In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
His name was George Bradshaw,
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to go, what to see and where to stay,
and now, 110 years later,
I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures across the United Kingdom
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
I'm now halfway through a journey that began in Norwich
and will end in Chichester.
Today, I'll be running along the Essex bank of the Thames
before crossing the river into the so-called Garden of England, Kent.
My journey began in a cathedral city in Norfolk.
I travelled south through East Anglia to Ipswich and Chelmsford.
Now I'll cross the Thames at Tilbury and continue through Kent to Dover.
After heading inland to Tonbridge, I'll return to the coast at Brighton,
before ending my journey in another cathedral city,
this time in West Sussex.
On this leg, I'll start in Ilford in Essex
before travelling to Tilbury on the Thames.
After crossing by ferry to Gravesend,
I'll continue into Kent and end in historic Rochester.
Today, I'll try my hand
at lowering a massive container onto a freight train...
That bell means Michael Portillo is at the controls. Stand aside.
...I'll discover the work of a renowned Victorian philanthropist...
Each of the images has a before and after photograph.
...and I'll ask myself, “Who the Dickens are these characters?"
No doubt about you. You've got the iron around your leg and a rag on your head.
You're the convict, Magwitch, from Great Expectations.
My first stop will be Ilford.
Bradshaw's tells me about Sir Charles Montague,
"a 17th-century member of parliament who's buried in St Margaret's Church".
But had the book been published any later,
it would surely have mentioned another eminent citizen,
Dr Thomas John Barnardo.
By the late-Nth century,
the Industrial Revolution had made Britain wealthy.
But there was a gulf between rich and poor,
which troubled the conscience of some Victorians.
A significant number of those who'd made fortunes became philanthropists.
One of the most celebrated left his mark
here in Barkingside just outside Ilford,
and I'm meeting Diana Tickell from Barnardo's
amongst this unusual group of cottages.
- Welcome to Barnardo's Barkingside. - Thank you very much.
So, who was Dr Barnardo?
Well, Thomas Barnardo came over from Dublin in 1866.
He was actually a very Christian man,
was on a missionary expedition to plan to go to the Far East.
But when he arrived in London, he visited the East End,
and was so appalled by the conditions that he found,
particularly for the children, that it changed his whole life course
and he decided to stay and create what is now Barnardo's the organisation.
The London that Thomas Barnardo encountered in 1866,
particularly in the East End, presented harrowing sights.
Overcrowded slums, unemployment and disease were rife.
Gangs of destitute children roamed the streets scrabbling to survive.
What's Barnardo's attitude to the poor?
Well, he is a very philanthropic man,
and believes that the children that he finds
really should have a better chance.
He believes that they are not waifs and strays that should just be left to die.
He wants to transform their lives and give them a future.
In 1867, just a year after arriving in London,
Thomas Barnardo setup a ragged school in the East End,
where destitute boys could get a basic education.
What's the connection between Barnardo
and this rather idyllic housing development?
Well, this lovely site here is the actual homes for girls.
Victorian morals decreed that it wasn't proper for Barnardo as a bachelor
to open a home for girls.
But in 1876, three years after he married,
he converted a lodge received as a wedding present
into this charming group of 12 cottages.
His aim was to provide family homes for penniless girls
who were particularly vulnerable on the streets of the East End.
I mean, it seems beautiful even now.
It must have been revolutionary in its day.
Absolutely. To create an environment like this
so far away from the Victorian East End slums was really quite different.
How did he get the money that he required?
Well, he wasn't a rich man so he had to set about fundraising.
He made everybody understand that they were responsible as well
for the plight of children in Victorian Britain.
And he was very successful.
By 1905, Barnardo's charity was looking after 8,500 children in 96 homes.
He raised the money using some rather modern marketing techniques.
So, Michael, what we have here is one of the first volumes ever
of the register for boys from Dr Barnardo's homes.
- Just after my Bradshaw's. - Yes, so right on time.
Here we have some lovely images of some of the children.
Each of the images has a before and after photograph
where you record how the boy arrived,
and how they developed once they had grown and been supported by Barnardo.
We have a story of the child and the reason for their admission.
We also often have the child's own statement, which is quite unique.
What were these photos for?
These photographs originated for fundraising purposes.
He took the photographs for the records, but also so that he could fundraise,
and in particular was able to show Victorian Britain
the difference that he could make.
Barnardo understood the power of these pictures.
Using them to advertise and raise funds put him ahead of his time.
Over the decades, some of the children in Barnardo's homes
said that they weren't very well treated. What led to that, do you think?
I think often in those days, children were sort of seen and not heard.
We now know that some children didn't have the best of upbringings,
and we regret that when that's happened,
but actually what's happened today is off the back of those stories
that children's lives are now supported in a different way,
and children's voices are really, really heard.
And I think the majority of children had a very good upbringing
and have gone on to have very successful lives.
Barnardo's devotion to the wellbeing of children
can be seen in this unusual church at Barkingside.
This is the first church ever built for children,
and we think it's the only one in the country still.
For example, we have the low level bell pulls here for children.
- I am a child at heart. - Absolutely.
Religion was important to Dr Barnardo.
The organisation clearly has Christian roots,
and today we embrace those roots
and they are enhanced by those of many other faiths.
When did Dr Barnardo die?
Well, Dr Barnardo died in 1905. He had become a very popular man,
particularly amongst the people of the East End
for all the effort that he had made for the children in particular,
and when he had his funeral procession,
which went from Stepney to Liverpool Street,
the streets were thronged with people wanting to well wish him on his way.
His coffin then went from Liverpool Street
to Barkingside Station on the railway.
So like Queen Victoria just before him, his last journey was by train.
Absolutely.
This site is still part of the Barnardo's estate,
and his organisation has survived
to become one of the biggest children's charities in the country.
I'm continuing my journey from nearby Upminster Station.
I'll now be travelling on the London, Tilbury and Southend line.
It wasn't built by Brunel or by George Stephenson or by Robert Stephenson,
but by Thomas Brassey,
the least well remembered of Britain's railway engineers.
But by 1847, he was responsible
for one in three miles of the British railway system,
and by the time of his death in 1870,
for one mile in 20 of the world's railways.
My next stop will be Tilbury.
Bradshaw's reminds us that it was there,
when Britain was threatened by the Spanish Armada,
that Queen Elizabeth, "by a spirited harangue,
inspired her army with dauntless courage".
That's when she said, "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman,
but I have the heart and stomach of a king. And a king of England, too!"
Even in Bradshaw's time, a sturdy fort discouraged potential invaders
from venturing further up the River Thames towards the capital.
In 1854, the railway arrived, with enormous consequences for the town.
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
opened a station at Tilbury Riverside
to profit from the passenger steamer services across the Thames
from Kent and beyond.
Today, the station is closed,
but Jonathan Catton has kindly agreed to explain how it transformed Tilbury
into one of the country's most important ports.
- Hello, Jonathan. - Welcome to Tilbury Riverside Station.
As mentioned in Bradshaw's.
It says, "Steamers ply between the station and the pier at Gravesend
at the departure and arrival of every train." So that was happening from here.
Well, we're standing on top of it,
but it was superseded in the 1930s with the new railway terminus.
And lots of railway heritage. The booking office here.
Over four million tickets sold in 1947.
How on earth could it have been so many?
Because there were so many stevedores and dockers,
and of course, all the people arriving on boats
were all coming in and out, so it was very vibrant.
With the empire at its peak and manufacturing booming,
by the 1880s, the London Docks were increasingly overcrowded,
so Tilbury provided an alternative.
Now, Bradshaw's mentions the fort alright,
but it doesn't really mention the port.
How was it that the port came to exist?
It was only in 1882 that the East and West India Dock Company
decided to build a new downstream dock.
And they were looking
and saw that there was a fantastic railway line already here,
and so on the back of that, the docks were built and opened in 1886.
So the railways made it all happen.
They were the catalyst for the whole development.
- And how's the port doing now? - Oh, doing very well,
and a very vast, diverse set of services which we ought to go and have a look at.
Today, Tilbury Docks is the United Kingdom's third largest container port.
About 3,000 cargo ships a year use the port,
handling over 12.5 million tons of cargo.
Well, it's an amazingly busy port today.
What were they doing here in Victorian times?
When the dock first opened, of course it was a bit sluggish,
but there were general cargos coming in.
And for instance, strangely, sausage skin was one,
but jute and timber products were also coming in.
One of the oddities was the arrival of zoos.
Whole zoos had been packed up,
well, the London Zoo indeed, and been brought here,
so there were strange pictures I've seen of elephants coming off on cranes,
and also quite wild animals like leopards and lions.
How is it that Tilbury has done so well?
Well, it has maintained the railway and the road link,
and therefore it is efficient.
And by comparison with the old Port of London?
Doesn't exist, does it?
All these containers, they're using trains?
Absolutely. You see all around us,
there's something like 50 miles of rail line within the docks originally,
and obviously freight liner services are still taking out 80% of containers
around Great Britain, and it's absolutely amazing.
Well, that I have to look at.
These immensely powerful cranes whisk the containers along
as though they were weightless.
Looks like there's nothing to it. I'll give it a try.
- Hello, Ron! - Hello, Michael. Come on up, sir.
We're going to pick that container up there
and put this in what we call a pocket wagon.
Oh, yes, look at that lovely hole waiting for our container.
That bell means Michael Portillo is at the controls. Stand aside.
That's it, forwards. Down you go.
Right, one notch and it is beginning to lower.
That's about right.
Now we're well over the target. We're going to drop it into that hole.
- Job done. - Thank you very much indeed.
One container down. I think I'll leave the rest to Ron.
- Are you driving the train? - I am indeed.
- Where's it headed for? - It's going out to Leeds.
Well, a tip for you, I loaded the first wagon there...
- Oh, OK. - So careful on the bends.
- I'll keep my eye on that one then. - Thank you.
It's time for me to continue my journey.
I'm heading now to Kent, so I need to cross the Thames.
Bradshaw's tells me that, "Steamers ply between this station
and the pier at Gravesend at the departure and arrival of every train."
Sadly, there are no more trains, but the ferry still runs.
The ferry is still used by dock workers,
and provides the most easterly crossing of the River Thames.
Gravesend, says my guide, is "a capital starting point
for a series of excursions throughout the finest parts of Kent."
None should neglect Cobham, where, in the old wood and hall,
a day's enjoyment can be most fully ensured."
Well, it should therefore be good enough for what remains of the evening.
Cobham Hall was the seat of an old Kentish aristocratic family,
the Darnleys.
"Bradshaw's" mentions a family mausoleum
grandly situated on Williams Hill in the grounds of the estate.
David Standen is going to show me around.
Bradshaw's says that this is "a spacious mausoleum
erected in 1183 by Lord Darnley, but never was consecrated".
What's the story there?
There are a number of stories as to why it wasn't consecrated,
ranging from the Bishop running into a storm
crossing the channel the day before he was due to consecrate it,
but the most likely reason, the reason that it is sitting here empty today,
is probably an argument between the Earl and the Archbishop about funding,
and particularly the amount of money
that the Darnley family put into the church.
The Third Earl of Darnley ordered the mausoleum to be built
after his family ran out of burial space in Westminster Abbey.
Completed in 1786, the design was inspired by the classical architecture
that the Earl had admired on his grand tour of Italy as a young man.
It must have been considered extraordinary, architecturally speaking.
Bradshaw's devotes a lot of space to it.
It tells me that it's built of Portland stone, in an octagonal form,
and that it cost £9,000.
An incredible piece of architecture of the time.
We're very lucky then that it's survived to the present day.
Quite a miracle that it's survived to the current day.
It has gone through some very turbulent times,
particularly during the '70s and '80s.
This crypt itself was filled with car tyres on bonfire night,
petrol poured on it and set light to,
which caused the collapse of the roof that's above us now.
And so how is it that it's been restored to its present very good condition?
The catalyst was the impact of the high-speed rail link
on the edge of the historic park.
The rail company agreed to put forward £750,000 in compensation,
and that acted as a seed funding for the restoration of the park
There's no limit to what the railways can achieve.
Absolutely.
It's the end of the day,
and I'm fortunate to be staying the night at Cobham Hall.
Today, I'm back in Gravesend
pursuing a recommendation from my trusty "Bradshaw's".
The guidebook tells me that,
"The terrace gardens on each side of the entrance to Gravesend pier
are really very creditably and tastefully laid out."
Unfortunately, they haven't survived,
but thanks to a military hero who lived in Gravesend,
there's another delightful open space.
- How are you? - Very well, thank you.
- Good. Can I join you for a moment? - Yes, you can.
- Who's this? - Lily.
Hello, Lily. Lily, do you walk sometimes in the Gordon Gardens?
Oh, yes. Every morning we're down here.
I wanted to ask you whether you knew who General Gordon was?
Yes.
He was the chap that led the British army at Khartoum.
The natives there took a little bit of a dislike to him,
and pulled him out and, bump, that was it.
General Gordon was one of Queen Victoria's favourite army officers.
Born in Woolwich, the son of an artillery officer,
he distinguished himself in the Crimea,
and in 1860 was posted to China to fight in the so-called Opium Wars.
Upon his return to Britain, he had become a popular figure,
and was posted here to Gravesend.
I'm meeting Tony Larkin in gardens named after Gordon to find out more.
Now, Gordon of Khartoum, I think of. He died in the Sudan.
What's he got to do with Gravesend?
He was in Gravesend for six years.
It was the longest posting he's ever had in one place.
- What was he doing here? - Redevelopment of the forts.
They were falling to pieces, needed a bit to be doing.
Was he already quite well known?
Probably not in Gravesend, but around the nation as Chinese Gordon, yes.
Why was he called Chinese Gordon?
Because of the squashing of the Taiping Rebellion.
In May 1862, Gordon's corps of engineers
had been assigned to strengthen the defence of Shanghai.
This free port, so valuable to British trade,
was threatened by an uprising, the Taiping Rebellion,
which had raged for 12 years.
During 18 months, troops under Gordon's command
helped to suppress the insurrection, and to keep the port open.
This man was so used to warfare, to action,
and then he's sent to, forgive me, Gravesend.
Doesn't he get a bit bored here?
Yes, because at the end of the day, when you've been in action
for something like seven years from one place to another,
fighting and fighting and fighting,
and suddenly come to a place like Gravesend.
Did he warm to Gravesend eventually?
Oh, yes. I think he really genuinely loved the place.
Probably not the town itself, but its people.
And it seems that the feeling was mutual.
Tony has led me to an impressive statue commemorating General Gordon.
Why were the people of Gravesend so keen to remember Gordon?
- What had he done for them? - It's the good works really.
Gordon had spent six years here looking after the poor and needy,
and of the parish really.
General Gordon became the chairman of the local ragged school
where he insisted on a far-sighted new code of practice.
He made laws that any child that came to this school,
whatever their religion or creed, they were fed with food.
Because there were still these demarcation lines about faiths.
And Gordon said, "You will feed any child
or any person that comes to this place. You will give them soup and bread."
And that became known as the Gordon Law.
It's been estimated that he gave away 90% of his army pay of £3,000 a year
to the poor of Gravesend,
and kept up his generosity in the years after he left.
In 1884, Gordon was sent to the Sudan
to help the Egyptians deal with a rebellion.
He died at the Siege of Khartoum.
- What led to Gordon's death? - Basically, he was trapped.
On a personal level, he could have got out I believe,
but he would not betray his people.
He was the father, he was their governor, he was their boss,
and basically, he decided that he would stay with them
because it would look morally bad for him to run away.
Gordon was a national hero,
and news of his death led to an outpouring of grief.
Nowhere more than at Gravesend.
From here, I'm embarking on a railway journey across Kent,
and it sounds as if I'm in for a treat.
My guidebook enthuses about Kent.
"From the diversity of its surface, the noble rivers by which it is watered,
the richness and variety of its inland scenery,
and the more sublime beauties of its sea coast,
this county ranks amongst the most interesting portions of our island."
According to Bradshaw's, this is not so much the Garden of England
as the Garden of Eden.
I'll be getting out at Rochester,
which Bradshaw's reminds me was "a British town before the Roman invasion".
"An amphitheatre of hills encircles the beautiful landscape."
"The Medway serpentines round the castle and cathedral,
to render a complete picturesque panorama."
I have great expectations.
I'm told there's a tale or two of this city.
You can barely turn or twist without spotting a reference
to a truly great author...
"This bleak place, overgrown with nettles..."
...Charles Dickens.
"And that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish,
and also Georgiana, wife of the above, were dead and buried."
- Well read! - Thank you.
You must be very keen Dickensians to get dressed up like this.
Now, no doubt who you are,
because you've got the iron around your leg and the rag around your head.
- And my pork pie. - And you've got a pork pie.
You're the convict, Magwitch, from Great Expectations.
Why is Dickens so great in your view?
I think it was just the characters he had. Such marvellous characters.
This is why I like doing Magwitch,
but also you have Fagin and Miss Havisham,
- and there's just so many characters. - He was an artist.
He painted these stories so well for us
and gave us such great descriptive language,
and you're drawn into it straight away.
Charles Dickens grew up near Rochester,
falling in love with a house at Gad's Hill Place when he was a boy.
He never forgot it, and came back to live there in his mid-forties.
With his photographic memory,
he could pepper his works with descriptions of people and places
drawn from the Rochester of his childhood.
Steve Martin is giving me a tour of this Dickensian city.
Does Rochester make its way into the novels?
All the way through his major works,
he uses the buildings that he knew from his youth.
Behind us you've got the lovely clock,
which when he was a small boy, he was frightened of.
In later life he wrote,
"Why on earth was he frightened of such a thing as that?"
Another major feature along the high street here
is Rochester Cathedral and the castle,
and the town of Rochester in Edwin Drood was called Cloisterham,
and the centre of the story is based in Rochester Cathedral.
How did he feel about railways?
Wherever he went, he went by railway, and even when he was in America.
But that all changed when he was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash.
The Folkestone to London boat train derailed on a viaduct
in Staplehurst in Kent in June, 1865.
Dickens was in a first-class compartment
and narrowly escaped with his life.
Charles Dickens was seen to wander around the scene
giving people brandy and water from his top hat.
So did he not use the railways again?
Reluctantly he did use the railways,
but it did change his opinions of it and he was very reluctant to use them.
Tucked away off the high street
is another gem of Rochester's Dickensian heritage,
which was moved here from its original site in Gad's Hill.
This, of course, is Charles Dickens's writing chalet.
On Christmas Eve in 1864,
Charles Fechter, the actor friend of Charles Dickens,
said he had a Christmas present waiting for him at Higham Station,
but he'd have to collect it because it was heavy.
When they eventually went down there,
there was 56 packing cases containing 94 pieces,
the early flat-pack, and it was this Swiss chalet.
The story goes he used all his guests and his staff to go down and collect it
and spend the Christmas festivities trying to put it together.
What use did Charles Dickens make of his Swiss chalet?
He furnished the upper floor as a study,
and did some of his most famous and most serious work in there.
What do you think was Dickens's contribution to Victorian society?
Charles Dickens was one of the most, or the best, social reformers of his time.
He was asked to stand for parliament a couple of times,
but he turned it down saying to the effect of
he can do more by writing one book than he could for a lifetime in parliament.
Charles Dickens was laid to rest in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey
after his death in June, 1870.
His wish to be buried in a simple grave at Rochester Cathedral was ignored.
General Gordon of Khartoum fought a battle against poverty in Gravesend.
Dr Barnardo, with evangelical zeal,
created a national institution for the relief of destitute children.
Charles Dickens was perhaps the greatest Victorian social reformer of all.
His novels revealed the horrors of the slums and the workhouses,
and he spread the word on speaking tours making use of the new railways.
Next time, I'll deliver beer with old-fashioned directness...
Anyone in need of a drink?
...learn about some old balls...
Now, that is the oldest cricket ball known to exist anywhere in the world.
It was used at a match at Lord's in 1820.
...and ruffle some feathers in Dorking.
I quite like a wash and blow-dry myself, so we're birds of a feather.