[Music] pip pip T ho juwes guides here in which I wander around London and tell you fascinating facts and today we are in Hackney and we're going to walk from Hackney Central all the way down around and uh sort of end up down near Cambridge eath you'll see anyway look don't forget to hit the Subscribe button if you like the videos because that really helps and also hit the little bell uh because will notify you when I upload a new one now um look we're standing outside the Hackney Empire which is a beautiful Theater built
in 191 was designed by Frank matcham who was your go-to man if you wanted a theater he designed a Coliseum he also designed the Hipp drum in leester square I mean mostly in those days it was people like Mari Lloyd you know my old man said follow the van sort of musical stuff WC Fields has performed in there Stan Laurel what's think like from the 1960s till about the 1980s you see Up on the Roof there you see they've got um she's called Talia or Thalia she's the Greek Muse who overlooks poetry and comedy but
in the 1960s this was overtaken by I think it was Mecca and it was it was a the bingo bingo hall they're always being overtaken by Bingo people and they ended up renovating these domes and the statue of the Greek Muse up there but then they did it all cheaply but failed to realized that it's a listed building and they were then forced by the council to come back and redo it using all the proper correct materials and methods and it cost them an absolute Fortune so in the end they ended up having to sell
the place and now it's gone back to being a theater which is what it should be Simon don't you think yes and it's also where my sister saw Chaz and Dave play and Chaz Hodges gave her a kiss in fact the music you can hear is by Chaz hodges's daughter lately I just spent a week with me old a brown came up to see the w s sites of Fame London Town very nice look next to the hne Empire is the old well the new the newer Town Hall we'll come to where the old town
hall used to be later this is another one of these Town Halls you get from the 1930s on the roof there you got your St George's flag for England you got the Union flag Britain and the one on the right that's the Hackney coat of arms that if you can see actually but I'll refer to that flag later so note that that's what it is um you got a museum over there in the library now that's a new library but the old library from 197 was this one here which I turned into a cinema why
do they have to change [Music] everything station drop me at box in the mud the things all fell about I like those old uh original Truman signs you know from the brewery I like that get points for spotting those original Brewery signs on pubs and look you see this road here Graham Road number 55 down there we're not going to walk all the way out there because it's quite a long way but that's where Mari Lloyd used to live now I'm always going on about Mari Lloyd I don't if you know who she was but
she was she was the queen of the music Halls my old man said follow the van everyone loved her but a proper East Ender um and famously she sits among the cabbages and peas was she had all these sort of bardy rude dublon Tundra songs but she died quite young but when she had a funeral hundreds and thousands of people showed up so it would have been quite an easy short trip for her to walk around the corner and then up to perform at the hacky Empire I'd have loved to go and see those in
those days cuz there's no TV and radio and stuff so that was kind of very special C look this place here this used to be the station ow it's now a cafe but uh in uh it dates from about 1870 that they had to expand it and everything so it's now the hne Central Station around the corner but it's nice that I like those original stations and then around here this is where the buses all the buses still pull in here since the 1880s when they had these hor drawn trams they used to come in
here in 1896 it was a North Metropolitan tram company they converted to Electric trams 1896 and then in 1930s they became trolley buses and then in 1950s they got diesel buses now I guess it's back to being it's come around a full circle we're back to Electric yeah they got it right the first time and then look this wonderful Tower here Simon you know this is the one that appears on the coat of arms which I was trying to point out to you on the flag which was fluttering above the town hall over there um
it's actually built in the 13th century well not this one I mean originally that there was a church here which was built in the 13th century by I think it was the Knights Templar might be the other Knights but anyway it was rebil built in the 16th century there a St Augustines sometime later around 1798 they decided they needed more room because the congregation was growing so much here so they had to build a bigger Church St John at Hackney around there which will'll come to um but the new church didn't have strong enough Bell
Tower so they decided to keep this one and it wasn't until about the 1850s or so that they managed to strengthen the new tower to accommodate Bel just in front of it actually you see this this is the old vest Hall the ancient Village of Hackney sort of started around here and back in those days they had the parish system for I don't know Administration and stuff like that it wasn't until 1900 that they brought in the the Metropolitan borrow system where they introduced 28 Metropolitan burrow of hamstad borrow of camwell all those things but
this was the old V Hall from 18002 the reason why it says 1900 on it is because that's the year in which it all changed and they introduced these new Metropolitan burrow and everything so they gave it a good sort of sprucing up and so I think it's been renovated a lot of the local burrowers they wanted snazzy big Civic buildings like the ones well like the one we saw over there I think they originally intended to to use it for that purpose that's why I sprued it all up anyway now it's one of those
kind of U Pub tap rooms you can go in it's Clos at the moment cuz it's quite early in the morning oh Mr bter what shall I do I want to go to Birmingham but the T me off the crew send me back to London quickly as you can oh Mr bter what this is obviously a very well-to-do place to be buried I mean they've got all these big family tombs and family vaults and I haven't ever seen so many of these chest style tombs in a row there's a lot of them and some famous
people here as well look rear Admiral Sir Francis bow there he is I mean he's actually in there Simon he's there so today is an extremely windy day funly enough so on the bow for wind scale that he came up with I mean what do you think is um it's not calm zero uh gentle breeze moderate Breeze I mean theze today isn't it yeah moderate Breeze but later on I mean yesterday it was definitely a strong Gale the Tombstones you can see stacked up over there around the S the edges I expect those are from
the old church because they've cleared out all this area this was the graveyard so they take all the gravestones and they put them at the side and just stack them all up one of whom is Henry Percy the Earl of North umberland he was the guy who was betroth to amberin before Henry the E came along he went step step aside step aside Percy I'm I'm having a should have done better just to stick with old Henry Percy um so he's there they cleared out all he's got now is a plaque inside the new church
um he also arrested Cardinal walie did well just to stay alive in days if you ask me here we go look so this must be one of the stones that denotes the sight of the old church this Stone something the site something something East I think this I think the other ones over there yeah oh there so this is where the where the old church came to they demolished it in 1790 we're going this way anyway this is a sort of pedestrianized bit of May Street you know you look up and you notice through these
things so you can see how that used to be a manor house you see here this stes from 1845 Daniel Tyson he was like a manorial steward whatever that is basically there was a nice old PB on this location called the new mermaid and they knocked it down so that he could have a Mana house here which if you stand back you can actually see what it kind of originally looked like yeah would have been quite Grand I suppose I wonder if they would have had something on this side as well I doubt it that
probably would have stood alone wouldn't it back then and then they decided in there wisdom to turn it into a Gregs and Sho birmingh the Tak me off to crew send me back to London quickly as you can oh Mr B what a silly girl I am they even you they do concerts and stuff in there and hack so trendy these days the Cold Play have played in there and Robbie Williams I wonder if he played angels that probably would have gone down well and through it all of London Merchant see Hackney was quite uh
popular with Merchants Bankers it was it was the new kind of commuter town I suppose around this sort of time like early 19th century they' they built up this area for people cuz it was quite easy to get into into the city from here so this was actually quite a well to-do it's on the main TR it the road what else this you like Deputy the general of the East India Company this guy look at that so you get some real I mean that was a that was a decent job in those days died 1831
must have lived around here I reckon would that fit the Yale yeah key security key probably need a skeleton key for that one yeah did you get it no PNE has more than its fair share of these phone boxes look this is these the original K2 ones the nice ones and they only had about 1,500 of these made then they became too expensive and so they started making the other ones which have a little window there like they smaller slightly smaller the K3 I think anyway they're right next to this lovely old police station police
stations they're Clos to them down where did all the police go yeah exactly I don't know I think they just wanted to make some money I think it was sold off I think it was the government decided to sell it off from what I can gather I might be wrong don't write in it's a school of some sort but uh yeah I mean I agree why can't they just leave them as police stations I suppose that would have had the police light on it that one wouldn't that nice lovely it's gone now this a lovely
little Street this by the way it's it's really wonderful you got the the Hackney public bars over there that's from 189 7 so quite a lot of the original old buildings have survived the Lu bar for here but across the road there is one of my favorite Shops look at that omitt son they sell all the old film equipment film projectors Super Eight whatever you call it you probably know more about it than I do let's go over there 6 mil cuz I just love the look of 16 oh okay 16 has got such a
beautiful look I just love it to beds but you know this is this is my my favorite this one here this is the this is the jewel in the crown hey look at that huh yes a it's a it's a gmon it's it's at least 100 years old so it would have been nitrate in those days so you'd load your film 1,000 ft maximum which gives you about 8 minutes 9 minutes running time well that would have been an epic in those days so you shut it like that in case it catches fire so it
stays in there um the shutter is on the outside oh right yeah yeah don't get your fingers in there it's fully functioning oh that sound yeah yeah I mean what what what what are you going to have today that's going to last 100 months little on 100 years you know look here to the cinema so you can book this place out I'm going to just oh that's Lovely isn't it look at that you see you can get like I don't know 16 or so people in here let me let me try this that is kind
how about that it's for private bookings this is amazing yeah yeah so this is the projector you use that's one of them that's a super 16 that's brilliant yeah but we can run any film in here and people bring in their own people bring their own films for a little special screening or they can choose one of our films these seats are original these are actually 90 years old these are from the 1930s these are actually 100 years old my very good friend Liam rescued them recently they came from kinema in Blackburn oh these are
so comfortable From Russia with Love he's an extra is it your dad's yeah just an extra in the opening scene like is it really that film beginning of from rusher with laugh my daddy's wearing he's wearing that if you want look really carefully you can see him in that chess scene at the beginning they're playing chess and he's also yeah it's nice yeah what a wonderful film and he's also in he's also in the Avengers quite a lot the actual display rack for the VHS tapes yeah is something I didn't realize I missed or even
remembered until I just seen one now it's like oh yeah I remember those in it I sold a copy of Back to the Future one got auctioned in La $75,000 $75,000 they even grade them they grade them they put them in a perspect box and say this is a represents the authenticates them to I KN I knew as soon as I brought Simon in here they' have a nerdy the porter wouldn't stop the train but I laughed and said you must keep your air on Maran and M that you square Clapton Square was laid out
in 1816 look at some of these beautiful houses around here I mean I was saying earlier about how all these typical people who be living here were like senior Merchants officers Financial Brokers when I was a kid the word Clapton used to fill me with Dread because there was an area along there that they used to call the murder mile oh you know and I always thought oh Clapton FL that's a bit scary but I mean it's glorious really look at it tremendous Place quite a lot of famous people have come from Hackney actually Idris
elur is from Hackney uh Alan sugar let me just get over here um who else I've got Ray Winston from Hackney and tell you who else lived here famously Joseph Priestley Priestly look he lived above dominoes anyway he was the one who invented carbonated water really yeah I think so I think so he said on the whole I spent my life more happily at Hackney than I ever done before that's because he's living above Domino's well exactly no problem or because they actually welcomed him here because he was up living up in Birmingham because he
supported the French Revolution a angry mob hounded him out and then he was invited to be a minister at the old Gravel Pit Chapel which we'll come to later it was popular with ha cany denters and I like it right I mean look at that look out there so points for that look 1880 Clapton pavement that nice little parade there well and it's right opposite this beautiful round Chapel which from 1869 was the United Reformed Church it says built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Cornerstone and then
the Cornerstone there is in a round church I don't know that maybe that's not referring to the stone it's referring to Jesus Christ but but I just find it funny having a a Corner Stone in a round church but it's now in since the '90s it's place for Performing Arts they'd have lots of big performances here wonder what that is no idea there might be something to tie your horse to I don't know yeah answers on a postcard to I like this shop this is excellent is this your shop good stuff in there you always
find good stuff in these places that famous poster that everyone had on their on their wall 39 quid for that [Music] so we're now here on the other end of that little cut through that was down there is where we went to the uh the film shop just down there so we've walked all the way around and this strand building this dates from 1925 it used to be the old Hackney electricity demonstration halls and offices I love those S Art Deco things but these days it's just Flats since the '90s actually I don't know if
it's luxury Flats who knows but I do like the details I it's down there as well some gentleman inside declared that it was hard said look out of the window Miss and try and call the guard didn't I this is a beautifully preserved Street say Sut place it's called and these buildings this on this side these are from 1795 or so and you see here so you know under the pavement here they've got their coal hole covers here so their coal the coal man would deliver that coal down into there and then there'd be servants
living in the basement there could come out collect the coal and take it up to the rest of the house and put it in the fireplaces and stuff filmed the hours the hours was that with Nicole Kidman I think so that was filmed down here and uh actually I think Colin fur lived in this street they're terrific houses um me named after Sir Thomas Sutton Sir Thomas Sutton he was the one I don't know if you saw my uh Charter House video but he's the one who founded the Charter House to school and the charity
for poor boys back in Tor times he used to live in this area but I know then they flattened his house and they built these houses along here but around the corner I mean he got his H he got his land here after the dissolution of the monasteries so Henry VII came along smashed down all the monasteries and nicked everybody's land and that's how Sir Thomas Sutton who was an arms dealer and the richest man in England managed to end up with that stuff there but look over here is Sutton house which is the oldest
in Hackney come over here look it was built in 1535 this house for a guy called Ralph Sader Sader anyway he was a ctio worked for Thomas Cromwell and he's had lots of uses in the past it's uh it's been a school it's belonged to Merchants all sorts of people down the ages but in the 1980s it had squatters in here it's amazing to think a house like that was squatted but anyway they've beautifully preserved it it's closed at the moment so I'll have to go through the keyhole another time with jewsy oh so must
be the kitchen servants quarters meals are all prepared and this this must be that thing that they use it's like a a bed warmer they warm up the hot coals in there and then they put them into your bed upstairs upstairs to the family's quarters upstairs someone's having something nice for dinner there feels like they've only just left goodness me well they've done a fabulous job I must say it's really uh really feels very Tuda in here do you ever watch homes under the hammer stairs going up to the bedrooms on there's a stairs going
up to the bedrooms it's amazing this is like wow this from when they when it was a squat they've decided to uh recreate the time the period when this place was a squat can't really blame them we came down this road that su su house here Su Place hasn't been built yet so we've got something place over there with all the nice houses and we got over here is where carriages and stuff would have waited like for for the big you know wealthy families there and they'd have their carriages and horses out in the back
here and along at the back of the gardens over there they had the night soil path it's like the night soil path was where the night soil man who had the most disgusting job in the world would have to come along and remove all your effluence and all your poos and stuff from your cess pit out the back cuz they didn't have flushing toilets or whatever so he'd come along there and there's the river the Hackney Brook coming down the back of uh certain house there actually the river the Hackney Brook ran along the back
there and then down further over but that didn't get turned into the sewer until later on so they still at this stage didn't have a sewer um and so they had to send the night soil man to come and get your poos um I don't know what his wife said when he got home I mean imagine if that was your job and people do all the time now with their dogs don't they space do bother them what what's the difference with humans Simon what's the difference there's a lot of difference a lot of difference old
friend Gras me leg and pulled me back again nearly fainting with the Fright I sank into his arms asight Burberry outlet store so if you want some discounted Burberry clothing you come here Thomas Burberry was from basing Stoke he started out with Burberry company I think he was really young at the time he was like 21 or something later on they invented this waterproof material called garbine or something which was which was used for the uh trench coats in the first world war and even Shackleton wore berberes on several of his expeditions to South Pole
I mean even the Queen and King Charles they have raw warrants from [Music] bbery look at that it's quite a lot of housing Estates around here and right in the middle of them a stink pipe points to me yes it's uh I mean I've noticed you get a lot of these along the roots of underground Rivers the Hackney Brook which was the one that went along behind the the houses in Su place it sort of it now runs in a tube or something I've been turned into a sewer and I've noticed you get a lot
of those nearby to take all the smelly woy smells out there and out up into the air anyway points for that look up there you see that church you see at the top there's a on top of the church that's what he means in King Lea when he's saying drench the Steeples drown the blow winds and crack your cheeks rage blowy cataracts and hurricanes he's talking about drench the Steeples drown the he's saying drown out those weather veins which all tend to look like in those in those days because rolls sorry I know I'm not
trying to be rude because it represents St Peter denying Jesus three times before the crowed twice that's why you have those quite often on top of churches in case you were wondering that's [Music] Allon look if you look over here you can just about see I mean it's all just overgrown now but there's a few little Graves and stuff this was the old new Gravel Pit Chapel which stood on this site from 1810 to 1970 So that's its graveyard so some of the grave are still there and that's the one where Joseph Priestly he was
invited to be a minister here at the chapel anyway that is all that remains around the Colossal wreck the lone and desert sand stretch far away this is what it's all about Simon 1930s architecture you see this is how they used to do things well in those days a beautiful building from from 1937 lenx house was designed by Jem McGregor he went on to become the uh professor of architecture at Cambridge University actually I think the idea was to have a Marketplace underneath so they could sell stuff and I don't know Finance the buildings or
something but anyway it's quite an unusual design you think I've always liked that effect it's an in and- out the ribbons it's like a ribbons well each have a nice balcony and they're nicely done [Music] got a lot of Charity shops some secondhand furniture shops and other really nice Swanky new looking places as well it's a bit of an in congruity this this street it is eclectic my favorite thing about this street is this stamp dispenser look at that you get points for spotting this this is on the the George I 6 post box which
could do with a liquor paint oh look good action shot there for us thanks and look at this see you remember those I haven't seen one for ages out out of use and yeah so you put your you put your your coin in there 50 P coins only and then you pull that and your stamps would pop out of there yeah and every child who was worth their salt would definitely put their finger in there and check to see if there's anyone left some money HH always used to do that it's lovely you don't see
those anymore well I used to live in one of these houses I can't remember exactly which one but it was I would have been here back in 2002 was it as nice as that back then it was still nice back then between you and your brother you must have lived everywhere in London some cuz you were just around the corner from probably the most beautiful Terrace of houses in in Hackney or one of them Casten Road here look at this this is from 1792 this was built well I'm very glad I did live here because
it was so was typical London digs very romantic you know that townhouse you know stuff you'd see on TV and film through the years and then you know as a young person sharing a house that that's that's great see those Coats of Arms up there at the top of the building those are the three different developers who built that Terrace in 1792 nice that they're remembered up there on clean shirt front that I laid me trembling it take it easy rest a while the dear old chappie said see this isn't like the one that we
just saw this is this this isn't a stamp dispenser this is a I think this is a box for for the postman to leave his letters in when he's doing a round or something still get points for spotting these and uh again it's another King George I 6 post box that's in need of a lick of paint and it's right next door to the Monga house in the year 1670 Henry Monga left money in his will for houses for poor men over 60 which gives some idea makes don't it's that long till we'll qualify for
something like this so if you're over 60 years of age back in 1670 you could have stayed in one of these although they actually did re Furbish them in Victorian times but I mean some of the brick work is still original but they but yeah they s of refurbishment essentially theyve been housing poor people for nearly 400 years and on me do not frown you shall have my Mansion dear away in London Town oh Church of St John of Jerusalem this spire up here originally this is from 1845 this church but this this this was
used by the luva when they when they flew across Hackney marshes on their bombing raids they would use this as a kind of marker to find their way and then stupidly they bombed it so they couldn't use it as a marker anymore yeah they had to lower that new steeple in using a helicopter they helicopter and put that's how they that's how they put the new one on is this a flying buttress I think that's a flying buttress really seemed a nice old boy so I replied this way I will be your own we come
back we swung back around to May Street so straight up this road is about where we began at Hackney Empire but wanted to come here to Victor wind's Museum of Curiosities where quite some years ago vintage Jewels paid a visit now if you're in hne and you want a genuinely eccentric English experience come and check out Victor wind's Museum of curiosity at number 11 May Street how you love me as a shining Ray of love should warm the darkness of my life the first frob of my grief stricken Soul would be a happy rapity my
name is Victor wind and the hope is to get the whole world into a little box these are the preserved front bottoms of Victorian prostitutes collected by glarian surgeon C grief a well used vagina I Victor wind do most solemnly swear that I witnessed Amy win housee pooing into this jar on the 25th of November seriously that is hers come downstairs you pass the mermaid at the bottom of the are you late I'm well we haven't started yet have a grass I love the fairies cuz you're always finding a fairy in a corner doing something
nauy there's an artist called Tessa who makes these little fairies so here for example the fairies are releasing a vile of clothes moths Napoleon's death mask then we move to Sebastian horley those are the nails that he used when he crucified himself there's so many weird and wonderful things that You' have actually never seen before but there's something for everyone you're actually quite speechless a shrunken head from the Amazon magical soap from the Thieves Market in Mexico City I honestly think this is the weirdest place I've ever been have a silk wor K marvelous in
for a penny the largest egg in the world that was laid by the extinct elephant bird in Madagascar next door we've got the sarcophagus with the human skeleton you can rent that for dinner parties you can also rent it for intimate moments if you're having moment we ask you not to put too much pressure on the table inly these Chinese dildos you can hire them by the arm my good lord it's only open from Wednesday till Sunday but youve really got to see it to believe it he's totally Bonkers he belongs in some sort of
Gothic novel or something the go hesitations would no longer dare to show their crafty face you would be found amid Divine Visions Rose blossoms would have adorned the Bramble of Life had you love me I'm wondering why I recognize the name Jay hland son and I'm wondering if they are it say Foundry there established 1880s so it's quite possible they might have done some of the coal hole covers if you see a Jay holand Sun coal hole cover let me know cuz that would be really cool like this I love the fact that look at
these are old buildings with all the cranes and everything folks that hear it doesn't it Simon so much for our sunny day come here we're in Broadway Market here all very well to do these days very POS this is cat and mutton Bridge cats in the old days the cat was uh reference to the uh coal barges that used to go up the canal CU this is the canal that goes all the way from the the docks in the East around to Paddington and the Grand Union Canal so it's called cat and mutton Bridge because
it's referring to the cats which are those coal barges that went up and down and mutton as in the Sheep which used to come down you know just we just passed it actually sheep plane which is just parallel to Broadway Market and they'd come down here I suppose on their way to uh to Smithfield points for a spotting a stone street sign there that's quite nice this was a real workingclass kind of Market back since 1883 they say this is one of the markets they based e Enders on I don't know it's one of them
anyway um it's all rather changed these days it's all full of very goodlooking well-dressed people I suppose they think they're having fun look and this place so this was actually a Pioneer shop until quite recently still says hot jelly deals when you look up close it's actually turned into a optician might look a bit strange going to the uh to the optician to to get Jelly deals but you old Fred cook he started that up well it says up there 1862 but oh yeah you know he started he moved here in 1900 and he was
selling all these eels and stuff to the to the cattle Drovers who would bring the Sheep down bloke's grandson was still working here around 2010 I think it's time to go to the park oh Mr Porter what shall I do I want to go to birmingh but they Tak me off crew back to London quick good cheers Simon cheers everybody thanks for watching don't forget to hit the Subscribe button if you like the videos and if you want to find out more about me you can go over to my website jsg guides.com where you can
see lots more videos and even purchase some tasteful merchandise and my book anyway see you next time oh what a silly girl I am
