- 3 months ago
Documentary, The Victorian Slum S01E03 The1880s
The Victorian Slum
The Victorian Slum refers to a historical reenactment series produced by Wall to Wall Media for the BBC, which recreates the living conditions of the Victorian East End of London. The series, which first aired in 2016, involves a group of 21st-century participants who move into a recreated Victorian slum, experiencing life as the poorest Victorians did during the 1860s to 1900s.
The show aims to provide insight into the harsh realities of poverty during that era, including overcrowded living conditions, lack of sanitation, and the challenges of survival through traditional trades.
The series has also been released on DVD and is available on platforms like Amazon.co.uk.
Additionally, the concept of the Victorian Slum is closely related to the series "Victorian Slum House," which features participants living in a recreated 19th-century slum for three weeks.
The show has been praised for its immersive approach to history, though some viewers noted minor anachronisms, such as the use of false eyelashes and lipstick, which were not typical of the period.
The Victorian Slum
The Victorian Slum refers to a historical reenactment series produced by Wall to Wall Media for the BBC, which recreates the living conditions of the Victorian East End of London. The series, which first aired in 2016, involves a group of 21st-century participants who move into a recreated Victorian slum, experiencing life as the poorest Victorians did during the 1860s to 1900s.
The show aims to provide insight into the harsh realities of poverty during that era, including overcrowded living conditions, lack of sanitation, and the challenges of survival through traditional trades.
The series has also been released on DVD and is available on platforms like Amazon.co.uk.
Additionally, the concept of the Victorian Slum is closely related to the series "Victorian Slum House," which features participants living in a recreated 19th-century slum for three weeks.
The show has been praised for its immersive approach to history, though some viewers noted minor anachronisms, such as the use of false eyelashes and lipstick, which were not typical of the period.
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LearningTranscript
00:00150 years ago, Victorian Britain became the world's first industrial superpower.
00:09And as the country thrived, London, the beating heart of empire, became the world's richest city.
00:17But this was a city divided.
00:20For the first time, geographical lines were drawn between those enjoying the nation's wealth in the West
00:27and those who weren't in the East.
00:33This is the story of one poor community living in London's East End.
00:40In the heart of modern Stratford, a Victorian slum has been recreated.
00:48And a group of 21st century people are moving in.
00:53Oh, absolutely awful.
00:57I'm just a bit dumbstruck.
00:59To survive, they'll have to work to keep a roof over their heads.
01:05It's absolutely shattering.
01:09And put food on the table.
01:11I'm starving.
01:12This was making me a bit emotional, to be honest.
01:15And they'll learn firsthand what life was like.
01:18You will call me mum.
01:19For those at the bottom of the economic pile.
01:22They were disabled.
01:23They couldn't do it.
01:24They didn't eat.
01:25They didn't eat.
01:26They died.
01:28They'll live through five decades of turbulent history.
01:30Look at the newspaper!
01:33And seismic social change.
01:36I am proud to be an East End suffragette.
01:39Power to the people.
01:40This is the story of how a quarter of a million slum dwellers in the East End changed our attitude to poverty forever.
01:49This is the slum.
01:52Last time, the 1870s.
02:02I've always wanted one of these machines.
02:04The residents moved into mass production.
02:0722 pairs of trousers.
02:09When did you?
02:10Oh, my God.
02:11I think we're working late tonight.
02:12Oh, my God.
02:13Bread.
02:14That's now 97p.
02:16But an economic nosedive.
02:1830% reduction in prices is a big bombshell.
02:22Meant harder work.
02:23He treats us like employees, not family when we're working.
02:27Just about pass.
02:28What do you mean, just about?
02:31Just to scrape by.
02:33You know, being the only breadwinner, I've got to work twice as hard to earn money,
02:37and then still I have nothing, and I'm running out of options.
02:42There were hopeful new arrivals.
02:44The Irish are moving up.
02:46Hush!
02:47We are packing.
02:48And a desperate departure.
02:49I don't know how these people did it, I mean.
02:51If I was a Victorian woman, I would rather take my chances elsewhere and start afresh.
02:56Well, she's just gone.
02:58Unbelievable.
03:05He's nearly touching at the back now.
03:07There was a big get before at the waist.
03:09The slum diet's working, eh?
03:11It's the residents' third week in the slum, and the start of a new decade, the 1880s.
03:20I don't know what's going to happen in the next decade.
03:23As a family, we just take it day by day.
03:26But there's always that worry.
03:28For slum dwellers like the Potters, it's an ongoing battle to make ends meet.
03:37Seems to be no end to the cycle.
03:38You know, you get up, you go out, look for work.
03:40There is no work.
03:41It's absolutely soul-destroying.
03:43Good morning.
03:44Good morning.
03:45Good morning.
03:46We've got some lovely bacon here.
03:4775 pence for the normal bread and marge.
03:50I think it's going to be normal bread and marge.
03:52Yeah, two cents.
03:53Yeah.
03:54We'd worked so hard in the 1870s just to get by.
03:57My greatest fear for the 1880s is that it gets worse.
04:02In the 1870s, Britain was gripped by a dire economic depression.
04:07By the 1880s, things were reaching crisis point.
04:11There was an influx of cheap labour into the East End,
04:14which led to greater competition for jobs and drove down wages.
04:20Pressure was mounting on those who were already living on the edge.
04:27Russell, the big bit or the small bit?
04:29The small bit.
04:31I do whatever I can to pay my rent.
04:33It doesn't matter how hard we work.
04:34I don't care how little we sleep.
04:36And I just don't care how hungry we go.
04:38It's the main thing is we put as much money as we can away.
04:40As soon as you start getting behind here, you're never going to get back.
04:44In the 1870s, the Howarth family got by working from home
04:49as sweated tailors finishing factory orders.
04:52In the 1880s, even with the economy in dire straits,
04:57London's population was still expanding by more than 40,000 a year.
05:03Oh, my God.
05:04Oh, my God, there's a singer. There's a singer.
05:06So this is a workshop, yeah?
05:08Yes, definitely a workshop.
05:09High five.
05:10Good.
05:11Oh, special.
05:12As the depression worsened, factories cut costs, creating an opportunity for East End tailors
05:18to set up entire workshops, fulfilling factory orders by exploiting the cheap and unregulated
05:24workforce in the East End slums.
05:27Compared to working at home, this to me just feels like a palace.
05:32Last time, the Howarth were sweated workers.
05:35Now, they will be the sweaters.
05:38But their new business means their weekly rent has almost doubled, to £30 in today's money.
05:45So the pressure is on to make the workshop pay.
05:48We need to work really hard and get ourselves out of this.
05:51But we're going to be employing people and not paying them fairly.
05:54So we're not going to be paying for a fair day's work, are we?
05:56No.
05:57Running a sweaters' workshop is going to be tough, I think.
05:59If we don't deliver any work, then no manager will come in and we're paying them and we
06:04don't actually make any money, we actually lose money.
06:06We could be in the DOS house if we don't get the work done.
06:10The success of a sweated workshop relied on a willingness to work others to the bone.
06:18And in an already saturated labour market, there was no shortage of people desperate for work.
06:25The 1880s saw a huge influx of Jewish immigrants fleeing from poverty and persecution in places
06:32like Russia and Eastern Europe.
06:34They came here to the East End despite the fact that a lot of them had relatives writing
06:38them letters saying, don't come, conditions here are truly dreadful.
06:43But what they were fleeing was even worse.
06:46In 1881 in Russia, Jews were blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander.
06:52Government-sponsored massacres known as pogroms followed.
06:55Thousands were killed.
06:58The pogroms spawned attacks and oppression that lasted decades
07:02and forced many to flee their homeland and seek refuge in cities like London.
07:07The number of Jewish immigrants almost doubled.
07:10Around 30,000 arrived.
07:12And this made them the second largest immigrant population after the Irish.
07:19Tomas is a 21st century Polish economic migrant.
07:23Not what I necessarily expected.
07:25So grey.
07:28Oh.
07:29Lee and Yasha are both descendants of European Jews who sought refuge in London.
07:34They seem smiley, don't they?
07:40Yeah.
07:41Oh God, give it an hour.
07:4475-year-old Yasha's father fled Russia in the early 20th century.
07:49I'm just very grateful to have this amazing opportunity to experience the circumstances under which Jews arrived in the east end of London.
07:58They come to a new nation looking for 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 War.
08:12They came here just so that they could live, just so they could be somewhere and it not be an offence to be Jewish.
08:21I reckon they've just come in with us 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.
08:28Oh my God, this is so weird.
08:33In the 1880s, refugees arriving at London's docks were often greeted off the boat by sweating sharks, who promised them work and brought them to the sweaters' dens of the east end.
08:45This is the workshop.
08:46OK.
08:47Russell is obviously in charge of the work, but I'm actually in charge of the workshop itself.
08:52So I'll be walking around making sure everybody is as productive as they possibly can be.
08:56Sweater's dens maximise the productivity of their workers by operating a strict set of rules.
09:03There is no slacking on the job, which includes stopping to eat.
09:06OK.
09:07There is no excessive talking.
09:09All right.
09:10The most serious one is any stealing or damaging any of the garments.
09:15Because we have to replace them which comes out of our profit, which is going to feed my children.
09:19If any of the rules are broken, then you will be fined.
09:21And that will be taken out of any wages that you could potentially earn.
09:26Like their forebears, the workers have arrived with no money for food and shelter.
09:31They won't be paid till the first order is complete.
09:35New orders could come at any time.
09:38New order.
09:39Six men's pairs of trousers and six waistcoats.
09:41Turning them round quickly was the only way to make a sweatshop pay.
09:46We've got to do this by tomorrow.
09:47We need to work quickly.
09:49But new employees were unfamiliar with the process.
09:52I had a slight accident.
09:55You see the iron here?
09:57Really very, very hot. Wrap it.
10:00If you've got it, pick it up.
10:02Known as greeners...
10:04A little bit of water.
10:05Given the lowliest tasks, such as undepressing and basic machining.
10:10Just sell on the white chalk mark.
10:12Mandy and Russell will need to get their greeners up to speed fast if they're going to get their first order done today.
10:18Oh, no, I think my bobbin's gone.
10:21Never crank it towards you, because if you do, it'll break the cotton, which is really annoying.
10:26If anybody is struggling, could you let me know, please, because I can call Russell over rather than you just wait and wait and wait, because time is money.
10:33Oh, God.
10:35You have to understand, they've got to work quickly.
10:37The idea is, is that they need to make us money.
10:39So they're lovely, lovely, but ultimately, they're not my friends.
10:44My mum, I've never seen her like that before.
10:46She, she's embracing the sweatshop thing.
10:50The fact that there was no laws whatsoever just blows my mind.
10:54To keep up the pace in the 1880s, sweated workers put in more than 18 hours a day, six days a week.
11:01Put one on, while that one's heating up, you're using one, you can, when you go out and swap over.
11:05They were paid amongst the lowest wages in the slums, the equivalent of just 34 pence an hour.
11:11They'd need four times that to pay for a bed in the doss house.
11:14This is where they sort of took advantage of the immigrants who probably couldn't even speak English or read or write or anything like that.
11:21These conditions are still around the world, in Bangladesh and China.
11:24People get treated and taken advantage of.
11:27It was a dog-eat-dog world.
11:30They probably had the attitude that I had to go through it, I had to do it, I had to survive it.
11:33And if you're strong enough, you will survive it, but that's not my problem.
11:36I'm in it to get out of this, so I will earn as much money out of you as I possibly can.
11:44Without a trade to rely on, the potters have struggled through the decades.
11:49But families like theirs could make a living from the streets.
11:55Known as costamongers or street peddlers, they bought cheap food to sell on.
11:59Let's cut down there.
12:03A staple of the East End diet, eels were an affordable source of protein, known as the meat of the poor.
12:11People usually prepared street food in their own homes, but the potters are borrowing the shop's kitchen.
12:17I think we've not done a bad job.
12:19Bought for five a penny, sheep's trotters could also be sold on the street for a small profit.
12:28Let's see if we can get enough so that we can make the rent and be able to feed us.
12:32The potters are heading to Spitalfields, in the heart of the East End, to try and make their £13 rent.
12:45Come and get your jelly deals.
12:47Jelly deals, 17pence.
12:49Come and get your jelly deals.
12:51Spitalfields would have thronged with people plying their trade outside pubs like the Ten Bells.
12:59Here, since 1851, where people paid pennies for snacks to soak up their gin and beer.
13:07In the 1880s, the lack of other work meant the number of costamongers soared by almost 40% to more than 12,000.
13:16Come and get your potters, trotters.
13:20It's a little bit like alky baths.
13:24It's quite fatty, isn't it?
13:25Back then, around 80,000 sheep's trotters were consumed each week.
13:30Hello.
13:32Now, 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?
13:42Sorry, what is it?
13:43It's a sheep's trotter.
13:45What is the difference between a tube and a foolish Dutchman?
13:48One is a hollow cylinder and the other is a silly Hollander.
13:54As well as street selling, children found other ways to make money.
14:01Would you like to hear a joke for 8p?
14:04They performed acrobatics, sang ditties, or told the jokes of the day to passers-by, all to try and earn a few pennies.
14:15If all the seas were dried up, what would Neptune say?
14:19I don't know.
14:20I really haven't got an ocean.
14:25When is a pretty girl like a ship?
14:27I don't know.
14:28Go on.
14:29When she is attached to a boy.
14:32Amazing.
14:33It's alright, it's quite embarrassing, but every penny counts when you're in Victorian times,
14:39because it could be the one penny that gets you your meal.
14:43Trotters, trotters!
14:48What are you eating there?
14:49Fish and chips.
14:50That, with fish and chips, would be absolutely super.
14:52£17, just try it.
14:54Graham injured his back while working, shortly after his arrival at the slum.
14:59Now, he finally has a chance to earn.
15:03Do you eat fish?
15:04That's all it is.
15:05My parents were brought up on those.
15:08Is it nice?
15:09Yes, it is.
15:10Yes.
15:11£17.
15:14Thank you for being here.
15:15I think my dad's a natural salesman.
15:17It's what he's done all his life.
15:19Heather cooked them freshly this morning.
15:20He's enjoying it.
15:21I think it's probably done him the world of good to get out.
15:24So, one to take away, yeah?
15:25Yes.
15:26With more people arriving all the time, the East End slums of the 1880s were filling up
15:31with unskilled men desperate to support their families.
15:35Unemployment rates were running at around 10% for casual labourers,
15:39but the real problem was underemployment.
15:41If you were unskilled, then you would be lucky to get two weeks of poorly paid work a month.
15:47And that affected the lives of everyone in the slum.
15:54Slum residents John and Andy are meeting social historian Carl Chin at the West India docks,
16:00a few miles from the East End, to find out about job opportunities in the 1880s.
16:08The dock would have been the first port of call for many casual labourers, but by the 1880s, everything was a fight.
16:15This is why we're here today, lads.
16:18This grand imposing pillar.
16:20Its twin is across the street.
16:22This was the entrance to the West India docks.
16:25Between the pillars, there would have been great big heavy gates.
16:29In the 1880s, at gates like these along the Thames in London, thousands upon thousands of desperate men would gather every morning looking for casual work.
16:42In the East End of London alone, over 10,000 men were trying to get dock work which was sufficient for only 6,000.
16:51For centuries, the spoils of empire, tea, sugar, tobacco, spice, had passed through London's docks.
17:00In the 1860s, when the docks were thriving, it had offered casual labourers hard work but decent pay.
17:07By the 1880s, the economic depression and competition from new docks downstream left the East End in crisis.
17:15Too poor to travel elsewhere, men still came desperate for work,
17:19often waiting hours for the chance of a job.
17:23When those gates open, there's a mad rush for the men to get through
17:27and be the first to get called for work.
17:30Ben Tillits later founded the Dock Workers' Union
17:33and he wrote in his memoirs about a place called The Cage.
17:37As the men were driven through the gates, they were herded almost into a shed, as if they were cattle.
17:44And that shed had iron bars all around it.
17:47And around the iron bars, the foreman looking out, deciding who they were going to choose to work that day.
17:55The younger men were flinging themselves across those in front.
17:59Men who were so enfeebled by hunger and weakness fell below onto the ground
18:05and they were trampled to death underfoot.
18:08Those are the conditions that the casuals had to put up with.
18:12I mean, it's horrific.
18:14It beggars belief that people, like you say, were treated like cattle,
18:18like commodities, like pieces of flesh just to move items.
18:20To come here, you know, in the hope to be able to support their families
18:24and to come in and find yourself in the cage, it's...
18:27I can't imagine that desperation for work.
18:30It's...
18:32It's unbelievable. I can't even...
18:34And the job that you casuals would have had would have been at the bottom of the pile
18:42to unload the bales, the barrels, the crates and, of course, the bags of sugar.
18:48This is what you've punched, pushed, shoved, fought for.
18:52And you know how much you're going to get for it?
18:54It'll be a pittance, isn't it?
18:56Five pence an hour.
18:58Five pence an hour?
18:59Five pence an hour.
19:00It's crazy.
19:01Andy, do you think you would have got work?
19:03To be honest, I can't see me even getting through the gate.
19:05Why would a foreman pick someone with quite an obvious disability?
19:09I'm older than John. I'm... I'm bottom of the pile, aren't I?
19:12You're on your way out then, John. Young, fitter.
19:16Probably would have been picked. Get cracking with your work, mate.
19:20Andy's got nothing from the dock.
19:22But for John, things aren't much better.
19:24In the 1860s, a docker's daily wage was equivalent to £22 in today's money.
19:30But by the 1880s, fierce competition for fewer jobs had forced wages down.
19:36And they'd have been lucky to get two hours' work, earning them just £4.40.
19:41It's horrific.
19:42And you're just bringing it backwards and forwards all day long.
19:46Moving goods around the quays and warehouses was dangerous too.
19:50The sacks would rub the skin off their backs, and half of all workers sustained serious injuries.
19:56There are even accounts of men dying from exhaustion on their doorsteps, clutching their day's pay.
20:06It makes you kind of angry that somebody in those days was willing to go out and fight for this work,
20:12but nothing could secure it from one day to the next.
20:15It's ruthless.
20:16There's no security, and there's always somebody ready to take your place as soon as you can't do it.
20:22In the East End sweatshops, working conditions were just as bad.
20:32Sweated workers were fined for mistakes, for talking, and charged over the odds for bread and tea.
20:40Don't be too stingy with the sugar.
20:44With a list of rules to enforce, 12-year-old James is getting a taste for being boss.
20:52Mm-hmm.
20:54You can't stop work to drink your tea.
20:56Or you get fined one pound, two pence.
21:00You need to work while you're drinking your tea.
21:03How are you supposed to be drinking while working?
21:09It's for you to sort out. It's not my problem.
21:11Because I'm not drinking and working at the same time. It's your problem.
21:16I'm quite enjoying bossing people around.
21:19I feel like I'm quite big.
21:21person in the scheme of, like, bad dads at the top and I'm beneath him,
21:27and then all the workers are at the bottom.
21:29I stitched the wrong side first.
21:32That is a damaging...
21:33It's a definite fine.
21:35That's a £2.72.
21:38Fines meant bosses could get away with paying workers even less
21:42than their already meagre wage.
21:46There's an account of one young Jewish greener who worked 22 hours.
21:51in every 24.
21:52Finally, despair led him to hang himself in the room he shared with his wife.
21:57The circumstances under which they were working were very uncomfortable and not very happy at all.
22:03There's no fairness in the mistreatment of people like that.
22:07These immigrants must have arrived here with lots of hope in their hearts.
22:11And I would have thought that once they found themselves in the slums being taken advantage of,
22:17and being mistreated, you know, they must have become absolutely desperate.
22:21As the end of the day approaches, the order's still not finished,
22:25which means no pay for the house or their workers.
22:28Gentlemen.
22:29How's it going?
22:30Not so well.
22:31Not so well.
22:32We've come to you looking for help.
22:34What's happening basically is that we're really working hard,
22:37but unfortunately the work has not been completed,
22:40and our boss, Russell, is not getting paid, so he's not paying us.
22:44Oh.
22:45We are absolutely starving.
22:46If you're really desperate, you would ask for credit,
22:50and then we'd call that putting it on tick.
22:52But at the moment, I can't really extend any credit.
22:56We can only extend the credit if we know that you have a means of paying it back.
22:59What have you got?
23:00A reasonable, beautiful-looking bowler hat.
23:03It's got its bow tie, everything is still there.
23:05Does that make us no mind?
23:06No.
23:07Are you looking to pay until tomorrow, then?
23:09We should, yes.
23:11All being well, we'll be paid tomorrow, yes.
23:13We'll give you £2.50 on it, right?
23:16The repay on that is 20%, please, so you'll owe us £3.
23:21It's extortionate.
23:23I don't think I've got another option.
23:25Immigrant workers arriving in the slums faced stark choices.
23:29Even after pawning their most treasured possessions,
23:32they still had to choose whether to spend a few pennies on eating
23:35or finding a place to sleep.
23:38When it comes to putting things on tick for them, they are transient.
23:41It's got to be cash up front, I think, for anything they buy.
23:44If we just go now and say, just out of kindness, start giving stuff away,
23:48you know, we are not going to be around for very long.
23:50No, we're not.
23:51And that lets everybody down.
23:57For the Potters, it's been a profitable day.
24:00£9.92.
24:02It's too.
24:03Brilliant.
24:05They're well on the way to making this week's rent.
24:09Really, really pleased to be able to go out with an empty pot
24:14and come home with some money.
24:18So we've got to be really careful and budget whatever money we've got carefully.
24:23And the majority of that will go on food.
24:27It's been a really good day today.
24:29With your own enterprise, you're in more control.
24:32I'm really proud of our family.
24:35Mmm.
24:39Yasha, Tomas and Lee have prioritised accommodation over food.
24:44I know she's going to come later.
24:46Sign your name there for me.
24:47Just write and then sign.
24:49Using the money from Yasha's pawned hat to pay for a night shelter,
24:52their arrival brings DOS housekeeper Andy some badly needed income.
24:57It's fabulous news to be making money from our lovely immigrants.
25:03You two are going to settle down comfortably on the chair.
25:07Back in today, it had to be a horrible experience
25:10having to trade in your own clothes in order to pay for your bed.
25:14I hope this is wide enough.
25:18My grandfather, he was a refugee.
25:20This is a lot like his experience
25:22because he would have come to England
25:25and not really speaking the language,
25:28not knowing what was going on.
25:30To imagine that people had to live in this environment
25:33for every day is absolutely terrifying.
25:37The very nature of it is so precarious.
25:39Everything's reduced to survival, isn't it?
25:43Well, what we know about tomorrow,
25:45that we're going to get paid for the work we did today.
25:47Yeah.
25:48At least we can use the money to eat properly.
25:50Ah!
25:51Jesus!
25:52Ah!
25:53John's sister, Maria, is up early.
25:56I'm checking if you've got any laundry you want to do.
25:58With John only getting a couple of hours work,
26:00she is trying to earn the rest of the money they need
26:01for food and rent.
26:02Just, it's 30 pence for it,
26:03because it's only undergarment.
26:04By offering to do her neighbours' washing.
26:05Thank you very much.
26:07Thank you, Sarah.
26:09Thank you, Sarah.
26:10Thank you, Sarah.
26:11I'm really happy to have a good day.
26:12All right.
26:13All right.
26:14All right.
26:15We're here at the end of the day.
26:16All right.
26:17All right.
26:18All right.
26:19All right.
26:20All right.
26:21All right.
26:22All right.
26:23All right.
26:24All right.
26:25All right.
26:26All right.
26:27All right.
26:2830p and you'll get that out, yeah?
26:31Yeah.
26:32You'll get that nice and clean.
26:33Yeah.
26:33You do a nice good job on that and I'll, uh, I might have more for you, but...
26:36Oh, good.
26:37All right.
26:38See you later.
26:39See you later.
26:39These casual arrangements were common in the slums,
26:42where you could scrape a living washing the clothes of workers
26:45doing long hours in the sweatshops.
26:50All right.
26:52And we've got a pound for everything, yeah?
26:54OK.
26:55Put it there.
26:56Put it there, sister.
26:58I think this is the worst part, because you're over the fire.
27:07It blows so much smoke in your face that your eyes are watering.
27:12I hate doing this.
27:17After an uncomfortable night in the Dosses...
27:20Oh, my God, I hate this bench.
27:23Yasha, Thomas and Lee go straight back to work
27:26at the sweater's den.
27:31With rent day fast approaching,
27:33sweatshop owner Russell needs them to complete
27:36their delayed first order.
27:37A lot of pressure.
27:40A lot of pressure.
27:40A massive struggle getting it done.
27:41Speed and accuracy is vital.
27:47Trying to train new people how to do stuff.
27:50Keep it straight.
27:52We're doing it going wrong, okay?
27:53Otherwise, the trousers would be no good.
27:55Trying to be the owner of a sweatshop is really tough.
27:59Russell is a trained tailor, but it's Mandy that has a generations-old connection with tailoring.
28:07She and daughter Rebecca are meeting historian Dr Anne Kirshen to find out more about their family history.
28:12Here's the census that shows your great-grandfather on your paternal side.
28:19That's my dad.
28:20So, he was born in Odessa, in Russia, so he's Russian.
28:26For his occupation, he's got down here, Taylor.
28:30He had...
28:31He had one, two, three, four, five, six children.
28:37Five were born in Kamenets, in Russia, and one was born in London.
28:49There was a severe pogrom in Kizhnev, where 50 people were killed.
28:56Kamenets was not that far away.
28:59Many fled these massacres with no more than a bundle of precious possessions,
29:04spending everything they had to get as many family members out as they could.
29:10Those with money went to America.
29:12London was the cheaper destination.
29:14They sailed in steerage, enduring three days below decks in cramped conditions.
29:23Your paternal great-grandfather had the foresight, fortune whatever, to bring his entire family...
29:31To get them out of there.
29:32Get them out of there and settle in the East End.
29:36Probably made quite an arduous journey, so to do.
29:39Men often came first, hoping to secure employment so their family could follow.
29:44Most didn't speak English.
29:47Many couldn't read or write.
29:49What we have here is your grandfather's birth certificate, David Lenov.
29:54And there's something significant on the birth certificate.
29:57And I don't know whether you can notice it if you look at it carefully.
30:00Because his father couldn't write.
30:02No.
30:02Because he's got the mark of it.
30:04He's got the cross.
30:06He may well have been able to read Hebrew sufficiently to be bar mitzvah,
30:11but he obviously couldn't read English and probably couldn't read, write Hebrew or Yiddish.
30:16Looking at the family tree, what's significant is the fact that all your ancestors were engaged in economic activities that were part of the sweating system?
30:30Seamstress, tailor, tailor's presser, buttonhole hand were sweated trades.
30:38I know it's quite emotional, isn't it, when you see it, for real.
30:49Sorry, it's very emotional.
30:55Mandy's ancestors would have done the jobs and worked in conditions similar to those in her own workshop.
31:01Knowing it's your own family that was treated like that, you know, is really upsetting.
31:07They were prisoners within their workplace.
31:10They couldn't answer back.
31:12They couldn't do anything because they'd lose their job.
31:13It doesn't sit right with me that I'm that person that's been, you know, really strict with what was my great-great-grandfather.
31:23It's wrong everywhere you look at it.
31:26It's just wrong.
31:27It's not comfortable.
31:30Gentlemen, wages.
31:33With their first order finished at last, the house are finally in a position to pay their workers.
31:39Lee, you've earned £3.60.
31:43Yasha, you've earned £3.60.
31:45It's hard to cut a day's work.
31:46Thank you very much.
31:47Thank you, gentlemen.
31:48It's not easy doing this.
31:49Thank you for working so hard.
31:52I've already put on my hat, as you know.
31:54I'm going to get my hat back now.
31:58After paying out wages, the house are still short of the £30 weekly rent.
32:03They'll need their workforce to complete another order to stay afloat.
32:09But James' time as a sweatshop boss is over.
32:13Give me the book.
32:13No, I can't.
32:14Give me the book.
32:16Get a pencil.
32:20OK.
32:22I hate how the Sweater's Den was run and everything that it stood for.
32:26And to know that someone that's related to me and that's helped me be in the place that I am today
32:31might have been treated like immigrant workers.
32:34It makes me feel a bit sick, to be honest.
32:38Yes.
32:45After a successful day of sales yesterday, the potters get ready to head out with another batch of street food.
32:53Whoops.
32:55Hey, what's all these chains on the cart?
32:58What's the hell?
33:01We can't take them out, can we?
33:02Street traders, costamongers and storekeepers have been found to be obstructing the public highway and has been impounded.
33:10They're stopping us working and earning money, aren't they?
33:12Yeah, it's disgraceful.
33:14So they're forcing us into starvation.
33:15As the 1880s progressed, pressure on everyone in the East End was building.
33:22In Bethnal Green, shopkeepers, terrified that the surge in costamongers was affecting business, managed to get some street selling banned.
33:32Barrows 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.
33:44I'm 59.
33:45I, you know, I've had a bad back.
33:48You know, I'm done.
33:49That's me.
33:49If I can't sell my stuff on the streets, I'm completely without any income whatsoever.
33:54It's beyond comprehension, actually, that you can think that somebody can make up out of nowhere one rule like that, that it can destroy so many lives.
34:07And the only thing that I can think that they might have done it for was to push them down a notch further.
34:13Just keep pushing them down.
34:15Keep pushing the poor down.
34:17Keep pushing them down.
34:47And for themselves to blame, there were philanthropists who, driven by a sense of religious duty, decided to do what they could to help.
34:54It was just a drop in the ocean, but it generated publicity and got people interested in life in the slums.
35:01But not all of the interest generated was philanthropic.
35:05We're here for a tour.
35:06We'd really like to see how you do.
35:09Can we do that?
35:11Right, well, welcome to the slum.
35:13Come on in.
35:14In the 1880s, it became fashionable for middle and upper class Victorians to go on guided tours of the poorer parts of Britain.
35:22It was called slum.
35:23It was called slumming.
35:25Journalists were also drawn to the slums.
35:28Some wrote sensational stories.
35:29What evolved was a new genre of writing called slum fiction, which fuelled a fascination with the squalor and depravity of slum life.
35:39Here was a place where the normal rules of Victorian respectability seemed not to apply, and the upper classes couldn't get enough of it.
35:47Poverty had become a form of entertainment.
35:51Yeah, it's definitely a bit smelly.
35:54Obviously, watch your shoes.
35:56This is our courtyard to lead a group of rich people just to see how the scum slum dwellers live is, I mean, that's very, very distasteful by my modern mind.
36:10Our scraps.
36:11But I can certainly understand why in the 1880s, someone in my position would do it to earn a few extra pennies.
36:18This is called a copper.
36:21This would be used communally to heat water, to cook.
36:27It's bad enough being here, but being shown off as a sort of like entertainment.
36:30Zoo animals.
36:31Yeah.
36:32Well, if they buy something from us, it could make a couple of quid out of this to help with the rent.
36:36Absolutely.
36:37Well, anything would help at this point, wouldn't it?
36:38Nobody else is going to be buying anything.
36:40No.
36:41OK, so obviously our privy consists of a little wooden hut.
36:47This particular form of tourism came with slum tour operators and even guidebooks.
36:55Look at our, they're staring up at our place.
36:57Hello?
36:58Yeah.
36:59I know.
37:02This is a tour group.
37:05All right.
37:06And they would like to come in, ask you a few questions.
37:10Is there anything good about it?
37:13The good about it is that it ends after all, after about 20 hours of the day.
37:18It's very hard work.
37:19This is our space.
37:21When you come, it's like we're a show to you.
37:23Do you know?
37:23Well, that's how it was.
37:24That's exactly it.
37:26So for us, I feel really demeaned by that.
37:28So I'm going to throw you out, I'm afraid.
37:30Come on, let me get on with our work.
37:32So what was that?
37:35Freak show?
37:36What is the enjoyment about coming to see people struggle?
37:40Through history, you've got all these gross people, the elephant men who used to be put
37:43in a cage.
37:43And that's exactly what it felt like.
37:45Yeah.
37:45The curiosity of people won't change with it.
37:47How much can these people take?
37:49They've got no money.
37:50They've got no food.
37:53They're working their butt off day in, day out, day in, day out.
37:58No day off, no time off.
38:00So the only question is what option?
38:01And then they have people come in and stare at them whilst they're doing it.
38:06Our local shopkeeper and his wife, called Mr and Mrs Bird.
38:11There we are.
38:13We've got some delicacies here for you.
38:15What is that?
38:16You can purchase them if you want.
38:17Those are lamb's feet and jelly deal.
38:19Jelly deal.
38:19Jelly deal.
38:20Try it and see what you think.
38:22Gives two.
38:22OK, now come on.
38:24With street selling banned, it's the shopkeepers who can cash in on the appetite for East End
38:30fare.
38:31Oh, come on.
38:35I can't do it.
38:36I can't do it.
38:36Why are you?
38:37It's a silly.
38:40It's a real tenement building, isn't it?
38:42Yeah, there's no lift.
38:45How do you guys?
38:47Come on in, chaps.
38:48I'm running the tour today.
38:50These guys have come to have a look and see how we live.
38:53This is a typical room that would be used for a family.
38:56There's five in here at the moment.
38:59Do you want to tell them a little bit about yesterday?
39:00No, I wouldn't.
39:02First of all, I'd like to know why you're here.
39:04OK, well, I can explain that one.
39:06Apologies there.
39:07She didn't mean to be rude.
39:08I did.
39:08OK, what this is called is called class tourism.
39:11And basically, people would like to come and see how a bottom of society live.
39:16I knew you were being paid for this, Andy.
39:19It will be a paid position for myself, possibly, yes.
39:24What do you do?
39:25What do you work as?
39:27We are costumongers.
39:28We are street sellers.
39:29It sounds like you're quite entrepreneurial.
39:32Well, we're not stupid.
39:34But people do suggest that the poor are thick and stupid.
39:37And they like to be poor.
39:39And actually, we're not.
39:41Maybe we should get a photo in here.
39:43Er, excuse me.
39:44No.
39:45All right, well, it's about time we left the Potters.
39:51If we can start filing out.
39:53Oh, sorry.
39:57The minute they walked in the door, my heart rate went off.
40:02The first time was when she took that photo.
40:03I wanted to punch her.
40:06Thank you so much.
40:07Thank you very much.
40:08Thank you very much.
40:09Bless you.
40:09The Victorian upper class came to mock and jeer the poor.
40:16It's just another nail in the coffin of saying,
40:19you might as well be dead.
40:24Seriously, I don't know how they could possibly have carried on.
40:28Just finding it too hard to do.
40:30I think over the last three decades,
40:46it's just got intolerably harder and harder.
40:55You cannot let it happen.
40:57Somebody has to do something.
41:00This morning, I'm feeling younger.
41:25We felt yesterday.
41:27And the fact that human beings aren't going to treat us like chattel.
41:33And we are going to start fighting back.
41:421886 marks a turning point in the story of the East End poor.
41:46After years of falling wages and terrible working conditions,
41:50labourers like the Costamongers began to get organised.
41:57WestEnders had enjoyed their forays into the East End slums.
42:01Now it was time for the poor to pay the West End a visit.
42:05John and the Potters are meeting Dr Louise Rohr,
42:10a leading expert on British labour history,
42:12to find out what happened.
42:14Here we are in Trafalgar Square,
42:17the heart of London, the centre of London,
42:20and also, at this point in history,
42:22the centre of a clash between the West End and the East End,
42:27between the rich and the poor.
42:29On the 8th February 1886, John Burns,
42:34a member of the Socialist Democratic Foundation,
42:38one of the country's first socialist parties,
42:40hijacked a demonstration to highlight the plight of the unemployed.
42:44John Burns was literally up behind us on the plinth there,
42:51and he was addressing a huge crowd of about 13,000,
42:55not just men, but women and children too.
42:58He asked the crowd, show your hands how many of you are out of work.
43:03Almost every hand went up.
43:05He takes them through the poshest bits of London,
43:11through Pall Mall, St James's Street,
43:14where the gentlemen clubs are.
43:16It's so unusual to see the poor out of their place,
43:21literally, and geographically.
43:23When the crowd gets to the Carlton Club,
43:25the members pour out into the balconies,
43:28and they hoosh at you, they jeer, they boo at the crowd going past.
43:32But in that situation, you're starving.
43:35You can't get work.
43:36You can't help your family.
43:37Your children are starving.
43:39And all the well-to-do can do is laugh at you.
43:44There's a lot of anger from the crowd.
43:46They find some broken paving stones,
43:48and they start chucking things back.
43:52I'd have all this anger inside me,
43:54and the frustration of not doing anything, that, so what?
43:57I don't care what happens to me now.
44:00I can't get any lower.
44:01Um, so, yes, I would have thrown stones.
44:05Yeah, I think I would throw stones, definitely.
44:07Um, I've probably been one of the first.
44:10The anger that you build up, you've got to go somewhere.
44:13And if there's broken paving stones there,
44:15they're going through windows.
44:16No, absolutely no doubt at all.
44:18What followed became known as the West End Riots.
44:24Windows were smashed and shops looted on Oxford Street and Piccadilly.
44:29This is the morning post the next day.
44:34Clubs and shops attacked, premises pillaged.
44:38The monster demonstration of the unemployed in London ended in a disgraceful riot
44:44and the sacking of many shops by these savage animals.
44:48And there's no mention of the provocation that actually starts all this.
44:54The following summer, large numbers of the unemployed camped out in Trafalgar Square.
44:59This time, they were watched over by 2,000 police.
45:03The upper-class fascination with the sordid lives of the poor
45:07had turned to a fear of bloody revolution.
45:10Posh London and the rest of the country is starting to really ramp up the fear,
45:15the fear of the East End.
45:16You're all immoral, you're criminals, you're lazy, you're feckless, you're drunk.
45:21Ramp up the fear of the poor.
45:23But instead of revolution, the next few years saw a growth in activism,
45:29as membership of trade unions in Great Britain grew faster than any other point in history.
45:34That's it. Now stop it.
45:36Ooh, how do you stop it?
45:37Just with that?
45:38Now you put your foot on.
45:39In 1888, the Costa Mungers and Stall Keepers Protection Society was formed.
45:45They set to work to try and overturn the ban on street selling,
45:48where possible, with the help of sympathetic printers and local activists,
45:52to spread the word about their cause.
45:55Yeah, that's it. Absolutely fine.
45:58I mean, I can imagine that the people stood there using a machine like this.
46:03It would have seemed so high-tech.
46:06I'm sure it probably gave them a little bit of wind in their sails to go forth and
46:10spread the message that the lower classes, the poor, the have-nots, will not be trodden on.
46:15And the East End, in 1888, 700 Costa Mungers took to the streets, to petition the authorities
46:28against the street selling ban.
46:30People really starved.
46:32Here?
46:33And, yes, right on this street, here.
46:35This is where the Costa Mungers used to sell their wares.
46:39So, your name and then your signature on the other side there.
46:42This is the first time, really, that we've had that opportunity to get the support of the public.
46:47In the 1880s, when it happened, they got 10,000 signatures.
46:50If you could just sign it for us, that would be absolutely superb.
46:53Do you want me to hold the dog?
46:55Costa Mungers means nothing.
46:56You have to explain the terms to start with, but we've got no income coming in whatsoever.
47:01And once you tell the people that, the general public, they're interested in that.
47:06We are street sellers.
47:07We've been told that we're not allowed to sell on the streets anymore.
47:11Thank you very much.
47:13I've got to understand what they were fighting for and what they actually did.
47:19And I wish to honour them.
47:21You've got to go out and sell.
47:22Perfect.
47:23The common people on the street seem to support us.
47:26I mean, it shows that it's not just a problem from 1880s.
47:28It's, you know, it's a problem that can be related to now.
47:31So, power to the people.
47:36Towards the end of the decade, London was hit by a series of strikes.
47:40In 1888, 500 girls working at the local match factory walked out in protest at conditions.
47:47A year later, 100,000 dockers marched through the streets of London, demanding a pay rise of one penny an hour.
47:58After a succession of peaceful strikes, fears of revolution subsided, and the workers gained widespread support from the public, who'd lined the streets and cheered them as they passed.
48:08Great strike of London tailors and sweaters victims.
48:13In 1889, three Jewish tailors unions joined forces and launched a five-week strike in the East End.
48:21No more than two hours overtime to be working any one day.
48:25So no longer 20 hours working days, maximum of 14.
48:27They were supported by the dockers, who gave them a hundred pounds towards their cause.
48:33It would have been terrifying because your work is so precarious.
48:37You don't really have the opportunity to complain. When you complain, you get fined.
48:40Yeah.
48:40And to think that you could lose your job, like, what would you do?
48:42It must have taken a lot of courage, I would have thought, to actually get it going.
48:47In the 1880s, with few workers' rights, striking meant risking what little livelihood you had and seeing your family starve.
48:57I've got another order, another one.
49:01Guys, we've got 16 pairs of trousers to make by tomorrow, so we need to work quickly, please.
49:07And this is the third day we've been working here, and there's circumstances that are really ridiculous.
49:15It's difficult. It's very, it's very, very harsh. It is.
49:18This isn't right. If we all decide that we are not going to work with you, you're going to be in trouble.
49:23I think you should consider your terms and conditions.
49:25You're on the edge the whole time in some life.
49:28I strike in solidarity with all those men and women who did so in 1889.
49:35I hope you will follow me.
49:38Bye-bye. Thank you.
49:40I absolutely understand why they wanted to strike, because the hours that they're supposed to work
49:52and the conditions that they're expected to work in for the pay that they're getting is disgusting.
49:57So how they haven't walked out sooner, I have no idea, to be fair.
50:00Oh, I would have gone on a strike in a flash. I would have been gone.
50:07While Yasha, Lee and Tomas strike...
50:10Right, let's carry on, shall we?
50:12..the hours have no choice but to work into the night.
50:15For decades, the upper classes had either believed those in poverty chose to live in squalor,
50:32or just ignored the existence of the slums altogether.
50:38Now, the poor were no longer invisible.
50:40Over the course of the decade, they'd gone from entertaining spectacle to a force to be reckoned with.
50:48And in 1889, there was good news for some of the slums' inhabitants.
50:52First, two hours over time to be paid at an ordinary rate,
50:55and then second hour, two hours to be paid at the rate of time and a half.
50:59Ah, this isn't a brace. This would have been a great improvement.
51:03The tailors' strike succeeded in securing a 12-hour working day
51:07and a proper lunch break for sweated workers.
51:10I think it makes me so happy to know that people did eventually come together and organise strikes.
51:19I didn't realise what it's like not having workers' rights till I went through this experience.
51:24There's no rules, there's no regulations, and the systems are designed around the abuse of people.
51:29Let's go. Let's go.
51:30In the 1880s, winning a strike was no guarantee you'd keep your job.
51:35In some small workshops of the East End, bosses would often be unwilling to take striking workers back,
51:41and they would have to move on.
51:42There's no question that the whole subject matter appears to be relevant to today's migrants,
51:49people seeking a better life than what they had, fleeing persecution and looking for
51:56fairness on the other end. And, of course, I'm sure there are elements of the exploitation that
52:02took place in the 1880s that is being repeated even today.
52:05For the Potters, there's news of the Costamongers campaign.
52:13Oh, I've seen these posters.
52:16What does that say?
52:17Two Costamongers and stall keepers.
52:21It has been a great victory.
52:22Montagu Williams, the justice of the peace,
52:25found no cause for the Vestris complaint of obstruction.
52:29Let's get the bars out.
52:34After a long battle, public support for their cause meant the Costamongers' society finally
52:40won back the right to sell on Bethnal Green's streets.
52:44This victory did show that Victorian poor did have power if they spoke not just one voice,
52:51but a mass of voices, very big deal from feeling so demoralised and oppressed.
53:03This must have been a glorious victory.
53:06Potters, trotters, back in business.
53:10It means the Potters can get back out and sell again.
53:13By working all night, the house have earned enough to pay their rent.
53:27How are we, Howard?
53:28I see the red book before I see Andy.
53:32How was it this week? Did you find it hard?
53:34It was hard. It's been hard this week.
53:35Hard the week this week. Really hard.
53:36We're trying to train up three unskilled guys in the workshop.
53:40It's a lot of common teeth.
53:42As a sweater's damn boss, you're glad you're doing better,
53:46but you don't like taking advantage of these people.
53:48See you later on. Bye, thank you.
53:53There's Mr and Mrs Bird. 30 pounds and 60 pence.
53:57With their regulars struggling, the birds have the slum tour to thank for making their rent.
54:03I've been tight again this week, to say the least, haven't I?
54:06The real hard things I've found mentally is that it just never seems to get any better.
54:11Come in.
54:13It's only me, Maria. How are you, darling? You all right?
54:16The weekly rent is £8.16.
54:19Maria's homegrown laundry business has earned enough to keep her in John's room.
54:23£1.17 from you.
54:25So I will let you get on with some work so you can make next week's rent money.
54:28All right. Okay. All right, darling, will you take care?
54:32How you doing, guys?
54:33Do you remember what your rent is?
54:34£13.26, Andy.
54:36Okay to do that today? Yeah.
54:38£13.25.
54:39And for the Potters, paying up is a real victory.
54:42Absolutely perfect.
54:43That's a relief.
54:45However, the pressure is back on.
54:47Once you know you've got your rent, you can sort of relax a little bit.
54:50But then when you hand it over, you know that.
54:52It starts all over again.
54:54But with the ban on street trading lifted, it's time for a celebration.
55:04And there was no better way than the Costa Munger's Derby.
55:12Traditionally, the Costas competed in basket-carrying races.
55:15Yes!
55:19With prizes for the fastest runner and the highest stack.
55:24Come on, Andy! Come on, Andy! Come on, Andy! Come on!
55:30Those closest here in a community that we built up very, very quickly,
55:33and, in fact, anything like it was in the Victorian era,
55:36then, actually, the slums themselves weren't necessarily a unhappy place.
55:39It was a difficult place to live, but there's a huge heart here.
55:42Oh, that's lovely. I'll have a bit more, Andy.
55:47At the end of a gruelling week,
55:49it's a chance for the residents to come together and share.
55:53All we've really had since we got here was bread, butter, cheese,
55:57the occasional hot meal and cabbage, a lot of cabbage.
56:02Never had a trotter in my life, and it isn't the best thing I've ever tasted,
56:05but, like, living in a slum, it's lovely.
56:08With some good company. Cheers!
56:10Jacket, potato and a trotter is the happiest I've been in two weeks.
56:15Proper food. It's not just, like, a quarter slice of bread.
56:20It's, like, a whole feast.
56:22The first one that we're going to award is to Heather.
56:26Pearl buttons had long been a feature of Costa Munga life.
56:29Well done, darling. Well done.
56:31Sewn onto their clothes, it signalled their selling talents
56:35and gave a sense of identity and pride.
56:38Does everyone agree to grab shit up on us?
56:39Yes!
56:40Yes!
56:41Costa Munga's, adorned in buttons,
56:43became known as the Costa Kings and Queens,
56:46the forerunners of the well-known pearly kings and queens
56:50the East End is famous for.
56:51There is a feeling of solidarity between us as a community
56:59and also the people that we're trying to represent felt solidarity.
57:04They rose up together, and I think that's wonderful
57:07that these people who had nothing were willing to risk it all
57:10just to make a better life for themselves and their families.
57:12Hope is everything, really.
57:15During those dark periods, I don't think there was much hope at all.
57:21But now it seems as though the sun has come out.
57:26There'll always be that feeling in the back of your mind
57:31that it could change so very quickly.
57:34But, um, while the sunshine and the rays are there,
57:38we've got to make the most of it.
57:39MUSIC PLAYS
57:46Next time, the 1890s.
57:49Victorian social science puts the East End poor on the map.
57:53One in three was living in poverty.
57:56And for the first time, he gave a human face to the poor.
58:00Ushering in a time of great change.
58:0263.
58:04If you do not work well, then you will be given the cane.
58:09But for most, life is still a struggle.
58:13A family in our position would never have been able
58:16to work their way out of the slum.
58:18MUSIC PLAYS
58:39Second time.
58:42Neverland game.
58:45First time, a bunu can disrupt.
58:46Cheering is either the phải of the strut or the opposite have been a wise lady.
58:49It could have been the OK of the inevitable.
58:51All of us come out of the miraculous creation,
58:53and now knowing that risk size should be done with the impact of some of our timers.
58:55All of us come out of the triumph of the treasure that we remember.
59:00extractiv 365
59:00ounding 他의를 review everything.
59:03A neural consistant of his encourage.
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