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 reaching the end of my journey
and I'll be travelling along the south coast
through the counties of East and West Sussex.
Bradshaw says,
"Railways may now be considered as accelerators of pleasure,
bringing the most favourite watering places along the coast
within the compass of a brief and agreeable journey."
As we might say today, trains were changing the work/life balance.
On this leg, I'll pick up the scent underground in Brighton,"
I have no idea that sewage had such a sweet tinkle to it.
...visit a palace that didn't amuse a queen...
"As the royal pair approached Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
How frightful!
...and pass the chequered flag in style.
Down the straight in the Revival, they're doing 180 miles an hour.
I can't believe it. I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
That was 70, come on.
My journey began in the cathedral city of Norwich.
I travelled south through East Anglia to Ipswich and Chelmsford.
Crossing the Thames at Tilbury I continued through Kent to Dover
and then headed inland to Tonbridge.
I'll return to the coast at Brighton
before ending my journey in another cathedral city.
Now I reach the seaside at Brighton,
and visit Bramber and Arundel,
before arriving at my final destination, Chichester.
My first stop will be what Bradshaw's calls "the Marine Metropolis".
And here's an interesting social comment:
"Merchants who formerly made Dulwich or Dalston
the boundaries of their suburban residences,
now have their mansions by the south coast,
and still get in less time, and by a less expensive conveyance,
to their counting houses in the city."
What's more, Brighton had a royal seal of approval.
The railway arrived here in 1841
and by the mid-1840s the journey time from London was just over an hour.
Brighton Station was soon bustling with day trippers and commuters.
My guidebook comments that,
"The Brighton terminus is an elegant structure,
fitted up in the most convenient manner." Hear, hear.
Originally called Brighthelmstone, as a fishing village
Brighton avoided the limelight until the late-18th century.
That changed after the Prince Regent, later King George IV,
first visited Brighton in 1783.
He began to spend time here.
As a man devoted to elegance and pleasure,
he decided in 1787 to create this whimsical pavilion.
The Brighton Pavilion, says my guidebook,
"rises with domes and minarets,
and is fretted with greater variety than taste,
erected for George IV, after a fanciful Oriental model...
You sense here the disdain that every generation feels
for the fashion of its predecessor.
I think I'll ask some of today's visitors what they think.
- Hello. - How are you doing?
I'm using a 19th-century guidebook
which says that the exterior of the building displays
"more variety than taste". What do you think of that?
I think taste is in the eye of the beholder, really.
I actually think it's really nice to look at, so I'd disagree with that.
I think the variety actually adds to the taste, really.
It makes it quite unique and different.
What do you think of the Pavilion here in Brighton?
I am Italian. We usually have good taste like French.
I think that mixing things is not very good taste.
I think the outside is beautiful but the inside is a bit eclectic.
It's just like a mish-mash of styles.
I'm going inside to find out more about this extraordinary building
from Alexandra Loske.
Alexandra, I think this is the most exotic,
not to say over-the-top building, that I have ever been in.
What made the Prince Regent, George IV, choose Brighton for his residence?
Well, he came down as a young man, the young Prince of Wales, in 1783,
really to get away from London.
He rented a farmhouse, a substantial house,
which was on this site, and later transformed it
into this exotic, Indian-looking building.
And of course the architect of that was the famous John Nash.
That's extraordinary because I associate John Nash
with the very symmetrical buildings of Regent's Park,
Buckingham Palace, and so on. This was his walk on the wild side?
It was, both for John Nash and for King George IV.
This was the place away from London
where you could let your imagination run wild.
I don't think this building could have been built in London.
Brighton suited George's louche lifestyle.
With a passion for fashion, the arts and good living,
he was a rebel against his strict upbringing.
He threw himself with enthusiasm into drinking, gambling and womanising.
Was he able to enjoy the building?
He did, he used it really for entertaining.
You can tell by the way the building looks and how it's laid out,
that it was really a party palace.
The extraordinary style, what were the inspirations?
The inspirations were India, any exotic country, mostly the Far East.
That was fashionable, so he wasn't alone in this.
It's a style called Orientalism or Chinoiserie
and it was hugely popular in the mid-18th century,
but nobody did it on this scale.
This was a fantasy vision of the East, as imagined by Europeans.
At the ceiling here we have, supposedly holding this gigantic chandelier,
a dragon. Of course, you associate China with dragons.
But if you look closely at the dragon, it's actually a Welsh dragon.
It's what the artist knew about dragons.
Very few people had solid knowledge about the Orient
and Chinese mythology and symbolism.
George IV didn't have long to enjoy his pleasure dome,
which was completed in 1823.
Perhaps his extravagant lifestyle caught up with him
and his health failed.
His last visit to Brighton was in 182'! and he died three years later.
In 1837, the Victorian era begins.
How did the young Queen take to this building?
Well, she comes here just a few months after her coronation.
She's still only 18 and she has mixed feelings and views on the building
but it's probably best to tell you more about this
- in her private apartments here. - Excellent.
George IV's palace by the sea
expressed one man's personal taste for Oriental splendour.
It was too flamboyant and too much associated with decadence
for Queen Victoria.
So we are in Queen Victoria's private apartments
on the upper floor of the Royal Pavilion.
- Did she like Brighton? - She tried to like it
but it had various problems.
The place was too small for her,
certainly not good for a growing number of children.
But it was mainly the lack of privacy here.
Did the railways contribute to this loss of privacy?
Of course, absolutely.
From 1841, when the line opens between London and Brighton,
many, many more people come to Brighton on day trips.
It's mostly Londoners and they can afford to now.
It's quick, you can come for a day or weekend. It's cheap.
And the place gets swamped with ordinary people
and, of course, Victoria does object to that.
Did the Queen herself use the train to come to Brighton?
She did at least once. On the way down,
she likes the comfort of the saloon she's travelling in.
On the return journey she says,
"Oh, it only took us an hour and six minutes."
"This is rather too quick, I think".
Yes, Queen Victoria did not like fast-moving trains.
But then came the final straw.
On her last visit here in 1845,
Victoria and Albert went for a walk incognito.
Word got around that the royal couple were on the pier.
The "Illustrated London News" reported the story.
"As the royal pair approached Castle Square,
the crowd pressed forward more closely
and some errant boys rudely peered beneath Her Majesty's bonnet."
- How frightful. - ls a bit.
And then Victoria writes a letter to somebody saying,
"The people in Brighton are terribly indiscreet
and it feels very much like a prison here."
She sells the entire estate here in Brighton and the buildings in 1850
to the town of Brighton.
After Queen Victoria abandoned Brighton
and sought privacy on the Isle of Wight,
the hoi polloi continued to delight in the pleasures of this seaside town.
This is my guidebook's description:
"Pleasure seekers, out for the day, and eager to be ubiquitous,
hurrying to and fro, through the market to the spa,
to the racecourse, the windmill,
the beach, the shops and the chain pier,
in as rapid succession as the most ingenious locomotion could devise."
Some of the attractions have changed but the nature of Brighton hasn't.
But my "Bradshaw's" reveals another layer to this town.
Here's a change of tone in my guidebook.
"A twang of saltiness greets the lip."
There is another Brighton burrowing beneath the royal palace
and my journey today will take me from the sublime to the slime.
The rapid expansion of towns such as Brighton
demanded wonders from Victorian engineers.
Some of the most impressive are hidden deep underground.
I'm descending into the sludgy Victorian bowels of the Earth.
To meet Stuart Slark to find out more.
Stuart, what a charming place to meet. Turn our stomachs a bit.
What was Brighton like before it had a sewerage system?
Very bad, very smelly, because all they used to do in the old days,
they used to drain it to the top of the beach.
At the beginning of the 19th century, tourists would come down to Brighton
- and find what? - A lot of messy stuff on the beach.
It was absolutely disgusting and smelly.
So what did the Victorians do about it?
They built these magnificent sewers that you're going to see today.
A wonderful piece of engineering from Sir John Hawkshaw.
Can we go and witness this glorious Victorian engineering?
- Of course you can, come with me. - Thank you.
Forty-four miles of sewers were constructed in 1865,
followed by this enormous intercepting sewer, completed in 1874,
which took the wastewater out of the town altogether.
Stuart, that was a very slippery and slithery tunnel
but now we come into this magnificent vault.
I mean, the engineering here! The scale of it! Fantastic!
We are now 40 foot underground.
We're right by the side of the steam fountain in Brighton.
You've got the sewer running down the side.
Also, we have got two big sewers coming down into this,
that when they have heavy rain it will overflow into where we're standing
and then go down these two barrels behind us towards the sea.
Wait a minute. So we're standing here.
What happens if that overflows while we're standing here?
We'll have the ride of our life down those tunnels.
It'd be better than your train journeys.
Has this been over-engineered?
For some unknown reason, they really went to town on this.
They over-engineered it.
And even to this day it still copes
with the present climate of the heavy rains that we're getting now.
So I understand this has been built to last for 500 years.
How does it actually work? I don't see any motors.
I don't see where there would have been a steam engine.
It's all gravity fed, it's normally falling down one foot per mile
for seven and a quarter miles to Portobello.
That pleasant sound of tinkling water
is actually the sound of Brighton's sewerage going past, is it?
That is correct, yes. Everything else, as well.
I had no idea that sewage had such a sweet tinkle to it.
Brighton needs its sewers, as society needs politicians.
Now it's time for me to return to Brighton Station
to (rave! on to my next stop.
My overnight rest will be in Bramber. Bradshaw's tells me that it's
"a place of no particular note beyond the remains of a castle,
which dates from about the time of the conquest".
Still, shortly after this guidebook was written,
tourists were flocking in by train.
Bramber Station dosed in 1966 as a result of the Beeching Axe.
So I'm disembarking at nearby Shoreham
and travelling up to what remains of Bramber's Norman castle
to meet museum curator Chris Tod.
Hi, Michael, good to see you.
What brought the tourists in their large numbers?
There was the castle.
And subsequent to Bradshaw's issue of his publication
there was a museum of taxidermy known as Potter's Museum.
Taxidermy was popular with Victorians, but why would it merit a museum?
He had a twist on it. He created tableaux telling stories
with numerous different animals
mimicking either a poem in the case of Who Killed Cock Robin
or a rabbit's schoolroom or a kitten's croquet party.
Some of which had mechanical bits which you could activate.
Tell me what Bramber was like when waves of tourists were descending upon it.
The tourists came by train.
There was a line running from Shoreham to Horsham
which stopped at Bramber
and they constructed an extra-long platform at Bramber,
so that they could take an extra couple of coaches.
Well, I'm staying tonight at the castle, is that one of your historic inns?
It is, its history goes back, as far as we know, to Tudor times.
But in the mid-19th century, when its name was The White Lion,
Walter Potter's father, James Potter, ran it
and Walter Potter was a servant at the inn.
I will "potter" off. Very good.
- Thank you. - Nice seeing you.
Potter's museum of taxidermy has long since closed,
but the Castle Hotel is just the place for a generously-stuffed pillow.
Good evening.
It's the final day of my journey and Fm heading back to Shoreham Station.
My first stop today will be Arundel.
I'm told that "it's situated on the declivity of a steep hill".
"At the foot runs the River Arun, over which is built a handsome stone bridge."
"The appearance of the town with its stately castle
and winding river is singularly beautiful."
As I near the end of my journey, my eyes are going to feast.
Arundel can thank the Duke of Norfolk for its railway station.
The Howards' impressive castle overlooking the Arun river
was began in 1068
and partially destroyed during the English Civil War.
The family rebuilt in the 19th century in this Victorian Gothic style.
I'm starting my tour in the library with my guide Brenda Thompson.
What a beautiful library, Brenda.
The restorations that my Bradshaw's are referring to,
those before, say, 1864,
these were various dukes restoring, in inverted commas, to a Gothic style?
Yes, yes. Starting probably with our 11th Duke,
he was the man who built this beautiful library.
Took about 13 years to complete.
- How many books does it have? - We have 10,000 books in here.
I'm very interested in the doings of Queen Victoria.
Did she get to visit the castle?
Yes, she did, in 1846 with Prince Albert.
They were given two years' notice that she was coming
so they had time to prepare. And so this room in particular,
all the red furnishing was put in for her visit.
They had some furniture made for the state bedroom.
They also put some little stoves along the picture gallery
because they thought she might get a bit chilly.
Did the Queen enjoy her visit?
Yes, I believe so because we do have copies of her diaries.
A couple of things she thought were a little boring.
She thought her rooms were very comfortable, but rather small.
It's wonderful to have the frankness
- of Queen Victoria's diaries. - Yes.
There was a huge restoration, wasn't there?
Duke Henry decided to continue the restoration work,
enlarged the castle and he wanted it all in this Gothic style
so it had this flow throughout.
This work was made far easier by the proximity of the railways,
allowing building materials to be transported from the nearby station.
The Duke did some very progressive renovations here,
including a steam pumped water supply,
central heating, a hydraulic lift and 1,000 electric light bulbs.
A supporter of the railways,
the Duke was happy for the line to cross his land
as long as the timetable met his convenience.
All the trains stopped here in case he wanted to go to London.
You can divide the dukes of the 19th century into two sorts.
Those who were opposed to railways and those in favour.
But all liked the train to stop where they wanted.
Exactly.
I know the train won't wait for me so I must be at the station
in time to catch the last train of this journey.
I'm now approaching my last stop, Chichester,
which Bradshaw's tells me "is an old town on the square Roman plan".
"It's a clean and neatly built cathedral city."
So my journey that began in Norwich has taken me from one cathedral to another.
Well, I've made a long journey to see this wonder
and I'm not disappointed. It has a slender refinement to it.
Bradshaw's tells me that it was built in the 12th century.
It's 377 feet long, including the Lady Chapel here.
"Norman and Early English work prevail."
"The fine eight-sided spire is 300 feet high."
In fact, the spire collapsed dramatically in 1861,
was rebuilt by the architect Gilbert Scott
with a donation from Queen Victoria.
An event in the British social calendar
draws thousands of visitors every summer.
To find out more, Fm heading up into the South Downs
to a ducal estate with long-standing passions
Goodwood.
It ail started with the first Duke of Richmond's passion for hunting.
These splendid kennels for foxhounds were built by the third Duke.
I'm meeting Hilary Sloan to find out more.
- Hello, Hilary! - Hello, Michael.
Bradshaw's tells me about horseracing here in July at Goodwood.
But we're meeting by some kennels.
How do we move from foxhunting to horseracing?
Well, the third Duke was passionate about horses.
He'd been exercising his own horses on the sands down at Itchener
close by since 1783.
In 1801 he was asked if the Sussex militia
could exercise their horses up on the harroway,
which is where the horseracing still takes place today.
This was such a great success, this private meeting,
1802 he established the first public meeting and the rest really is history.
For the best outlook on the racecourse,
Hilary takes me up to a viewpoint known as the Trundle.
A glorious view of Glorious Goodwood.
Who would have had this view in the 19th century?
It was both sides of society.
Royalty, aristocracy and the locals and even Londoners and people from Brighton.
Now if you were up here, viewing the races for nothing,
you were not only looking down on horseracing,
you were looking down on the British establishment, weren't you?
Most definitely and this was the place, the favourite playground
for the Prince of Wales who later became Edward VII.
What did Queen Victoria think of his racing passion?
Ah, well, I get the feeling she was not amused.
Horseracing did not interest her at all
and, of course, she felt that her son, often called Bertie,
was playing around a little too much.
How did the hoi polloi on the Trundle and the establishment down there
make their way to the race course? I hope they came by train.
Let's talk about royalty first. The Prince of Wales,
he would arrive by train, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.
But he wouldn't come into Chichester. He would stop at a halt called Drayton
about two miles to the east of Chichester.
The etiquette would be that the Duke of Richmond
would arrange for a carriage to go down to collect him.
He even went to the trouble of watering the road between Goodwood and Drayton
to make sure there'd be no dust in the way.
The plebeian hordes would trudge up to the Trundle from the station
and gaze upon the grandees from this vantage point.
I'm getting the impression that Goodwood is always evolving.
It started with foxhunting, then there was horseracing.
Why does it keep changing?
This is really something of the different passions of our various dukes
and by the time of the 20th century
our ninth Duke of Richmond was mad keen on everything to do with motor racing,
and that was the start of the motor passions here at Goodwood.
So these days the Goodwood estate also draws the crowds
for a different type of horse power.
Chris Taylor is going to fill me in.
- How's it going? Hello. - It's going very well.
I've been thinking about the horseracing here,
but now you have a motor circuit, too. How did Goodwood make the transition?
The airfield was set up to be a fighter base
during the Second World War. Afterwards, when all the planes had gone,
the Duke of Richmond was driving round here with a friend
and the friend said, "I say, old chap,
this place would make a jolly fine motor circuit, don't you know?"
The first meeting, that was in 1948 here,
was the first race meeting after the war in all of the UK.
And now you have these great gatherings, don't you?
You're talking about the Goodwood Revival,
which is the race meeting which has been set up by the Earl of March
to re-create the races that took place between the '50s and '60s.
So it's the same cars, in some cases with the same drivers,
and everybody dresses up in period gear.
All the cars that are on site are pre-'66.
If you were to parachute in here during the meeting
you'd think you'd fallen in another world.
I have actually attended. I came as a teddy boy.
- I'd like to have seen that. - I had winklepicker shoes
and I had sideburns painted on with cork, of course, and masses of attitude!
- And did you feel that you fitted in? - Yeah, it was a great day out.
What is this lovely machine?
This is your original cops and robbers car.
It's a Mark 2 Jaguar, 3.8 litre. The baddies bought them
and then the police had to buy them to keep up with them.
In those days, it must have seemed like an absolute rocket ship.
Do you mind if I take it for a spin? Put your seatbelt on.
Just put Bradshaw in the back.
Right, let's go. You're not going to scare me, are you?
Fasten your seatbelt.
Chris gives me an accelerated course to get me up to speed.
This is the main straight, or the pit straight.
The first corner we come to is a right-hander.
So the thing about driving on a race circuit is always be looking ahead.
First corner is a right-hander, ease over to the left.
Keep your hands at the... That's it, perfect.
- Sign there saying "brake". - Tiny bit of brake.
Now back on the power. That balances the car.
You're driving through the corner, rather than rolling through the corner.
The car will feel much more stable.
Down this straight in the Revival, they're doing 180 miles an hour.
I can't believe it. I'm just over 60 now and enjoying it.
Go on, that was 70, come on.
And what do you think Bertie, the man who became Edward VII,
what would he have thought of this? He was a good racy fellow, wasn't he?
He would have absolutely loved it
and it's a shame you can't bring those guys back and say,
"Hey, have a look at this. How much fun is this?"
"Your horses are fine, but isn't this fun, too?"
Superb. Though I remain more of a rail anorak than a petrol head.
On this journey from Norwich to Chichester
I've steered clear of the factories and chimney stacks of Bradshaw's Britain,
focusing instead on country pursuits and places of pleasure.
But the railways changed everything everywhere,
making people physically and socially mobile.
Monarchs and commoners alike travelled by train
and here at Goodwood the masses could look down upon the royals
as they enjoyed the sport of kings.