospitalised.
How does that feel?
Well, I feel a bit emotional.
I was only 15 when he died.
Oh, well, I've met you on a special day.
Thank you for talking.
- Thank you, it's a privilege.
- And a safe journey back to Aberdeen.
- Thank you very much.
- Bye-bye.
Bradshaw's is not entirely
complimentary about my next stop.
"Basingstoke is a straggling,
ill-built town."
"ll is nevertheless a place
of great antiquity
and appears in The Domesday Book."
"The inhabitants now mainly depend
on the corn and malt trades."
And at this stage of the day
I fancy a cooling glass of beer.
In the middle ages,
the small market town of Basingstoke
grew prosperous on wool and textiles,
and by the 18th century its location
made it an important watering hole
for the many stage coaches
heading south and west from London.
Breweries sprang up
to quench the thirst of travellers.
Although the railway's arrival in 1839
saw the trade decline,
in the 1880s there were still
four breweries
and almost 60 pubs in
a town of less than 7,000 inhabitants.
It was a boozy place,
which soon attracted the attention of
the growing temperance movement.
I'm meeting local historian Bob Clarke
to find out about an incident
that placed Basingstoke firmly on
the moral map of Bradshaw's Britain.
Well, Bob, you've chosen
a lovely quiet spot for a glass of beer.
But it wouldn't have been like this
back in 1881.
Can you imagine we're just sitting here
enjoying our beer quietly,
all of a sudden a group of
uniformed invaders come along,
dressed in quasi-army uniforms
banging a big bass drum shouting,
"Come out of the devil's house,
you're going to hell,
you will not be saved if you carry on
drinking this foul liquid!"
You're referring to the Salvation Army,
aren't you?
I am indeed, but the Salvation Army
is not as we now know it,
a benign organisation that does
a lot oi useful social work.
They wanted to ban all drink
and, of course,
because there were so many people
who were dependent on drink
for their livelihood in the town
they felt under threat, so there was
a kind of war between the two sides.
In 1818,
William Booths Christian Mission
changed its name lo the Salvation Army
and declared war on sin.
In 1880, Christian soldiers
marched onward into Basingstoke
where local brewers had whipped up
the so-called Massagainians,
a mob to disrupt Heath's campaign
against beer
and drinking establishments.
In March 1881,
matters came to a head in an incident
that became known nationally
as The Battle of Church Square.
In the morning, the two armies clashed.
Charles Elms, described in court
as a muscular Salvationist,
managed to wrest the Massaganians' Union
Jack, their flag of honour, from them
and that really started the fighting.
There was fighting in the morning.
Charles Elms, for his pains,
got his arm broken,
people tumbling over, one poor soul went
through a plate glass window of a shop.
The poor chap who had his arm broken
in the morning
had his head broken in the afternoon
when somebody hit him over the head
with a stick.
Somebody else had his jaw broken.
Apparently lots of people
lost lots of teeth.
This is the most extraordinary
and, to me, completely unknown story.
What were its consequences?
Well, its consequences
were that Basingstoke,
which nobody had heard of before,
made headlines in the national press.
One journalist described Basingstoke as
"a benighted little town
that appears to be populated chiefly
by a set of barbarians".
Now that's fame!
Thank goodness, Bob,
you've shaken off that reputation since.
And was this riot unique to Basingstoke?
Oh, no, there were riots in 60 towns.
But Basingstoke was the first.
Where Basingstoke leads,
other towns follow.
One of the great ocean liners
sailing from Southampton
bears the name of Queen Victoria.
She made her home on the Isle of Wight
from which she could contemplate
the Solent,
sharing a view with
those of her soldiers
who'd been wounded
fighting lo defend her Empire.
I thought I knew the names of
the great battles of her reign;
Balaclava, Khartoum and Mafeking,
but now I can add another
to the roll call.
The Battle of Church Square,
Basingstoke.
Next time, I encounter the Duke of
Wellington's impressive funeral can...
It is the most colossal thing, isn't it?
Absolutely enormous.
I get my marching orders
from the army...
Get those knees up, Portillo!
Get those knees up nice and high!
(sighs)
“and I learn oi the surprisingly
enlightened 19th-century attitude
towards the criminally insane.
What the Victorians did
was they established
that people with mental illness who
committed crime needed health care.
They needed a hospital, not a prison.
transformed travel in Britain.
His name was George Bradshaw
and his railway guides inspired
the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to go,
what to see and where to stay.
And now, 170 years later,
I'm aboard for a series of rail
adventures across the United Kingdom
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain
remains.
Today, I'm beginning a new journey,
curving my way up the spine of England
using mainly branch lines.
These tracks put local trades
in touch with big markets in the city,
led to the invention of the commuter
and, most importantly,
enabled the Victorian masses
to explore their own country,
an experience which I'm repeating today.
On this stretch, I learn to set table
aboard an ocean linen...
- Thank you very much.
- You're faster than me.
(Michael laughs)
I visit a suspected Solent
smuggler's hideaway...
Whoa. But what a view.
Isn't that magnificent?
“And I discover the tactics employed
by the Victorian temperance movement.
All of a sudden, a group of uniformed
invaders come along shouting,
"Come out of the Devil's house,
you're going to hell,
you will not be saved if you carry on
drinking this foul liquid!"
My journey starts on the south coast,
heads to Hampshire's garrison town,
lakes in the cloth makers oi Newbury,
an engineering triumph in Bristol,
and concludes in the West Midlands
at Wolverhampton.
This leg starts amidst the luxury
cruise liners in Southampton docks,
heads west lo the town of Totton,
south-east to Netley,
and ends in riotous Basingstoke.
My first stop today is Southampton.
Bradshaw's says that, owing to the
advantageous effects of the railways,
"it's become one of
our leading commercial ports
formed on a scale of great magnitude".
I first visited the city when I was a
school child on a primary school outing
and I remember being so impressed
by the scale of everything.
In particular, in those days, by the
magnificent three-funnelled Queen Mary.
Se! upon the River lichen
and adjacent to the Salem,
Saxon Southampton
was such an important port
that in the ninth century
it had its own Royal Mint.
Famous {or its docks
and as the port from which the doomed
ocean liner Titanic sailed in 1912,
Southampton received its railway
in 1840.
But in those Victorian times, a train
ride ended in a different location.
Bradshaw's refers to
Southampton Terminus Station.
This is Southampton Central.
Not, I think, the same place.
I'm going in search of the old station.
A merchant city {or hundreds of years,
Southampton prospered
during the 19th century,
importing the timber, coal and slate
that would build the factories
and urban housing of southern England's
Industrial Revolution.
Many of those buildings still remain.
This street, Oxford Street,
has the feel and shape of a street
that Bradshaw's might have known.
And, unless I'm much mistaken,
that elegant building ahead
must be the old Terminus Station.
When the new docks opened in 1842,
the London & South Western Railway
was here to transport passengers
and freight
from Southampton Terminus Station.
Local historian Dave Marden knows more.
- Dave, hello.
- Hello, Michael.
I feel a tear in my eye because
this was clearly once a railway station.
(Dave) Yes, it was a marvellous station
at one time.
It was the main station
from Southampton.
We're under the canopy.
Where were the platforms?
The platforms were dead ahead.
It was built in 1839
and the railway through to London
was opened completely in 1840.
Southampton Terminus
initially comprised
lust two platforms and an engine shed,
but by the late 1660s, the opulent
Imperial Hotel had been added.
Known as the Ritz of the South,
this glamorous accommodation
catered for a surprising clientele:
not travellers making connections
to far-off destinations,
but fun seekers who flocked to bathe
in the waters of the Solent
and to enjoy the Measures oi
Southampton's Royal Pier,
which they reached by train.
(Dave) Here we are.
This is what's left of the pier.
(Michael)
What was it like in its heyday?
It was generally referred to as
the fun centre of the south.
In the Victorian period,
we had the pavilion with its ballroom,
exhibitions, bandstand,
paddle steamers taking people
on trips up and down the coast.
And the railway came first to the pier
and then ran along the pier?
That's right. Originally they had just
a bare wooden platform on the pier,
but when the pier was rebuilt in 1892
it was expanded into a double platform
with canopies,
a rather grand place for stopping off
and seeing the delights of the pier.
- Thanks so much, Dave. Bye.
- You're welcome.
As well as a holiday destination,
Southampton remained an important port.
By 1830, 100,000 people were travelling
by steamship from here each year.
And in the early 10th century, the
numbers taking their leave of Britain
increased dramatically as first
White Star and then Cunard
made Southampton the place
from which to embark
upon a transatlantic journey
aboard an enormous cruise liner.
That tradition continues today.
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth
has just docked.
- How are you?
- Very well, Mr Portillo.
You've just come off
the Queen Elizabeth?
- Yes.
- How was it?
Very, very good, excellent.
- Where have you been?
- The Canaries and Madeira.
- (Michael) Are you habitual cruisers?
- (Man) Yes.
(Michael) How long before your next?
- Three weeks.
- Three weeks?
- It's only a four day one.
- (Woman) Are you just going on?
I am going on. I'm going to have a
little look around. Thank you. Bye-bye.
When you're alongside
the Queen Elizabeth,
it really does inspire awe,
lowering above me,
as elegant as a cathedral,
as tall as an office block, as long
as a train, and I gel to go aboard.
In 1839, Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard
founded the British and North American
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
to transport post between
Britain and North America.
As the revenue from passenger journeys
gradually outstripped that
gleaned from delivering the mail,
Cunard's steamers became renowned
as the fastest across the Atlantic.
In order lo remain so,
in the early 20th century,
the company built the super liners
Mauretania and Lusitania.
The Queen Elizabeth
entered Cunard's service in 2010,
a tribute to her luxurious
1938 namesake.
The first thing you come to on this ship
is the grand lobby. It is spectacular.
Suspended balconies, suspended
staircases, chandeliers, marble floor,
and this wonderful evocation of
the old Queen Elizabeth,
the one built in the 1930s. One of the
ships I remember from my childhood.
Famous as brave Second World War
troop carriers,
globetrotting ships
have always been glamorous, too.
Cunard's current president
is Peter Shanks.
- Peter, hello.
- Welcome on board.
Thank you so much. You've had
a lot of very famous people on board,
all the way back into the 19th century
and through the 20th.
Who might you pick out?
Well, in 1840, Charles Dickens himself
sailed on the Britannia, our first ship.
We weren't particularly pleased
with what he wrote about the experience.
There have been presidents, Roosevelt.
Churchill was a regular traveller,
and then some famous Hollywood
and British stars, be ii Liz Taylor,
Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra,
many, many people.
Walt Disney himself loved to travel
on the Queen Elizabeth.
Each voyage oi the Queen Elizabeth
sees the consumption of almost
12,000 bottles of wine,
nearly 5,000 toothpicks
and more than 50,000 eggs.
Resupplying and making ready
for each sailing is a mammoth task.
Now, as I came on the ship people were
leaving, they'd come off the cruise.
How long is it until you'll get a new
set of people and you'll be off again?
Two thousand people have left
by about 10 o'clock
and we'll sail at half past four,
full with a new 2,000 people.
In that time, we're working miracles
with the team to get everything ready.
That's an amazing rate of turnaround.
How on earth do you do it?
I thought we could have some fun
by asking you to help do it, Michael,
and what better way than to ask
our maître d' to help you lay a table
- and see how we get on.
- Welcome aboard, sir.
It's lovely to see you.
What do I do, then?
Well,
this is a set of our cutleries here.
If you like to help me out,
you start from the other side,
I will take a set
and I will start from this side.
(Michael) OK, and I suppose
speed is important here.
(maître d') Speed is important, sir.
Very good, sir. Fork goes on your left.
- (Michael) Spoon on the right...
- Soup spoon, sir.
- Soup spoon, right.
- We can put our dessert cutlery on top.
- (maître d') Now the side knife.
- You haven't given me any side...
Oh, yes, you have. There we are.
Thank you very much.
- You're faster than me.
- (Michael laughs)
(Peter) Bravo.
- (maître d') Very well done, sir.
- Thank you very much.
Now, the table isn't complete.
- We don't have any napkins.
- We'll be doing some napkins.
So we're going to fold the napkin
into half.
OK, you can use a chair if you like
so it will be easy for you.
Now, you have to synchronise yourself.
One up, one down, one up, one down,
and the pleats should be nice,
and the same of size.
Leave a little gap.
(Michael) I think mine's going
a little bit wonky.
Turn into half. Very good.
This little quarter of napkin that's
left, we're going to luck it in.
(Michael) Tuck it in.
- Napkin is ready. Oh, yes.
- (Laughs)
Oh, dear.
A little more practice, I think.
Sanjay, that's absolutely brilliant.
That looks beautiful.
The opulence of the Queen Elizabeth
is a reminder that,
for those who could afford it,
passage aboard a liner
was a luxurious experience.
But they were the lucky few because in
Bradshaw's day most travelled steerage.
Your theatre is superb. But it makes me
think, amidst all this elegance,
of people who travelled
in less fortunate times.
They were emigrating away from
starvation and famine in Europe.
Yes, many to North America
and we think that over our history,
over the last 110 years,
around ten million people have emigrated
to North America through Cunard line.
- (Peter) Here we are on the bridge.
- It's an amazing space, isn't it?
What a fantastic position
from which to control this monster ship.
(Peter) This is our captain,
Alistair Clark.
Hello, sir. I find it quite alarming
to park a small BMW.
What does it feel like to bring
one of these things alongside?
- It's a very satisfying experience.
- (Laughs)
And these really rather small levers
control the whole ship, do they?
These do, so although they're small,
it's like power steering in your car,
you don't need to move them far.
- Just a little wiggle.
- Just a little.
If you've got a choppy sea, what do you
do about maintaining stability?
Well, we have stabilisers
which counteract any roll
but generally the ship
is an excellent sea ship
and she rides very well.
As the Queen Elizabeth
sets off on another voyage,
after a long day in this city it's time
for me to head to my next destination.
As my evening train runs alongside
Southampton's busy port
I thought I would find somewhere
more rural to seek my rest
and Bradshaw's tells me there are seats,
meaning country houses,
"and pretty spots in the neighbourhood
such as Eaglehurst near Calshot Castle."
Eaglehurst.
That sounds like a pleasant estate
and there I shall spend the night.
Travelling just three stops
on the mainline toward Poole,
I've crossed the River Test
and I'm alighting at Totton Station
to make my way to Eaglehurst.
But my overnight bolthole
is not the grand bungalow
built here by the 7th Earl of Cavan.
My bed for the night
lies within a tower
whose history is known to Caroline
Stanford from the Landmark Trust.
- Caroline, hello.
- Hello.
Well, what is this?
It looks to me like a folly.
Yes, welcome to Luttrell's Tower.
It is indeed a folly,
castellated, 18th-century
rather picturesque tower
- standing on the edge of the Solent.
- And named after?
(Caroline) It's named after
Temple Simon Luttrell,
who was the gentleman who built it.
He came from an Irish family
of slightly disreputable figures.
He was a very, very quarrelsome,
cantankerous fellow,
so he challenged lots oi people to
duels, including his own son even.
Temple Luttrell wasn't just
a parliamentarian who liked a duel.
He was also a suspected smuggler
whose folly comprises a tower
reaching high 'into the sky for
a bird's eye of view of local shipping
and a tunnel leading suspiciously
to the shore of the Solent.
So do come in.
(Caroline) Surprisingly tall tower
when you're going up the steps.
(Michael) I'm sure the view is going
to make it absolutely worthwhile.
When we get to the very top.
And here we are.
- Right on the top.
- It's smaller than I thought.
Whoa, but what a view.
Isn't that magnificent?
It's rather wonderful.
You can see why he built it here.
Yeah, as follies go
it's really worthwhile.
It's such a great place to watch
the great liners and ships go by.
(Caroline) Yes, there have been
some very famous ships,
including the Titanic.
Radio pioneer Marconi rented Eaglehurst
for his radio experiments
and his wife and his daughter
stood where we're standing now,
as the Titanic sailed from Southampton
on her doomed maiden voyage,
and waved together a red silk scarf,
with all the passengers on the ship
waving back at them
with handkerchiefs and scarves as well.
That's a sad story.
And did the Victorians like this tower?
Yes, even Queen Victoria
liked this tower.
As a young princess she looked at it and
seriously considered buying the estate
before she found Osborne House
on the Isle of Wight.
(Michael) I'm really delighted
to have found such a beautiful place
to spend the night.
Apart from the perfect porridge,
this is perfection in every other way.
The sun is streaming through
the windows,
the view oi the Solent is beautiful
and a few hardy souls are already out
in their sailing boats
just to decorate the view.
Fully-fuelled and ready
for the day ahead,
I'm heading back to Southampton Central
to catch a connection
to my next destination,
located about 20 minutes south-east
towards Portsmouth,
a line my that guidebook recommends
for its aesthetic charms.
Bradshaw has beautiful descriptions.
"On each side breaks in a view of
the Southampton sea,
deep blue,
glistening with silver and vessels."
I'm headed now to Netley.
Bradshaw's tells me that near the ruins
of the old abbey
"a noble military college
has recently been erected,"
and the drum leads me in that direction.
Tickets, please.
- Thank you very much, sir.
- Going as far as Netley.
- OK, nice day for it.
- Do you remember a hospital there?
Yes, there was a wartime
military hospital at Netley.
- The chapel is still left there.
- Interesting history, eh?
- Indeed, certainly. Have a good day.
- Thank you very much indeed.
Upset by the poor standard of care
she saw in Chatham
on a visit to see soldiers
wounded in the Crimean War,
Queen Victoria spearheaded
the development of an institution
that would revolutionise the treatment
of injured troops.
Commissioned in 1856
and set within 200 acres,
the enormous Royal Victoria Hospital
took seven years to build.
Deemed too costly to run,
in 1966 the hospital was demolished
and only the chapel remains.
But curator Captain Pete Starling
knows what once stood here.
- Hello, Pete.
- Good morning. Nice to meet you.
- This was a military hospital here.
- Ll was.
It was our first purpose-built
military hospital.
- It was a quarter of a mile long.
- Amazing.
A hundred and thirty eight wards
and a thousand beds.
If we look down,
you can see this line of bricks here.
Well, this is the extremity
of the hospital.
So if we now look at the chapel
and look that way
you'll see that is actually in
the centre of where the hospital was.
So you've got the same distance
from here to the chapel the other side
and that gives you some sense
on the size of it.
Awe inspiring.
It's in a somewhat remote spot.
How did they bring the wounded men here?
In its heyday,
they brought them here by train.
At the time of the South African war,
1899 to 1902,
they extended the railway line from
Netley into the back of the hospital
and they had this purpose-built
covered platform
and these ambulance wagons would be
shunted up to the back of the hospital.
All the patients would be offloaded
and wheeled in to the reception.
At a time when many thought that faith
was as powerful a healer as medicine,
the chapel, big enough to house
all 1,000 patients,
was at the heart of the hospital.
Even the tower in the chapel is enormous
and it gives you a spectacular view,
doesn't it?
- (Pete) Magnificent, isn't it?
- Particularly over the Solent.
(Michael) You have to admire the scale
of what they attempted to do here.
Even if we can't see
most of the hospital now,
we could attempt to listen
to at least one of its sounds.
But not everyone was impressed.
Florence Nightingale voiced serious
concern that Netley's cramped wards,
long corridors and lack of ventilation
were a perfect breeding ground
for infection.
But the Lady of the Lam's warnings
went unheeded
and Queen Victoria herself laid
the institution's foundation stone.
As she was about to lay
the foundation stone,
she placed beneath it a copper casket,
and we've got the copper casket here,
with one or two objects
that were placed inside it.
- (Michael) A son of time capsule?
- Yes.
She put plans of the hospital inside it,
she put coins of the realm,
a Crimean war medal
with the four bars commemorating
the four great battles on land
of the war.
But, more importantly,
the Victoria Cross.
(Michael) The Victoria Cross,
the highest award
for gallantry in the armed forces.
(Pete) Absolutely. This was one of
the first Victoria Crosses ever made
and she placed it in this copper box
with that Crimean medal
and it was put beneath
the foundation stone
and the foundation stone
was lowered onto the top of it.
(Michael) Amazing.
The wounded of two world wars passed
through the wards of this hospital
and it's become a place of homage.
You've been showing a lot of interest
in the chapel today,
do you have a special reason
for being here?
Yes, I have memories of my grandfather.
He was shell-shocked
during the First World War
and he was in Netley Hospital
for quite a long time.
And because we're on holiday here
I wanted to see Netley Hospital.
(Michael) Where had he been in combat?
(woman) In France.
I remember hearing him speaking about
Mons and the Somme.
And you're clutching some old looking
photographs there. What do they show?
Yes, there is this photograph
of my grandfather in hospital.
This X is my grandfather.
He was in the Black Watch.
- And here in Netley, this?
- Yes,
because on the back of the photograph
this writing is very old writing.
- Yes.
- "Willie in Netley Hospital.“
"Willie in Netley Hospital."
Absolutely clear.
How does it... There's only the chapel
left, but you are in the place
where your grandfather was hospitalised.
How does that feel?
Well, I feel a bit emotional.
I was only 15 when he died.
Oh, well, I've met you on a special day.
Thank you for talking.
- Thank you, it's a privilege.
- And a safe journey back to Aberdeen.
- Thank you very much.
- Bye-bye.
Bradshaw's is not entirely
complimentary about my next stop.
"Basingstoke is a straggling,
ill-built town."
"ll is nevertheless a place
of great antiquity
and appears in The Domesday Book."
"The inhabitants now mainly depend
on the corn and malt trades."
And at this stage of the day
I fancy a cooling glass of beer.
In the middle ages,
the small market town of Basingstoke
grew prosperous on wool and textiles,
and by the 18th century its location
made it an important watering hole
for the many stage coaches
heading south and west from London.
Breweries sprang up
to quench the thirst of travellers.
Although the railway's arrival in 1839
saw the trade decline,
in the 1880s there were still
four breweries
and almost 60 pubs in
a town of less than 7,000 inhabitants.
It was a boozy place,
which soon attracted the attention of
the growing temperance movement.
I'm meeting local historian Bob Clarke
to find out about an incident
that placed Basingstoke firmly on
the moral map of Bradshaw's Britain.
Well, Bob, you've chosen
a lovely quiet spot for a glass of beer.
But it wouldn't have been like this
back in 1881.
Can you imagine we're just sitting here
enjoying our beer quietly,
all of a sudden a group of
uniformed invaders come along,
dressed in quasi-army uniforms
banging a big bass drum shouting,
"Come out of the devil's house,
you're going to hell,
you will not be saved if you carry on
drinking this foul liquid!"
You're referring to the Salvation Army,
aren't you?
I am indeed, but the Salvation Army
is not as we now know it,
a benign organisation that does
a lot oi useful social work.
They wanted to ban all drink
and, of course,
because there were so many people
who were dependent on drink
for their livelihood in the town
they felt under threat, so there was
a kind of war between the two sides.
In 1818,
William Booths Christian Mission
changed its name lo the Salvation Army
and declared war on sin.
In 1880, Christian soldiers
marched onward into Basingstoke
where local brewers had whipped up
the so-called Massagainians,
a mob to disrupt Heath's campaign
against beer
and drinking establishments.
In March 1881,
matters came to a head in an incident
that became known nationally
as The Battle of Church Square.
In the morning, the two armies clashed.
Charles Elms, described in court
as a muscular Salvationist,
managed to wrest the Massaganians' Union
Jack, their flag of honour, from them
and that really started the fighting.
There was fighting in the morning.
Charles Elms, for his pains,
got his arm broken,
people tumbling over, one poor soul went
through a plate glass window of a shop.
The poor chap who had his arm broken
in the morning
had his head broken in the afternoon
when somebody hit him over the head
with a stick.
Somebody else had his jaw broken.
Apparently lots of people
lost lots of teeth.
This is the most extraordinary
and, to me, completely unknown story.
What were its consequences?
Well, its consequences
were that Basingstoke,
which nobody had heard of before,
made headlines in the national press.
One journalist described Basingstoke as
"a benighted little town
that appears to be populated chiefly
by a set of barbarians".
Now that's fame!
Thank goodness, Bob,
you've shaken off that reputation since.
And was this riot unique to Basingstoke?
Oh, no, there were riots in 60 towns.
But Basingstoke was the first.
Where Basingstoke leads,
other towns follow.
One of the great ocean liners
sailing from Southampton
bears the name of Queen Victoria.
She made her home on the Isle of Wight
from which she could contemplate
the Solent,
sharing a view with
those of her soldiers
who'd been wounded
fighting lo defend her Empire.
I thought I knew the names of
the great battles of her reign;
Balaclava, Khartoum and Mafeking,
but now I can add another
to the roll call.
The Battle of Church Square,
Basingstoke.
Next time, I encounter the Duke of
Wellington's impressive funeral can...
It is the most colossal thing, isn't it?
Absolutely enormous.
I get my marching orders
from the army...
Get those knees up, Portillo!
Get those knees up nice and high!
(sighs)
“and I learn oi the surprisingly
enlightened 19th-century attitude
towards the criminally insane.
What the Victorians did
was they established
that people with mental illness who
committed crime needed health care.
They needed a hospital, not a prison.