Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 5, Episode 20 - Brighton to Chichester - 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.
I'm reaching the end of my journey
and I'll be travelling
along the south coast
through the counties of
East and West Sussex.
Bradshaw says,
"Railways may now be considered
as accelerators of pleasure,
bringing the most favourite
watering places along the coast
within the compass of
a brief and agreeable journey."
As we might say today, trains were
changing the work/life balance.
On this leg, I'll pick up the scent
underground in Brighton,"
I have no idea that sewage
had such a sweet tinkle to it.
“Visit a palace
that didn't amuse a queen...
"As the royal pair approached
Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward
more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered
beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
How frightful!
And pass the chequered flag
in style.
(man) Down the straight in the Revival,
they're doing 180 miles an hour.
(Michael) I can't believe it.
I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
- (man) That was 70, come on.
- (Michael laughs)
My journey began in
the cathedral city of Norwich.
I travelled south through East Anglia
to Ipswich and Chelmsford.
Crossing the Thames at Tilbury
I continued through Kent to Dover
and then headed inland to Tonbridge.
I'll return to the coast at Brighton
before ending my journey
in another cathedral city.
Now I reach the seaside at Brighton,
and visit Bramber and Arundel,
before arriving at my final
destination, Chichester.
My first stop will be what Bradshaw's
calls "the Marine Metropolis'.
And here's an interesting
social comment:
"Merchants who formerly made
Dulwich or Dalston
the boundaries of
their suburban residences,
now have their mansions
by the south coast,
and still get in less time,
and by a less expensive conveyance,
to their counting houses in the city."
What's more,
Brighton had a royal seal of approval.
The railway arrived here in 1841
and by the mid-1840s the journey time
from London was lust over an hour.
Brighton Station was soon bustling
with day trippers and commuters.
My guidebook comments that,
"The Brighton terminus
is an elegant structure,
fitted up in the most convenient
manner.“ Hear, hear.
Originally called Brighthelmstone,
as a fishing village
Brighton avoided the limelight
until the hie-Nth century.
That changed after the Prince Regent,
later King George IV,
first visited Brighton in 1783.
He began to spend time here.
As a man devoted to
elegance and pleasure,
he decided in 1787 to create
this whimsical pavilion.
The Brighton Pavilion,
says my guidebook,
"rises with domes and minarets,
and is fretted with greater variety
than taste,
erected for George IV,
after a fanciful Oriental model...
You sense here the disdain
that every generation feels
for the fashion of its predecessor.
I think I'll ask some of
today's visitors what they think.
- Hello.
- How are you doing?
I'm using a 19th-century guidebook
which says that the exterior
of the building displays
"more variety than taste".
What do you think of that?
I think taste is in the eye
of the beholder, really.
I actually think it's really nice
to look at, so I'd disagree with that.
I think the variety actually
adds to the taste, really.
It makes it quite unique and different.
What do you think of the Pavilion
here in Brighton?
I am Italian. We usually have good
taste like French.
I think that mixing things
is not very good taste.
I think the outside is beautiful
but the inside is a bit eclectic.
It's just like a mish-mash of styles.
I'm going inside to find out more
about this extraordinary building
from Alexandra Loske.
Alexandra,
I think this is the most exotic,
not to say over-the-top building,
that I have ever been in.
What made the Prince Regent, George IV,
choose Brighton for his residence?
Well, he came down as a young man,
the young Prince of Wales, in 1783,
really to get away from London.
He rented a farmhouse,
a substantial house,
which was on this site,
and later transformed it
into this exotic,
Indian-looking building.
And of course the architect of that
was the famous John Nash.
(Michael) That's extraordinary
because I associate John Nash
with the very symmetrical buildings
of Regent's Park,
Buckingham Palace, and so on.
This was his walk on the wild side?
It was, both for John Nash
and for King George IV.
This was the place away from London
where you could
let your imagination run wild.
I don't think this building
could have been built in London.
Brighton suited
George's louche lifestyle.
With a passion for fashion,
the arts and good living,
he was a rebel
against his strict upbringing.
He threw himself with enthusiasm into
drinking, gambling and womanising.
Was he able to enjoy the building?
He did, he used it really
for entertaining.
You can tell by the way the building
looks and how it's laid out,
that it was really a party palace.
(Michael) The extraordinary style,
what were the inspirations?
The inspirations were India, any
exotic country, mostly the Far East.
That was fashionable,
so he wasn't alone in this.
It's a style called
Orientalism or Chinoiserie
and it was hugely popular
in the mid-18th century,
but nobody did it on this scale.
This was a fantasy vision of the East,
as imagined by Europeans.
At the ceiling here we have, supposedly
holding this gigantic chandelier,
a dragon. Of course,
you associate China with dragons.
But if you look closely at the dragon,
it's actually a Welsh dragon.
It's what the artist knew about dragons.
Very few people had solid knowledge
about the Orient
and Chinese mythology and symbolism.
George IV didn't have long
to enjoy his pleasure dome,
which was completed in 187.3.
Perhaps his extravagant lifestyle
caught up with him
and his health failed.
His last visit to Brighton was in 1827
and he died three years later.
In 1837, the Victorian era begins.
How did the young Queen
lake lo this building?
Well, she comes here just a few months
after her coronation.
She's still only 18 and she has mixed
feelings and views on the building
but it's probably best
to tell you more about this
- in her private apartments here.
- Excellent.
George N's palace by the sea
expressed one man's personal taste
for Oriental splendour.
It was too flamboyant and too much
associated with decadence
for Queen Victoria.
So we are in Queen Victoria's
private apartments
on the upper floor of
the Royal Pavilion.
- Did she like Brighton?
- She tried to like it
but it had various problems.
The place was too small for her,
certainly not good for
a growing number oi children.
But it was mainly
the lack of privacy here.
Did the railways contribute
to this loss of privacy?
Of course, absolutely.
From 1841, when the line opens
between London and Brighton,
many, many more people come
lo Brighton on day trips.
It's mostly Londoners
and they can afford to now.
It's quick, you can come fora day
or weekend. It's cheap.
And the place gets swamped
with ordinary people
and, of course,
Victoria does object to that.
Did the Queen herself use
the train to come to Brighton?
She did at least once.
On the way down,
she likes the comfort of
the saloon she's travelling in.
On the return journey she says,
"Oh, it only took us an
hour and six minutes."
"This is rather too quick, I think'.
Yes, Queen Victoria
did not like fast-moving trains.
But then came the final straw.
On he! last visit here in 1845,
Victoria and Albert
went for a walk incognito.
Word got around that
the royal couple were on the pier.
The "Illustrated London News"
reported the story.
"As the royal pair approached
Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered
beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
- How frightful.
- Is a bit.
And then Victoria writes a letter
to somebody saying,
"The people in Brighton
are terribly indiscreet
and it feels very much
like a prison here."
She sells the entire estate here
in Brighton and the buildings in 1850
to the town of Brighton.
After Queen Victoria abandoned Brighton
and sought privacy
on the Isle of Wight,
the hoi polloi continued to delight in
the pleasures of this seaside town.
This is my guidebook's description:
"Pleasure seekers, out for the day,
and eager to be ubiquitous,
hurrying to and fro,
through the market to the spa,
to the racecourse, the windmill,
the beach, the shops
and the chain pier,
in as rapid succession as the most
ingenious locomotion could devise."
Some of the attractions have changed
but the nature of Brighton hasn't.
But my "Bradshaw's" reveals
another layer to this town.
Here's a change of tone in my guidebook.
"A twang of saltiness greets the lip."
There is another Brighton
burrowing beneath the royal palace
and my journey today will take me
from the sublime to the slime.
The rapid expansion
of towns such as Brighton
demanded wonders
from Victorian engineers.
Some oi the most impressive
are hidden deep underground.
I'm descending into the sludgy
Victorian bowels of the Earth.
To meet Stuart Slark to find out more.
Stuart, what a charming place to meet.
Turn our stomachs a bit.
What was Brighton like
before it had a sewerage system?
Very bad, very smelly, because all
they used to do in the old days,
they used to drain it
to the top of the beach.
At the beginning oi the 19th century,
tourists would come down to Brighton
- and find what?
- A lot of messy stuff on the beach.
It was absolutely disgusting and smelly.
So what did the Victorians do about it?
(Stuart) They built these magnificent
sewers that you're going to see today.
A wonderful piece oi engineering
from Sir John Hawkshaw.
Can we go and witness
this glorious Victorian engineering?
- Of course you can, come with me.
- Thank you.
Forty-four miles of sewers
were constructed in 1865,
followed by this enormous intercepting
sewer, completed in 1874,
which took the wastewater
out of the town altogether.
Stuart, that was a very
slippery and slithery tunnel
but now we come into
this magnificent vault.
I mean, the engineering here!
The scale of it! Fantastic!
We are now 40 foot underground.
We're right by the side of
the steam fountain in Brighton.
You've got the sewer
running down the side.
Also, we have got two big sewers
coming down into this,
that when they have heavy rain it will
overflow into where we're standing
and then go down these two
barrels behind us towards the sea.
Wait a minute. So we're standing here.
What happens if that overflows
while we're standing here?
We'll have the ride of our life
down those tunnels.
It'd be better than your train journeys.
(Michael) Has this been
over-engineered?
(Stuart) For some unknown reason,
they really went to town on this.
They over-engineered it.
And even to this day it still copes
with the present climate of the heavy
rains that we're getting now.
So I understand this has been built
to last for 500 years.
How does it actually work?
I don't see any motors.
I don't see where there would
have been a steam engine.
(Stuart) It's all gravity led, it's
normally falling down one foot per mile
for seven and a quarter miles
to Portobello.
That pleasant sound of tinkling water
is actually the sound of
Brighton's sewerage going past, is it?
That is correct, yes.
Everything else, as well.
I had no idea that sewage
had such a sweet tinkle to it.
Brighton needs its sewers,
as society needs politicians.
Now it's time for me to return
to Brighton Station
to travel on to my next stop.
My overnight rest will be in Bramber.
Bradshaw's tells me that it's
"a place of no particular note
beyond the remains of a castle,
which dates from about
the time of the conquest“.
Still, shortly after
this guidebook was written,
Tourists were flocking in by train.
Bramber Station closed in 1966
as a result of the Beeching Axe.
So I'm disembarking at nearby Shoreham
and travelling up to what remains
of Bramber's Norman castle
to meet museum curator Chris Tod.
Hi, Michael, good to see you.
(Michael) What brought the tourists
in their large numbers?
(Chris) There was the castle.
And subsequent to Bradshaw's
issue of his publication
there was a museum of taxidermy
known as Potter's Museum.
Taxidermy was popular with Victorians,
but why would ii merit a museum?
He had a twist on it.
He created tableaux telling stories
with numerous different animals
mimicking either a poem in the case of
Who Killed Cock Robin
or a rabbit's schoolroom
or a kitten's croquet party.
Some of which had mechanical bits
which you could activate.
Tell me what Bramber was like when waves
oi tourists were descending upon it.
(Stuart) The tourists came by train.
There was a line running
from Shoreham to Horsham
which stopped at Bramber
and they constructed
an extra-long platform at Bramber,
so that they could take
an extra couple of coaches.
Well, I'm staying tonight at the castle,
is that one of your historic inns?
It is, its history goes back,
as far as we know, to Tudor times.
But in the mid-19th century,
when its name was The White Lion,
Walter Potter's father,
James Potter, ran it
and Walter Potter
was a servant at the inn.
I will "potter" off. Very good.
- Thank you.
- Nice seeing you.
Potter's museum of taxidermy
has long since closed,
but the Castle Hotel ls just the place
for a generously-stuffed pillow.
Good evening.
It's the final day of my journey and
I'm heading back to Shoreham Station.
My first stop today will be Arundel.
I'm told that "it's situated on
the declivity of a steep hill".
"At the foot runs the River Arun, over
which is built a handsome stone bridge."
"The appearance of the town
with its stately castle
and winding river
is singularly beautiful."
As I near the end of my journey,
my eyes are going to feast.
Arundel can thank the Duke oi Norfolk
for its railway station.
The Howards' impressive castle
overlooking the Arun river
was began in 1068
and partially destroyed
during the English Civil War.
The family rebuilt in the 19th century
in this Victorian Gothic style.
I'm starting my tour in the library
with my guide Brenda Thompson.
What a beautiful library, Brenda.
The restorations that my Bradshaw's
are referring to,
those before, say, 1864,
these were various dukes restoring,
in inverted commas, to a Gothic style?
Yes, yes. Starting probably
with our 11th Duke,
he was the man
who built this beautiful library.
Took about 13 years to complete.
- How many books does it have?
- We have 10,000 books in here.
I'm very interested in
the doings of Queen Victoria.
Did she get to visit the castle?
Yes, she did,
in 1846 with Prince Albert.
They were given two years' notice
that she was coming
so they had time to prepare.
And so this room in particular,
all the red furnishing
was put in for her visit.
They had some furniture
made for the state bedroom.
They also put some little stoves
along the picture gallery
because they thought
she might get a bit chilly.
Did the Queen enjoy her visit?
Yes, I believe so because
we do have copies of her diaries.
A couple of things she thought
were a little boring.
She thought her rooms were
very comfortable, but rather small.
It's wonderful to have the frankness
- of Queen Victoria's diaries.
- Yes.
There was a huge restoration,
wasn't there?
(Brenda) Duke Henry decided
to continue the restoration work,
enlarged the castle and he wanted it
all in this Gothic style
so it had this flow throughout.
This work was made far easier
by the proximity of the railways,
allowing building materials to be
transported from the nearby station.
The Duke did some very
progressive renovations here,
including a steam pumped water supply,
central heating, a hydraulic lift
and 1,000 electric light bulbs.
A supporter of the railways,
the Duke was happy
for the line to cross his land
as tong as the timetable
met his convenience.
(Brenda) All the trains stopped here
in case he wanted to go to London.
You can divide the dukes of
the 19th century into two sorts.
Those who were opposed to railways
and those in favour.
But all liked the train to stop
where they wanted.
Exactly.
I know the train won't wan for me
so I must be at the station
in time to catch the last train
of this journey.
I'm now approaching my last stop,
Chichester,
which Bradshaw's tells me "is an
old town on the square Roman plan".
"It's a clean and neatly built
cathedral city."
So my journey that began in Norwich has
taken me from one cathedral to another.
Well, I've made a long journey
to see this wonder
and I'm not disappointed.
It has a slender refinement to it.
Bradshaw's tells me that
it was built in the 12th century.
It's 377 feet long,
including the Lady Chapel here.
"Norman and Early English work prevail."
"The fine eight-sided spire
is 300 feet high.“
In fact, the spire
collapsed dramatically in 1861,
was rebuilt by
the architect Gilbert Scott
with a donation from Queen Victoria.
An event in the British social calendar
draws thousands of visitors
every summer.
To find out more,
I'm heading up into the South Downs
to a ducal estate with
long-standing passions
for fast horses and fast cars:
Goodwood.
It all started with the first
Duke of Richmond's passion for hunting.
These splendid kennels for foxhounds
were built by the third Duke.
I'm meeting Hilary Sloan
to find out more.
- Hello, Hilary!
- Hello, Michael.
Bradshaw's tells me about horseracing
here in July at Goodwood.
But we're meeting by some kennels.
How do we move from foxhunting
to horseracing?
Well, the third Duke
was passionate about horses.
He'd been exercising his own horses
on the sands down at Itchener
close by since 1783.
In 1801 he was asked
if the Sussex militia
could exercise their horses
up on the harroway,
which is where the horseracing
still takes place today.
This was such a great success,
this private meeting,
1802 he established the first public
meeting and the rest really is history.
For the best outlook on the racecourse,
Hilary takes me up to
a viewpoint known as the Trundle.
(Michael)
A glorious view of Glorious Goodwood.
Who would have had this view
in the 19th century?
(Hilary) It was both sides of society.
Royalty, aristocracy and the locals and
even Londoners and people from Brighton.
Now if you were up here,
viewing the races for nothing,
you were not only looking down
on horseracing,
you were looking down on
the British establishment, weren't you?
(Hilary) Most definitely and this was
the place, the favourite playground
for the Prince of Wales
who later became Edward VII.
What did Queen Victoria think
of his racing passion?
Ah, well, I get the feeling
she was not amused.
Horseracing did not interest her at all
and, of course, she felt that her son,
often called Bertie,
was playing around a little too much.
How did the hoi polloi on the Trundle
and the establishment down there
make their way to the race course?
I hope they came by train.
(Hilary) Let's talk about royalty
first. The Prince of Wales,
he would arrive by train, the London,
Brighton and South Coast Railway.
But he wouldn't come into Chichester.
He would stop at a halt called Drayton
about two miles to the east
of Chichester.
The etiquette would be
that the Duke of Richmond
would arrange for a carriage
to go down to collect him.
He even went to the trouble of watering
the road between Goodwood and Drayton
to make sure there'd be no dust
in the way.
The plebeian hordes would trudge up
to the Trundle from the station
and gale upon the grandees
from this vantage point.
I'm getting the impression
that Goodwood is always evolving.
It started with foxhunting,
then there was horseracing.
Why does it keep changing?
This is really something of the
different passions of our various dukes
and by the time of the 20th century
our ninth Duke of Richmond was mad keen
on everything to do with motor racing,
and that was the start of
the motor passions here at Goodwood.
So these days the Goodwood estate
also draws the crowds
for a different type of horse power.
Chris Taylor is going to fill me in.
- How's it going? Hello.
- It's going very well.
I've been thinking about
the horseracing here,
but now you have a motor circuit, too.
How did Goodwood make the transition?
(Chris) The airfield was set up
to be a fighter base
during the Second World War. Afterwards,
when all the planes had gone,
the Duke of Richmond
was driving round here with a friend
and the friend said,
"I say, old chap,
this place would make a jolly fine
motor circuit, don't you know?"
The first meeting,
that was in 1948 here,
was the first race meeting
after the war in all of the UK.
And now you have
these great gatherings, don't you?
(Chris) You're talking about
the Goodwood Revival,
which is the race meeting which
has been set up by the Earl of March
to re-create the races that took place
between the '50s and '60s.
So it's the same cars, in some cases
with the same drivers,
and everybody dresses up in period gear.
All the cars that are on site
are pre-'66.
If you were to parachute in here
during the meeting
you'd think you'd fallen in
another world.
I have actually attended.
I came as a teddy boy.
- (Chris) I'd like to have seen that.
- I had winklepicker shoes
and I had sideburns painted on with
cork, of course, and masses of altitude!
- And did you feel that you fitted in?
- Yeah, it was a great day out.
What is this lovely machine?
This is your original
cops and robbers car.
It's a Mark 2 Jaguar, 3.8 litre.
The baddies bought them
and then the police had to buy them
to keep up with them.
In those days, it must have
seemed like an absolute rocket ship.
Do you mind if I take it for a spin?
Put your seatbelt on.
Just put Bradshaw in the back.
Right, let's go.
You're not going to scare me, are you?
(laughs) Fasten your seatbelt.
Chris gives me an accelerated course
to get me up to speed.
(Chris) This is the main straight,
or the pit straight.
The first corner we come to
is a right-hander.
So the thing about driving on a race
circuit is always be looking ahead.
First corner is a right-hander,
ease over to the left.
Keep your hands at the...
That's it, perfect.
- (Michael) Sign there saying "brake".
- Tiny bit of brake.
Now back on the power.
That balances the car.
You're driving through the corner,
rather than rolling through the corner.
The car will feel much more stable.
Down this straight in the Revival,
they're doing 180 miles an hour.
(Michael) I can't believe it.
I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
- Go on, that was 70, come on.
- (Michael laughs)
And what do you think Bertie,
the man who became Edward VII,
what would he have thought of this?
He was a good racy fellow, wasn't he?
He would have absolutely loved it
and it's a shame you can't bring
those guys back and say,
"Hey, have a look at this.
How much fun is this?"
"Your horses are fine,
but isn't this fun, too?"
Superb. Though I remain more of
a rail anorak than a petrol head.
On this journey
from Norwich to Chichester
I've steered clear of the factories and
chimney stacks of Bradshaw's Britain,
focusing instead on country pursuits
and places of pleasure.
But the railways changed everything
everywhere,
making people physically
and socially mobile.
Monarchs and commoners alike
travelled by train
and here at Goodwood the masses
could look down upon the royals
as they enjoyed the sport of kings.
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.
I'm reaching the end of my journey
and I'll be travelling
along the south coast
through the counties of
East and West Sussex.
Bradshaw says,
"Railways may now be considered
as accelerators of pleasure,
bringing the most favourite
watering places along the coast
within the compass of
a brief and agreeable journey."
As we might say today, trains were
changing the work/life balance.
On this leg, I'll pick up the scent
underground in Brighton,"
I have no idea that sewage
had such a sweet tinkle to it.
“Visit a palace
that didn't amuse a queen...
"As the royal pair approached
Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward
more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered
beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
How frightful!
And pass the chequered flag
in style.
(man) Down the straight in the Revival,
they're doing 180 miles an hour.
(Michael) I can't believe it.
I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
- (man) That was 70, come on.
- (Michael laughs)
My journey began in
the cathedral city of Norwich.
I travelled south through East Anglia
to Ipswich and Chelmsford.
Crossing the Thames at Tilbury
I continued through Kent to Dover
and then headed inland to Tonbridge.
I'll return to the coast at Brighton
before ending my journey
in another cathedral city.
Now I reach the seaside at Brighton,
and visit Bramber and Arundel,
before arriving at my final
destination, Chichester.
My first stop will be what Bradshaw's
calls "the Marine Metropolis'.
And here's an interesting
social comment:
"Merchants who formerly made
Dulwich or Dalston
the boundaries of
their suburban residences,
now have their mansions
by the south coast,
and still get in less time,
and by a less expensive conveyance,
to their counting houses in the city."
What's more,
Brighton had a royal seal of approval.
The railway arrived here in 1841
and by the mid-1840s the journey time
from London was lust over an hour.
Brighton Station was soon bustling
with day trippers and commuters.
My guidebook comments that,
"The Brighton terminus
is an elegant structure,
fitted up in the most convenient
manner.“ Hear, hear.
Originally called Brighthelmstone,
as a fishing village
Brighton avoided the limelight
until the hie-Nth century.
That changed after the Prince Regent,
later King George IV,
first visited Brighton in 1783.
He began to spend time here.
As a man devoted to
elegance and pleasure,
he decided in 1787 to create
this whimsical pavilion.
The Brighton Pavilion,
says my guidebook,
"rises with domes and minarets,
and is fretted with greater variety
than taste,
erected for George IV,
after a fanciful Oriental model...
You sense here the disdain
that every generation feels
for the fashion of its predecessor.
I think I'll ask some of
today's visitors what they think.
- Hello.
- How are you doing?
I'm using a 19th-century guidebook
which says that the exterior
of the building displays
"more variety than taste".
What do you think of that?
I think taste is in the eye
of the beholder, really.
I actually think it's really nice
to look at, so I'd disagree with that.
I think the variety actually
adds to the taste, really.
It makes it quite unique and different.
What do you think of the Pavilion
here in Brighton?
I am Italian. We usually have good
taste like French.
I think that mixing things
is not very good taste.
I think the outside is beautiful
but the inside is a bit eclectic.
It's just like a mish-mash of styles.
I'm going inside to find out more
about this extraordinary building
from Alexandra Loske.
Alexandra,
I think this is the most exotic,
not to say over-the-top building,
that I have ever been in.
What made the Prince Regent, George IV,
choose Brighton for his residence?
Well, he came down as a young man,
the young Prince of Wales, in 1783,
really to get away from London.
He rented a farmhouse,
a substantial house,
which was on this site,
and later transformed it
into this exotic,
Indian-looking building.
And of course the architect of that
was the famous John Nash.
(Michael) That's extraordinary
because I associate John Nash
with the very symmetrical buildings
of Regent's Park,
Buckingham Palace, and so on.
This was his walk on the wild side?
It was, both for John Nash
and for King George IV.
This was the place away from London
where you could
let your imagination run wild.
I don't think this building
could have been built in London.
Brighton suited
George's louche lifestyle.
With a passion for fashion,
the arts and good living,
he was a rebel
against his strict upbringing.
He threw himself with enthusiasm into
drinking, gambling and womanising.
Was he able to enjoy the building?
He did, he used it really
for entertaining.
You can tell by the way the building
looks and how it's laid out,
that it was really a party palace.
(Michael) The extraordinary style,
what were the inspirations?
The inspirations were India, any
exotic country, mostly the Far East.
That was fashionable,
so he wasn't alone in this.
It's a style called
Orientalism or Chinoiserie
and it was hugely popular
in the mid-18th century,
but nobody did it on this scale.
This was a fantasy vision of the East,
as imagined by Europeans.
At the ceiling here we have, supposedly
holding this gigantic chandelier,
a dragon. Of course,
you associate China with dragons.
But if you look closely at the dragon,
it's actually a Welsh dragon.
It's what the artist knew about dragons.
Very few people had solid knowledge
about the Orient
and Chinese mythology and symbolism.
George IV didn't have long
to enjoy his pleasure dome,
which was completed in 187.3.
Perhaps his extravagant lifestyle
caught up with him
and his health failed.
His last visit to Brighton was in 1827
and he died three years later.
In 1837, the Victorian era begins.
How did the young Queen
lake lo this building?
Well, she comes here just a few months
after her coronation.
She's still only 18 and she has mixed
feelings and views on the building
but it's probably best
to tell you more about this
- in her private apartments here.
- Excellent.
George N's palace by the sea
expressed one man's personal taste
for Oriental splendour.
It was too flamboyant and too much
associated with decadence
for Queen Victoria.
So we are in Queen Victoria's
private apartments
on the upper floor of
the Royal Pavilion.
- Did she like Brighton?
- She tried to like it
but it had various problems.
The place was too small for her,
certainly not good for
a growing number oi children.
But it was mainly
the lack of privacy here.
Did the railways contribute
to this loss of privacy?
Of course, absolutely.
From 1841, when the line opens
between London and Brighton,
many, many more people come
lo Brighton on day trips.
It's mostly Londoners
and they can afford to now.
It's quick, you can come fora day
or weekend. It's cheap.
And the place gets swamped
with ordinary people
and, of course,
Victoria does object to that.
Did the Queen herself use
the train to come to Brighton?
She did at least once.
On the way down,
she likes the comfort of
the saloon she's travelling in.
On the return journey she says,
"Oh, it only took us an
hour and six minutes."
"This is rather too quick, I think'.
Yes, Queen Victoria
did not like fast-moving trains.
But then came the final straw.
On he! last visit here in 1845,
Victoria and Albert
went for a walk incognito.
Word got around that
the royal couple were on the pier.
The "Illustrated London News"
reported the story.
"As the royal pair approached
Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered
beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
- How frightful.
- Is a bit.
And then Victoria writes a letter
to somebody saying,
"The people in Brighton
are terribly indiscreet
and it feels very much
like a prison here."
She sells the entire estate here
in Brighton and the buildings in 1850
to the town of Brighton.
After Queen Victoria abandoned Brighton
and sought privacy
on the Isle of Wight,
the hoi polloi continued to delight in
the pleasures of this seaside town.
This is my guidebook's description:
"Pleasure seekers, out for the day,
and eager to be ubiquitous,
hurrying to and fro,
through the market to the spa,
to the racecourse, the windmill,
the beach, the shops
and the chain pier,
in as rapid succession as the most
ingenious locomotion could devise."
Some of the attractions have changed
but the nature of Brighton hasn't.
But my "Bradshaw's" reveals
another layer to this town.
Here's a change of tone in my guidebook.
"A twang of saltiness greets the lip."
There is another Brighton
burrowing beneath the royal palace
and my journey today will take me
from the sublime to the slime.
The rapid expansion
of towns such as Brighton
demanded wonders
from Victorian engineers.
Some oi the most impressive
are hidden deep underground.
I'm descending into the sludgy
Victorian bowels of the Earth.
To meet Stuart Slark to find out more.
Stuart, what a charming place to meet.
Turn our stomachs a bit.
What was Brighton like
before it had a sewerage system?
Very bad, very smelly, because all
they used to do in the old days,
they used to drain it
to the top of the beach.
At the beginning oi the 19th century,
tourists would come down to Brighton
- and find what?
- A lot of messy stuff on the beach.
It was absolutely disgusting and smelly.
So what did the Victorians do about it?
(Stuart) They built these magnificent
sewers that you're going to see today.
A wonderful piece oi engineering
from Sir John Hawkshaw.
Can we go and witness
this glorious Victorian engineering?
- Of course you can, come with me.
- Thank you.
Forty-four miles of sewers
were constructed in 1865,
followed by this enormous intercepting
sewer, completed in 1874,
which took the wastewater
out of the town altogether.
Stuart, that was a very
slippery and slithery tunnel
but now we come into
this magnificent vault.
I mean, the engineering here!
The scale of it! Fantastic!
We are now 40 foot underground.
We're right by the side of
the steam fountain in Brighton.
You've got the sewer
running down the side.
Also, we have got two big sewers
coming down into this,
that when they have heavy rain it will
overflow into where we're standing
and then go down these two
barrels behind us towards the sea.
Wait a minute. So we're standing here.
What happens if that overflows
while we're standing here?
We'll have the ride of our life
down those tunnels.
It'd be better than your train journeys.
(Michael) Has this been
over-engineered?
(Stuart) For some unknown reason,
they really went to town on this.
They over-engineered it.
And even to this day it still copes
with the present climate of the heavy
rains that we're getting now.
So I understand this has been built
to last for 500 years.
How does it actually work?
I don't see any motors.
I don't see where there would
have been a steam engine.
(Stuart) It's all gravity led, it's
normally falling down one foot per mile
for seven and a quarter miles
to Portobello.
That pleasant sound of tinkling water
is actually the sound of
Brighton's sewerage going past, is it?
That is correct, yes.
Everything else, as well.
I had no idea that sewage
had such a sweet tinkle to it.
Brighton needs its sewers,
as society needs politicians.
Now it's time for me to return
to Brighton Station
to travel on to my next stop.
My overnight rest will be in Bramber.
Bradshaw's tells me that it's
"a place of no particular note
beyond the remains of a castle,
which dates from about
the time of the conquest“.
Still, shortly after
this guidebook was written,
Tourists were flocking in by train.
Bramber Station closed in 1966
as a result of the Beeching Axe.
So I'm disembarking at nearby Shoreham
and travelling up to what remains
of Bramber's Norman castle
to meet museum curator Chris Tod.
Hi, Michael, good to see you.
(Michael) What brought the tourists
in their large numbers?
(Chris) There was the castle.
And subsequent to Bradshaw's
issue of his publication
there was a museum of taxidermy
known as Potter's Museum.
Taxidermy was popular with Victorians,
but why would ii merit a museum?
He had a twist on it.
He created tableaux telling stories
with numerous different animals
mimicking either a poem in the case of
Who Killed Cock Robin
or a rabbit's schoolroom
or a kitten's croquet party.
Some of which had mechanical bits
which you could activate.
Tell me what Bramber was like when waves
oi tourists were descending upon it.
(Stuart) The tourists came by train.
There was a line running
from Shoreham to Horsham
which stopped at Bramber
and they constructed
an extra-long platform at Bramber,
so that they could take
an extra couple of coaches.
Well, I'm staying tonight at the castle,
is that one of your historic inns?
It is, its history goes back,
as far as we know, to Tudor times.
But in the mid-19th century,
when its name was The White Lion,
Walter Potter's father,
James Potter, ran it
and Walter Potter
was a servant at the inn.
I will "potter" off. Very good.
- Thank you.
- Nice seeing you.
Potter's museum of taxidermy
has long since closed,
but the Castle Hotel ls just the place
for a generously-stuffed pillow.
Good evening.
It's the final day of my journey and
I'm heading back to Shoreham Station.
My first stop today will be Arundel.
I'm told that "it's situated on
the declivity of a steep hill".
"At the foot runs the River Arun, over
which is built a handsome stone bridge."
"The appearance of the town
with its stately castle
and winding river
is singularly beautiful."
As I near the end of my journey,
my eyes are going to feast.
Arundel can thank the Duke oi Norfolk
for its railway station.
The Howards' impressive castle
overlooking the Arun river
was began in 1068
and partially destroyed
during the English Civil War.
The family rebuilt in the 19th century
in this Victorian Gothic style.
I'm starting my tour in the library
with my guide Brenda Thompson.
What a beautiful library, Brenda.
The restorations that my Bradshaw's
are referring to,
those before, say, 1864,
these were various dukes restoring,
in inverted commas, to a Gothic style?
Yes, yes. Starting probably
with our 11th Duke,
he was the man
who built this beautiful library.
Took about 13 years to complete.
- How many books does it have?
- We have 10,000 books in here.
I'm very interested in
the doings of Queen Victoria.
Did she get to visit the castle?
Yes, she did,
in 1846 with Prince Albert.
They were given two years' notice
that she was coming
so they had time to prepare.
And so this room in particular,
all the red furnishing
was put in for her visit.
They had some furniture
made for the state bedroom.
They also put some little stoves
along the picture gallery
because they thought
she might get a bit chilly.
Did the Queen enjoy her visit?
Yes, I believe so because
we do have copies of her diaries.
A couple of things she thought
were a little boring.
She thought her rooms were
very comfortable, but rather small.
It's wonderful to have the frankness
- of Queen Victoria's diaries.
- Yes.
There was a huge restoration,
wasn't there?
(Brenda) Duke Henry decided
to continue the restoration work,
enlarged the castle and he wanted it
all in this Gothic style
so it had this flow throughout.
This work was made far easier
by the proximity of the railways,
allowing building materials to be
transported from the nearby station.
The Duke did some very
progressive renovations here,
including a steam pumped water supply,
central heating, a hydraulic lift
and 1,000 electric light bulbs.
A supporter of the railways,
the Duke was happy
for the line to cross his land
as tong as the timetable
met his convenience.
(Brenda) All the trains stopped here
in case he wanted to go to London.
You can divide the dukes of
the 19th century into two sorts.
Those who were opposed to railways
and those in favour.
But all liked the train to stop
where they wanted.
Exactly.
I know the train won't wan for me
so I must be at the station
in time to catch the last train
of this journey.
I'm now approaching my last stop,
Chichester,
which Bradshaw's tells me "is an
old town on the square Roman plan".
"It's a clean and neatly built
cathedral city."
So my journey that began in Norwich has
taken me from one cathedral to another.
Well, I've made a long journey
to see this wonder
and I'm not disappointed.
It has a slender refinement to it.
Bradshaw's tells me that
it was built in the 12th century.
It's 377 feet long,
including the Lady Chapel here.
"Norman and Early English work prevail."
"The fine eight-sided spire
is 300 feet high.“
In fact, the spire
collapsed dramatically in 1861,
was rebuilt by
the architect Gilbert Scott
with a donation from Queen Victoria.
An event in the British social calendar
draws thousands of visitors
every summer.
To find out more,
I'm heading up into the South Downs
to a ducal estate with
long-standing passions
for fast horses and fast cars:
Goodwood.
It all started with the first
Duke of Richmond's passion for hunting.
These splendid kennels for foxhounds
were built by the third Duke.
I'm meeting Hilary Sloan
to find out more.
- Hello, Hilary!
- Hello, Michael.
Bradshaw's tells me about horseracing
here in July at Goodwood.
But we're meeting by some kennels.
How do we move from foxhunting
to horseracing?
Well, the third Duke
was passionate about horses.
He'd been exercising his own horses
on the sands down at Itchener
close by since 1783.
In 1801 he was asked
if the Sussex militia
could exercise their horses
up on the harroway,
which is where the horseracing
still takes place today.
This was such a great success,
this private meeting,
1802 he established the first public
meeting and the rest really is history.
For the best outlook on the racecourse,
Hilary takes me up to
a viewpoint known as the Trundle.
(Michael)
A glorious view of Glorious Goodwood.
Who would have had this view
in the 19th century?
(Hilary) It was both sides of society.
Royalty, aristocracy and the locals and
even Londoners and people from Brighton.
Now if you were up here,
viewing the races for nothing,
you were not only looking down
on horseracing,
you were looking down on
the British establishment, weren't you?
(Hilary) Most definitely and this was
the place, the favourite playground
for the Prince of Wales
who later became Edward VII.
What did Queen Victoria think
of his racing passion?
Ah, well, I get the feeling
she was not amused.
Horseracing did not interest her at all
and, of course, she felt that her son,
often called Bertie,
was playing around a little too much.
How did the hoi polloi on the Trundle
and the establishment down there
make their way to the race course?
I hope they came by train.
(Hilary) Let's talk about royalty
first. The Prince of Wales,
he would arrive by train, the London,
Brighton and South Coast Railway.
But he wouldn't come into Chichester.
He would stop at a halt called Drayton
about two miles to the east
of Chichester.
The etiquette would be
that the Duke of Richmond
would arrange for a carriage
to go down to collect him.
He even went to the trouble of watering
the road between Goodwood and Drayton
to make sure there'd be no dust
in the way.
The plebeian hordes would trudge up
to the Trundle from the station
and gale upon the grandees
from this vantage point.
I'm getting the impression
that Goodwood is always evolving.
It started with foxhunting,
then there was horseracing.
Why does it keep changing?
This is really something of the
different passions of our various dukes
and by the time of the 20th century
our ninth Duke of Richmond was mad keen
on everything to do with motor racing,
and that was the start of
the motor passions here at Goodwood.
So these days the Goodwood estate
also draws the crowds
for a different type of horse power.
Chris Taylor is going to fill me in.
- How's it going? Hello.
- It's going very well.
I've been thinking about
the horseracing here,
but now you have a motor circuit, too.
How did Goodwood make the transition?
(Chris) The airfield was set up
to be a fighter base
during the Second World War. Afterwards,
when all the planes had gone,
the Duke of Richmond
was driving round here with a friend
and the friend said,
"I say, old chap,
this place would make a jolly fine
motor circuit, don't you know?"
The first meeting,
that was in 1948 here,
was the first race meeting
after the war in all of the UK.
And now you have
these great gatherings, don't you?
(Chris) You're talking about
the Goodwood Revival,
which is the race meeting which
has been set up by the Earl of March
to re-create the races that took place
between the '50s and '60s.
So it's the same cars, in some cases
with the same drivers,
and everybody dresses up in period gear.
All the cars that are on site
are pre-'66.
If you were to parachute in here
during the meeting
you'd think you'd fallen in
another world.
I have actually attended.
I came as a teddy boy.
- (Chris) I'd like to have seen that.
- I had winklepicker shoes
and I had sideburns painted on with
cork, of course, and masses of altitude!
- And did you feel that you fitted in?
- Yeah, it was a great day out.
What is this lovely machine?
This is your original
cops and robbers car.
It's a Mark 2 Jaguar, 3.8 litre.
The baddies bought them
and then the police had to buy them
to keep up with them.
In those days, it must have
seemed like an absolute rocket ship.
Do you mind if I take it for a spin?
Put your seatbelt on.
Just put Bradshaw in the back.
Right, let's go.
You're not going to scare me, are you?
(laughs) Fasten your seatbelt.
Chris gives me an accelerated course
to get me up to speed.
(Chris) This is the main straight,
or the pit straight.
The first corner we come to
is a right-hander.
So the thing about driving on a race
circuit is always be looking ahead.
First corner is a right-hander,
ease over to the left.
Keep your hands at the...
That's it, perfect.
- (Michael) Sign there saying "brake".
- Tiny bit of brake.
Now back on the power.
That balances the car.
You're driving through the corner,
rather than rolling through the corner.
The car will feel much more stable.
Down this straight in the Revival,
they're doing 180 miles an hour.
(Michael) I can't believe it.
I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
- Go on, that was 70, come on.
- (Michael laughs)
And what do you think Bertie,
the man who became Edward VII,
what would he have thought of this?
He was a good racy fellow, wasn't he?
He would have absolutely loved it
and it's a shame you can't bring
those guys back and say,
"Hey, have a look at this.
How much fun is this?"
"Your horses are fine,
but isn't this fun, too?"
Superb. Though I remain more of
a rail anorak than a petrol head.
On this journey
from Norwich to Chichester
I've steered clear of the factories and
chimney stacks of Bradshaw's Britain,
focusing instead on country pursuits
and places of pleasure.
But the railways changed everything
everywhere,
making people physically
and socially mobile.
Monarchs and commoners alike
travelled by train
and here at Goodwood the masses
could look down upon the royals
as they enjoyed the sport of kings.