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00:03150 years ago Victorian Britain became the world's first industrial superpower and as the country
00:10thrived London the beating heart of empire became the world's richest city but this was a city
00:18divided for the first time geographical lines were drawn between those enjoying the nation's
00:25wealth in the West and those who weren't in the East this is the story of one poor community living
00:36in London's East End in the heart of modern Stratford a Victorian slum has been recreated
00:47and a group of 21st century people are moving in oh absolutely awful I'm just a bit dumbstruck
00:58to survive they'll have to work to keep a roof over their heads it's absolutely shattering
01:08and put food on the table I'm starving so it's making me a bit emotional to be honest
01:14and they'll learn firsthand what life was like you will call me mom for those at the bottom of the
01:21economic pile they were disabled they couldn't do it they didn't eat they didn't eat they died
01:26they'll live through five decades of turbulent history look at the newspaper and seismic social
01:33change I am proud to be an East End suffragette proud to the people this is the story of how
01:42a
01:42quarter of a million slum dwellers in the East End changed our attitude to poverty forever
01:50this is the slum
01:58last time the 1870s I've always wanted one of these machines the residents moved into mass
02:05production 22 pairs of trousers bread that's now 97p but an economic nosedive 30% reduction in prices
02:20is a big bombshell meant harder work he treats us like employees not family when we're working just
02:27about pass just to scrape by you know being the only breadwinner I've got to work twice as hard to
02:36earn
02:36money and then still I have nothing and I'm running out of options there were hopeful new arrivals the
02:44Irish are moving up and a desperate departure I don't know how these people did it I mean if I
02:51was a
02:51Victorian woman I would rather take my chances elsewhere and start afresh well she's just gone
02:57unbelievable it's nearly touching at the back now there was a big get before at the waist slum
03:09diets working it's the residents third week in the slum and the start of a new decade the 1880s I
03:20don't know what's gonna happen in the next decade as a family we just take it day by day but
03:26there's
03:26always that worry for slum dwellers like the potters it's an ongoing battle to make ends meet seems to
03:36be no end to the cycle you know you get up you go out look for work there is no
03:40works it's absolutely
03:41so destroyed we've got some lovely bacon here 75 pence or the normal bread and marge I think it's
03:51gonna be normal bread and marge we'd worked so hard in the 1870s just to get by my greatest fear
03:58for the
03:581880s is that it gets worse in the 1870s Britain was gripped by a dire economic depression by the 1880s
04:08things were reaching crisis point there was an influx of cheap labor into the east end which
04:14led to greater competition for jobs and drove down wages pressure was mounting on those who are already
04:22living on the edge Russell the big bit or the smaller bit the smaller bit I'll do whatever I can
04:32to pay
04:32my rent doesn't matter how hard we work don't care how little we sleep and I don't care how hungry
04:37we
04:37go it's the main thing is we put as much money we can away as soon as you start getting
04:40behind here
04:41you're never gonna you're never gonna get back in the 1870s the how a family got by working from home
04:48as sweated tailors finishing factory orders in the 1880s even with the economy in dire straits
04:56london's population was still expanding by more than 40,000 a year oh my god oh my god there's a
05:04singer
05:04there's a singer so this is a workshop yeah definitely workshop high five special as the depression worsened
05:14factories cut costs creating an opportunity for east end tailors to set up entire workshops fulfilling
05:20factory orders by exploiting the cheap and unregulated workforce in the east end slums compared to working
05:27at home this to me just feels like a palace last time the house was sweated workers now they will
05:36be the sweaters but their new business means their weekly rent has almost doubled to 30 pounds in today's
05:43money so the pressure is on to make the workshop pay we need to work really hard and get ourselves
05:49out of
05:50this but we're going to be employing people are not paying them fairly so we're not going to be
05:54paying for a fair day's work are we no running a sweaters workshop it's gonna be tough i think
05:58if we don't deliver any work then no manager to come in and we're paying them and we don't actually
06:04make any money we actually lose money we could be in the doss house if we don't get the work
06:08done
06:11the success of a sweated workshop relied on a willingness to work others to the bone
06:17and in an already saturated labor market there was no shortage of people desperate for work
06:24the 1880s saw a huge influx of jewish immigrants fleeing from poverty and persecution in places like
06:31russia and eastern europe they came here to the east end despite the fact that a lot of them had
06:36relatives writing them letters saying don't come conditions here are truly dreadful
06:41but what they were fleeing was even worse in 1881 in russia jews were blamed for the assassination of
06:50czar alexander government-sponsored massacres known as pogroms followed thousands were killed
06:57the pogroms spawned attacks and oppression that lasted decades and forced many to flee their homeland
07:03and seek refuge in cities like london the number of jewish immigrants almost doubled around 30 000
07:11arrived and this made them the second largest immigrant population after the irish
07:18tomas is a 21st century polish economic migrant not what i necessarily expected so gray
07:27oh lee and yasha are both descendants of european jews who sought refuge in london
07:38they seem smiley don't they yeah oh god give it an hour 75 year old yasha's father fled russia in
07:47the
07:47early 20th century i'm just very grateful to have this amazing opportunity to experience the
07:55circumstances under which jews arrived in the east end of london they come to a new nation looking
08:00for something new for new hope new opportunities
08:06lee's grandfather was an austrian child refugee brought to england at the start of the second world
08:12war they came here just so that they could live just as they could be somewhere and it not be
08:20an
08:20offense to be jewish i reckon they've just come come in russ and they're going to be looking for work
08:25i reckon these are the people we're going to have to look to employ oh my god this is so
08:29weird
08:32in the 1880s refugees arriving at london's docks were often greeted off the boat by sweating sharks
08:39who promised them work and brought them to the sweater's dens of the east end
08:44this is the workshop okay russell is obviously in charge of the work i'm actually in charge of the
08:50workshop itself so i'll be walking around making sure everybody is productive as they possibly can be
08:55sweaters dens maximize the productivity of their workers by operating a strict set of rules there is
09:02no slacking on the job which includes stopping to eat okay there is no excessive talking all right
09:09the most serious one is any stealing or damaging any of the garments because we have to replace
09:15them which comes out of our profit which is going to feed my children if only the rules are broken
09:19then
09:19you will be fined and that will be taken out of any wages that that you could potentially earn
09:25like their forebears the workers have arrived with no money for food and shelter
09:30they won't be paid till the first order is complete new orders could come at any time
09:36new order six men's pairs of trousers and six waistcoats turning them around quickly was the
09:42only way to make a sweatshop pay we've got to do this by tomorrow we need to work quickly but
09:49new
09:49employees were unfamiliar with the process i had a slight accident you see the iron here really very very
09:58hot wrap it got it pick it up known as greeners a little bit of water they were given the
10:05lowliest
10:05tasks such as under pressing and basic machining just so on the white chalk mark mandy and russell
10:11will need to get their greeners up to speed fast if they're going to get their first order done today
10:17oh no i think my bobbins gone never crank it towards you because if you do it'll break the cotton
10:24which is
10:24really annoying if anybody is struggling could you let me know please because i can call russell
10:29over rather than you just wait and wait and wait because time is money you have to understand they've
10:35got to work quickly the idea is is that they need to make us money so they're lovely lovely but
10:41ultimately
10:41they're not my friends my mom i've never seen her like that before she she's embracing the sweatshop thing
10:48the fact that there was no laws whatsoever just blows my mind to keep up the pace in the 1880s
10:55sweated workers put in more than 18 hours a day six days a week put one on while that one's
11:01heating
11:01up you're using one you can when you go out and swap over they were paid amongst the lowest wages
11:06in the slums the equivalent of just 34 pence an hour they'd need four times that to pay for a
11:12bed
11:12in the dosas this is where they sort of took advantage of the immigrants who probably couldn't
11:16even speak english or or read or write or anything like that these conditions are still around the
11:22world being bangladesh and china people get treated and taken advantage of it was a dog eat dog world
11:28they probably had the attitude but i had to go through it i had to do it i had to
11:32survive it and if
11:33you're strong enough you will survive it but that's not my problem i'm in it to get out of this
11:37so i will
11:37learn as much money out of you as i possibly can without a trade to rely on the potters have
11:46struggled through the decades but families like theirs could make a living from the streets
11:54known as costamongers or street peddlers they bought cheap food to sell on
12:02a staple of the east end diet eels were an affordable source of protein known as the meat
12:09of the poor people usually prepared street food in their own homes but the potters are borrowing the
12:15shop's kitchen i think we've not done a bad job bought for five a penny sheep's trotters could also
12:24be sold on the street for a small profit we'll see if we can get enough so that we can
12:29make the rent
12:30can be able to feed us
12:38the potters are heading to spitalfields in the heart of the east end to try and make their 13 pounds
12:44rent
12:45come and get your jelly deals jelly deals 17 pens yeah all right come and get your jelly deals
12:54spitalfields spitalfields would have thronged with people plying their trade outside pubs like the
12:58ten bells here since 1851 where people paid pennies for snacks to soak up their gin and beer
13:06in the 1880s the lack of other work meant the number of costamongers soared by almost 40 percent
13:13to more than 12 000. come and get your potters trotters it's a little bit like alkevabs
13:23it's quite fatty isn't it back then around 80 000 sheep's trotters were consumed each week
13:30hello now though the potters will need to sell 72 trotters or eels just to make their rent
13:39would you be interested in any sheep's trotters sorry what is it it's a sheep's trotter
13:47what is the difference between the tube and a foolish dutchman one is a hollow cylinder and the
13:53other is a silly hollander as well as street selling children found other ways to make money
14:01would you like to hear a joke at 8p they performed acrobatics sang ditties or told the jokes of the
14:09day to pass us by all to try and earn a few pennies ready ready if all the seeds were
14:16dried up what
14:17would neptune say i really haven't got a notion when it's a pretty girl like a ship
14:28when she is attached to a boy amazing it's all right it's quite embarrassing but every penny counts
14:37when you're in victorian times because it could be the one penny that gets you your meal
14:42trotters trotters
14:47what are you eating there fish and chips would be absolutely super 17 pounds just try it graham injured
14:54his back while working shortly after his arrival at the slum now he finally has a chance to earn
15:02you eat fish that's all it is my parents were brought up on those it is nice yes it is
15:09yes
15:1017 pence thank you thank you thank you i think my dad's a natural salesman it's what he's done
15:17all his life he's had to cook them freshly this morning he's enjoying it i think it's probably
15:21done him the world of good to get out so one to take away yeah yeah with more people arriving
15:26all the
15:27time the east end slums of the 1880s were filling up with unskilled men desperate to support their
15:33families unemployment rates were running at around 10 for casual laborers but the real problem was
15:39underemployment if you were unskilled then you would be lucky to get two weeks of poorly paid work
15:45a month and that affected the lives of everyone in the slum
15:53slum residents john and andy are meeting social historian carl chin at the west india docks a few
16:00miles from the east end to find out about job opportunities in the 1880s
16:07the dock would have been the first port of call for many casual laborers but by the 1880s everything
16:14was a fight this is why we're here today lads this grand imposing pillar its twin is across the street
16:21this was the entrance to the west india docks between the pillars there would have been great big heavy
16:28gates in the 1880s at gates like these along the thames in london thousands upon thousands of desperate
16:38men would gather every morning looking for casual work in the east end of london alone over 10 000
16:45men while trying to get dock work which was sufficient for only 6 000. for centuries the spoils of empire
16:54tea sugar tobacco spice had passed through london's docks in the 1860s when the docks were thriving it
17:03had offered casual laborers hard work but decent pay by the 1880s the economic depression and
17:09competition from new docks downstream left the east end in crisis too poor to travel elsewhere men still
17:17came desperate for work often waiting hours for the chance of a job when those gates open there's a
17:24mad rush for the men to get through and be the first to get called for work ben tillit later
17:30founded
17:31the dock workers union and he wrote in his memoirs about a place called the cage as the men were
17:38driven
17:38through the gates they were herded almost into a shed as if they were cattle and that shed had iron
17:45bars
17:46all around it and around the iron bars the foreman looking out deciding who they were going to choose
17:53to work that day the younger men were flinging themselves across those in front men who were so
18:00enfeebled by hunger and weakness fell below onto the ground and they were trampled to death underfoot
18:08those are the conditions that the casuals had to put up with i mean it's horrific it beggars belief
18:14that people like you say were treated like cattle like commodities like pieces of flesh just to move
18:20items to come here you know in the hope to be able to support their families and to come in
18:24and find
18:25yourself in the cage it's i can't imagine that desperation for work it's it's unbelievable i can't
18:33even and the job that you casuals would have had would have been at the bottom of the pile to
18:41unload
18:41the bales the barrels the crates and of course the bags of sugar this is what you've punched pushed shoved
18:51fought for and you know how much you're going to get for it it'll be a pittance isn't it five
18:55pence
18:56an hour five pence an hour five pence an hour it's crazy and did you think you would have got
19:02work
19:02to be honest i can't see me even getting through the gate why would a foreman pick someone with
19:07quite an obvious disability i'm older than john i'm i'm bottom of the pile aren't i you're on your way
19:12out
19:13then john young fitter probably would have been picked get cracking with your work mate andy's got
19:20nothing from the dock but for john things aren't much better in the 1860s a docker's daily wage was
19:26equivalent to 22 pounds in today's money but by the 1880s fierce competition for fewer jobs had forced
19:34wages down and they'd have been lucky to get two hours work earning them just four pounds forty it's
19:41terrific and you're just bringing it backwards and forwards all day long moving goods around the
19:47keys and warehouses was dangerous too the sacks would rub the skin off their backs and half of all workers
19:53sustained serious injuries there are even accounts of men dying from exhaustion on their doorsteps
20:02clutching their day's pay makes you kind of angry that somebody in those days was willing to go out
20:09and fight for this work but nothing could secure it from one day to the next it's ruthless there's
20:16no security and there's always somebody ready to take your place as soon as you can't do it
20:27in the east end sweatshops working conditions were just as bad sweated workers were fined for mistakes
20:34for talking and charged over the odds for bread and tea don't be too stingy with the sugar
20:43with a list of rules to enforce 12 year old james is getting a taste for being boss
20:54you can't stop work to drink your tea or you get fined one pound two pence you need to work
21:00while
21:02you're drinking your tea how are you supposed to be drinking while working
21:09it's just for you to sort out it's not my problem because i'm not drinking and working at the same
21:13time it's your problem
21:16quite enjoying bossing people around i feel like i'm quite a big person in the scheme of
21:24like bad dads at the top and i'm beneath him and then all the workers at the bottom
21:28i stitched the wrong side first that is a definitely damaging that's at two pounds 72.
21:37fines meant bosses could get away with paying workers even less than their already meager wage
21:45there's an account of one young jewish greener who worked 22 hours in every 24.
21:52finally despair led him to hang himself in the room he shared with his wife the circumstances under
21:59which they were working were very uncomfortable and not very happy at all there's no fairness
22:05in the mistreatment of people like that these immigrants must have arrived here with lots of
22:10hope in their hearts and i would have thought that once they found themselves in the slums being taken
22:15advantage of being mistreated you know they must have become absolutely desperate as the end of the
22:21day approaches the orders still not finished which means no pay for the house or their workers
22:28gentlemen how's it going not so well not so well we've come to you and looking for help what's
22:34happening basically is that we are really working hard but unfortunately the work has not been completed
22:39and our boss is not getting paid so he's not paying us we are absolutely starving if you're really
22:47desperate uh you would ask for credit and then we call that putting it on tick but at the moment
22:52i
22:53can't really extend any credit we can only extend the credit if we know that you have a means of
22:58paying
22:58it back what have you got a reasonable beautiful looking baller hat it's got its bow tie everything is
23:04still there it's got a maker's name on it it's not we're looking to pawn till tomorrow then we should
23:10yes all being well we'll be paid tomorrow yes give you 250 on it right the repay on that is
23:1720
23:17fees so you'll owe us three pound it's extortionate you don't think i've got another option but immigrant
23:24workers arriving in the slums faced stark choices even after pawning their most treasured possessions
23:31they still had to choose whether to spend a few pennies on eating or finding a place to sleep
23:37when it comes to putting things on tick for them they are transient it's got to be cash up front
23:42i
23:42think for anything they buy if we just go now and say just out of kindness start giving stuff away
23:47you know we're not going to be around for very long no we're not and that lets everybody down
23:56for the potters it's been a profitable day nine pounds 92 william they're well on the way to making
24:06this week's rent really really pleased to be able to go out with an empty pot and come home with
24:16some
24:17money so we've got to be really careful and budget whatever money we've got carefully and the majority
24:23of that will go on food it's been a really good day today with your own enterprise you're in more
24:31control
24:32i'm really proud of our family
24:39yesha thomas and lee have prioritized accommodation over food he knows you've got to come later sign your
24:46name there for me just write and then sign using the money from yesha's pawned hat to pay for a
24:51night
24:51shelter their arrival brings dos housekeeper andy some badly needed income it's fabulous news for me
24:58making money from our lovely immigrants you two are going to settle down comfortably on the chair
25:07back in today it had to be a horrible experience to having to trade in your own clothes
25:12in order to pay for your bed i hope this is wide enough
25:17my grandfather he was a refugee this is a lot like his experience because he would have come
25:22to england and not really speaking the language not knowing what was going on to imagine that people
25:30had to live in this environment that every day is absolutely terrifying the very the very nature of
25:38it is so precarious everything's reduced to survival isn't it
25:47well what we know about tomorrow that we're going to get paid for the work we did today
25:51yeah at least we can use the money to eat properly
26:07john's sister maria is up early i'm checking if you've got any laundry you want to do
26:13with john only getting a couple of hours work she is trying to earn the rest of the money they
26:18need
26:18for food and rent just it's 30 pence for it because it's only undergarment by offering
26:25to do her neighbor's washing very much thanks 30p and you'll get that out yeah yeah get that nice
26:32and clean yeah you do a nice good job on that and i'll uh i might have more for you
26:35but of course
26:36all right see you later these casual arrangements were common in the slums where you could scrape a
26:43living washing the clothes of workers doing long hours in the sweatshops
26:49all right thank you and we got a pound for everything yeah okay put it there put it there
27:03i think this is the worst part because you're over the fire it blows so much
27:08smoke in your face that your eyes are watering i hate doing this
27:16after an uncomfortable night in the doss house oh my god i hate this bench
27:23yasha thomas and lee go straight back to work at the sweater's den
27:30with rent day fast approaching sweatshop owner russell needs them to complete their delayed first
27:37order a lot of pressure a massive struggle getting it done speed and accuracy is vital
27:46trying to train new people how to do stuff
27:50keep it straight you don't want it going wonky otherwise the trousers would be no good
27:54it's trying to be the the owner of a sweatshop it's really tough
28:00russell is a trained tailor but it's mandy that has a generations-old connection with tailoring
28:06she and daughter rebecca are meeting historian dr ann kirschen to find out more about their family
28:11history here's the census that shows your great-grandfather on your paternal side
28:19that's my dad so he was born in odessa in russia so he's russian for his occupation it's got down
28:27here
28:28taylor he had he had one two three four five six children
28:37six children five people born in kamenets in russia and one was born in london
28:48there was a severe pogrom in kizhnev where 50 people were killed kamenets was not that far away
28:59many fled these massacres with no more than a bundle of precious possessions spending everything
29:05they had to get as many family members out as they could those with money went to america london
29:12was the cheaper destination they sailed in steerage enduring three days below decks in cramped conditions
29:22your paternal great-grandfather had the foresight fortune whatever to bring his entire family to get
29:31them out of there get them out of there and settle in the east end probably made quite an arduous
29:37journey
29:37so to do men often came first hoping to secure employment so their family could follow most didn't
29:45speak english many couldn't read or write what we have here is your grandfather's birth certificate
29:52david lenov and there's something significant on the birth certificate um and i don't know whether
29:58you can notice it if you look at it carefully his father couldn't write no because he's got the mark
30:03hold he's got the cross he may well have been able to read hebrew sufficiently to be bar mitzvah
30:10but he obviously couldn't read english and probably couldn't read write hebrew or yiddish
30:17looking at the family tree what's significant is the fact that all your ancestors were engaged in
30:26economic activities that were part of the sweating system seamstress taylor taylor's presser
30:33buttonhole hand were sweated trades i know it's quite emotional isn't it sorry it's very emotional
30:54mandy's ancestors would have done the jobs and worked in conditions similar to those in her own
31:00workshop knowing it's your own family that was treated like that you know is is really upsetting
31:06they were prisoners within within their in their workplace they couldn't answer back they couldn't do
31:11anything because they'd lose their job it doesn't sit right with me that i'm that person that's been
31:17you know really strict with what was my great great grandfather it's it's wrong everywhere you look
31:25at it it's just wrong it's not comfortable gentlemen um wages
31:33with their first order finished at last the house are finally in a position to pay their workers
32:02they'll need their workforce to complete another order to stay afloat
32:08but james's time as a sweatshop boss is over give me the book no i can't give me the book
32:16pencil
32:19okay
32:22hate how the sweater's den was run and everything it stood for and to know that someone that's
32:27related to me and it's helped me be in the place that i am today might have been treated like
32:32immigrant workers it makes me feel a bit sick to be honest
32:45after a successful day of sales yesterday the potters get ready to head out with another batch of street
32:52food whoops hey what's all these chains on the cart what's the hell
33:00well we can't take her back can we street traders costamongers and storekeepers have been found to be
33:06obstructing the public highway has been impounded stopping his work and earning money aren't they
33:11yeah it's disgraceful so forcing us into starvation as the 1880s progressed pressure on everyone in the
33:20east end was building in bethnal green shopkeepers terrified that the surge in costamongers was
33:26affecting business managed to get some street selling banned
33:31barrows were impounded produce confiscated and fines imposed on anyone caught flouting the ban
33:39they have no right to take our living away from us and that's what they've done i'm 59
33:44i you know i've had a bad back you know i'm done that that's me if i can't sell my
33:50stuff
33:50on the streets i'm completely without any income whatsoever it's beyond comprehension actually that
33:57you can think that somebody can make up out of nowhere one rule like that that can destroy so many
34:05lives and the only thing that i can think that they might have done it for was to push them
34:11down a
34:11notch further just keep pushing them down keep pushing the poor down
34:19by the mid-1880s there were more people out of work than ever before and the word unemployment
34:25enters the oxford english dictionary for the first time the poor relief system was stretched to its
34:30absolute limits in the east end there were 17 000 people living in workhouses or in hospitals
34:37in shoreditch death rates were four times the city's average although most people thought the
34:45poor only had themselves to blame there were philanthropists who driven by a sense of religious duty
34:51decided to do what they could to help it was just a drop in the ocean but it generated publicity
34:57and got people interested in life in the slums but not all of the interest generated was philanthropic
35:04in the 1880s it became fashionable for middle and upper class victorians to go on guided tours
35:20of the poorer parts of britain it was called slumming journalists were also drawn to the slums
35:27some wrote sensational stories what evolved was a new genre of writing called slum fiction which
35:34fueled a fascination with the squalor and depravity of slum life here was a place where the normal rules
35:41of victorian respectability seemed not to apply and the upper classes couldn't get enough of it
35:47poverty had become a form of entertainment it's definitely a bit smelly obviously watch your shoes
35:55this is our courtyard to lead a group of rich people just to see how the scum slum dwellers live
36:05is i mean that's very very distasteful by my modern mind our scraps but i can certainly understand why
36:13in the 1880s someone in my position would do it to earn a few extra pennies this is called a
36:19copper
36:19river this would be used communally to heat water to cook it's bad enough being here but being shown off
36:28as a sort of like entertainment it's zoo animals yeah well if they buy something from us it could make
36:34a couple of quid out of this to help with the rent absolutely well anything would help at this point
36:38wouldn't it nobody else is going to be buying anything no okay so obviously our privy consists of
36:43a little wooden hut this particular form of tourism came with slum tour operators
36:52and even guide books looking out they're staring up at our place hello yeah i know
37:02this is a tour group all right and they would like to come in ask you a few questions
37:10is there anything good about it the good about it is that it ends after all after about 20 hours
37:16of the
37:16day it's very hard work this is our space when you come it's like we're a show to you do
37:23you know
37:23that's how it was that's exactly so so for us i feel really demeaned by that so i'm going to
37:29throw
37:29you out i'm afraid come on let me get over that work so what was that freak show what is
37:36the enjoyment
37:37about coming to see people struggle through history you've got all these gross people the elephant man
37:42who used to be put in a cage that's exactly what it felt like yeah the curiosity of people won't
37:46want change with it how much can these people take they've got no money they've got no food
37:52they're working their butt off day in day out day in day out no day off no time off
37:59so the only question is what option and then they have people come in and stare at them
38:03whilst they're doing it our local shopkeeper and his wife called mystery mrs bird
38:10there we are very enlightening we've got some delicacies here for you and what is that you
38:15can purchase them if you want those are lamb's feet and jelly jelly jelly deal try it see what
38:20you think gives two okay with street selling banned it's the shopkeepers who can cash in
38:27on the appetite for east end fair
38:33oh come on i can't do it it's a real tenement building isn't it yeah there's no lift
38:45how do you guys come on in chaps i'm running the tour today these guys have come to have a
38:51look at
38:51and see how we live this is a typical room that would be used for a family there's five in
38:56here
38:56at the moment do you want to tell them a little bit about yesterday no i wouldn't first of all
39:02i'd
39:02like to know why you're here okay well i can explain that one apologies there she didn't mean to be
39:07rude
39:07i did okay what this is called is called class tourism and basically people would like to come and see
39:12how a bottom of society live i knew you're being paid for this handy it will be a paid position
39:20for
39:21myself possibly yes what do you do what do you work as uh we are costamongers we're street sellers
39:29it sounds like you're quite entrepreneurial well we're not stupid but people do suggest that the
39:35poor are thick and stupid and they like to be poor and actually we're not maybe we should get a
39:41photo here
39:42uh excuse me no all right well it's about time we left the potters if we can start filing out
39:57the minute they walked in the door immediately my heart rate went off the first time was when
40:02she took that photo i wanted to punch her thank you so much thank you very much thank you very
40:08much
40:08bless you thank you the victorian upper class came to mock and jeer the poor it's just another nail
40:16in the coffin of saying you might as well be dead
40:23i seriously don't know how they could possibly have carried on just finding it too hard to do
40:41i think over the last three decades it's just got intolerably harder and harder
40:54you cannot let it happen somebody has to do something
41:21this morning i'm feeling the anger we felt yesterday and the fact that
41:29human beings aren't going to treat us like chattel and um we are going to start fighting back
41:411886 marks a turning point in the story of the east end poor after years of falling wages and terrible
41:48working conditions laborers like the costamongers began to get organized
41:56west enders had enjoyed their forays into the east end slums now it was time for the poor to pay
42:03the
42:04west end a visit
42:06john and the potters are meeting dr louise rawr a leading expert on british labor history to find out
42:13what happened here we are in trafalgar square the heart of london the center of london
42:20and also at this point in history the center of a clash between the west end and the east end
42:28between
42:28the rich and the poor on the 8th of february 1886 john burns a member of the socialist democratic
42:37foundation one of the country's first socialist parties hijacked a demonstration to highlight the
42:43plight of the unemployed john burns was literally up behind us on the plinth there and he was addressing
42:52a huge crowd of about 13 000 not just men but women and children too he asked the crowds show
43:00your hands
43:00how many of you are out of work almost every hand went up he takes them through the poshest bits
43:10of
43:10london through pall mall st james's street where the gentleman clubs are it's so unusual to see
43:18the poor out of their place literally and geographically when they the crowd gets to the carlton club the
43:25members pour out into the balconies and they hoot at you they jeer they boo at the crowd going past
43:32but in that situation you're starving you can't get work you can't help your family your children are
43:38starving and all the well-to-do can do is laugh at you there's a lot of anger from the
43:45crowd they
43:46find some broken paving stones and they start chucking things back i'd have all this anger inside
43:53me and the frustration of not doing anything that so what i don't care what happens to me now
43:59i can't get any lower um so yes i would have thrown stones yeah i think i would throw stones
44:06definitely
44:07i've probably been one of the first the anger that you build up gotta go somewhere and if there's
44:13broken paving stones there they're going through windows no absolutely no doubt at all
44:20what followed became known as the west end riots windows were smashed and shops looted on oxford street
44:27and piccadilly this is the morning post the next day clubs and shops attacked premises pillaged the
44:38monster demonstration of the unemployed in london ended in a disgraceful riot and the sacking of many
44:45shops by these savage animals there's no mention of the provocation that actually starts all this
44:53the following summer large numbers of the unemployed camped out in trafalgar square this time they were
45:00watched over by 2 000 police the upper class fascination with the sordid lives of the poor
45:07had turned to a fear of bloody revolution posh london and the rest of the country is starting to really
45:13ramp up the fear a fear of the east end you're all immoral you're criminals you're lazy you're feckless you're
45:20drunk ramp up the fear of the poor but instead of revolution the next few years saw a growth in
45:27activism as membership of trade unions in great britain grew faster than any other point in history
45:34that's it now stop it how do you stop it now you put your foot on again in 1888 the
45:41costamongers and
45:42stall keepers protection society was formed they set to work to try and overturn the ban on street
45:47selling where possible with the help of sympathetic printers and local activists to spread the word
45:53about their cause yeah that's it absolutely fine i mean i can imagine that the people stood there using
46:01a machine like this it would have seemed so high-tech and i'm sure it probably gave them a little
46:07bit of
46:07wind in their sails to go forth and spread the message that the lower classes the poor the have-nots
46:13will not be trodden on in the east end in 1888 700 costamongers took to the streets to petition the
46:27authorities against the street selling ban people really starved and uh yes right on this street here
46:35this is where the costamongers used to sell their wares so you name and then your signature on the other
46:41side there this is the first time really that we've had that opportunity to get the support of
46:46the public in the 1880s when it happened they got 10 000 signatures if you could just sign it for
46:50us
46:51that would be absolutely superb do you want me to hold the dog costamongering means nothing you have to
46:56explain the the term to start with but so we've got no income coming in whatsoever and and once you
47:01tell the the people that the general public what they're interested in that we are street sellers
47:07we've been told that we're not allowed to sell on the streets anymore thank you very much i've got
47:13to understand what they were fighting for and what they actually did um and i wish to honor them
47:20you can't grant and sell perfect the common people on the street seem to support us i mean it shows
47:26that it's not just a problem from 1880s it's you know it's a problem that can be related to now
47:30so power to
47:32people towards the end of the decade london was hit by a series of strikes in 1888 500 girls working
47:42at
47:43the local match factory walked out in protest at conditions a year later a hundred thousand dockers
47:50marched through the streets of london demanding a pay rise of one penny an hour after a succession of
47:59peaceful strikes fears of revolution subsided and the workers gained widespread support from
48:05the public who'd lined the streets and cheered them as they passed great strike of london tailors
48:12and sweaters victims in 1889 three jewish tailors unions joined forces and launched a five-week strike
48:20in the east end no more than two hours overtime to be working any one day so no longer 20
48:26hours working
48:27days maximum of 14. they were supported by the dockers who gave them a hundred pounds towards
48:32their cause it would have been terrifying because your work is so precarious you don't you don't really
48:37have the opportunity to complain when you complain you get fined yeah and to think that you could lose
48:41your job like what would you do it must have taken a lot of courage i would have thought to
48:44actually
48:45get it going in the 1880s with few workers rights striking meant risking what little livelihood you had
48:53and seeing your family starve
48:57i've got another order another one guys we've got 16 pairs of trousers to make by tomorrow
49:05so we need to work quickly please this is the third day we've been working here and there's
49:10circumstances that are really ridiculous it's difficult it's very it's very very harsh
49:17it is this isn't right if we all decide that we are not going to work with you you're going
49:21to be
49:22in trouble i think you should consider your terms and conditions you're on the edge the whole time
49:26in some life i strike in solidarity with all those men and women who did so in 1889 i hope
49:35you will follow
49:35me bye bye thank you
49:47i absolutely understand why they wanted to strike because the hours that they're supposed to work
49:51and the conditions that they're expected to work in for the pay that they're getting
49:55is disgusting so how they haven't worked walked out sooner i have no idea to be fair oh i would
50:01have
50:01gone on a strike in a flash i would have been gone while yasha lee and thomas strike right let's
50:10carry
50:10on shall we the house have no choice but to work into the night
50:26for decades the upper classes had either believed those in poverty chose to live in squalor or just
50:32ignored the existence of the slums altogether
50:37now the poor were no longer invisible over the course of the decade they'd gone from
50:43entertaining spectacle to a force to be reckoned with and in 1889 there was good news for some
50:50of the slums inhabitants first two hours over time to be paid at ordinary rate and then second hour
50:56two hours to be paid at the rate of time and a half oh this isn't a race this this
51:01would
51:01have been a great improvement the taylor's strike succeeded in securing a 12-hour working day
51:07and a proper lunch break for sweated workers i think it makes me so happy to know that people
51:12did eventually come together and organize strikes i didn't realize what it's like not having workers
51:21rights till i went through this experience there's no rules there's no regulations and the systems are
51:26designed around the abuse of people let's go let's go in the 1880s winning a strike was no guarantee
51:33you'd keep your job in some small workshops of the east end bosses would often be unwilling to take
51:39striking workers back and they would have to move on there's no question that the whole subject matter
51:46appears to be relevant to today's migrants people seeking a better life than what they had fleeing
51:52persecution and looking for fairness on the other end and of course i'm sure there are elements of the
52:00exploitation that took place in the 1880s that is being repeated even today
52:09for the potters there's news of the costamongers campaign
52:12oh i've seen these posters what does that say two costamongers and stall keepers great victory montague
52:23williams the justice of the peace found no cause for the vestry's complaint of obstruction
52:31let's get the bars out after a long battle public support for their cause meant the costamongers
52:38society finally won back the right to sell on bethnal green streets this victory did show that victorian
52:47poor did have power if they spoke not just one voice but a massive voices very big deal from feeling
52:56so
52:58demoralized and oppressed this must have been a glorious victory potters trotters back in business
53:09it means the potters can get back out and sell again
53:20by working all night the house have earned enough to pay their rent
53:26how are we howards i see the rich book before i see andy
53:31how was it this week did you find it hard it was hard it's been hard this week really hard
53:36we're trying to train up three unskilled guys in the workshop
53:40you should pull up on my teeth as a sweater's damn boss
53:44you're glad you're doing better but you don't like taking advantage of these people
53:47see you later on bye thank you there's mr and mrs bird 30 pounds and 60 pence with their regulars
53:57struggling the birds have the slum tour to thank for making their rent
54:03i've been tight again this this week to say the least the real hard things i've found mentally is
54:08that it just never seems to get any better come in it's only me maria how are you darling you're
54:14right the weekly rent is eight pounds and sixteen maria's homegrown laundry business has earned
54:21enough to keep her in john's room one pound 17 from you so i will let you get on with
54:26some work so you
54:26can make next week's rent money all right okay all right darling will you take care how you doing
54:32guys do you remember what your rent is 13 pound 26 andy okay to do that today yeah and for
54:39the potters
54:39paying up is a real victory absolutely perfect that's a relief however the pressure is back on
54:46once you know you've got your rent you can sort of relax a little bit but then when you hand
54:51it over
54:51you know that it starts all over again but with the ban on street trading lifted it's time for a
55:00celebration and there was no better way than the costa mongers derby
55:11traditionally the costas competed in basket carrying races
55:18with prizes for the fastest runner and the highest stack
55:24come on those closest here in a community that we built up very very quickly and in fact anything
55:33like it was in the victorian era and actually the slums themselves weren't necessarily an unhappy place
55:38it was a difficult place to live but there was there's a there's a huge heart here oh that's
55:45lovely i'll have a bit more andy at the end of a grueling week it's a chance for the residents
55:50to come
55:50together and share all we've really had since we got here was bread butter cheese the occasional hot meal
55:58and cabbage a lot of cabbage never had a shot here in my life and it is not the best
56:04thing i've ever
56:04tasted but like living in a slum it's lovely with some good company yeah jackie potato and a trotter
56:12it's the happiest i've been in two weeks proper food it's not just like a quarter slice of bread
56:19it's like a whole feast the first one that we're award is to to heather pearl buttons had long been
56:27a
56:27feature of costa monger life well done well done sewn onto their clothes it signaled their selling
56:34talents and gave a sense of identity and pride does everyone agree to grab shit up on us yes
56:41costa mongers adorned in buttons became known as the costa kings and queens the forerunners of the
56:47well-known pearly kings and queens the east end is famous for there is a feeling of solidarity between
56:58us as a community and also the people that we're trying to represent felt solidarity they they rose
57:04up together and i think that's wonderful that these people who had nothing were willing to risk it all
57:09just to make a better life for themselves and their families hope is everything really during those
57:17dark periods i don't think there was much hope at all but now it seems as though the sun has
57:23come out
57:26there'll always be that feeling in the back of your mind that it could change so very quickly but um
57:35while the sunshine and the rays are there we've got to make the most of it
57:46next time the 1890s victorian social science puts the east end poor on the map one in three was living
57:54in poverty and for the first time he gave a human face to the poor ushering in a time of
58:01great change
58:0263 if you do not work well then you will be given the cane but for most life is still
58:11a struggle a family
58:13in our position would never have been able to work their way out of the slum
58:25on bbc four now jeremy paxman reveals in the final days of the victorians artists challenged
58:31morality with fantasy but next here on bbc two could it be curtains for eastenders sonia
58:37again at robinson's agency to the rescue