Rather Splendid Tour of Freemasons Hall, Seven Dials and Endell Street - London

let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of london i'll show you something to make pip pip telly ho jules guides here in which i wander around london and tell you fascinating facts and um this week well we've been hanging around in covent garden then we've done some jars it's so overlapping that we're still in this area but we're going to head over sort of towards drury lane and down endless street anyway you'll see but look don't forget to hit the subscribe button if you enjoy these videos because it really

helps and it will help me finally get onto strictly come dancing which obviously is my whole raison d'etre in life um what's this little bit called here i know it's the end of long acre anyway that leads to common gardens up there but i just wanted to talk about this thing over here this is an old favorite with tour guides and cab drives always telling me about this apparently well the story goes that um this on this junction here back in the night 30s and 40s so the police used to direct traffic you know and

and they like to there was an old rusty nail here they'd sometimes hang their coats onto but then when they redid the building the builders knocked down the whole thing and the police had nowhere to hang their coat when they were directing the traffic so they say that as a gesture of goodwill the builders installed this hook for them there so they can use it to hang things up and that's why it doesn't have the traditional metropolitan police kind of font because it wasn't put there by the police it was actually put there by the

builders that's what they say but i i don't know if it's true but anyway it's a lovely story i like it so it's good enough for me all right have you seen the old man in a closed down market kicking up the papers with this one okay let's just test simon how do you pronounce that simon ye old print shot see that proves what i have here the two suspected which is that simon does not pay attention when i'm filming jules guys it's the old print shop or the oldie print shop the old print shop

not ye you said as you walk around this area which i guess is called seven dials sort of this sort of between charter avenue and common garden you keep seeing all these like ladies above like you see that she's called a demi virgin since 1391 the whole area here was owned by the worshipful company of mercers mercers are like cloth makers or something and that's the emblem of the mercers a demi virgin no i had to look up what a demi virgin was actually it's a lady who flirts a lot with blokes and kisses them

and lets them get very close but will not let them do the business you know you know what i'm saying in his eyes you see no pride and how loose [Music] i love this street full of all the um what used to be warehouses obviously look at those pulleys and stuff they've kept them all very authentic i think that part there or this part i don't know which part was the wood yard brewery they had tunnels underneath so they could take all the beer barrels to various pubs without having to get in the way or

getting mugged because it was a pretty nasty area back in the day around here but it's a place of particular fondness for me because just down there where that lady's standing is the entrance to what used to be the basement where jewels on vocals with little lost glue on the guitar used to go and rehearse in their band spandex nappy rash i think it was that door there we used to go i was about sort of 18 or 17 or something i'm the guy with the long hair like screaming [Music] i can't remember if it

was that one or that one but uh anyway think about a dance now we're just coming up to langley street i'm always going on about if you subscribe i might get enough subscribers to be on strictly come dancing well if you want to learn how to dance just next to the london film school over here his pineapple dance studios oh oh hello thank you lara no no i'm not lara i'm foxy oh of course you are but i'm going to anthony's class perfect you're gonna be in studio two just around this way in this one

here oh okay wish me luck there is anthony king what are we gonna learn today we're gonna do nsync bye bye bye check it out okay let's try i teach the 80s 90s class at pineapple dance studios i've been teaching here since 2004 so 17 and a half years i teach mondays thursdays and saturdays monday we are doing uh prince 1999 thursday bangles manic monday so we do 80s or 90s hit every lesson we do a different one i quite like this fire escape it makes you feel like we're the kids from new york yeah

we're the kids from aggressive jewels you gotta be aggressive well this was a disused pineapple warehouse and debbie moore obe she created this famous dance studio and lots of celebrities over the time and film music videos this is amber rose she's her birthday and she's an incredible dancer amber rose does everyone has an amazing name yeah remember i've just mixed foxy they all sound like bombs girls bonnie langford and wayne sleeps here all the time when he sleeps it does wayne sleep sleep but madonna filmed hung up in her pink leotard in that studio one

right over there yeah you can do um classical classes so you've got technique you've got ballet you've got tumbling caprera we have cabrera amazing talent here i've got some pepperware my ginger my ketchup so i teach every saturday at 4pm you play instruments you sing and you dance the three things together [Music] i'm an author of 15 books hey my chance yeah this is available in the pineapple store which is just across the road and it's about dance history fitness nutrition in the pineapple shore you can buy the atari yes all your dance gear and

pineapple's a fashion brand as well as a dance brand we put up all the dance videos and it shows a lot of the fun and you can check out what's going on and it'll be great to see you online right let's see what i got [Music] sorry i have to talk over this bit otherwise they get a copyright strike for using the music [Music] how was yes that was brilliant that was brilliant you were good actually how was that for you great and he's the best teacher so how can you tell me [Music] this is

neil street about 10 years ago neil street was my favorite street in covent garden it was really bustling and now it's like i don't know it's nothing down here for me i mean like over here used to be food for thought do you remember food for thought the vegetarian place i used to come in all the time it's so sad that everything yeah i've never seen i've never seen one of these before here in london but well that's the kind of shop that's opening up now it's not a shop park your bike for free it's

a garage for bikes there's no way that that would have been there 10 years ago it doesn't feel the same simon anyway neil street is named after a neil's yard it's named after thomas neal who was master of the mint and groom porter to i think was william of orange i don't know which king it was anyway basically he was in charge of gambling and stuff at court and he provided cards and dice and settled any disputes that took place whilst gambling i think charles ii said that he didn't want anybody building on this area

he thought it would ruin his air make it too cramped for his palaces which were nearby but eventually after he died i think they said okay look thomas neil you can build some stuff around here so that's why all these places are named after him so neil's yard here for example this bit is still quite bustling around here this is nils yard it's really nice in 1840 there used to be a cow shed here but they had a fire which one was the cow shed but they had a fire but it was started on purpose

because back in those days you got a reward like a shilling or something if you reported a fire that had broken out so they could come and put the fire out so it's a bit of a stupid system really but yeah it's still rather nice lots of cafes etc but this one up here is bought by michael palin and terry gilliam in the 70s they bought this that's why it says monty python that nice sort of warehouse you feel to the place if you want cheese you'll like these let me take you by the hand

and lead you through the streets of london i'll show you [Music] do you know much about freemasonry i've never known what freemasons do but anyway all the things around here they've got freemasons pub over there is it all just disembodied eyes above pyramids on the back of american banknotes hello chaps do you actually no come on do you actually do that no we don't actually do this [Laughter] this place here people always saying to me oh you've got to go into the freemasons halls so let's do it hello hello morning morning hello do i give

you a funny handshake no let's just give you guys just give it a go this is freemasons hall covent garden and this is where basically we have all our central offices our charities uh we've got a cafe we've got a library we've got a museum we've got an archive and you stood now in the shop which opened only a couple of months ago you can buy basically everything from traditional attire for freemasons through to the jewels and collars and things like that books and postcards and anyone can come in here anyone can come in it's

open to everyone it's amazing building it's amazing isn't it a whole building an art deco masterpiece this is the uh lodge room of the grandmaster of the duke of kent this is his private lodge room what actually goes on in these rooms i mean uh so there are three degrees in freemasonry um and each degree is a sort of a ceremony laid out for the candidate so the first one is your initiation to freemasonry you are taught the importance of your role within your world and your creator in the second degree you're led to contemplate

your role within sort of society and these are the tracing boards that you would use in the course of the ceremony there's three of these again for the three different ceremonies that all have ritual meanings and an explanation that's given to the candidates as part of their initiations and in the third degree you're led to contemplate the inevitable destiny of all of us in death [Music] and this is the grand temple a warning here women hi i'm catherine nisbett i'm the events manager here at freemasons hall and i'm also a freemason so if you think

about it in the same ways you have private members clubs that are for networking in some places or rotary clubs that help do charity it's just another outlet like that the difference being that it has very unique and wonderful traditional ritual something what's the point in learning this ritual why do people do it think of it like a play so each person that's in the lodge whether they're the person who's being initiated into the lodge whether they're the worshipful master whether they're one of the wardens yeah is a part in the play and they have

to learn it in order for the for the play to go smoothly because the other people in the lodge are watching and enjoying the play and the people who are participating are enjoying it this is the grand masters throne built in 1791 used by the prince of wales when he was grand master in the 1790s king george the fourth george the fourth old said the voice off there you go yeah yeah oh there he is behind you in fact look there he is and over here we've got um the constitutions of freemasonry published by james

anderson in 1723. it was taken around the world as freemasonry spread and developed around the globe particularly to france and to america where benjamin franklin paid for its publication in the early days of the american republic there so you can basically draw parallel lines between this constitution and that of america and a number of other countries around the world i must just be a bit thick i can never understand what it is that what's the point in it all i mean what so is it different for everybody it's charity it's friendship it's uh finding people

with common interests you can't deny that mason seems to have this kind of secretive reputation actually it's one of the big disappointments i think for most people is that we are actually not secretive so people go oh can't go into freemason's hall no you can come in like i hold public concerts it's not secretive i think the only thing that's secretive we kind of hold close is the ritual the only reason why we do that is because we don't want to ruin it for people who've not yet done it right so this is how you

join freemasonry basically rough unready but suitable for working with and working on and that's what we end up with it's been polished it's been straightened it's been squared this was all born out of stone masons so if you're a medieval stone mason you travel between the great projects around europe in around the 13th century but because to demonstrate your level of skill and ability you could only really carve something which might take weeks or months you took with you handshakes that would enable you to demonstrate your proof and proficiency to those that you sought to

employ you tokens or passwords that would demonstrate to them that your level of ability this one was the apron of edward when he was prince of wales went on to be edward viii and this master mason's apron was winston churchill's and this one here is edward viii chauffeurs i didn't know that he told me it shows a great level you see so you've got both the chauffeur and the king in the same cabinet oh yes the prince and the porpoise and the pauper there you go yes as you're going through it you don't want to

ruin it for somebody else and that idea of integrity is you're asked not to divulge something because you'll be ruining it for the people who might be coming through the ranks but i won't suffer a murderous end if uh if i do dive on i don't know it depends on where you walk in dark place dally's in london at night you might well do but it's nothing to do with us excellent thank you so much you're very welcome have you seen the old girl who walks the streets of london right we're just coming up to

seven dials where all these roads converge originally there were six roads here yeah the original idea was to have this big kind of sundial here and there were six roads originally um that's why in case you're wondering why there's only six dials on the top of it i suppose the plan would call it six dials but then they installed another street zone now it's called seven dials but the morning chronicle called it a rendezvous for blackguards and chimney sweepers so the column was removed in 1773 and it wasn't really reinstalled until 1989 according to that

so look you can see all the streets coming off it this is why it's so difficult to make this film because we didn't know which street to go down but that one used to be called little is it little white lion street you see the uh just above there they are where it says mercer street they've just plastered in a borough of holborn now it's borough of camden i suppose and on these bollards you see all these bollards they've all got um a little emblem on them of a beautiful little deer with an arrow through

him and that is a reference to saint giles himself who was known to be very kind to animals so you see a lot of this all over the place because this whole area is still st giles but we didn't cover this part in my video a few weeks ago because it was too much to do but it's a really poor area back a few hundred years ago i rather like this road a bit more than neil street these days i prefer monmouth street monmouth named after the bastard son of king charles ii the duke of

monmouth who lived over in soho square just there that's where his house was he's the one who tried that monmouth rebellion didn't he my history is a bit sketchy but uh the monmouth coffee company is very highly regarded i just find there's not quite enough room for your legs in there if you're six foot six like i am they even have you in the window mate [Laughter] i want image rights there was a lot of french huguenots were living around this area which probably explains why they've got the french hospital there it's actually now the

covent garden hotel it's hot because that's got the english flag the french flag is the one that's on the place opposite but it was somewhere around here that hogarth did his famous picture of gin lane because one in every five or four shops or buildings served alcohol there was a real gin epidemic in the 18th century reports in the 1840s spoke of pavement swarming with pigs poultry ragged children and windows patched with paper and rags and lord byron when he was up in parliament he said i have been in some of the most oppressed provinces

of turkey but never under the most despotic infidel governments did i behold such squad wretchedness as i have since my returning to the very heart of a christian country she's got no time for talking she just keeps her right on walking home in 1861 there was a census and there were 25 italian organ grinders lived in this house so popular with italian organ grinders apparently and then the one next door here i think that was that whole section was taken up with a lodging house tom farmer's lodging house it was called the kip and that

was a place where you could sleep on a rope i mean back in those days it's so bad i mean up until the end of the 19th century if you were poor and you needed a place to sleep for the night i think for a bed or something or a seat or something it was like two or three chillings or something but maybe for like one shilling you could sleep on a rope which meant sitting down next to other people and then they'd have a rope that went across you like that and then you just

fell asleep you just hung over this rope so you didn't fall onto the floor and in the morning they just came along and cut the rope and everyone fell down they just turned them out into the street horrendous hard times though simon hard times so how can you tell me you're lonely so in case you're wondering why there's all these bananas on the side of the buildings over there i think that's a reference to when that was a banana ripening warehouse banana sold presumably at the common garden fruit market but then in 1961 it was

bought by donald albert and margot fontaine the famous ballerina and they turned it into the don marr warehouse which is the famous theatre that's what don myers donald albert and margot fontaine i thought it was interesting anyway let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets at the end of endless street here have you ever been to the oasis sports centre they've got an outdoor swimming pool there although i've got to say the changing rooms for me were not i don't know i like a bit more privacy let's just put it

that way let's see the changing rooms but yeah they've got an outdoor swimming pool there which is quite quite cool and it was there that i did my audition for big brother and i got down to the last 50 and then they didn't choose me i think they were after people who would go to pieces a bit more but the right opposite there is this lovely building that used to be the saint giles national school it's designed by the same guy who did the royal opera house i believe the edward middleton barry anyway these days

it's saint mungo's sort of shelter housing for homeless people i think i mean look at that right there in the middle of dudley court which isn't exactly the most picturesque place this actually used to be a military hospital up here on the left you'll see a nice plaque dr flora murray and louise garrett anderson they were physicians and set up the women's hospital corps when the first world war broke out they were kind of snubbed by the brits during the first world war they went over to france and were welcomed by the people in paris

to come and help with you know the wounded soldiers and everything anyway after a while british war officers were amazed at how well these women were running their hospital in france and they got them to come back to london they established the first military hospital entirely to be staffed by women and actually i think when the obe was first introduced around was it 1917 they were two recipients of the first of the obese order of the british empire i like it when they put plaques there like that because it means i don't have to remember

things so i love endless street this side i mean little places you might miss all these little cafes restaurants and stuff but a particular favorite of mine is blackout 2 vintage clothing where i bought my straw boater and i believe other friends of the show go hello hello hello the shop's been here for about 30 years it's vintage so it goes from 1920s to 1970s bracelets and hair flowers we've got some fabulous men's hats bowlers actually i bought one of those uh from here yeah yeah yeah yeah they're the real deal those my boss and

her husband just source everything individually and obviously the condition of it is really important we get all sorts we do a lot of film theater telly um and then obviously we've just got our gorgeous regular customers that just enjoy good quality from caridine for example tom carradine for example as well um friend of the show see you later see you later in the all-night cafe [Music] sitting there so dudley court here where the military hospital used to be was originally a victorian workhouse for the poor which closed down in 1914 and there's actually a famous

photograph taken here of a lady holding another person's baby because the parent was too despondent or weak to look after it herself they were known as saint giles crawlers charles booth who compiled his poverty map of london he describes the area just around the corner there as being worst street saint giles full of cockney irish who while not immoral who would steal if they got the chance and bash in the heads of policemen let's go over here son you mentioned the rock and soul place i mean they claim to be the oldest fish and chip

shop in london they say that they've been here since 1871. i don't know i cannot verify that i thought it started up in our stepney green video we said that it started in the east end didn't we so i don't know but nevertheless they were very friendly in there and they let me film it's lovely place to come and have fish and chips i think we might come in later perhaps it's a nice spot looking at the world over the rim of his teacup released [Music] how long ago since you've seen one of these dog

nuisance 20 pounds so it's a foul in the philippines yeah i haven't seen one of those for absolutely ages i think that's from the 70s yeah that is uh that's pretty old look at this betterton house to the right there you see the pea there on the wall that indicates that in the second world war there was a sort of airaid shelters down here yeah people could people go down there into the shelter that's what that means i [Music] jewelry lane now rather ordinary office block over there is where the first ever sainsbury's shop opened

up it was a dairy it was i think it was selling dairy products or something in 1869 and now they're all over the place but further along here now you see this very picturesque travel lodge up here this is where the plague started in london i know i mentioned it in my covent garden video the plague didn't start in the travel lodge but uh back in 1665 it was here that the flemish weavers opened up a package from holland and uh it was infected with the plague and a thousand people a day were dying and

they were playing around here and the neighboring parishes even had to mount guards to stop people leaving the parish of saint giles which was particularly bad but william borghurst the excellently named apothecary hung around and decided to treat people he was treating 40 people a day and he didn't even die of the plague so good old william boghers day but uh anyway whatever was there before he knocked it down and built that it's rather nice down this end of jewelry lane in the north end you've got some lovely cafes that's rather nice that one there

reminds me a little bit of some of the cafes that i saw in serbia the terrific cafes in serbia by the way i'll say in this park here many pubs make this claim but they claim to have the oldest license in london there's certainly been a pub there since 1536 they say so this is supposed to be where dick turpin planned some of his highway robberies in there that has been rebuilt since then they used to have a space invaders machine in there as well i don't know if they still got it let me take

you by the hand and lead you through the streets of london i'll show you something do you remember when we were in this pub and that guy bought me a point he'd be paid but we were sitting there right yes and the guy was sitting at the bar he didn't say anything to us the whole time he came over and he just said i paid for those beers for you do you know why you did it it was out of respect [Laughter] thanks for watching yep cheers man don't forget to hit the subscribe button if

you like the videos and um if you want you can also follow me on my instagram which is that's jewels guides official and above all don't forget to come and have a pint of this excellent pub across keys which i highly recommend see you next time [Music]