1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:06,600 Archived programmes chosen by experts. 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,920 For this collection, Janet Street Porter has selected 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:12,440 programmes about post-war architecture. 4 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:14,160 More programmes on this theme 5 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:18,000 and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer. 6 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,720 MUSIC: "Wade In The Water" by Ramsey Lewis 7 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:14,040 I want to see the industrial North from the inside 8 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,480 by exploring one of the lifelines that made the whole thing possible, 9 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:19,240 so it's a canal journey, 10 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:22,040 the journey from Manchester to Leeds 11 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,640 and, since the direct routes are not now navigable, 12 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,800 it takes you a bit further out of your way than you might think, 13 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:30,760 because it... 14 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:33,240 starts by having to go west from Manchester, 15 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,080 where Leeds is north-east. 16 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:39,320 You have to turn north to go through Wigan, Blackburn, Burnley, 17 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:42,440 right up to Skipton, right up to the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, 18 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:45,040 and then slide back into the industrial North 19 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,680 through Keighley, Bingley, to the centre of Leeds. 20 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,360 We are starting here at Worsley basin, 21 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:53,720 which is a few miles west of Manchester. 22 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:58,040 Very appropriate because this is really to canals 23 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,520 what the Stockton and Darlington was to railways. 24 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,720 It's where the thing all started, basically, 25 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,560 because this is the start of the Bridgewater Canal. 26 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:11,320 It took coal from the mines along an underground system, 27 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:17,360 several miles of it, to this basin, then on, back into Manchester. 28 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:21,520 It's also a very pretty place, one of the prettiest near Manchester, 29 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,120 because it was a planned village, the Dukes of Bridgewater 30 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,360 gradually built it up, right up until almost the First World War. 31 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:30,200 It's a pointer to what could happen 32 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,320 along the rest of the canal system in the industrial North 33 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,520 because, from being one of the most heavily used traffic routes, 34 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,000 it became one of the quietest, one of the prettiest, too. 35 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,640 There are some astonishing landscapes on this particular journey. 36 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,520 Here, the water looks a bit alarming. It's not what you might think. 37 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:51,280 It is, in fact, iron oxide, 38 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,120 which I think has seeped in from the mines' workings just down there. 39 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:59,200 But all that clears up just round a corner. 40 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:17,120 First town on the canal is Leigh. 41 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:19,720 What a marvellous way to see it, sort of gliding through 42 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,360 the countryside into the town at just over walking pace. 43 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:29,520 It's a cotton town, so the already strange landscape 44 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,320 is enhanced by the foreground of water, 45 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,640 mill chimneys of the huge mills themselves, 46 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,160 brick and terracotta and bulbous copper domes. 47 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:40,600 There is... 48 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:44,000 something which is going to happen a lot more on the canal here, I think, 49 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,920 which is a new terrace of houses 50 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,080 and they are literally Queen Anne front and Mary Ann back. 51 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,240 The front has got a bit of show, it's near Georgian. 52 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:57,680 The back neglects the canal. It seems such a shame. 53 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,040 And look here, just how a blank wall and a cinder path... 54 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:06,040 Look at the geometry it sets up along the water and the chimney at the end. 55 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,160 It's not Venice, but it is an incredibly moving landscape. 56 00:04:20,280 --> 00:04:23,120 MUSIC: "Schoolyard Song" by Harry Ogden 57 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:30,600 # Our school yards looked over the Brookside mill wall 58 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,960 # And up there I have to claim for to fetch back our ball 59 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:40,280 # Barbed wire won't stop me for climbing up there 60 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,920 # When you're brought up at shed roof 61 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,120 # What have you to fear? 62 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:54,920 # Holt's picker shops looked over the Spodden mill brook 63 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,440 # And down there at dinner time if you'll but chance to look 64 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:04,720 # Now you'll find us fishing for sticklebacks and bait 65 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:09,360 # And it's worth getting larruping for having wet feet 66 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:32,800 # Our cricket fields looked over the Dublin mill lodge 67 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,160 # And in tall grass round back of there 68 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:37,600 # Now we'll hide and we'll dodge 69 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,160 # And we'll chuck bricks in't water 70 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,760 # For it's fair greatly fun 71 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:47,520 # Just pretending that we're soldiers and we've got a big gun 72 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:57,280 # Well, I've never ever travelled far yet, but someday I will 73 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,960 # Far away from our house down in't shade of the mill 74 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:07,960 # To some foreign country far, far away 75 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:12,240 # But however far I travel, I'm sure I shan't stay. # 76 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:37,200 I'm taking the chance to stretch my legs a bit 77 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,600 because there are 21 of these locks at Wigan 78 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,320 and it takes something like three hours to lock through them. 79 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:47,600 Altogether, they raise the canal 250 feet in one go, 80 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,800 which I think is the biggest single engineering achievement 81 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:54,920 on the canals that are still navigable now. 82 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,200 So, down there is the whole of Wigan, and up here 83 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,120 there's some marvellous sights really going to waste 84 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,680 because, as before, people aren't really using the canal, 85 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:08,760 they're turning their back on it all the time. 86 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,080 Where I am now is derelict down the one side 87 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,240 and factories are making tiles over there, 88 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,600 and the usual thing of a barbed-wire fence 89 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:22,840 and no realisation that this is a really marvellous place. 90 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:25,320 And down in Wigan, there is some pretty good 91 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:27,360 new housing going up at Scholes, 92 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:33,080 which is a collection of courtyards with link bridges at, I think, 93 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,120 second-floor level, quite low housing, nice scale, 94 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,040 which might not work perfectly 95 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:43,360 because they may be trying to cram too much on a small site. 96 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:48,040 But think of how that could be up here where you've got space to spare. 97 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,760 If you had the courtyard three-sided, the fourth side the canal, 98 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:54,320 and a matching courtyard, maybe, on the other side. 99 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,960 What I'm asking for, really, is a complete new set 100 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:00,800 of canal-side villages all over the industrial North, 101 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:03,560 all along the Leeds and Liverpool. 102 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,800 That now is the end of the Lancashire plain. 103 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,400 From here on in, the canal will be winding along 104 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:12,280 what is really the foothills of the Pennines. 105 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,000 The top end of Johnson's Hillock Locks, just north of Chorley, 106 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,320 one of the standard Waterways Board's conveniences. 107 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,040 It's not the most beautiful building in the world, 108 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,360 but much more important than that, it's got no style. 109 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,800 It's so sad because the original canal theme, 110 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:42,840 the discipline of black and white, suits almost every structure. 111 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,280 This is the first place that the pleasure boats 112 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:50,080 have really appeared in numbers, 113 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:53,280 though, alas, all moored rather than on the canal. 114 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:57,600 But even so, with this immense line, you can get a good idea 115 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:02,160 of the colossal potential for enjoyment of this stretch of water. 116 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:18,720 Just sliding in gently at quite high level 117 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,000 into the very middle of Blackburn. 118 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:25,360 There's a point here where the canal is on an aqueduct 119 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:29,880 high over the road, which itself is just above the River Darwen, 120 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:31,720 all the levels going on at once. 121 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:36,520 It's amazing how, in spite of the factories on either side, 122 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:39,840 the actual canal banks still seem wild. 123 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:41,880 It's as if the canal was sort of 124 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,080 something insulated from the industrial hubbub around. 125 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,720 And yet, of course, it was the canal 126 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,840 that basically created the industry in the first place. 127 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,920 Blackburn town centre is a very interesting place because 128 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:06,880 Blackburn was the first town to go in for comprehensive redevelopment, 129 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:12,640 a plan for redoing the whole town centre, way back before 1960. 130 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,120 The first bits, like the market hall, look pretty shabby now, 131 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,800 but later on, things improved, both in the buildings here, 132 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,280 designed, I'm glad to say, by a Lancashire firm, 133 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:26,760 a building design partnership at Preston. 134 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,800 It was a change from the great, anonymous London concerns. 135 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:35,640 But most of all in the details. Details like the simple seats here. 136 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:39,960 Simple stuff, just fixed on the wall, and that wall 137 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,960 is patterned brickwork, which flows up easily and over 138 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:46,720 and becomes the retaining wall of a pool. 139 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,320 The pool has fountains that are just straight jets of water, 140 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,280 not half-cut dolphins and wishy-washy water maidens. 141 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:59,320 And above it all, dominating, is the town hall. 142 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:04,040 This is really a town centre and all these details at ground level 143 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:06,360 seem, to me, to have very great style. 144 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,440 I was talking about the lack of style earlier on. 145 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:14,680 This really is a kind of canal style, and industrial North canal style. 146 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:16,240 But... 147 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:22,880 ..these town centres are going wrong, I think, in two ways. 148 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:27,000 One is a bit further away, the other near at hand. 149 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,480 It's the fact that there's going to be too much of it, 150 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,120 they don't know when to stop. 151 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,000 Blackburn has already lost its open marketplace 152 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:37,200 in the first part of the redevelopment 153 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:39,080 and although it's got a market hall, 154 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,800 it's not quite the same thing. You need both. 155 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,040 And now... The... 156 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,560 thing is crossing the street at a rate of knots, 157 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:48,680 and this wasn't rubbish. 158 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:50,160 It's rubbish now, look at it. 159 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:52,000 This was solid Victorian stuff. 160 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:56,760 It included an arcade and the gold lettering on the tobacconists 161 00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:59,160 in that arcade would be a candidate 162 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,080 for any local museum in ten years' time. 163 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:05,040 By then, it's too late and you'll be sorry. 164 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:08,720 The thing now is to make sure that this is the end of it, 165 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:11,440 that it doesn't creep over from here. 166 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,560 Obviously, it's not going to creep over to demolish the cathedral, 167 00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:19,200 but all these little buildings, Georgian, Victorian onwards, 168 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:22,160 Blackburn must keep a balance of old and new, 169 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,880 not simply scrap the whole thing. 170 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:29,320 And yet, there are so many sites where redevelopment could happen 171 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:32,360 happily and not hurt anything. 172 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,240 The next town down the road has something of the same problem. 173 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,320 You get the real power of this canal here, 174 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:49,960 on the embankment, sailing serenely high above Burnley. 175 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:53,280 Burnley town centre? Well... 176 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:58,120 Over there, the Kirby hotel, which is a sort of Burnley showpiece, 177 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:02,720 it's a kind of equivalent of a Victorian town hall. 178 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:05,560 Beyond that, there is another precinct. 179 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:11,600 The details in Burnley's precinct are...not bad. 180 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:14,520 Same sort of tough feeling as Blackburn, 181 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:18,120 but there is a desperate difference because they look as though they have 182 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:20,400 been put together as a committee decision 183 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:23,920 rather than being unmistakably one man's work. 184 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,840 And the buildings around are pathetic. 185 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,000 Patterns just slapped on, wide-open, platitudinous fronts. 186 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,360 Burnley is the last to really be suitable 187 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:37,440 for that kind of wide-open treatment 188 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,400 because it is a very strange character. 189 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:42,360 Its character, much more introverted 190 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,400 than the rest of the Lancashire towns, 191 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:48,440 looking in on itself, just as the hills look down in on Burnley. 192 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:53,480 Sort of narrow, twisting streets, what's left of them - not much. 193 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,920 They should have built a maze rather than a wide-open yawn 194 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,840 in the centre of Burnley, there. 195 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:04,800 You can see it most of all in the way that Burnley uses, or rather ignores, 196 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:07,440 its rivers because there are two and they run right through 197 00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:09,800 the centre of town and meet in the centre of the town - 198 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:11,400 the Brun and the Calder. 199 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,920 They are in a strange, private landscape of their own with... 200 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,440 It's very effective. It grows on you, this feeling. 201 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:20,960 And... 202 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,360 I see in the town plan that they are, with the best of intentions, 203 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:26,640 proposing to landscape these river banks 204 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:28,560 when the city centre is all complete 205 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:30,400 and I bet you they'll open it all out 206 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:32,600 just like they did with the marketplace. 207 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:41,440 MUSIC: "Push Boys Push (Dudley Canal Tunnel Song)" 208 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,080 One of the oddest experiences of my whole life. 209 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:08,720 In the middle of the Foulridge Tunnel, which is nearly a mile long. 210 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,840 This is the summit of the canal and, oddly enough, 211 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,040 although it is crossing the Pennines, 212 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:18,600 this is only just over 500 feet above ground level. 213 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,920 So, this extraordinary construction 214 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,560 is about the same height as the highest bit 215 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:28,040 of Birmingham city centre, it just doesn't make sense. 216 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:30,320 And it's also nearly 200 years old. 217 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:32,360 This was cut in 1792, 218 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:34,720 which was about the time that Louis XVI 219 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:38,760 was in a bit of trouble with his subjects. 220 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,200 You know, when you think of the length of time it's been here, 221 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,800 the scale of the engineering works needed to do it then 222 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,280 without anything really more than manpower, 223 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:53,720 it does make you wonder about technological progress. 224 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:59,480 # Oh, push, boys, push 225 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,840 # And now we are coming nigh 226 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,680 # Push, boys, push 227 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:08,600 # Can't you see the sky? 228 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,160 # Push, boys, push 229 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,640 # We'll have a celebration 230 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,560 # Now we've sung it to the nation 231 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,840 # So push, boys, push 232 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,160 # Oh, push, boys, push! 233 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,920 # Yes, push, boys, push... # 234 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,720 North of Barnswick, in what is reckoned to be the prettiest stretch 235 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,240 on the whole canal. I wouldn't doubt that. 236 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:46,600 You just...lose yourself in the continual curves. 237 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:50,680 Curves of the hillside one way, curves of the canal the other. 238 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,320 The width of the canal and this four-mile-an-hour 239 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,280 steady pursuit towards Leeds. 240 00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:01,760 The whole lot fit together in close harmony, if that wasn't such a... 241 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:04,880 ..unfortunate phrase. 242 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:08,960 We've not only changed landscapes - 243 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,920 because this is quite different from the normal Pennine thing 244 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:16,000 of big hills and one single valley, this is in and out - 245 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,240 we've changed building stones. 246 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:21,000 The walls, where you can see them over there, 247 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,880 have changed from brown to grey. 248 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,200 You've left the Millstone Grit. 249 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:30,640 You're back on grey limestone. We have, in fact, passed a summit. 250 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,440 We're still going north by north-east. 251 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,440 Another three or four miles to Gargrave 252 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:39,240 and that's a turning point. 253 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:41,680 You're back, then, south-east into Leeds. 254 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:17,040 Skipton, the gateway to the Dales and a very busy tourist place, 255 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,040 on the roads, that is. 256 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:23,360 What I want to see is, as the canal runs right through the middle - 257 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:25,760 it's literally at the back of the High Street - 258 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:30,560 whether any attempt has been made to match the road amenities 259 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:32,720 with canal-side amenities. 260 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,200 There's certainly, clearly, here, a lot of boats moored, 261 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:36,600 but is there anything else? 262 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:43,320 So far, it just seems a bust, wasted opportunity 263 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:45,800 and the opportunity is bust here, too, 264 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,960 because this basin is quite large. 265 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,320 The underused land around it is large, as well, 266 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:55,120 and it is just a few yards away from Skipton's High Street. 267 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:56,800 Think what could happen here. 268 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:00,960 A beer garden over there, perhaps. 269 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:04,360 There is also...an art shop. 270 00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:07,200 You could have an open-air art gallery there. 271 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:12,760 The biggest site of all is down here, and that is a council depot, 272 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:18,040 just sheds and utility with a familiar sort of notice. 273 00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:20,960 "Private property, keep out." 274 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:24,960 Apart from the fact that I think it's not quite private property - 275 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,080 I would say it might belong, collectively, 276 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,360 to the ratepayers of Skipton - 277 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:32,160 it is a criminal waste of a huge site, 278 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:34,960 just to use it for a few sheds which could be anywhere in the town. 279 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,280 You could put lots of things on there - 280 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:40,200 cafes, a complete town square. 281 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,360 In the street at the back, just over here, 282 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:46,400 they've built an old people's rest home. 283 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:48,840 Well, that just looks out on an ordinary street. 284 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,160 It might have been a bit more restful 285 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,240 if they could have looked out with a view over 286 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,120 this very restful scene of water and boats. 287 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,600 But with that, there is one hopeful sign 288 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,360 and that's an 18th-century warehouse, 289 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:05,800 that one being converted to a boating centre. 290 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,280 It looks as though it's going to be a very nice job. 291 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,800 JAUNTY FIDDLE MUSIC 292 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:52,400 There hasn't been a lock for the past 17 miles, 293 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,360 since the other side of Skipton. 294 00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:56,880 So, to compensate, the Leeds and Liverpool 295 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,960 takes a colossal downward swoop into the countryside, 296 00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:02,160 nearly 100 feet altogether. 297 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,720 This is the Bingley Five-Rise, 298 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,480 a linked staircase of five locks 299 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,080 and, unlike the ones at Wigan, 300 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:12,320 where there were pounds in between each lock, 301 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:15,280 here, the locks are locked, interlocked. 302 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:20,760 The back of one lock becomes the front of the next. 303 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:22,800 It's a remarkable technical achievement 304 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,640 and the list of instructions on how to operate it 305 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,000 reads a bit like a check list for a Boeing 747 before take off. 306 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:33,640 But as well as that, it's a remarkable decorative achievement 307 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:38,200 and that's this wonderful quality that the canal designers had 308 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:40,640 and the canal painters still have, 309 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,280 because all this functional machinery 310 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,320 is simply decorated in the simplest possible way, 311 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:49,960 in black and white - black and white paint. 312 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,200 And the combination of that and the stone surrounds 313 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,200 and the green surrounding that 314 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:58,800 is much more effective than the most elaborate styling could ever be. 315 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:03,320 Bingley itself, like the other towns on the canal, 316 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:09,080 grew up because of the canal, but it grew up unplanned, bit by bit. 317 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,360 Just beyond it there's, I think, 318 00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:14,760 the only place on the canal that was planned deliberately around it. 319 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,640 Well, before we come to the piece of planning I mentioned, 320 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,360 another bit rather more recent has turned up by accident. 321 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:30,000 These new flats are on the edge of Bingley 322 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,600 and they're the first modern buildings I've seen in the whole trip 323 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,480 that, sort of, take account of the canal in any way. 324 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,200 Here, at least, there is a lawn in front, 325 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,040 which runs right down to the canal. 326 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,480 There is no barbed wire fence between them and us. 327 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,400 Three blocks, by themselves, not too high. 328 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,960 Pleasantly designed. Plenty of space around, plenty of greenery. 329 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:57,400 Fine. 330 00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:07,120 Saltaire ahead. 331 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:11,080 Created by Sir Titus Salt, from 1850 onwards, 332 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,120 when he moved his mills, lock, stock and barrel up from Bradford. 333 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:18,520 It's not quite the first of these, in effect, new towns 334 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:20,400 in the 19th century in England, 335 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,800 but it's certainly the most ambitious. 336 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,160 There were over 800 houses here by the 1870s. 337 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:28,840 And it's worth seeing. 338 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,560 The most impressive building at Saltaire, without any doubt, 339 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,000 is the congregational church, 340 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,720 which was done, like the whole of the rest of it, 341 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:46,960 by the Bradford firm of Lockwood and Mawson. 342 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:48,720 It's a pretty good achievement, that, 343 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,720 to do the whole thing in one architectural office. 344 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,080 And it's a very powerful situation here, 345 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,200 cos the church is at the end of an avenue, 346 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:01,040 with the salt mausoleum on one side of it. 347 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,440 Straight across the street is the main entrance to the mill. 348 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,520 So, God and Mammon are really staring each other in the face. 349 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:13,320 But nowhere's perfect and, as Nikolaus Pevsner so pithily put it, 350 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:16,520 Saltaire has "no pawn shops and no pubs." 351 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:26,080 Saltaire's housing has worn very well after 120 years. 352 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:28,280 Solidly built, decently designed, 353 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,240 little touches like the front gardens. 354 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,960 Compared with the monolithic tenements 355 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,400 going up in the name of philanthropy in London 356 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,320 at the same time, this is paradise. 357 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,480 And there may only be a back alley 358 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,800 but that in itself is a great improvement for 1850, 359 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,880 when the rest of the West Riding was still building back to backs. 360 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,720 It is, in fact, a complete unit, this. 361 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,640 Has an institute, a school... 362 00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,080 Most remarkable of all, 363 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,720 across the canal, down at the end of this street, 364 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,640 it has a complete public park, laid out as part of the whole scheme. 365 00:25:01,120 --> 00:25:05,080 If they could do that then, in 1850, why on earth can't we do it now? 366 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,920 Beyond now, we are here, two miles from the centre of Leeds! 367 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:17,960 It's ridiculous! 368 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,360 And it is so ironical because it was the canal that brought 369 00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:24,640 urbanisation out into the countryside in the first place. 370 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:26,640 Now, the whole situation's reversed 371 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,120 and it's only around the canal that greenery penetrates into the town. 372 00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:33,480 Which is one more reason for really using the canal. 373 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:38,280 This could be a proper linear park. I mean, it's green enough now. 374 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,800 I don't mean fill it up with kiddies swings and that. 375 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,800 I just mean, express it more than it is now. 376 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,440 And it needn't be a thick park, it needn't be wide 377 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:50,640 and open, like Wormwood Scrubs or Clapham Common. 378 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,560 Sort of 50 yards of intense greenery, like this, 379 00:25:55,560 --> 00:26:00,080 is worth square miles of public open space. 380 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,720 You could gradually, year by year, with slum clearance, 381 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,000 you could push it further and further into the centre of Leeds. 382 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,440 The greenery hangs on and hangs on and all of a sudden, 383 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:22,440 through one more bridge, you see the whole of central Leeds ahead. 384 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,760 Here, you're less than one mile from Leeds City Hall. 385 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:31,920 It's an astonishing feeling, it's... 386 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,760 ..taking the town by stealth. 387 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,160 Creeping in as silent invaders. 388 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,840 There's no traffic lights on this route, mate. 389 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,360 There's no sudden stop at the end of this, 390 00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:50,240 this goes right to the middle of Leeds. 391 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,760 Just a few yards from Leeds City Station. 392 00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:04,800 The journey's end, canal basin at Leeds. 393 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,640 Of all the opportunities on this whole trip, 394 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,680 this surely offers the biggest. 395 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,840 Cos the amount of disused and underused land here 396 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,960 is astonishing for somewhere right in the middle of a city. 397 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:17,640 And it is right in the middle. 398 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,720 That's the roof of the main station. 399 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,200 Immediately behind, office blocks of modern Leeds. 400 00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,560 Yet, the Corporation have no plans for it. 401 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,800 Private developers have put up a scheme or two 402 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,520 but nothing has come out of it. 403 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,600 It's a great pity 404 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,320 because think what could happen here. 405 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:39,880 Something will, very soon, I think. 406 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,520 That tower crane over there is part of a new hotel, 407 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,800 which is just being built, 408 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,440 and that may give the impetus needed to revitalise the whole area. 409 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:51,320 The question is how it's done. 410 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:52,800 I think it wouldn't be a bad idea 411 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:55,240 if the Corporation start thinking about it now. 412 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,600 So, that they can produce a good scheme 413 00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,720 before someone else produces a bad one. 414 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,800 One opportunity this, the biggest. 415 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,480 But when you think back over all the others - 416 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,360 the possibility of housing around the staircase locks in Wigan, 417 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:11,200 the possibility of incorporating the canal at Blackburn 418 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,880 into the redeveloped town centre, 419 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,760 the possibility of creating a completely new tourist dimension 420 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,440 in the middle of Skipton and many, many more - 421 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,720 remember that there are only two places on the whole journey 422 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,400 that really take account of the canal. 423 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,600 That is, apart from the canal machinery itself. 424 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,240 One is at Worsley basin, near Manchester, where we began 425 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:36,800 our journey with the Duke of Bridgewater's model village, 426 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,560 and the other one the Saltaire, where a complete industrial village 427 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,880 was deliberately planned around the canal. 428 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:46,800 When you think also of the fact that on the whole journey 429 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:51,000 there's only one place where modern architecture has taken 430 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,520 any account of the canal at all, that's the flats at Bingley. 431 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:57,840 Surely, we can do better than this. 432 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,480 If we did, if we took all these opportunities, it would 433 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,360 revitalise a complete slice of the industrial North. 434 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,760 It would gain a completely new dimension. 435 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,680 MUSIC: "Toddlin' Whoam" by Larry Kearns