WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 Welcome back to the Deep Dives. I'm your host. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.639 And today we are doing something that, well, 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:08.960 it sounds incredibly simple on the surface, but 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.800 I promise you this, it is going to get very complicated 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:14.460 very quickly. Yeah. Hi everyone. And you're not 00:00:14.460 --> 00:00:16.219 kidding about it getting complicated. Right. 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:19.579 So we are looking at a map today, specifically 00:00:19.579 --> 00:00:24.019 resuming way, way in on a single tiny rectangle 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:26.859 in West London. Basically a patch of grass surrounded 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:30.239 by some reelings and bricks. Exactly. Just a 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:33.039 square. We are talking about Earl's Court Square. 00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:34.689 And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 00:00:34.689 --> 00:00:37.310 a square. We're spending this entire deep dive 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:39.609 on a single square. It sounds a bit entirely 00:00:39.609 --> 00:00:42.070 too niche, right? It does. But the reason we 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:43.329 picked this and the reason our research team 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:45.429 went absolutely overboard pulling all these historical 00:00:45.429 --> 00:00:47.509 records and architectural surveys is because 00:00:47.509 --> 00:00:50.670 this isn't just a location on a map. No, it really 00:00:50.670 --> 00:00:52.929 isn't. It's what you might call a microcosm of 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:56.429 London history, a true core sample of civilization. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:59.679 I love that. That is the perfect analogy. Because 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:01.840 if you're a geologist, right, and you want to 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.019 understand the history of the earth, you don't 00:01:04.019 --> 00:01:06.760 just look at the surface. You drill down. Right. 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:08.980 You take a core sample. Exactly. You pull up 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:12.219 this long cylinder of rock and you look at the 00:01:12.219 --> 00:01:15.019 layers. You see the sediment, the bedrock, maybe 00:01:15.019 --> 00:01:18.019 the ash from a volcano from a million years ago. 00:01:18.459 --> 00:01:21.140 Cities work the exact same way. And Earls Court 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:24.180 Square is one hell of a core sample. If you slice 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:26.840 through the history of this one specific location, 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:29.620 you don't just see a changing London, you see 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:32.859 these absolutely wild contrasts in the human 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:34.959 experience. The extremes. Yes, the extremes. 00:01:35.299 --> 00:01:37.700 We're talking about the highest of high society, 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.560 Victorian ambition, the literal founders of the 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:44.620 Royal Ballet. Crashing headfirst into the grittiest, 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:47.319 darkest parts of the 20th century. Exactly. It's 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:48.920 a stage where the scenery just keeps changing. 00:01:49.069 --> 00:01:51.730 One minute it's just agricultural calm. The next 00:01:51.730 --> 00:01:53.730 it's the home of an inventor designing armor 00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:56.049 -piercing naval weaponry. Which is still wild 00:01:56.049 --> 00:01:58.510 to me. Right. And then you blink your eyes and 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:00.950 suddenly it's the 1970s. The plaster is peeling 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:03.170 off the walls and you have squalid brothels, 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:06.629 a famous murder, and a member of Pink Floyd losing 00:02:06.629 --> 00:02:09.349 his mind in a flat with painted floorboards. 00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:12.069 And I still can't quite get over this part from 00:02:12.069 --> 00:02:15.509 our source material. A literal civil war. Oh, 00:02:15.530 --> 00:02:19.150 the poetry wars. Yes. Not a metaphor, a physical 00:02:19.150 --> 00:02:22.949 confrontation involving the police. But the combatants 00:02:22.949 --> 00:02:25.889 were poets. The Battle of Earl's Court. It is 00:02:25.889 --> 00:02:28.250 such a crucial part of British literary history. 00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:30.750 And it happened right there in a house that used 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:33.229 to belong to a weapons manufacturer. You just 00:02:33.229 --> 00:02:35.150 couldn't write fiction in this symbolic. You 00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:37.710 really couldn't. So that is our mission today. 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:40.150 We are going to stand in the middle of this garden. 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:42.800 metaphorically speaking, and watch the world 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.120 rotate around us for 150 years. We're going to 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:48.000 trace how a cabbage patch became a fortress of 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.300 empire, then a slum, and finally the multi -million 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:54.000 pound real estate you see today. And we really 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:55.879 need to peel back the architecture, too, based 00:02:55.879 --> 00:02:58.300 on those surveys we reviewed. Because the buildings 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:00.879 themselves, they're telling a story about psychology, 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:04.080 about insecurity, and about this desperate need 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.620 to be fashionable. Absolutely. The facades are 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:09.199 hiding so much. But before we jump into the time 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:11.659 machine, let's ground everyone. Let's visualize 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:16.460 the location. So we are in West London, in Earl's 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:19.740 Court. The square is situated specifically between 00:03:19.949 --> 00:03:23.409 Warwick Road on the west and Earls Court Road 00:03:23.409 --> 00:03:26.169 on the east. And it is a garden square. We should 00:03:26.169 --> 00:03:28.669 clarify that because that's a very specific London 00:03:28.669 --> 00:03:30.750 thing. Yeah, explain that layout for anyone who 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:33.090 hasn't been there. Sure. So it's a communal garden 00:03:33.090 --> 00:03:35.889 in the center. Usually it's accessible only to 00:03:35.889 --> 00:03:37.789 the residents who have a key to the gate. And 00:03:37.789 --> 00:03:41.030 it's surrounded by these grand terraces of tall 00:03:41.030 --> 00:03:43.810 houses looking inward at the trees. It sounds 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:46.789 incredibly tranquil. It sounds lovely. But as 00:03:46.789 --> 00:03:48.990 we're about to find out. Tranquil is probably 00:03:48.990 --> 00:03:51.389 the absolute last word I would use for its history. 00:03:51.689 --> 00:03:54.229 It has been a lot of things, but boring is certainly 00:03:54.229 --> 00:03:56.530 not one of them. So let's start at the bedrock. 00:03:56.949 --> 00:03:59.710 Section one of our dive today, foundations and 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:02.830 facades. Before the bricks, before the drama. 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:07.129 What was actually here? Mud and vegetables. Mud 00:04:07.129 --> 00:04:10.610 and vegetables. Just a farm. Just a farm. For 00:04:10.610 --> 00:04:14.090 centuries, this was strictly agricultural land. 00:04:14.569 --> 00:04:16.389 It was part of what was known as the Earls Court 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:19.550 Farm. And originally, this land belonged to the 00:04:19.550 --> 00:04:21.870 Rich family. Which is a great name for a landlord, 00:04:21.930 --> 00:04:23.910 by the way. It really is, isn't it? The Rich 00:04:23.910 --> 00:04:27.189 family. And then later, ownership transitioned 00:04:27.189 --> 00:04:29.649 to the Edwards family. For generations, this 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:32.430 was just the outskirts. London was miles away 00:04:32.430 --> 00:04:35.050 to the east. This area was where you grew the 00:04:35.050 --> 00:04:37.949 food that fed the city. But then we hit the mid 00:04:37.949 --> 00:04:41.300 -19th century. And the monster starts to grow. 00:04:41.379 --> 00:04:43.540 The expansion of London. The explosion of London, 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:46.060 really. The railways arrive. The district line 00:04:46.060 --> 00:04:48.480 cuts right through the area. And suddenly, growing 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.120 cabbages in Earl's Court is just a terrible business 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.459 model. Because the land is suddenly worth a fortune. 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:56.040 Exactly. It's worth a fortune if you can stack 00:04:56.040 --> 00:04:59.319 people on it instead of plants. So the Edwards 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:02.459 estate makes the decision to develop. And what's 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:04.360 the timeline on that? Do we have a specific? 00:05:04.649 --> 00:05:07.949 date from the records? We do. Construction officially 00:05:07.949 --> 00:05:11.810 began around 1872 or 1873. OK, so we are deep 00:05:11.810 --> 00:05:14.430 in the Victorian era at this point. The British 00:05:14.430 --> 00:05:17.730 Empire is at its absolute height. And this is 00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:19.129 where we really need to talk about the look of 00:05:19.129 --> 00:05:21.769 the place. Because they didn't just build functional 00:05:21.769 --> 00:05:24.649 houses, they built a statement. They really built 00:05:24.649 --> 00:05:27.370 the architecture of ambition. If you walk into 00:05:27.370 --> 00:05:29.730 Earl's Court Square today and look at those main 00:05:29.730 --> 00:05:32.029 terraces, what is the first thing you notice? 00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:34.629 It's all white. It's incredibly grand. It looks 00:05:34.629 --> 00:05:36.790 like a giant wedding cake made of stone. Exactly. 00:05:36.870 --> 00:05:40.189 It looks like stone. But here's the secret. It's 00:05:40.189 --> 00:05:42.910 a total lie. It's a lie. A complete fabrication. 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:47.089 That is not stone. That is brick. Cheap, usually 00:05:47.089 --> 00:05:50.029 fairly ugly brick, entirely covered in a layer 00:05:50.029 --> 00:05:52.269 of stuff called stucco. OK, let's unpack stucco 00:05:52.269 --> 00:05:54.250 for a second. Because you hear that word on property 00:05:54.250 --> 00:05:56.189 shows all the time. Oh, it's a stucco -fronted 00:05:56.189 --> 00:05:58.610 property. What actually is it, chemically speaking? 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:02.199 Chemically, it's a render. It's a mix of lime, 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:05.439 sand, cement, and maybe some crushed marble if 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:08.379 the builder's feeling fancy. You literally smear 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:11.040 it over the brickwork like icing on a cake. Wow, 00:06:11.220 --> 00:06:14.079 okay. And then you score deep lines into it to 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:16.319 trick the human eye into thinking it's made of 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:19.040 heavy individual blocks of masonry. And then 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:21.430 you paint it. So it's basically theatrical makeup 00:06:21.430 --> 00:06:24.410 for a house. It is pure theater. The Victorians 00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:27.069 in this area wanted to project immense power. 00:06:27.550 --> 00:06:29.649 They wanted their homes to look like the great 00:06:29.649 --> 00:06:32.490 Italian palazzos of the Renaissance. That's why 00:06:32.490 --> 00:06:34.649 the dominant style in the square is what we call 00:06:34.649 --> 00:06:37.589 Italianate. Ah, so that explains the columns. 00:06:37.769 --> 00:06:40.310 Yes. You see the upper floor balconies supported 00:06:40.310 --> 00:06:42.389 by those heavy columns. Those are Italian at 00:06:42.389 --> 00:06:45.029 dressings. You have the heavy cornices, the pillared 00:06:45.029 --> 00:06:47.129 porches. It's all designed to create this overwhelming 00:06:47.129 --> 00:06:49.810 sense of verticality and grandeur. It's sending 00:06:49.810 --> 00:06:52.949 a message. Exactly. It says, the person who lives 00:06:52.949 --> 00:06:56.110 here is a person of substance. They are as solid 00:06:56.110 --> 00:06:58.550 as Rome. Even though their house is actually 00:06:58.550 --> 00:07:01.189 just made of brick and plaster. Precisely. And 00:07:01.189 --> 00:07:04.430 there is a massive catch to this. Using SUCO 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:08.050 in 1870s London was a really high -risk strategy. 00:07:08.410 --> 00:07:11.050 Why is that? Well, think about the air quality 00:07:11.050 --> 00:07:15.370 in 1873. Oh, right. Coal smoke. The famous pea 00:07:15.370 --> 00:07:18.670 super fox. Exactly. The air was practically solid 00:07:18.670 --> 00:07:21.740 with sulfur and soot. Now what happens to a highly 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:25.560 porous bright white plaster wall in a sulfurous 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:27.660 atmosphere? I imagine it doesn't stay bright 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:29.800 white for very long. It turns gray, then it turns 00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:31.980 black, and then the sulfur actually attacks the 00:07:31.980 --> 00:07:33.980 lime and it starts to peel off in these huge 00:07:33.980 --> 00:07:36.379 ugly chunks. It literally looks like a skin disease 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.879 on the building. Oh wow. So living in a stucco 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.100 house was actually a double flex. You were telling 00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:43.819 society, I can afford to buy this massive house 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.540 and crucially I can afford the army of painters 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:48.839 required to repaint it every two years to keep 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:51.199 it white. like owning a white Ferrari today or 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:52.939 something. You're telling the world you can afford 00:07:52.939 --> 00:07:55.920 the insane maintenance. That's spot on. It is 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:58.180 the architecture of insecurity. They were desperate 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:00.480 to look established. But here is where the core 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.420 sample gets visually really interesting. Because 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:05.699 the square isn't actually uniform. All right, 00:08:05.699 --> 00:08:07.279 looking at the architectural survey we have, 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.300 it's quite a mix. It is. Alongside all that Italian 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.480 stuff, you have clear influences of the Second 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.139 Empire style. Which sounds very Star Wars, but 00:08:16.139 --> 00:08:18.529 I'm assuming it's French. It is French. Think 00:08:18.529 --> 00:08:22.709 Napoleon III. Think Grand Paris Boulevards. You'll 00:08:22.709 --> 00:08:26.350 see mansard roofs, those very steep roofs with 00:08:26.350 --> 00:08:29.110 the windows set into them, and very distinct 00:08:29.110 --> 00:08:31.089 dormer windows. So you have a bit of fake Italy, 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:34.169 bit of fake France? Yeah, but then if you walk 00:08:34.169 --> 00:08:36.149 to the south side of the square, specifically 00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:40.269 the terrace numbered 30 to 50 suit C3, you step 00:08:40.269 --> 00:08:42.149 into a completely different movie. These are 00:08:42.149 --> 00:08:44.029 the houses that were built later, right? Yes. 00:08:44.490 --> 00:08:46.230 The whole development of the square took about 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:49.850 20 years, eventually finishing around 1890. And 00:08:49.850 --> 00:08:51.929 by the time they finally got to building the 00:08:51.929 --> 00:08:54.389 south side, the fashion had changed completely. 00:08:54.809 --> 00:08:56.509 So what are we looking at when we look at numbers 00:08:56.509 --> 00:08:59.750 30 to 52? We are looking at the Jacobian revival. 00:08:59.950 --> 00:09:01.929 Okay, so we've ditched the fake Italian stone 00:09:01.929 --> 00:09:04.809 by this point. completely ditched it. Gone is 00:09:04.809 --> 00:09:08.029 the white stucco. Now we have red brick. We have 00:09:08.029 --> 00:09:11.070 incredibly ornate terracotta details. We have 00:09:11.070 --> 00:09:13.629 these uniquely shaped gables at the roof line, 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.289 sometimes called Dutch gables. Why the sudden 00:09:16.289 --> 00:09:17.870 switch? Did they just run out of white paint? 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:20.129 No, they ran out of patience. You really have 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:21.990 to understand, the Victorians were obsessed with 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:25.470 style, but they got bored so easily. By the late 00:09:25.470 --> 00:09:29.029 1880s, people were absolutely sick of the endless 00:09:29.029 --> 00:09:31.409 rows of white stucco. They were over it. They 00:09:31.409 --> 00:09:33.480 called it dra - they thought it was soulless 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.820 and repetitive. The aesthetic movement had kicked 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:38.620 in. People wanted texture. They wanted color. 00:09:39.059 --> 00:09:40.860 And crucially, they wanted something that felt 00:09:40.860 --> 00:09:43.220 English. Because the Italian style was too foreign. 00:09:43.539 --> 00:09:46.580 Exactly. The Jacobian revival looked back to 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:49.500 the 17th century, to the reign of James I. It 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:52.460 felt native. It felt domestic and warm. So the 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:55.559 square literally captures that exact moment in 00:09:55.559 --> 00:09:58.159 history where Londoners collectively decided 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:01.379 we are done with the fake columns, bring us the 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:03.679 red brick. It's a fossilized change in taste. 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:05.779 You can see the timeline written right in the 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:08.679 mortar and you know it gets even more complex 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:11.320 when you factor in the apartments. The mansions. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:12.980 Right the mansion blocks. We've got Weatherby 00:10:12.980 --> 00:10:15.700 Mansions, Herbert Court Mansions and Langham 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:19.100 Mansions. These are large purpose -built apartment 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.460 blocks that just coexist right alongside the 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:24.279 houses. I've always found the term mansion block 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:27.519 quite funny. It is clearly just marketing. it 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:31.500 is 100 % marketing spin because in the 1880s 00:10:32.230 --> 00:10:34.690 respectable middle -class English families did 00:10:34.690 --> 00:10:37.169 not live in flats. Flats were for the poor or 00:10:37.169 --> 00:10:39.129 they were continental. Which again was highly 00:10:39.129 --> 00:10:41.529 suspicious to the Victorians. Extremely suspect. 00:10:41.669 --> 00:10:44.509 The idea that you lived on one floor with strangers 00:10:44.509 --> 00:10:47.490 living literally above your head, it was standaless. 00:10:47.570 --> 00:10:49.389 So how do you convince wealthy people to buy 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:52.529 them? You call it a mansion. You put a very imposing 00:10:52.529 --> 00:10:54.929 porter in a brass buttoned uniform at the front 00:10:54.929 --> 00:10:57.769 door. You build this incredibly grand entrance 00:10:57.769 --> 00:11:00.210 hall. You make it sound like a sprawling country 00:11:00.210 --> 00:11:03.460 estate. And it worked beautifully. These blocks 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:06.220 became highly desirable. And just to finish the 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:08.139 architectural tour of the square, we have the 00:11:08.139 --> 00:11:10.220 modern layer, the addition of Northgate House 00:11:10.220 --> 00:11:13.600 in 1965. Which I'm sure you can guess looks absolutely 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.580 nothing like the others. Nothing at all. So you 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:19.440 have agricultural roots, Italian ambition, French 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:23.539 roofing, English revival brick, and 1960s modernism, 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.139 all facing the exact same patch of grass. It's 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.700 an incredible ensemble. So the stage is completely 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:31.740 set. We have these grand, confusing, ambitious 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:34.080 buildings. Now we need to populate them. And 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.500 this brings us to section two of our dive. High 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:40.580 culture and high society. The golden era residents. 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:43.039 The list of people who lived in this square in 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:45.759 the late 19th and early 20th century is just. 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:48.470 staggering. And there's a distinct theme. It 00:11:48.470 --> 00:11:51.169 seems to be this intense mix of heavy industry 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:53.870 and high art. It really is. It serves as an incubator 00:11:53.870 --> 00:11:56.389 for people who, and I don't use this phrase lightly, 00:11:56.789 --> 00:11:59.330 who genuinely changed the world. Or at least 00:11:59.330 --> 00:12:01.429 they fundamentally changed their corner of it. 00:12:01.570 --> 00:12:03.429 Let's start with the art side of things, specifically 00:12:03.429 --> 00:12:05.990 the ballet. This square is basically hallowed 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:08.789 ground for British dancers. It is. The absolute 00:12:08.789 --> 00:12:11.629 key figure here is Ninette de Valois, the dame 00:12:11.629 --> 00:12:14.330 herself. The dame. She lived at number 23. This 00:12:14.330 --> 00:12:16.330 was actually her parents' home initially, and 00:12:16.330 --> 00:12:18.250 she lived there at the very start of her career. 00:12:18.789 --> 00:12:21.250 Now, we really need to contextualize her for 00:12:21.250 --> 00:12:24.580 a moment. Because she didn't just do ballet. 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:27.679 She essentially built the entire infrastructure 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:30.940 of British ballet from zero. Because before her, 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:33.100 it didn't really exist here as a major institution, 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.659 right? Not as a national homegrown institution. 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.600 If you wanted... serious, prestigious ballet 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:41.259 back then. You look to Russia or you look to 00:12:41.259 --> 00:12:44.639 France. Devaloa was just an absolute force of 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:46.740 nature. Yeah. She founded the Sadler's Wells 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:48.899 Company. She founded the Royal Ballet School. 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:51.759 She founded the Royal Ballet itself. So imagine 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.799 this. You're walking past number 23 in, say, 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.679 1920 or so. You look up at the window. And inside 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:01.440 there is this young woman who is mentally constructing 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:03.919 the entire future of dance in the United Kingdom. 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:06.539 The discipline that requires is just insane. 00:13:06.860 --> 00:13:10.059 Ballet is all about rigorous, often painful perfection. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.519 And she was plotting all of that out in a house 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.639 originally designed for lazy Victorian gentility. 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:18.539 It's a great image. And she wasn't the only one. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:21.720 Sir Frederick Ashton is also listed as a notable 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:24.710 inhabitant of the square. He was arguably the 00:13:24.710 --> 00:13:27.309 greatest British choreographer of the 20th century. 00:13:27.649 --> 00:13:29.769 It's amazing. It's like a vortex for dance talent. 00:13:30.230 --> 00:13:32.909 It suggests that the area had this very specific 00:13:32.909 --> 00:13:35.350 cultural cachet. It was wealthy enough to be 00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:37.950 comfortable, but maybe just on the edge enough 00:13:37.950 --> 00:13:41.350 to be artistically interesting. But then, and 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:43.409 this is where the contrasts come in, you look 00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:46.049 two doors down and the vibe changes completely. 00:13:46.230 --> 00:13:49.029 Number 21. Earl's Court Lodge. This is the home 00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:52.649 of Sir William Palliser. Now this guy. He was 00:13:52.649 --> 00:13:55.990 not choreographing delicate dances. He was choreographing 00:13:55.990 --> 00:13:58.730 destruction. He was a brilliant inventor, specifically 00:13:58.730 --> 00:14:02.090 of ordinance. Heavy naval weaponry. The palacer 00:14:02.090 --> 00:14:04.350 shot. I read up on this in the bios we pulled, 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:06.950 and it is fascinating. It is. And to understand 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:09.330 why his presence in the square matters, you have 00:14:09.330 --> 00:14:12.090 to look at the naval arms race of the 1860s and 00:14:12.090 --> 00:14:15.779 70s. This was the era of the ironclads. Suddenly, 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:18.159 navies around the world were wrapping their old 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.700 wooden ships in these incredibly thick iron plates. 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:22.799 So the old school cannonballs were just bouncing 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.580 right off. Boing. Exactly. It was a massive problem 00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:29.659 for the British Empire. The navy had these huge, 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:32.370 powerful guns, but they just couldn't penetrate 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:35.450 the new French or Russian armor. Palliser solved 00:14:35.450 --> 00:14:37.850 it. How did he do it? He invented an entirely 00:14:37.850 --> 00:14:40.169 new way of casting the projectiles. He used something 00:14:40.169 --> 00:14:43.029 called chilled iron. Essentially, he cast the 00:14:43.029 --> 00:14:45.850 artillery shot point down in a metal mold. OK, 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:48.090 what does that do? Well, the metal mold cooled 00:14:48.090 --> 00:14:50.809 the tip of the shell very rapidly. This rapid 00:14:50.809 --> 00:14:52.929 cooling made the nose of the shell incredibly 00:14:52.929 --> 00:14:56.129 hard. Brittle, yes, but intensely hard. And then 00:14:56.129 --> 00:14:58.769 the rest of the shell, the body, was cast in 00:14:58.769 --> 00:15:01.570 sand. So it cooled much more slowly and st - 00:15:00.970 --> 00:15:03.429 tough and resilient. So when it actually hits 00:15:03.429 --> 00:15:05.710 the enemy ship... The nose doesn't squash or 00:15:05.710 --> 00:15:08.210 deform, it punches through the iron armor plate 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:10.490 like a needle, and the tough body of the shell 00:15:10.490 --> 00:15:12.450 follows it right in, shattering the inside of 00:15:12.450 --> 00:15:14.590 the ship. It was absolutely brutal. It changed 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:16.889 naval warfare overnight. And he is designing 00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:20.190 this terrifying weapon in a nice stucco house 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:23.519 in Earls Court Square. That is the exact juxtaposition 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.559 I love about this place. At number 23, you have 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:28.840 the ultimate grace and elegance of the human 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:32.139 form, the origins of the Royal Ballet. At number 00:15:32.139 --> 00:15:34.519 21, you have a man mathematically calculating 00:15:34.519 --> 00:15:36.860 the best way to send a heavy piece of iron through 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:39.259 the hull of a battleship to kill everyone inside. 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:41.860 It perfectly captures the duality of the British 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:44.250 Empire right there. The high culture and the 00:15:44.250 --> 00:15:46.149 extreme violence, just living side -by -side 00:15:46.149 --> 00:15:48.409 in matching houses. And you had other major figures, 00:15:48.710 --> 00:15:50.750 too. Frank Gielgud lived there, the father of 00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:53.230 the famous actor Sir John Gielgud. Later on, 00:15:53.289 --> 00:15:55.889 you had Sir John Egan, a highly notable businessman 00:15:55.889 --> 00:15:58.450 in the 1960s. These were all people who made 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:01.169 things happen on a grand scale. The square was 00:16:01.169 --> 00:16:03.929 a genuine power center. Nothing stays golden 00:16:03.929 --> 00:16:06.450 forever. No, it doesn't. Cities are living organisms. 00:16:06.549 --> 00:16:08.629 They breathe in, they breathe out. Neighborhoods 00:16:08.629 --> 00:16:10.850 rise and they inevitably fall. And Earls Court 00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:13.350 Square fell hard. Which brings us to section 00:16:13.350 --> 00:16:17.210 three, the slide into squalor. The gritty 1970s. 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:19.629 If we get back in our hypothetical time machine 00:16:19.629 --> 00:16:22.590 and jump from the glory days of the 1920s to, 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:25.929 say, 1972, what are we seeing when we look out 00:16:25.929 --> 00:16:28.490 the window? You are seeing a very, very different 00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:30.909 world. The historical surveys are actually quite 00:16:30.909 --> 00:16:33.710 blunt about it. They describe the square by the 00:16:33.710 --> 00:16:37.629 1970s as extremely run down. How does that happen? 00:16:37.649 --> 00:16:40.210 How do you go from Sir William Palliser and Dame 00:16:40.210 --> 00:16:43.399 Nanette de Valois to extremely rundown. It's 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.340 the mechanics of the post -war city. First, you 00:16:46.340 --> 00:16:49.159 have the servant crisis. Those big vertical five 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:51.559 -story houses were essentially machines, and 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:54.559 they ran entirely on cheap human labor. You needed 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:56.980 maids to haul coal up four flights of stairs 00:16:56.980 --> 00:16:59.100 just to heat a bedroom. Right. After the two 00:16:59.100 --> 00:17:01.740 World Wars, nobody wanted those jobs anymore. 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:03.860 And the middle class certainly couldn't afford 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:06.019 to keep fully staffed houses. So the houses just 00:17:06.019 --> 00:17:08.480 become unmanageable for a single family. Exactly. 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:11.500 Who wants a massive, drafty house with no central 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.200 heating and no staff to clean it. So the original 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:16.799 wealthy families move out to the suburbs or downsizes. 00:17:17.299 --> 00:17:19.559 And the landlords move in. They buy up these 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:22.240 mansions and they chop them up. The multi -occupation 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:26.240 era. Yes. They throw up flizzy partition walls. 00:17:26.589 --> 00:17:30.309 put a cheap padlock on every bedroom door, install 00:17:30.309 --> 00:17:33.670 a coin -operated gas meter in the corner, and 00:17:33.670 --> 00:17:36.569 rent them out by the week. The population becomes 00:17:36.569 --> 00:17:39.390 highly transient. And when a population becomes 00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:41.670 transient, the fabric of the community starts 00:17:41.670 --> 00:17:44.190 to fray very quickly. And obviously the maintenance 00:17:44.190 --> 00:17:46.849 completely stops. Remember the stucco we talked 00:17:46.849 --> 00:17:50.049 about? The peeling skin. The white Ferrari that 00:17:50.049 --> 00:17:53.069 nobody is washing. Exactly. By the 70s, it's 00:17:53.069 --> 00:17:55.490 gray, it's cracked, it's falling off in dangerous 00:17:55.490 --> 00:17:58.109 chunks onto the pavement. The beautiful iron 00:17:58.109 --> 00:18:00.809 railings are probably rusting or missing, and 00:18:00.809 --> 00:18:03.190 into this vacuum comes the underworld. The notes 00:18:03.190 --> 00:18:05.950 we pulled for this section are grim. We aren't 00:18:05.950 --> 00:18:07.730 just talking about a bed of litter or some noisy 00:18:07.730 --> 00:18:10.269 neighbors. We are talking about organized vice. 00:18:10.710 --> 00:18:13.410 Two specific brothels are explicitly mentioned 00:18:13.410 --> 00:18:15.210 in the records operating right in the square. 00:18:15.500 --> 00:18:18.279 One was at number 9, another was operating out 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:21.279 of the AL block of Weatherby Mansions. And the 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:23.559 phrase used in the source text is squalid brothels. 00:18:23.900 --> 00:18:26.490 Which implies a whole lot. These were not high 00:18:26.490 --> 00:18:28.410 class discrete establishments for gentlemen. 00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:31.750 These were dangerous, intensely unsanitary places. 00:18:32.089 --> 00:18:34.650 We know this for a fact because they were eventually 00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:36.750 evicted not by the police vice squad, but by 00:18:36.750 --> 00:18:38.769 the borough's health inspector. That is such 00:18:38.769 --> 00:18:41.529 a grim detail. It wasn't just treated as a crime. 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:44.069 It was literally a public health hazard. And 00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.450 that kind of environment attracts serious violence. 00:18:46.769 --> 00:18:49.190 There was a murder described as a sordid murder 00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:51.490 that occurred at number four. It's almost impossible 00:18:51.490 --> 00:18:53.589 to reconcile this with the ballet dancers, isn't 00:18:53.589 --> 00:18:55.880 it? It is, but this is established life cycle 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:59.259 of grand London squares. Wealthy origins, post 00:18:59.259 --> 00:19:02.839 -war obsolescence, severe decay into multi -occupancy, 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:06.799 and neglect. The 1970s was the nadir, the absolute 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:09.099 lowest point for the area's reputation. It was 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:11.539 a really rough place to be. But, and I think 00:19:11.539 --> 00:19:13.880 this is the great paradox of urban decay squalor 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:18.059 is cheap. And cheap rent attracts artists. Precisely. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:20.500 The establishment flees to the suburbs and the 00:19:20.500 --> 00:19:22.859 counterculture moves right into the ruins. Which 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:27.099 perfectly transitions us into section four, psychedelics 00:19:27.099 --> 00:19:29.819 and counterculture. Because right in the middle 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:32.720 of all this grime and danger, we find a massive 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.339 rock star. Sid Barrett. The original front man 00:19:35.339 --> 00:19:38.440 and founder of Pink Floyd. He lived at 29 Weatherby 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:40.500 Mansions. The records show he moved in around 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:44.259 January 1969. Now. We really need to set the 00:19:44.259 --> 00:19:46.279 scene for Sid here. Because this is not the Sid 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:48.740 Barrett playing sold out stadiums with lasers. 00:19:49.019 --> 00:19:51.180 No, not at all. This is Sid on the way down. 00:19:51.259 --> 00:19:53.059 He has already been kicked out of the band he 00:19:53.059 --> 00:19:56.200 founded. His mental health is rapidly deteriorating, 00:19:56.500 --> 00:19:59.599 heavily fueled by intense LSD use. He is actively 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:01.720 retreating from the world. And he chooses to 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:04.059 retreat to Earl's Court Square. It makes perfect 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:05.660 sense for him at that time. It was a place for 00:20:05.660 --> 00:20:08.109 outsiders. He lived in that flat. with the artist 00:20:08.109 --> 00:20:10.509 Dougie Fields. I've actually seen photos of that 00:20:10.509 --> 00:20:13.269 apartment from later years. Dougie Fields eventually 00:20:13.269 --> 00:20:16.089 turned it into this incredible pop art masterpiece. 00:20:16.349 --> 00:20:19.710 Yes. But in 1969, imagine the stark contrast. 00:20:20.230 --> 00:20:22.349 Outside the window, you have the rotting Victorian 00:20:22.349 --> 00:20:26.349 facade, the gray London sky, the transient bedsits, 00:20:26.390 --> 00:20:28.609 maybe the squalid brothel just down the hall. 00:20:28.869 --> 00:20:32.349 And inside, you have these brightly painted floorboards, 00:20:32.589 --> 00:20:35.190 mattresses thrown on the floor, incredibly loud 00:20:35.190 --> 00:20:38.720 music playing, and and a musical genius who is 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.000 slowly, tragically losing his grip on reality. 00:20:42.259 --> 00:20:45.099 It's almost poetic, in a way. The building was 00:20:45.099 --> 00:20:47.640 decaying, shedding his old erictocratic identity 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:50.400 right at the same time Sid was shedding his pop 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.259 star identity. It connects Barrett so deeply 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:56.279 to the architecture of the era, he wasn't living 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:58.660 there because it was posh. He was there because 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:01.160 it was a ruin. And ruins are places where you 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:03.240 can hide. We also have Joan Buck, the American 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:05.640 writer and actress, listed as living there during 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:08.619 this period. It really became a bohemian enclave. 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:11.660 It did. It was gritty. It was undeniably dangerous, 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:14.519 but it was incredibly creative. The knights and 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:17.539 the dames were long gone. The freaks had officially 00:21:17.539 --> 00:21:19.819 taken over the castle. And speaking of freaks 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.559 taking over the castle, we absolutely have to 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.579 talk about the battle. Oh, the battle of Earl's 00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:27.000 Court. This is section five. And honestly, when 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:28.819 I was reviewing the research notes, this is the 00:21:28.819 --> 00:21:31.039 part that made me stop and reread the page twice 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:33.259 because it sounds like a Monty Python sketch, 00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:36.549 but it was entirely real. It was very real and 00:21:36.549 --> 00:21:39.309 very intense. So let's go back to number 21. 00:21:39.710 --> 00:21:42.630 Right. Sir William Palliser's old house. The 00:21:42.630 --> 00:21:45.950 naval gun inventor. Right. By the 1970s, who 00:21:45.950 --> 00:21:48.329 was occupying the gun inventor's grand house. 00:21:48.549 --> 00:21:51.390 The poets. Specifically, it housed the Poetry 00:21:51.390 --> 00:21:54.430 Society and the Poetry Society Bookshop. Okay. 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.950 So I'm picturing tea, biscuits, quiet readings 00:21:57.950 --> 00:21:59.849 of rhyming couplets. It sounds very peaceful. 00:22:00.289 --> 00:22:03.039 You would certainly think so. But the 1970s was 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:06.000 a volatile time for everything in Britain, and 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:09.279 that included poetry. There was a massive, bitter 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:11.839 ideological split in the British poetry scene. 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.710 Who were the combatants in this war? Well, in 00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:16.869 the blue corner, you had the traditionalist factions. 00:22:17.049 --> 00:22:18.990 These were the old guard. They controlled the 00:22:18.990 --> 00:22:21.250 society. They firmly believed in strict form, 00:22:21.490 --> 00:22:24.569 in narrative verse, in proper, respectable English 00:22:24.569 --> 00:22:26.769 poetry. The literary establishment. Exactly. 00:22:26.829 --> 00:22:28.930 And in the red corner, you had the modernist 00:22:28.930 --> 00:22:30.910 factions. These were the young radicals. They 00:22:30.910 --> 00:22:32.950 were part of what's known as the British poetry 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.829 revival. They were heavily influenced by American 00:22:35.829 --> 00:22:39.670 beat poets, by chaotic sound poetry, by performance 00:22:39.670 --> 00:22:42.289 art. They basically wanted to tear up the traditional 00:22:42.289 --> 00:22:44.500 rule book and burn it. So what actually happened? 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:47.079 Did they just write incredibly passive aggressive 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:49.700 letters to each other? Oh, no. It went way beyond 00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:52.880 letters. The modernists organized a literal coup. 00:22:53.299 --> 00:22:55.400 They realized that if they just got enough of 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:57.680 their radical friends to join the society and 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:00.019 vote, they could legally take over the council 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:03.319 of the Poetry Society. And they did exactly that. 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:06.079 They seized control of the organization from 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.740 the inside. They seized power. They seized the 00:23:08.740 --> 00:23:11.539 means of poetic production. They literally took 00:23:11.539 --> 00:23:13.720 over the printing press. in the basement of number 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:17.299 21, they turned the ground for bookshop into 00:23:17.299 --> 00:23:20.640 a massive hug for radical underground literature. 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:24.819 They started using society funds to publish experimental 00:23:24.819 --> 00:23:28.059 work that the traditionalists absolutely despised. 00:23:28.299 --> 00:23:30.059 I'm guessing the traditionalists did not take 00:23:30.059 --> 00:23:32.200 this well. Not at all. And more importantly, 00:23:32.539 --> 00:23:35.039 the Arts Council, the official government body 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:36.960 that provided the funding for the society was 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:39.140 horrified. They thought they were giving taxpayer 00:23:39.140 --> 00:23:42.000 money for quiet culture, not for this radical 00:23:41.930 --> 00:23:44.369 anarchist takeover. So you have a full -blown 00:23:44.369 --> 00:23:47.609 standoff. You have a literal siege. It was documented 00:23:47.609 --> 00:23:50.309 historically as the Battle of Earl's Court. There 00:23:50.309 --> 00:23:53.410 were vicious shouting matches in the very hallways 00:23:53.410 --> 00:23:55.650 where Palliser used to design artillery shells. 00:23:55.869 --> 00:23:57.910 There were lock -ins. The police were actually 00:23:57.910 --> 00:23:59.970 called to the square. The police were called 00:23:59.970 --> 00:24:03.950 to settle a poetry dispute. Officer, arrest this 00:24:03.950 --> 00:24:06.529 man. He's using free verse. Exactly. It sounds 00:24:06.529 --> 00:24:09.049 hilarious to us now, but the stakes for them 00:24:09.049 --> 00:24:11.730 were incredibly high. They were fighting for 00:24:11.730 --> 00:24:14.309 the very future of British poetry. They were 00:24:14.309 --> 00:24:17.009 fighting for limited funding for national visibility. 00:24:17.049 --> 00:24:19.710 And it was all happening right there, centered 00:24:19.710 --> 00:24:22.269 at number 21. I just love the historical irony 00:24:22.269 --> 00:24:24.849 of it all. You have a house built by a man who 00:24:24.849 --> 00:24:28.250 made literal weapons of war. And 100 years later, 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.690 it becomes a metaphorical and almost physical 00:24:30.690 --> 00:24:33.390 battlefield for a civil war between angry poets. 00:24:33.650 --> 00:24:36.670 It perfectly highlights the cultural of the 1970s. 00:24:36.690 --> 00:24:38.670 We usually just think of the 70s as a time of 00:24:38.670 --> 00:24:41.230 economic decline or the birth of punk rock. But 00:24:41.230 --> 00:24:43.930 even in these supposedly highbrow circles, there 00:24:43.930 --> 00:24:46.890 was deep rebellion, clashing ideologies everywhere. 00:24:47.089 --> 00:24:49.430 Everything was up for grabs. So at this point 00:24:49.430 --> 00:24:52.329 in our timeline, we have hit rock bottom. We 00:24:52.329 --> 00:24:55.750 have squalid brothels, unsolved murders, drug 00:24:55.750 --> 00:24:59.250 -addled rock stars, and rioting poets. The square 00:24:59.250 --> 00:25:02.029 is an absolute mess. It is on the brink of total 00:25:02.029 --> 00:25:04.859 collapse. But... We all know the ending to this 00:25:04.859 --> 00:25:07.059 story, because if you go to Earls Court Square 00:25:07.059 --> 00:25:10.779 today, it is immaculate. It is full of multi 00:25:10.779 --> 00:25:13.720 -million pound flats. The stucco was painted 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:16.400 bright white again. How on earth did we get from 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.660 the poetry riot back to the pristine recovery? 00:25:19.259 --> 00:25:22.359 This brings us to section six of our dive, Conservation 00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:25.190 and Legacy. The square obviously didn't stay 00:25:25.190 --> 00:25:27.630 squalid forever. The major turning point was 00:25:27.630 --> 00:25:31.329 the year 1975. What happened in 1975 to turn 00:25:31.329 --> 00:25:34.150 the tide? The square was officially granted conservation 00:25:34.150 --> 00:25:36.869 area status. Now here is a detail from the survey 00:25:36.869 --> 00:25:39.460 that I found completely fascinating. Despite 00:25:39.460 --> 00:25:42.440 the massive architectural ambition, despite having 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:44.779 residents like Palliser and Devaloa, there are 00:25:44.779 --> 00:25:46.779 absolutely no listed buildings in the entire 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.059 square. That is surprising, isn't it? Usually 00:25:49.059 --> 00:25:51.380 grand Victorian terraces with that much history 00:25:51.380 --> 00:25:53.220 would definitely be grade a second listed in 00:25:53.220 --> 00:25:55.440 London. So what is the actual difference between 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:58.359 a listed building and a conservation area? Why 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:00.839 does it matter? A listing protects a specific 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:04.220 individual building. It says, this one structure 00:26:04.220 --> 00:26:06.799 is a unique masterpiece. You cannot touch the 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.759 windows. You cannot alter the interior. But a 00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:12.640 conservation area protects the broader environment. 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:15.420 It protects the vibe. The vibe of the square. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.460 Right. Legally, the planners call it protecting 00:26:18.460 --> 00:26:21.940 the character and appearance. It recognizes that 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:24.380 the true value of the area isn't necessarily 00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:26.900 in one specific house, because remember, the 00:26:26.900 --> 00:26:29.460 architecture is a total mishmash. Some are fake 00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:31.880 Italianate, some are Jacobian, some are massive 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:34.740 mansion flats. The value is in the ensemble, 00:26:35.140 --> 00:26:37.299 the way all these different buildings group together 00:26:37.299 --> 00:26:40.339 and face inward around that central garden. So 00:26:40.339 --> 00:26:42.779 granting that status basically saved the context 00:26:42.779 --> 00:26:45.039 of the neighborhood. Exactly. Once that status 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:48.720 was formally granted in 1975, it sent a massive 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:51.480 signal to developers and investors that the area 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:54.480 was officially protected. The Wild West era of 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:57.619 the 70s was over. And the cleanup began. Yes. 00:26:58.339 --> 00:27:00.599 The Arts Council eventually cut the funding to 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:03.400 the radical poets, and that society basically 00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:06.509 imploded. The borough cleared out the remaining 00:27:06.509 --> 00:27:08.930 broccoles, the transient bedsets were bought 00:27:08.930 --> 00:27:12.349 up, and the houses were slowly, painfully renovated 00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:15.029 back into single -family homes or luxury apartments. 00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:17.150 And the garden itself survived through it all. 00:27:17.259 --> 00:27:19.960 The garden is the one constant in this entire 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:23.000 story. We should also mention Farnell Muse, which 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:25.380 runs just from the east side of the square. That 00:27:25.380 --> 00:27:28.059 layout survived, too, through the agricultural 00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:30.740 farming era, the frantic Victorian building site, 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:33.720 the golden era of the ballet, the slum era of 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:36.859 the 70s, and the modern multi -million pound 00:27:36.859 --> 00:27:40.509 recovery. that one patch of green remained. It's 00:27:40.509 --> 00:27:43.049 a complete Victorian ecosystem that somehow managed 00:27:43.049 --> 00:27:45.190 to heal itself. So if you walk through those 00:27:45.190 --> 00:27:47.250 gates today, you aren't just seeing a sterile 00:27:47.250 --> 00:27:49.670 museum piece. You're looking at a survivor. You 00:27:49.670 --> 00:27:52.130 really are. You're seeing a veteran, a building 00:27:52.130 --> 00:27:54.410 ensemble that has been scrubbed completely clean, 00:27:54.490 --> 00:27:56.549 but has seen things you just wouldn't believe. 00:27:56.950 --> 00:27:59.650 It really is an incredible journey when you lay 00:27:59.650 --> 00:28:02.009 it all out like this. I mean, we traveled from 00:28:02.009 --> 00:28:04.859 the Edwards Family Farm. straight through the 00:28:04.859 --> 00:28:07.819 massive construction boom of the 1870s. We saw 00:28:07.819 --> 00:28:10.819 the architecture of ambition rise up in fake 00:28:10.819 --> 00:28:13.079 stone. We visited the homes of the people who 00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:15.460 built the Royal Ballet and the people who armed 00:28:15.460 --> 00:28:17.660 the Royal Navy. We watched it all completely 00:28:17.660 --> 00:28:19.819 fall apart during the post -war servant crisis. 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:22.019 We hung out with Sid Barrett in the squalor of 00:28:22.019 --> 00:28:26.440 the 1960s. And we witnessed a literal poetry 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:29.319 civil war. It brings us right back to that core 00:28:29.319 --> 00:28:32.359 sample idea from the beginning. Earl's Court 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:35.279 Square is just a perfect example of how a single 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:37.960 location can wear so many different masks over 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:40.539 a century. It reflects the changing face of London 00:28:40.539 --> 00:28:43.579 itself. London is constantly dying and being 00:28:43.579 --> 00:28:46.619 reborn. This square is just a very, very concentrated 00:28:46.619 --> 00:28:49.180 version of that cycle. And that is exactly what 00:28:49.180 --> 00:28:51.579 I want you, the listener, to take away from this 00:28:51.579 --> 00:28:54.519 deep dive today. Because we all walk past buildings 00:28:54.519 --> 00:28:56.359 every single day. Maybe it's a house on your 00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:58.119 commute. Maybe it's your own apartment block. 00:28:58.460 --> 00:29:00.660 And you look at it, and you just see bricks. 00:29:00.859 --> 00:29:03.380 You just see the surface layer. But if the walls 00:29:03.380 --> 00:29:06.339 of number 21 Earls Court Square could talk, they 00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:09.519 would scream. They would talk about armor piercing 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:11.940 shells in the 19th century and shouting poets 00:29:11.940 --> 00:29:14.720 in the 1970s. Every building has a secret history. 00:29:15.140 --> 00:29:17.140 You have to be curious enough to drill down and 00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:19.680 look for it. So here is our final provocative 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.400 thought for you to mull over today. What seemingly 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:24.920 quiet building in your neighborhood is hiding 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:29.509 a wild history of battles, genius or crime. Next 00:29:29.509 --> 00:29:31.829 time you walk past that old quiet house on the 00:29:31.829 --> 00:29:34.670 corner, just stop for a second. Imagine who was 00:29:34.670 --> 00:29:37.349 living there 50 years ago. Imagine who was pacing 00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:39.630 the floors 100 years ago. You might be truly 00:29:39.630 --> 00:29:41.630 surprised by what you find. Thanks for diving 00:29:41.630 --> 00:29:43.390 deep with us today. We'll see you in the next 00:29:43.390 --> 00:29:44.029 one. Bye, everyone.