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00:01150 years ago, Victorian Britain became the world's first industrial superpower.
00:08And as the country thrived, London, the beating heart of empire, became the world's richest city.
00:17But just as it is now, Victorian London was a city divided by extremes of wealth and want.
00:24This is the story of one poor community living in London's East End.
00:31In the heart of modern Stratford, a Victorian slum has been recreated.
00:38And a group of 21st century people are moving in.
00:43Oh, oh, absolutely awful.
00:48I'm just a bit dumbstruck.
00:50Like the original slum dwellers, they'll have to work to keep a roof over their heads.
00:55It's absolutely shattering.
01:02And put food on the table.
01:04I'm starving.
01:05This was making me a bit emotional, to be honest.
01:09They'll explore the lives of their own East End ancestors.
01:13I needed to be here. I need to find these people.
01:17I wish they could be here to see me do this.
01:20Discover the history of their trades.
01:22So this is a workshop, yeah?
01:25And experience firsthand what life was like.
01:28You will call me mum.
01:30For those at the bottom of the economic pile.
01:32If they were disabled, they couldn't do it. They didn't eat. They didn't eat. They died.
01:37They'll live through five decades of turbulent history.
01:40Look at the newspaper!
01:42From the 1860s, when the poor knew their place.
01:46It's just another nail in the coffin. You might as well be dead.
01:49Through depressions.
01:52How many people have to live like this all their life?
01:55Revolutions.
01:56I am proud to be an East End suffragette.
02:00And seismic social change.
02:03Julie!
02:05The Irish are moving up.
02:07To the turn of the century.
02:08Death of the Queen.
02:09Long everything!
02:11When the people who powered Britain's industrial success finally found their voice.
02:16The poor will not be trodden on.
02:18Power to the people.
02:20And the foundations were laid for lasting change.
02:24Victory!
02:25This is the story of how a quarter of a million slum dwellers in the East End
02:30changed our attitude to poverty forever.
02:35This is the slum.
02:47Fueled by the Industrial Revolution in 1860, London's economy was booming.
02:53Here in the West End, the city as we know it now was taking shape.
02:57There was new housing, grand railway stations,
03:00and the streets were filled with smart shops, all showcasing London's wealth.
03:05As today, people came to London in search of work.
03:08In fact, the population tripled in just 50 years.
03:13But this was a city divided.
03:15For the first time, geographical lines were drawn between those enjoying the nation's wealth in the West
03:24and those who weren't in the East.
03:32Hidden away from public view, people lived lives of almost unimaginable poverty.
03:37Packed into dilapidated buildings and the crammed courtyards of the East End slums.
03:47This was the industrial heart of the city.
03:49The air here would have been heavily polluted by the tanneries and by the gas works.
03:54But despite that, people came from all over, desperately in search of work.
03:59The three miles between Allgate and Bow held one of the highest concentrations of working poor in Britain.
04:06This was the underbelly of the Industrial Revolution.
04:11This corner of modern Stratford, a stone's throw from the Olympic Park, has been taken back to the 1860s.
04:19The slum was a microcosm, a mixture of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers,
04:25all living together in tumble-down terraces and tenements.
04:29Recreated from historical accounts of slums, like the notorious, deprived Old Nickel in Shoreditch,
04:36this tenement building typifies the abject poverty which was rife in Victorian cities just over a century ago.
04:44From the smallest, barest rooms at the top of the building to larger, more expensive dwellings at the bottom.
04:51People got by with a bare minimum.
04:55The courtyard houses a single communal water pump, a stove and shared privies.
05:02There are businesses here too.
05:04A lodging house known as the Doss House, for those who couldn't afford to rent a room.
05:09And a small shop, the lifeblood of the slum community.
05:14Now, a new group of residents are moving in to bring the forgotten world of the Victorian poor back to
05:21life.
05:24It looks like a dungeon.
05:27First to arrive is the Potter family.
05:30Wow.
05:31Look at all the mood.
05:34Do you think you can live in this?
05:35No.
05:36Do you think you've got a choice?
05:37No.
05:39The Potters are a close-knit clan from Derby.
05:43Fish and chips!
05:45Come and get it!
05:46Mum, Alison, lives around the corner from Grandad Graham and Grandma Heather.
05:51Thank you!
05:54Heather's ancestors are from Bethnal Green in London's East End.
05:58All my life I've felt that my roots were not in Derby.
06:02A couple of years ago I started to search my ancestry.
06:06But it's more than just getting dates and names and numbers.
06:12I want to go back and I want to know the people.
06:15I want to do it for Nan because it's like very, very important to her and it will help her
06:23learn more about our Victorian ancestors.
06:27This is it.
06:29Oh my goodness.
06:31Like many Victorian EastEnders, Heather's ancestors were unskilled workers who could only afford basic accommodation.
06:39Another bed.
06:40The family of five will live in just one room.
06:44They have two beds.
06:46A table and chair and little else.
06:49But even housing this austere would have cost a Victorian labourer over a third of their weekly wage.
06:55If we have this bed, would you and the girls be okay with that one?
07:02Yeah.
07:02Are you going to sleep though? Because there's three of you, isn't there?
07:05We'll work it out between us.
07:07You can go in the middle.
07:08Yeah.
07:08What do you think?
07:11I'm just a bit dumbstruck, I think.
07:14I just think it's very sad that people have to live like this.
07:19It's a bit bleak, isn't it?
07:21Yeah, very bleak.
07:25As well as unskilled workers, the EastEnd was also home to many who had a trade.
07:30Moving into one of the larger dwellings downstairs is the Howarth family.
07:36Oh my God.
07:39Dad Russell is a tailor.
07:41As a skilled worker, he would have been able to afford double the potter's rent.
07:46For that, they get the relative comfort of two rooms.
07:50It's bigger than I thought.
07:52Tin bath and, unlike their poorer neighbours, a small stove to cook their own food.
07:58You can't cook with that.
08:00Well, I'm going to have to.
08:03Look at the filth on it.
08:04The filth on the walls.
08:07I just can't get my head around.
08:10This is our home now.
08:13For some, like the Howarth, the slums provided an opportunity of sorts.
08:18They had the skills and the means to make money.
08:22Others weren't so lucky.
08:26Wow.
08:27The slums were home to thousands of lone parents, usually widowed or abandoned women, with nowhere else to go.
08:35What do you think, Sally?
08:36What's this?
08:37That's just our bedding, I think.
08:40It's so dirty.
08:42Shazida and her twins may be moving into the smallest room.
08:47But even so, finding the rent on one income will be tough.
08:51Very basic, isn't it?
08:53Very basic.
08:55How many people have to live like this all their life?
09:01In the 1860s, 90% of Victorians rented their homes.
09:05Now, if you were poor, you moved to an area like the East End, where you would rent a room
09:10rather than a whole house.
09:11The one advantage of living in an area like this is you didn't have to provide proof of employment or
09:17good character, as you would have had to do elsewhere.
09:21The slums drew people from the fringes of society.
09:25Low-paid workers, immigrants, even fallen aristocrats.
09:29Driven to the East End by hard times.
09:31Poverty and misfortune sent people here by the thousand.
09:36There were very few safety nets.
09:38This was a time before welfare benefits, the NHS, or the minimum wage.
09:44The poorest of all couldn't even afford to rent their own room.
09:49Some paid to sleep in other people's beds.
09:51Others opted for the Doss House.
09:54In 1860, 50,000 people had no option but to pay fourpence a night to sleep in rows of what
10:01were known as coffin beds.
10:04In charge of this Doss House is 39-year-old Andy Gardner from Oxfordshire.
10:10It looks like Victorian flat pack.
10:14Most slums were owned by absent landlords who employed local men like Andy to run the Doss House and collect
10:20rent from the other tenants.
10:23Oh, dear me.
10:24That's one way of ingratiating myself with the group, isn't it?
10:27Hi, guys. Nice to meet you. Give me your money.
10:30Or I'm going to kick you out of your room.
10:34As rent collector, Andy gets free accommodation.
10:39Here we are, then.
10:41But he'll need an income from the Doss House or find other work to pay for food.
10:46There's another lot here.
10:49I've got something to keep warm.
10:51Somewhere to sit down and eat.
10:53Somewhere to wash.
10:55Somewhere to sleep.
10:56I mean, this is a lap of luxury, really, compared to the Doss House.
11:04The residents are exploring their new surroundings.
11:08Oh, look at the mud everywhere.
11:09Lovely. Lovely.
11:12Hello.
11:13And meeting their neighbours.
11:16What's your room like? Bigger or smaller?
11:18It's a lot smaller. I think it's half of this size.
11:23Welcome. I'm your local rent man.
11:26How are you?
11:28Get the rolling pin ready.
11:29Get the rolling pin ready.
11:31Otherwise, you'll be down here.
11:32Have you seen how they sleep in here?
11:33No.
11:34Is this the Doss House?
11:35This is the Doss House.
11:36This is the Doss House.
11:38If you can't afford the coffin bed for four pence, you'll like the other one.
11:42Do you want to sit down on the bench?
11:43OK.
11:46Like this?
11:48Yeah.
11:48That is disgusting for a human being to actually even pay.
11:53It's either that or the street.
12:00This is the Tuppany hangover, where people slept upright, supported only by a rope.
12:06Something the residents could experience if they failed to pay Andy at the end of the week.
12:12So if you can't afford the rent on that day, would you come back again another day?
12:18No.
12:18So it's that day or nothing?
12:19Other people would be waiting to go in there.
12:22That's harsh.
12:23Yeah.
12:24Very.
12:25Really harsh.
12:25Extremely harsh.
12:27We've come to work then, won't you?
12:28Right.
12:28You need to work really hard.
12:30And you can't get us into debt?
12:32No.
12:37For the Victorian poor, keeping a roof over your head was the absolute priority.
12:41After that came food.
12:43And in the 1860s, food was surprisingly expensive.
12:46It consumed an average of two thirds of a slum dweller's income.
12:51So, a reasonable living could be made from keeping the slum fed.
12:56Ah!
12:57Do we have a business?
12:59A job which falls to Adrian and Wiebke Byrd.
13:02Oh!
13:03Aha!
13:04We're going to be grocers.
13:08Adrian and Wiebke have homes in rural Hertfordshire and Wales.
13:12Their family histories echo the mass migrations of the 19th century.
13:17Migration's a really big theme in my own life, living in the States and then coming to the UK,
13:22and also in my parents' lives, growing up in Germany and migrating to the United States.
13:26I want to know what it was like for people to be moving from the countryside to the cities for
13:32opportunity.
13:33In Victorian times, country folk were moving to towns in their droves.
13:37And handyman Adrian's passion for rural crafts should stand him in good stead.
13:43I think I'm prepared.
13:45I think the skills I've got will be very well suited to the slum.
13:48I'm going to have to draw on all that I've learnt over the last number of years to be able
13:54to keep us going and keep us fed.
13:59Oh my.
14:01Wow.
14:02Look at the wallpaper.
14:04This is home.
14:05With a shop and a room to rent, the birds have the highest outgoings of all.
14:10Right where we're living in luxury.
14:13But they also have a stove on which to cook, and the fanciest furnishings.
14:18As shopkeepers, they have decent earning potential.
14:21For a slum, this must have been one of the nicest places.
14:25This must have been the top of the heap.
14:27I'm beginning to think we're probably doing okay.
14:31Many slum dwellers had no way to cook for themselves.
14:34That's rank. That's strong.
14:36So shops like these were pivotal to the community.
14:40Hello.
14:41Come on in.
14:42With most residents living day to day and hand to mouth, cash flow was a major problem.
14:48What can we do for you guys this evening?
14:50So slum shops sold them only what they could afford.
14:53Bread by the slice, tea by the spoonful, and small portions of hot food.
14:58They'd even rent a bowl and a spoon to eat it with.
15:02We have to say now that we haven't got any money right now.
15:05We know the situation. You're all in the same boat.
15:07Do your tick till Friday.
15:09And then your bills due Friday, please.
15:11Friday. Okay.
15:12Tick was a system of credit based on trust, and it kept the slum economy moving.
15:17I'll put that in the book for you.
15:19Okay. Thanks.
15:20Bye-bye.
15:20Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.
15:22Bye-bye.
15:23Like many poor Victorians who came to the slums, these residents play starting their new life already in debt.
15:31Obviously. Not bread.
15:32That is a priority food, bread.
15:34Bread. And cheese. And cheese.
15:36It all depends how much it is.
15:39I'm just worried because we don't know how much Dad's going to earn.
15:42And we've got rent to pay in four days' time, we've got rent.
15:45And if we don't pay the rent, I am not going to live in one of those other rooms.
15:48We're going to have a bit of rope.
15:50I don't know.
15:51It's not going to happen.
15:52There's no way you can sleep like that door sales with a rope.
15:56Do you make do with the heat in that room tonight?
15:58Yeah, we'll just have to all cuddle up. We'll just have to make do.
16:01I'd rather be cold.
16:03And hungry.
16:05And hungry.
16:06And pay the rent.
16:10You can put it on the tick for you as long as it's paid before Monday.
16:14That's the rent day as well.
16:15That's our rent day too, that's why.
16:17We're all in the same boat, to be honest.
16:19You do feel as if you've got some responsibility to try and help these people.
16:24Definitely, yeah, that's it, me.
16:27I feel a little bit more responsible than I thought I would.
16:35We decided not to have a fire because we didn't want to run up too much debt straight away.
16:40It feels scary that you feel like you're in debt before you even get anywhere, you know, before you do
16:48anything.
16:48We're already in debt.
16:53In 1860, London was a modern metropolis with a booming population.
16:58But there was little sympathy for those who were struggling.
17:01Poverty was seen as part of the natural order of things.
17:03You were either born poor or you fell into poverty because of your own moral failings.
17:09If you were poor, you simply had to work harder or endure.
17:20I'm struggling now, that's on day one.
17:23I am, I'm struggling now.
17:25I'm tired and I hurt.
17:29And all I want to do is go to bed.
17:32It's not going to be very comfortable.
17:34It's going to be very cold.
17:36But hopefully we'll keep each other warm.
17:39I do feel very much isolated.
17:41The other families, they've got a male presence, whereas it's just the three of us.
17:48So, it's a lot tougher.
17:51Why are you jumping?
17:53Sharing your beds is definitely going to be a challenge.
17:55I'm going to have to rise to it because I've got no other choice.
17:58So, I think we'll sort of band together as a family and we'll probably get closer, to be honest.
18:03A few minutes ago, I was just like, I was like, where's the biscuits?
18:07And then I just remember like, oh no, we can't afford biscuits.
18:11And then I just felt, I just, I just felt a depressing feeling inside.
18:14Like I've just, like a ship's just sunk inside me.
18:27Come on, you three.
18:29What do you get? Time to get up.
18:33It's their first morning in the slum.
18:38Oh, you all right?
18:39And with rent day already fast approaching.
18:41I'm going to go and find some work.
18:43Okay.
18:44Everyone has the same priority.
18:48See you later.
18:49Ciao.
18:50Bye.
18:50See you girls.
18:51Goodbye granddad.
18:52Bye.
18:53Good luck.
18:54New arrivals had to find work fast.
18:56It was the only way to keep a roof over your head and provide for your family.
19:03The money they earn and the money they spend is based on Victorian wages and prices converted to modern day
19:10money.
19:10So they can get a feeling for a Victorian cost of living.
19:15As man of the house, 59 year old Graham would have been expected to provide for his family.
19:23In the 1860s, Britain produced half the world's iron and cotton cloth and two thirds of its coal.
19:31The economy had made a seismic shift from rural to urban.
19:36People poured into London, Glasgow, Manchester, booming industrial hubs powered by an army of unskilled workers.
19:45In the east end of London alone, the 1861 census lists more than 10,000 men as general labourers.
19:53The work paid well, enough to keep a family warm and fed.
19:58But just as it is for some of today's zero hour workers, there was no guarantee of work from one
20:04day to the next.
20:06I am feeling the pressure.
20:08Without me earning the money, there would be no food for the girls, my wife and my daughter.
20:15Graham has a day of work at a local bell foundry.
20:19Here, church bells are made as they have been for the last 500 years, with every part of the process
20:26still done by hand.
20:28This is your first job. You dig these two cores out.
20:31OK.
20:31Use the crowbar to dig out the bricks. Don't break any of the bricks.
20:34Remove all the sand off the surface of the bell because we tune the bells and anything that's left will
20:39make the tools go blunt.
20:40OK.
20:41All right?
20:41Yep.
20:42I'll leave you to it.
20:43OK.
20:44In the 21st century, Graham is retired from his job in a carpet shop.
20:49But for the Victorian poor, there was no such thing as retirement.
20:56It is going to be a hard day of labour.
20:58But, you know, we need money. Without this wage, we can do nothing.
21:01You know, we've got to use it to pay the rent and pay the shop, because we've already got debt
21:05in there.
21:05So, it's hard work, but we'll do it.
21:13In the slums, having an able body was a clear advantage.
21:17Hi, Andy.
21:18Hello.
21:19Got a few bits and pieces here.
21:21In 2004, Andy, a professional golfer, had his right leg amputated below the knee.
21:28This is my specialist leg.
21:30This is what I use to compete and play all over Europe.
21:33So, I mean, this leg is really high-tech, really comfortable.
21:37I mean, have a feel.
21:38This is a thing of beauty.
21:39It is a thing of beauty.
21:41Yeah.
21:42Andy wants to get a better understanding of what life would have been like for Victorians with a disability like
21:47his.
21:48This really is the Rolls Royce of artificial legs of that time.
21:52Yeah, I mean, you can certainly see the craftsmanship that's gone into it.
21:55These high-tech legs would have cost 20 Victorian pounds in 1860, equivalent to more than two years' rent in
22:02the slums.
22:03Somebody in your circumstances could not remotely have afforded to buy this.
22:07In Victorian times, you could have your leg cut off free of charge, but they wouldn't actually provide you with
22:11anything.
22:13Disability was more common and visible in Victorian society than it is today.
22:19Poorly regulated factories and docks were crammed with dangerous machinery,
22:23and injuries accounted for many amputations.
22:27Without x-rays or antibiotics, there was only a 50-50 chance of surviving surgery.
22:33And afterwards, most poor amputees had to make do with crutches or the most basic wooden leg.
22:40What kind of got you interested in this in the first place?
22:43Just to see how somebody in my situation would have actually coped back then what they had available,
22:48what they didn't have available, I think, is...
22:50This is the sort of thing they had available if you didn't have a lot of money?
22:52Yes, indeed. It doesn't look very comfortable, does it?
22:55Since you expressed an interest in actually trying one of these authentic ones,
22:59we got something which is kind of as close to authentic as we can make it,
23:02but which actually won't be too uncomfortable.
23:04OK. Excellent. So this is kind of a modern version of an old classic.
23:09Do you want to give it a go and see?
23:09I would love to give it a go. OK.
23:11It's the same shape as a Victorian peg leg, but this one's fiberglass
23:15and specially designed for Andy's stump.
23:18What do you reckon, then?
23:20The cup is comfortable.
23:22For a Victorian, obviously, that would have been absolutely hideous.
23:25The fit would have been terrible.
23:26The thing they used to do, because it fitted so badly effectively,
23:29was they used to use turpentine to harden the skin.
23:32Have you heard of it? No, I hadn't heard of that.
23:34Can you imagine rubbing turpentine?
23:35That really doesn't sound pleasant at all.
23:37No. I guess if you've got a wooden thing there,
23:39you want as much protection and padding and whatever else you can get.
23:43Of course you do.
23:43So it's not uncomfortable?
23:43No, not uncomfortable at all.
23:45It's just weird?
23:46It's just weird and unstable.
23:49Yeah.
23:49I don't have a foot.
23:51Obviously, you use your foot to push off.
23:54Yeah.
23:55So I get no return from a foot.
23:59The whole point of doing this is to really see
24:00what it would have been like for myself in this time.
24:03Yeah.
24:03And this is the way to do it, isn't it?
24:06This is lesson number one.
24:07Lesson number one.
24:08It's not easy.
24:09That's great.
24:11Next door, with Graham out at work,
24:15Heather and Alison Potter are learning what they would be doing in the 1860s
24:19to help make ends meet.
24:21Do you put quite a lot of glue on?
24:23I don't think I've got enough glue on.
24:26Slum rooms weren't just where people lived.
24:29These were the unofficial workshops of the city.
24:31Everything from buttonholes to billiard balls were made in people's rooms.
24:37This had its advantages for families like the Potters.
24:41Because though it was frowned upon for married women to go out to work,
24:45they could supplement their income from home.
24:48Which bit are you doing to draw the box?
24:52I think it's the box.
24:57In 1861, Bryant and May opened a match factory in nearby Bow.
25:02It quickly became the largest employer of casual female labour in the area.
25:08As well as factory workers, it also employed women to assemble matchboxes in their own homes.
25:15Called piecework, often whole families would get involved.
25:20Heather's great-grandmother Annie was a matchbox maker
25:23and she would have been expected to make up to a thousand boxes a day.
25:28It overwhelms me a bit at the moment
25:31because half of me sees this and then in my head I have how I live now.
25:36I mean, I'd probably be sat on the settee reading a Kindle halfway through the morning.
25:41They must have just been real tough women, you know, fighters.
25:45They had to be, didn't they, to survive.
25:47Survive for themselves and for the children and families, really.
25:53For single mothers with children to look after
25:55and fewer opportunities to earn,
25:58it's estimated that up to one in twelve Victorian women turned to prostitution.
26:04Piecework would have been one of the only ways to make an honest living.
26:09Shazida and the twins are making fancy boxes for things like perfume and cosmetics.
26:15So we need to start our production line here.
26:19In their modern lives, Shazida and ten-year-old twins, Sadie and Saudi, live in Scunthorpe.
26:27So what do we understand about the revolution?
26:30They created machine.
26:31So it was a big change, wasn't it?
26:33Shazida works as an admin assistant and homeschools her children.
26:37We literally do everything together.
26:40And you could say that I pretty much kind of like dedicating my life to the twins.
26:44It's very difficult being a single mom in the 21st century.
26:47So I want to experience how the Victorian single mothers lived, how they survived.
26:53It must have been really difficult.
26:56That's not going to stick together, is it? Try putting in a bit more.
27:01In 1860, there were pieceworkers on every street in London's East End.
27:08A boxmaker would have worked a 16-hour day and been paid enough to buy a loaf of bread.
27:18It wasn't only women who worked from home.
27:23Although his rent is covered with no-one in the Doss house, Andy needs an income to pay for food.
27:29I am making handles for tools.
27:32Furniture making, cane chair repairing and woodturning were all common types of piecework done by men.
27:39This is one of my first attempts.
27:43I'm quite pleased with that, to be honest.
27:45It's going to take a lot of getting used to, to using this.
27:47It's hard on the leg. It's very hard on the leg.
27:55Alongside the slum's unskilled workforce, East London was also a hub for trades, like tanning, embroidery and tailoring.
28:05Russell and his son James are off to find out how their Victorian predecessors made their living.
28:15A bespoke tailor of high-end suits.
28:17I'm getting smaller.
28:19Smaller!
28:20Russell works in the heart of the City of London.
28:23I love my trade of tailoring. I really am passionate about it.
28:26And I really want to find out how hard it was, tailoring in the 1800s.
28:30It's a really good experience. I can't wait to do it.
28:32The family live in Essex, where mum Mandy combines a part-time job in human resources with looking after children,
28:39James and Rebecca.
28:40I would like to say, like, yeah, we spend loads of time together as a family.
28:43But when you think about it, we don't.
28:47So I'd just love to spend more time together, you know what I mean?
28:51Mandy's from a long line of Jewish tailors, and her family history is firmly rooted in the East End.
28:56For me, it's just about understanding how the Victorians lived, how our ancestors lived.
29:02I really want to understand their struggles, and spending proper time with Russell and the children, and seeing how we
29:09cope.
29:09So, yes, or not, the case may be. Or not, as the case may be. Yeah.
29:13Hi. Hello. Nice to meet you.
29:16Dr Vivian Richmond is an expert in the Victorian textile trades.
29:20This is Petticoat Lane. This is the heart of the rag trade.
29:27Home to a street market since the 17th century, Petticoat Lane is where generations of tailors have bought their raw
29:34materials.
29:37While West End tailors worked with expensive fabrics, new clothes would have been alien to the East End poor.
29:44So you're now in the rag trade, and your job will be to take these clothes away and make them
29:52into something else, or to mend them.
29:55This stuff here, these waistcoats, they'd be made into cloth caps.
30:00Down here we have some trousers.
30:01They don't look savourable to me.
30:04You're going for practicality, not aesthetics here.
30:08No, it's a shock. They thought they'd be doing more technical stuff, more making stuff, or altering stuff.
30:12The difficulty for Jewish tailors was that, in their home countries, they were very often highly trained, highly skilled,
30:20but they arrived in England with nothing, literally nothing, many of them.
30:25And so they're going to be right down the bottom of the pile, and hence doing this kind of translating
30:31work and transformatory work with clothing.
30:37By the 1860s, around 20,000 Jewish people lived in London, with more arriving from Europe all the time.
30:45Almost half made their living through tailoring.
30:50I'm shocked. Really shocked I'd be given a bunch of rags trying to turn into something to buy.
30:56I'm horrified. I mean, this is a different end of the scale to what I'm used to working on.
31:00I mean, we normally make sort of a court dress and tailcoats, and this stuff is just the bottom end,
31:06when people have actually finished wearing it, and then we've got to make it for people to wear again.
31:11It's going to be a challenge, I think.
31:18Graham has been hard at work at the Bell Foundry. He's done four hours without a break.
31:28I never thought it would be this physical. It's absolutely shattering.
31:34I think to finish the full day with nothing to eat this morning on an empty stomach is going to
31:39be really, really tough.
31:40I didn't realise how difficult it would be.
31:46So what's keeping me going is the family at home.
31:49I've got to do it. I've just got to carry on.
31:58Man, the last lot. Can we divide up the stuff into what's got to be done?
32:02That's what I was just going to say. That's what I've just been doing.
32:05I'm already ahead of you. Oh, yeah? OK.
32:07Look, waistcoats all in this pile, and washing just throw on the floor.
32:11What is that?
32:13Probably sick.
32:14Oh!
32:15I'm joking.
32:16Just put it in the washing.
32:18And I've got to wash that?
32:19Yeah.
32:21Russell hasn't hand-stitched anything for years.
32:24But although he won't have modern machines, he will have help.
32:28In the 21st century, Rebecca and James go to private school.
32:33Here, they'll be put to work.
32:35We're going to do all the caps first.
32:37Then we'll start working on the trousers.
32:38And the shoes, I think, are just a polish up and a bit of cardboard at the end.
32:41Yes, boss.
32:43Rather than repaired, shoes were simply patched up and painted black to hide the holes.
32:49In my shop, I've got all the machinery, the correct tools for the job.
32:53They're all fit for purpose.
32:55Here, in the slump, they're using the bare minimum of stuff.
32:59It's all done by hand.
33:00It's been really tough for them, as I'm finding out myself now.
33:07Andy is also finding out just how hard slum work would have been.
33:15One little slip, and it's ruined.
33:19It's absolutely ruined.
33:22If I feel like I've failed, I feel like I've failed.
33:24I don't like failing at anything.
33:26Nothing.
33:27But this has beat me.
33:29Back in 1860, if they were disabled and doing something like this,
33:33they couldn't do it, they're gone.
33:35How these guys did 600 or 1,000 of these every single day?
33:40I've done seven, and these guys did it,
33:43and if they didn't do it, they didn't eat.
33:45They didn't eat, they died.
33:50Graham is finishing his shift.
33:52He's earned £10,
33:54the equivalent of a Victorian labourer's daily wage.
33:57Here's your wages for today.
34:00Nearly enough for his £13 rent.
34:03Any work tomorrow?
34:04I'll be here at quarter to eight.
34:05Don't be late.
34:06OK, thanks.
34:08But after eight hours' hard labour...
34:13..he's on his last legs.
34:17Hello.
34:18Are you all right?
34:19Yes.
34:20Yes.
34:20Yeah, so, did you get any money?
34:22Yes.
34:23£10.
34:24Oh, amazing!
34:26How was your day?
34:28Hard work.
34:30Very hard, yeah.
34:31Yeah.
34:31Never worked like that before in my life.
34:34But it was the hardest thing I've ever done.
34:36Really?
34:37Yeah.
34:37The sweat was absolutely pouring off me.
34:39It was dripping down.
34:41Yeah.
34:42Oh.
34:43Eat it well.
34:45Yeah.
34:53For everyone else, slum life is in full swing.
34:58Life in a Victorian slum was undoubtedly harsh,
35:01but it wasn't all doom and gloom.
35:06Teeming with people.
35:08Yes!
35:10It was noisy.
35:13Filthy.
35:16And smelly.
35:21Humans and animals lived cheek by jowl.
35:26Every room and yard was used for work.
35:32The birds are making a cheap East End classic, smoke kippers.
35:36These were often made in privies.
35:39An ideal makeshift smokehouse,
35:41with the added bonus of disguising the smell of human waste.
35:46I was thinking £1.20 a portion.
35:49I know, but we don't want to put anything more on tick, you see?
35:52No.
35:52OK, then.
35:53Till aftermarket.
35:54And I don't like kippers.
35:55And he doesn't like kippers.
36:00Hello, Shaz, how's it going?
36:02All right?
36:02Yeah.
36:03We were going to do a kipper, if you wanted one.
36:07All right.
36:07Yeah, you can put me down.
36:09Okey-dokey, no problem.
36:10I'll see you later.
36:12Shaz wants to put £1.20 on the tick for one dinner.
36:17Yeah.
36:18And she's sure she wants that?
36:20Yeah.
36:21You want to take that risk?
36:23OK.
36:24OK.
36:24That's what you want to do.
36:34First one, finished.
36:35Yay!
36:36It's really good!
36:38Brilliant!
36:39With no way of earning anything until the weekend market, the house are keeping their debts to a minimum.
36:46I'm really hungry right now.
36:48This morning, the bread we had left from the night before we gave to the kids.
36:52So, Russ and I haven't actually eaten anything since yesterday evening when we had a quarter of a slice of
37:00bread.
37:01I actually feel exhausted, but we've got so much to do ready for market that I'm not even sure if
37:06Russ and I are going to have time to get to bed at a decent hour because we've got to
37:11get all this stuff done.
37:22You have no idea how good an egg sandwich can taste.
37:31I've got a half slice of bread with butter.
37:34It is good to eat because I'm hungry.
37:44It's early, but the house have already been up and working for an hour.
37:48Halfway through.
37:50And Taylor Russell has turned teacher.
37:53Lovely, perfect.
37:54Ah, like that.
37:56That's it.
37:56Too much?
37:57That's fine.
37:58We've pulled together.
38:00He's taught me how to sew.
38:02He's taken the patience and the time.
38:06Whereas in our real life we're so busy that we're like ships in the night and now we've come together
38:13again.
38:13And actually we realise we still do love each other and we still do like each other, which is great.
38:18It's actually quite nice, two of us just sitting here.
38:20Yeah.
38:21Just sewing.
38:27I've got to stand up.
38:28I'm sorry.
38:28You want to stand up?
38:30Yeah, I've got to.
38:31Upstairs, things aren't going so well for the potters.
38:37Graham's back has seized up and there's no way he'll be able to go back to work at the Bell
38:42Foundry.
38:44Their only other potential income is from the matchboxes, which is unlikely to pay the rent.
38:51I've made one, two, three, four, five, six. They take a whole day to dry.
38:58No, it's just not going to happen.
39:00In the 1860s, the loss of the main breadwinner accounted for nearly two thirds of families forced to seek help
39:07from the Victorian authorities.
39:09What is enlightening is how quickly your situation can change.
39:16Dad can't work today because he's injured and the matchboxes were a bit of a failure.
39:23I've got to start thinking how we're going to find the next few pennies.
39:33The family is in dire straits.
39:36They've no option left but to send the children out to work.
39:40I'm confident that we'll get the rest of the rent today.
39:43Yeah, I'm confident you will as well.
39:46Oh, she's amazing. Good girl.
39:51Heather and Olivia are going to bunch and sell watercress.
39:55Now we know how much we have to earn.
39:57I'm just determined to get that much money and I think we will.
40:04Children were considered economically viable by the age of seven or eight
40:08and were as important to the East End workforce as their parents.
40:14Places like Covent Garden, Victorian London's main fruit and veg market,
40:19were filled with street sellers, many of them children.
40:23Watercress was a popular street food that could be bought for pennies
40:27and sold for a slim profit.
40:31Excuse me, would you like to buy any watercress?
40:34Their working day would have begun as early as 4am
40:37and gone on for up to 16 hours.
40:40Watercress, nine pence a bunch.
40:43There you go.
40:43Thank you so much.
40:45Bye-bye.
40:47It's so good.
40:49I'm doing this at uni 18.
40:51How are you?
40:53Excuse me, would you like to buy any watercress?
40:59It must have been hard seeing your children go out
41:01and knowing that they've got to do this.
41:04Is that all right?
41:05That's perfect.
41:05It makes me feel angry because if it was snowing
41:11and there weren't many people out, you just had to do it anyway.
41:14We've done really well.
41:15We've got a little bit of money to take back.
41:17Whoa, look at that!
41:19I know, it done really well.
41:23Back at the slum, Shaz and the twins have been making fancy boxes all day.
41:32She'll be paid at the end of the week for each box which meets the required standard.
41:36Good evening.
41:38I'm good, thank you.
41:39Good.
41:39I've come for some soup.
41:41Right.
41:41How did your boxes sell?
41:43I haven't sold any yet, so I've just been making them.
41:46Oh, it's hard work isn't it?
41:47Yeah, it is, yeah.
41:48Right.
41:48So what I'm trying to do is sort of get a grip as you can see with how much we've
41:52put on the tick so far.
41:54All right, okay.
41:54And how much we can really sort of lay out again until everybody starts getting paid.
41:58Right, I'm hoping that we'll be able to sell all the boxes so we should be able to pay off
42:03the debt.
42:04Right.
42:04Hi there, how are you?
42:06Good evening.
42:06I'm fine, thank you.
42:07We're good.
42:07We can do one cup of broth on top of this, but I really can't go much further than that.
42:13We're really going to need to be careful from now on.
42:15Right.
42:15Okay, yeah.
42:16Okay.
42:18With their own rent due at the end of the week, the birds are wrestling with their responsibilities.
42:24You know, we'll have to keep our eye on them, see what they make today, and hopefully they can move
42:30those goods.
42:31Yeah, but this is the sort of thing that would have happened a lot of us, isn't it?
42:33Yeah.
42:34What do you do?
42:35It's a gamble.
42:35Single mum with two children, they have to eat and they have to have the wherewithal to make money.
42:41How do you, what if they can't pay at the end?
42:44What do you do?
42:47I don't know.
42:48Hmm.
42:51Hello.
42:52Come on.
42:54The Potter girls are back from Covent Garden.
42:57We've got ten pound.
42:59No.
43:00Good work.
43:02We can pay our aunt now.
43:03We did all right.
43:04You've done really well.
43:05And to get ten pounds, I mean, that's made me feel a little bit easier.
43:10Yeah.
43:11Much better.
43:12Much better.
43:13I think you've done good, Mrs.
43:16Good evening, Potters.
43:17How are you?
43:18The family celebrate with their first hot food in days.
43:21We've got some soup on today, which hopefully you'll like to purchase.
43:26Yeah.
43:26We made ten pounds selling cress.
43:28Ten pounds, that's nice to know.
43:29Yeah.
43:29So would you like to pay up tonight for what you already owe?
43:33We haven't brought any money down with us.
43:35Well, you're more than welcome to go and get it.
43:38Paying off their tick has cost the Potters £7.96, putting them short of their rent once more.
43:49I think that's the circle you can't get out of, because these things just happen.
43:55And that's the ongoing misery.
43:58Because at the end of the day, you know you've got to wake up into it again the next morning.
44:03And it's another fight then to survive.
44:16It's market day.
44:22There we go.
44:27We went to bed quite late last night.
44:30And then so we're up early again this morning, because time is money and I'm shattered.
44:36So unbelievably tired.
44:37What we've got finished is what we can sell.
44:39And we have to make rent and we have to pay the grocer.
44:42We've got quite a bit to get done.
44:44Mandy's working on the shoes.
44:45I'm working on the cap and I've got some alterations to do afterwards.
44:48Hopefully we'll sell it.
44:50And we haven't eaten yet.
44:51And actually it's non-negotiable.
44:53You just give the children the food.
44:54And I'm sure my ancestors would be more concerned for my grandparents.
44:59To be fair, they were successful in that because my mum had a very nice life.
45:04And I've got a very nice life.
45:06So what they sacrificed there to work so hard and instill all that has paid off.
45:10It's just a shame they're not here to see it.
45:11Sorry.
45:13Sorry.
45:23Sorry.
45:24That came all of a sudden.
45:25Sorry.
45:29I wish they could be here to see me do this.
45:32They know that I understood what they go through.
45:36I just need a tissue.
45:38I need a tissue.
45:39Low lining.
45:41Low lining.
45:44This will do.
45:47You're not going to use that are you?
45:48You're not going to shout at me for using it.
45:50You can use that bit.
45:52This time.
45:54OK, we need to get on.
46:01And he's preparing the Dothouse in the hope he'll soon have paying customers.
46:06So far, he's earned nothing.
46:08And it's taking its toll.
46:10I'm starving.
46:12I've got some lunch.
46:15What I saved from yesterday, from my sandwich last night.
46:22A little bit of fluff.
46:25But I don't want to get into too much debt.
46:28And that's what's worrying me.
46:30That's what's making me a bit emotional, to be honest.
46:34Sorry.
46:37I really don't know how they survived.
46:39This whole experience is massively humbling.
46:43When you think you've got it hard and you haven't.
46:55It's payday for the peace workers,
46:57who would have hand-delivered finished goods to the factories.
47:00See you later, guys.
47:02Bye.
47:02See you later.
47:03Wages were low and standards high.
47:06Any products that didn't make the grade would be rejected.
47:10Most of Shaz's boxes weren't up to scratch.
47:13She's only made two pounds.
47:16I don't think it will cover my rent.
47:17And I don't think I'll be able to pay off my food debt.
47:20When I feel really low, it's just really grinding me down now.
47:25I couldn't imagine living like this forever.
47:28No.
47:30It's unlivable.
47:32The potters, too, have been paid the going rate for the 25 matchboxes they did manage to make.
47:38You'll never guess how much we got.
47:43We got one pen for presents.
47:46So we've got market day today.
47:48We've got kippers.
47:49We've got kippers.
47:50We've got kippers.
47:50We've got kippers.
47:50We've got two lots of soap.
47:52With their customers hard up, even the shopkeepers are feeling the pinch.
47:57It looks like the market is becoming more and more important for us to be able to earn enough to
48:02pay our rent.
48:03Everybody's being very conservative with what they're buying from us.
48:06We haven't sold very much.
48:07So that's going to make or break us, I think, at this point.
48:16The weekend market was crucial before rent day came round on Monday.
48:21It's nine pence for a bunch or we're selling four bunches for 34 pence?
48:27From leftover food to secondhand shoes.
48:32These markets were a way to turn any meagre asset into cash.
48:37Right, are we on one or two?
48:39Two, two cabbages.
48:40The birds are trying to shift their surplus stock.
48:44This has got tallow in it, yeah, this has got tallow in it.
48:47The potters are hoping to scrape together the rest of their rent from the last of the watercress.
48:52It's looking a little bit dry now.
48:56Well, these are handmade.
48:57How much do you want for that?
48:58£3.40, thank you.
49:00And after a week of hard work, it's been the house first chance to earn.
49:05And I actually iron this with a proper old hot iron.
49:10Thank you so much.
49:11That's really kind of you, thank you.
49:13These are all hand-stitched handmade from waistcoats.
49:16Lovely.
49:16I think it's because like East London, you forget it's like the working class area.
49:20Obviously a lot of people have moved in now and it's all like up and coming and like trendy,
49:24which is what we know of it.
49:26And you forget that actually this was how it started.
49:30It's just really interesting how they lived and the struggles they had day to day.
49:36What amazed me, they've got to think of their rent first before they can eat.
49:40Come on, we've got to go eat tonight.
49:42£3.40.
49:43I felt a little bit sad and it made me think how lucky we are.
49:50And we take so much for granted.
49:53That's right.
49:53Yeah.
49:54Thank you very much.
49:55A good help to you.
49:56I'm not even going to haggle you for the price.
49:58Cheers, mate.
49:59Thank you very much.
50:00Thanks.
50:01Nice.
50:02As the market draws to a close, everyone is counting up, ready for tomorrow's reckoning
50:08with the rent man.
50:1016.
50:10Yes!
50:11Yes!
50:12The rent's paid.
50:14I've never been so happy.
50:16No, no.
50:17As a family together, achieving something like that, it's just amazing.
50:20It's been immense.
50:20It's been absolutely immense.
50:23So we've got £33.13.
50:27Rent covered.
50:28Just.
50:30Well done.
50:33That is close though.
50:34It is, isn't it?
50:35Yeah.
50:36It looks quite a bit, doesn't it, there?
50:38Yeah, we did really well.
50:3960, 70, 80, 90.
50:42Well done.
50:43£56 we've got.
50:45That's brilliant.
50:46Well done you all.
50:47Well done.
50:48Well done.
50:48That's excellent.
50:49We've had a really good day, haven't we?
50:51Yeah.
50:51I feel triumphant.
50:53What's that mean?
50:55Victorious.
50:56Oh.
50:57Between them, the five members of the Potter family have covered their rent.
51:02But they're not sure everyone's doing so well.
51:05£80.
51:06£2.
51:07£2.
51:08£2.40.
51:09Shaz next door.
51:10We're not sure about her rent.
51:1360.
51:13I'm worried about Shaz, yeah.
51:16I've really felt for her.
51:17I thought she looked really tired and worn out this morning.
51:20This morning she looked, yeah.
51:21I think it's been really hard for her.
51:33In the East End, rent day was known as Black Monday.
51:39Keeping a roof over your head depended entirely on whether you could settle up.
51:45If the slum dwellers failed to pay rent collector Andy, he could evict them from their rooms.
51:52It's a horrible feeling to have to say to someone, I'm going to have to take this off you.
51:57It's going to be really, really hard.
51:59Andy can also earn money by running the DOS house, if there's anyone in it.
52:05These are just narrow mattresses that I've got filled with straw to use as padding,
52:09and then that goes into the cotton beds that I've made.
52:12And then people can come and sleep in that if they want for a princely sum of four pence.
52:16But I'm hoping they do, because that's where I'm going to make my money.
52:20I'm absolutely starving.
52:24How we doing, guys?
52:26Hello.
52:27Are you all right?
52:27Possibly your least favourite day of the week.
52:29Yes.
52:30As the house have shown, some could succeed in the slums.
52:34They've paid their bill at the shop and their rent.
52:38They'll eat something other than bread tonight,
52:40and they'll have money left over for the week ahead.
52:43Really well done. You deserve it.
52:44So there you go.
52:45You deserve it.
52:46Relief, relief, relief.
52:48See you later.
52:49See you later.
52:50Bye now.
52:51First rent paid.
52:52First rent paid.
52:54How was the day at market for you?
52:56It was okay.
52:57It was okay.
52:57With some customers having paid off their tick and modest sales,
53:01the birds scrape together their rent.
53:04Perfect.
53:05Thank you very much.
53:08You counted it all out by your fair hands yourself, have you?
53:10Yeah.
53:11Perfect.
53:12The potters, too, end their first week just free of debt.
53:16All right, take care, guys.
53:17Take care.
53:18Bye-bye.
53:19In the 1860s, anyone who failed to pay their rent
53:23faced either the dot house, the workhouse, or the street.
53:29Shaz's below-par piecework has left her with almost nothing.
53:34Hi.
53:35Hello.
53:36Okay, so we were looking for £8.16 today.
53:39Right.
53:40Is that going to be okay for you?
53:41No, I can pay £2.
53:42Two pounds?
53:43Yeah.
53:44Okay.
53:46This puts me in a horrible, horrible position.
53:52So one way I can resolve this is to ask you guys to leave
53:58Mm-hmm.
54:00And to put you up in the dot house.
54:05Now, I don't want to do that.
54:07I really don't.
54:09Mm-hmm.
54:10I mean, obviously, you're nowhere near the rent,
54:12and you've got Tiki in the shop.
54:15If you have money in two days,
54:18I would like proportion of that to come back off your rent.
54:22And if you're happy to do that, then that's what we're doing.
54:24Mm-hmm.
54:25Okay.
54:25Okay?
54:27Okay.
54:28All right.
54:29No problems.
54:33When I first found out I was going to be the rent collector,
54:35it was, aha, what fun.
54:38I got to go around and take money off these people,
54:40and if they ain't got the money, I'm going to kick them out,
54:43and I'm running the dot house, and...
54:45Yeah, it's not like that in real life.
54:47That was...
54:48That was tough with Shaz.
54:50I thought I'd be able to accomplish something,
54:52but obviously I've been, erm...
54:55I've been defeated, I think that's a word, by...
54:58by society or the era that I'm living in.
55:00Oh.
55:00It's just, I'm just in a vicious circle here.
55:03I've not given up just yet.
55:05There's still a bit of fight in me left.
55:08It's the end of the residents' first week of 19th century slum life.
55:14Living here during Victorian times would have been tough and unpredictable.
55:19Work was harsh, wages often appallingly low.
55:22And yet, as our slum dwellers have shown,
55:25somehow people found a way to survive.
55:31Being at the top of the pecking order within the slum,
55:34I do feel torn between wanting to help people and not help them.
55:40Chaz worries me a little bit because we'll probably lose money on her.
55:44So all I can say from that is,
55:45next time I'll try and be a little bit more astute
55:48and, er, I don't know, not give her so much.
55:51People in the Victorian East End, you know,
55:54they didn't make the choices they did because they wanted to,
55:57it was because they had to.
55:58You know, and they were faced with life and death choices
56:01that we don't get faced with today.
56:09Day after day, week after week, generation after generation,
56:13this is pretty much what their life was like.
56:15This cycle of poverty that they lived in.
56:18I think life is on a knife edge all the time in this sort of environment
56:21because you can't earn enough money
56:24to be able to put things away for next week
56:26because you've got to survive.
56:27You've got to buy stuff.
56:28We need to start building up the strength again
56:30to be able to carry on next week
56:32and, again, start to get the rent.
56:35I'm just really happy that we managed to do it
56:37and we won't be going into the DOS house.
56:40Not today.
56:42Not today.
56:46What happens when you work hard?
56:48We get pies.
56:50Before, your ancestors, they were just named.
56:53But now, actually living what they went through,
56:55it's insane.
56:57Like, this is relentless.
57:00You have to have, you have to be so resilient to do this
57:03and they must have been the strongest people out there.
57:07The slum, it looks miserable.
57:09It stinks.
57:11It's everything you could put, everything you imagine is the slum.
57:14What you can't see is the sense of happiness and community that's here.
57:19We're just together.
57:21All of us together.
57:23It's great.
57:26The first hot food we've really had.
57:29It's really nice.
57:30I thought we had a bad time.
57:33I grew up in the 1950s and we didn't have any money.
57:37But this is a whole different situation.
57:39I will never say that I lived in poverty again.
57:45Ever.
57:45Because I didn't.
57:47Because this is poverty.
57:52Next time, it's the 1870s.
57:57Nice, isn't it? Look.
57:58And a new decade.
57:5922 pairs of trousers.
58:02Oh, my God.
58:03Demands a whole new workforce.
58:05He treats us like employees, not family.
58:07Until an economic nosedive.
58:09I have nothing.
58:10I'm not taking the food out of their mouths to feed her children.
58:13In you come.
58:13And new arrivals.
58:15You got any work today?
58:16A young fellow, I can take you in.
58:18Push some to the edge.
58:19What did you eat?
58:20Terrible.
58:21It's great.
58:22The Irish are moving up.
58:28Victorian home life for the better off as depicted through the paintings of the period
58:32with Jeremy Paxman on BBC 4 at 10.30.
58:35And next here on BBC 2, new comedy from Morgana Robinson.
58:39Celebrity talent management at the agency.