Historian's Guided Tour of Victorian London

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:07]It's about 8:30 a.m. here in West London, and we're here because we've set ourselves a challenge to explore Victorian London in one day. We're going to take you on a tour of the best bits of Victorian history that you can still see in the city today. Now, we've got a lot to get through and we've got to get it done before our final stop, which is an absolute iconic London landmark. So, we better get our headphones on then.

[00:00:34]>> That was so cool.

[00:00:36]>> So cool and very loud.

[00:00:46]>> So, what was the Victorian era? Well, it's a period of British history when Queen Victoria was on the throne. So, that's from 1837 to 1901. It's also a time when Britain was completely transformed and so was London. So, where better place to start our tour of Victorian London than the place where Victoria became queen, Kensington Palace.

[00:01:08]It was here at Kensington that Alexandria Victoria was born on the 24th of May 1819.

[00:01:15]She had a sheltered childhood and it's said that as a young princess, she could be spotted riding her pet donkey around the gardens here.

[00:01:23]On the 20th of June 1837, she woke up in the palace to the news that her uncle, King William IV, had died with no heirs to his name.

[00:01:34]That meant that Victoria was now the reigning monarch at just 18 years old.

[00:01:40]Just weeks after becoming queen, Victoria left Kensington Palace and moved into Buckingham Palace, never to return to her childhood home. She was soon joined there by her husband and first cousin, Prince Albert.

[00:01:55]Queen Victoria and Prince Albert married in 1840. And if Victoria's diaries are anything to go by, they were really into each other. However, after 21 years of marriage, Albert was struck down with what was believed to be typhoid and died.

[00:02:14]So, Queen Victoria is often characterized as this sort of miserable old woman, which is only partly true, utterly heartbroken after Albert's death. She spent the next four decades in mourning. She also set about making sure that nobody forgot her late husband's name. She had statues and buildings and all sorts dedicated to him, including this, the Prince Albert Memorial. Subtle, isn't it?

[00:02:41]Designed by the preeminent Victorian architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, this Gothic revival masterpiece served as a grand celebration of Prince Albert's legacy and the sweeping influence of the British Empire. At its heart, Albert sits surrounded by representations of the four continents, Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. The monument's intricate details highlight Albert's passion for the arts and sciences and most notably his triumph with the great exhibition of 1851.

[00:03:12]This event showcased industrial and scientific innovations from across the empire and allegedly inspired the phrase spend a penny at its public toilets.

[00:03:23]The profits from this hugely successful event were used to transform an area of London known as South Kensington. This mainly involved building a load of museums which still stand today, including the Natural History Museum and the Victorian Albert Museum.

[00:03:41]The area was even coined Albatopoulos after Prince Albert, credited with making all of this happen. The profits were also used to create the Royal Albert Hall. This magnificent concert hall was opened in 1872 and named after Prince Albert after he died.

[00:04:04]Victorian London was all about modernization. But this didn't always mean building theaters and museums.

[00:04:10]Another form of technology was also reshaping the capital.

[00:04:18]This is Paddington Station. The being most closely associated with the station now is a small fictional bear from deepest, darkest Peru. One person who would probably be a bit miffed about that is the guy who actually designed the building, Ismbar Kingdom Brunell.

[00:04:37]The famous civil engineer designed this impressive station which opened in 1854.

[00:04:42]The enormous vated roof of wrought iron and glass was actually inspired by Crystal Palace, which was the huge glass structure that held the great exhibition.

[00:04:52]Victorian Britain was mad about railways. The first passenger train set off in 1825, and by the 1850s, there were thousands of miles of tracks all across the country. Here in London, train travel completely transformed the capital. Roads, buildings, and often London slums were ripped up to make way for train tracks.

[00:05:17]Underground, engineers dug relentlessly to create the world's first subterranean railway network, the London Underground, known today simply as the tube. The first line opened in 1863 with the Metropolitan Railway running between Paddington and Farington. This new network would soon expand to connect all corners of the capital.

[00:05:48]London's population absolutely rocketed in the 19th century. It went from about 1 million people in 1801 to almost 7 million a century later. Now, that's a huge increase in people in one place.

[00:06:01]And when you have a lot of people, you also have a lot of poo.

[00:06:10]Sewage was a real problem for Victorian London. Human filth just ran down the streets and the city's rivers became open sewers. All of this filth then ran down into the temps which for Londoners was a source of water for washing and drinking.

[00:06:28]The problem peaked during the great stink of 1858.

[00:06:32]London was experiencing a particularly hot summer which essentially baked the sewage in the tempames and produced an almighty stench. It smelt so bad that Parliament considered leaving the houses of Parliament and moving their business elsewhere. Not only did it stink, but waterbornne diseases like cholera swept through the city.

[00:06:54]In comes this guy, civil engineer Sir Joseph Basiljette, with an amazing new idea. A modern sewer system. His fancy Brickline tunnels took human waste underground and sent it far downstream via these pumping stations that were surprisingly beautiful. To house some of his mighty new sewers, he also designed large embankments along the tempames like the one I'm standing on. This is Victoria embankment.

[00:07:19]This memorial was installed in 1890 to celebrate the man who not only had a very strong tach game, but helped clean up the temps, get rid of the stink, and help reduce people's chances of catching cholera simply from taking a bath.

[00:07:32]Joseph Basiljette was a pretty big deal during the Victorian era. But there's another man who's still a household name today.

[00:07:45]Charles Dickens is one of the most famous authors of all time and he lived here in this very street in the 1830s with his young family. It's amazing to think that it was within these walls here that he came up with some of history's greatest novels and stories including Oliver Twist. This is the man who has shaped our entire understanding of Victorian London.

[00:08:14]As a journalist, Dickens often used his articles and stories to highlight the more neglected corners of his city. He would focus on the slums, the workhouses, and the experience of London's poor and workingclass residents. Surprisingly, some of this actually came from personal experience.

[00:08:31]In Little Dorret, his character spends time in a dattor's prison, which was likely inspired by his childhood.

[00:08:37]Because as a child, Dickens was forced to leave school to work when his father and the rest of his family was sent to a deta prison.

[00:08:46]Dickens not only influenced our understanding of Victorian London, but also Christmas. His story, A Christmas Carol, really cemented the idea of what a traditional British Christmas was all about. And just think, without him, we wouldn't have a Muppet Christmas Carol the movie. It's just not worth thinking about.

[00:09:07]We're off to White Chapel in East London. Dickens might be one of the most famous names in Victorian London, but there's someone else who arguably might be more famous, or at least definitely more infamous, and we don't even know their real identity. They're simply remembered as Jack the Ripper.

[00:09:26]We're now in a proper little old alley in East London, and streets like this would have been seen all over this area of London during the Victorian period.

[00:09:34]This street holds a particularly dark history. And that's because it was here in August 1888 when the body of a woman, Martha Tabron, was found having been stabbed to death. Her death was one in a series of bloody murders that sparked one of history's biggest mysteries, the White Chapel murders.

[00:10:02]The press at the time absolutely jumped on the murders and the alleged serial killer they were calling Jack the Ripper. The White Chapel murders dominated the newspapers throughout late 1888 as the police tried to uncover who was responsible.

[00:10:18]Not only did Victorians love a bit of drama, but there was a sick sort of fascination that the middle and upper classes had with the poorer areas of the city and the people known as the urban poor.

[00:10:31]Between the Victorian media frenzy and today's modern fascination with things like the Riptors, it can be easy to forget that behind this murder mystery are real victims, vulnerable women who are living on the edges of society. As well as Martha, there are the victims known as the canonical five. And they were Maryanne Nicholls, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Katherine Edos, and Mary Jane Kelly.

[00:11:00]Right onto more cheery subjects. We're now heading back across the city to Westminster.

[00:11:16]This is the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament. Yes, it's got two names.

[00:11:22]Whatever you call it, it's been the seat of power in England and eventually Britain for the last thousand years. It started out life as a palace and was the seat of royal power. But by the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, the royals were very much out and the politicians were in.

[00:11:41]You'd be forgiven for thinking that this building is medieval, but actually pretty much everything you can see here is Victorian. It was rebuilt in the 19th century in this Gothic revival style that was so trendy at the time.

[00:11:54]Now, the reason it was rebuilt is because there was an almighty fire here in 1834 that raged through and destroyed most of the buildings. One of the key places to survive, however, was Westminster Hall, which you can still visit, and it dates back to the 11th century. It's weird to think that during the first decade or so of Queen Victoria's reign, the Houses of Parliament here must have resembled a construction site, most of it wasn't completed until the 1860s.

[00:12:24]In fact, one of the last features to be completed is arguably now the most recognizable, and that's Big Ben.

[00:12:35]This tower is an absolute icon of the London skyline. And while we think that there may have been a clock tower on this site as far back as the 1290s, this particular clock didn't start ticking until about 160 years ago. The tower is just a little under 100 m tall, and those clock faces are large enough to fit a double-decker bus.

[00:12:57]>> Not sure how you'd get the buses up there, though.

[00:13:01]As any Londoner knows, the tower isn't called Big Ben. It's actually called the Elizabeth Tower. It's the largest of the bells inside the tower that's called Big Ben. Rumor has it that it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a civil engineer and politician who worked on the clock tower. He was a big guy. The bell weighs a whopping 13.7 tons. That's more than 13,700 kg. It had to be transported across London on a carriage drawn by 16 horses.

[00:13:30]However, there were some teething problems. The previous bell cracked before they even got it up into the tower. And the second bell, which is the Big Ben bell, fractured just after a few months. So, what do you do? The solution was easy. Just turn it 90° and reduce the hammer size. And that's the same bell that's up there today.

[00:13:53]We were lucky enough to get special access to see Big Ben and the tower's inner workings.

[00:14:08]Now, the tower has over 300 steps. And if you get vertigo like me, you'll be very happy to hear there's now a lift as well.

[00:14:18]I'm heading to the heart of the tower to meet Matt Wolvin, conservation architect here at the Houses of Parliament. Matt, hi.

[00:14:24]>> Hello.

[00:14:25]>> It's such a pleasure to meet you.

[00:14:27]>> Now, this looks very fancy. What are we looking at here?

[00:14:29]>> Uh, so this jumble of cogs is the actual clock mechanism which makes the clock work, which makes Big Ben work.

[00:14:38]>> Wow. So, this is the actual clock here.

[00:14:39]>> This is it. Yeah.

[00:14:40]>> And is this one When's this one from? Is this new? Is when's it from?

[00:14:44]>> This is the original clock mechanism. Um it was made in 1854. Um but the tower wasn't finished then and it took another 5 years before they'd actually built the tower before they could actually get the clock in.

[00:14:57]>> So this clock, this is the clock here and actually predates the tower itself >> in essence. Yeah.

[00:15:02]>> Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. It looks so delicate and complicated.

[00:15:06]>> So it's it's essentially a giant grandfather of the clock. It's got a pendulum. It's got weight and it's all operated by gravity. Um, but it was actually a really advanced design um by a slightly eccentric lord um called Edmund Denison um who was an amateur clock maker, amateur architect and you know general Victorian eccentric.

[00:15:27]>> Yes. Yeah, he sounded I love those characters. They're always great fun.

[00:15:30]And am I right in thinking are there pennies in there?

[00:15:34]>> Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So because of the size of the clock um it you know it moves and changes during the season depending on the weather and winds and so on and so forth. So to regulate it um pennies are put on there to kind of balance it.

[00:15:49]>> Wow.

[00:15:49]>> And the latest one is from 2012 and it was gifted to us by the Royal Mint for the London Olympics.

[00:15:55]>> That's absolutely amazing. So you have to put pennies in there to sort of adjust it and make sure what make sure it's on time.

[00:15:59]>> Keep it keep it going as accurately as possible.

[00:16:01]>> Well, this is absolutely amazing. It doesn't seem to be I'm going to be honest. Excuse my ignorance, but it doesn't seem to be sort of moving very much or is it?

[00:16:08]>> Uh, not at the moment. There's only just small movements at the moment and then it as the bells are about to chime, it will all start woring and making huge amounts of noise.

[00:16:20]>> Well, that's when it really gets going.

[00:16:21]>> That's when it gets going. Yeah.

[00:16:27]>> So, this all controls controls the ringing of the bells. But what about the hands? How are they controlled?

[00:16:31]>> So, they're all linked to it as well. So really all this gubbins above our head um these cogs um it it turns those and then you can see these long arms which lead out to the four clock faces. It's all powered by gravity in essence. So there's giant weights which hang down into the tower and they're still wound up by hand. Um and you can see these um giant cables which slowly wind down >> um to keep the clock going. Yeah.

[00:17:00]>> Um, and this is the handle which has to be wound up.

[00:17:03]>> Oh, wow.

[00:17:04]>> To bring the weights back up.

[00:17:05]>> Does it still need to be hand wound?

[00:17:07]>> Still done by still done by hand. Yeah.

[00:17:08]>> Wow. That's amazing. And you can sort of see how how like worn it is.

[00:17:12]>> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's like there's dents in the floor because of just decades and decades of being wound and wound and wound.

[00:17:20]>> And who exactly winds it up today?

[00:17:22]>> Uh, we've got a team of uh clock makers who uh yeah, look after this amazing clock. They're winded by hand, but also they look after all the other dozens of clocks that we have all over the palace.

[00:17:34]Lots of Victorian clocks, lots of 20th century clocks, and it's really critical that they're all kept in working order.

[00:17:40]>> Wow. Sound like an important team.

[00:17:42]>> They are indeed. Yeah.

[00:17:43]>> Literally keeping everyone on time.

[00:17:45]>> Yeah. And have, you know, the the passion and skills that something like this >> requires.

[00:17:51]>> Oh gosh. Okay. By my watch. Yep. It's about to go off.

[00:18:15]Wow. So cool.

[00:18:17]>> Right, Matt, are you happy to show me the rest of the tower then, please?

[00:18:20]>> Let's go for it.

[00:18:21]>> Amazing. Go on. After you then. So exciting.

[00:18:28]Wow.

[00:18:29]>> So, here we are behind the clock faces.

[00:18:32]>> This is absolutely amazing. These are the clock faces of Big Ben.

[00:18:36]>> Yeah.

[00:18:36]>> This is so cool. And the Big Ben went through a huge renovation recently, right?

[00:18:40]>> Yes, that's right. Yeah. For about 5 years. It was all wrapped in scaffolding. Um, while every single bit of the fabric was repaired after decades of decay in the old smoky London atmosphere.

[00:18:52]>> Wow. Oh, >> there's the quarter bells.

[00:18:55]>> That's the quarter bells.

[00:19:02]>> Um, yeah. And as part of that, um, we reinstated the original color scheme. So over in the 1930s, the metal work was all painted black and then when it was refurbished, we reinstated the original deep blue color.

[00:19:14]>> Oh, a deep blue color. So it's not black anymore.

[00:19:17]>> And what about the glass? Is this all original glass?

[00:19:19]>> Uh, no. So all the glass on this side was actually destroyed in the war by bombing.

[00:19:24]>> Oh wow. Okay.

[00:19:25]>> Um and was refurbished in the 1950s. And then as part of the major refurbishment, all of the glass was reinstated. And it's all this beautiful handmade opal glass >> and it all had to be changed.

[00:19:37]>> It was all changed. Yeah. Every piece was replaced. Um every bit of metal work was carefully conserved.

[00:19:44]>> Well, it's looking very smart and amazing. And it's so cool to think that we're up here. I feel like Peter Pan now. I feel like we have to mention these cuz these look very very modern for what is a very Victorian building.

[00:19:55]So what what are these exactly?

[00:19:57]>> So this these kind of domes everywhere are LED lights um which are what makes Big Ben glow or clock faces glow at nighttime. Um and yeah, as you can see they go all the way up >> so that we have this nice even light coverage. So in the uh in the 19th century with the original tower, these I presume would have been gas lights.

[00:20:20]>> Yes, indeed. Yeah. Yeah. There was gas lighting throughout the whole palace um including up here which then was replaced with um regular light bulbs in the early 20th century and then LED as part of the refurbishment.

[00:20:38]>> So this is Big Ben. But this is the Big Ben. Before I tell you about it, we've got to be quiet because it's going to be going out live on Radio 4 in 1 minute's time.

[00:20:46]>> Oh my gosh. Okay, so we got to be quiet then.

[00:20:47]>> Silence.

[00:20:49]>> So, we better get headphones on then.

[00:21:54]That was so cool.

[00:21:56]>> So cool. And very loud.

[00:21:58]>> Very loud. I'm very glad we had the headphones on. Yes.

[00:22:01]>> But that was amazing. That was Big Ben ringing out in the in the same way that he has for what, like 160 years.

[00:22:06]>> Indeed. Yeah.

[00:22:07]>> That's absolutely amazing.

[00:22:10]>> So, I feel like something that we need to definitely emphasize, right, is that the bell is Big Ben, right?

[00:22:15]>> The bell is Big Ben. Just this big Ben, this Big Ben, this big bell, not the rest of them, not the tower, just this one bell that rings out every hour.

[00:22:24]>> Is the tower is Elizabeth's tower? This is Big Ben. And then these are all the smaller quarter bells.

[00:22:28]>> Correct. Yeah. So the tower was previously just called the clock tower and then in 2012 when it was um Elizabeth Second's Jubilee it was renamed Elizabeth Tower to complement our other tower which is the Victoria Tower.

[00:22:41]>> Victoria Tower of course. Amazing. And is it true that Big Ben still has a crack in it or a fracture?

[00:22:47]>> Yep, that's right. Yeah. So when it was cast um unfortunately it cracked and so actually the tone that it makes isn't quite perfect. Um it was made down at White Chapel Bell Foundry um in the 1850s. Um and that Bell Foundry been going since the 16th century. Um and continued operating until about 10 years ago.

[00:23:09]>> Oh wow. Really? Okay.

[00:23:10]>> Um Yep. And it's also the foundry where the um Liberty Bell was cast before it shipped out to Philadelphia.

[00:23:17]>> Oh, no way. That's so So it's, you know, got some good qualifications, good credentials.

[00:23:20]>> Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:23:22]>> Amazing. I love the fact that the iconic sound of of Big Ben is actually a little bit wrong, a little bit off technically.

[00:23:28]>> Yes. Yeah. Um Yeah. Um but you can see it's got this beautiful Gothic detailing on it which matches the Gothic detailing >> of Alice. Um and it has this amazing Gothic script around it telling you when it was cast and who cast it. And you can see here >> 13 tons 1000 weight.

[00:23:48]>> That's how much it weighs.

[00:23:49]>> That's how much it weighs. Yeah.

[00:23:50]>> It's a lot, isn't it?

[00:23:51]>> Wow. Yeah, I can see why you'd need all this metal to keep it up for for sure.

[00:23:55]>> Absolutely. And unlike most bells, whereas, you know, whereas you think the church bell, you've got the clanger in the middle that hits it, with the bells in the Elizabeth tower, they have this hammer mechanism which raises up and the bells are actually held stationary.

[00:24:10]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:24:16]Well, thank you so much, Matt, for showing us around. And it's been absolutely amazing to get this behind thescenes insight into the tower and and see Big Ben in action.

[00:24:22]>> Brilliant. Well, it's lovely to share the history with you.

[00:24:25]>> Thank you.

[00:24:29]>> I hope you've enjoyed exploring the inner workings of Big Ben um well, Elizabeth Tower and the Big Ben Bell, cuz I know I have. And I'll see you next time.