What I normally do if I need to cross the river is jump in and pretend to drown. Then when the RNLI come, I hijack the lifeboat at gunpoint. It's great, they'll take you anywhere.
Aren't you supposed to jump in with one of the tethered roundels positioned along the riverbank? Excellent service in my experience, always picked up promptly, given a warm blanket and a hot cocoa. I can't see where to swipe my oyster though.
Considering that sewage waste is dumped into the Thames, why would anyone want to jump into the Thames?, especially the part of the Thames between Surrey and Essex, beyond Thamesmeade the Thames is so much cleaner. Imagine drowning in the section of the Thames that is most polluted by sewage?, that is a Hellish way to die, because you will get sewage waste going into your airways.
I've lived in east London for many years, we need someone to make an Uber service for local boat owners, so we can cross the river or get into central. The Thames clipper service is obscenely expensive. £9.60 for a 430 meter trip 1 stop, from double tree to canary wharf and back. How?
The Millennium Bridge didn't actually struggle to take the weight, they just accidentally didn't take into account the resonance effect of hundreds of pedestrians walking in step, the small vibrations of the bridge would produce a slight sway which made people start to step in time with the sway and that added to the effect.
Hence the signs telling soldiers to break their stride on some bridges. Apparently the Broughton Suspension Bridge collapsed in 1831 because of marching soldiers.
This series feels like it would be a BBC documentary series that would be on in the background in the morning some time in 2007, and I love everything about that.
I had no idea that Ken’s bridge started construction! I used to always wonder why that random flyover between Tesco and the road to Asda even existed. It just went between parallel roads. Jokes aside, the cross river transport chaos is one of the reasons I left 😐
GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS! MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T, THE POPE DIDN'T EITHER, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR UA-cam STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP IDOLIZING & WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE! JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU! Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6 "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33 “For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
I worked on the Greenwich Penninsula in the run up to the Millenium; it was a very strange place in many ways- one minute you're next to houses worth millions, the next you're walking past some pretty grim streets. The river walkway from the Cutty Sark out to the Dome was not in a straight line but almost castellated- the remnants of all the old shipping of the era. But I can tell you with a degree of confidence that in respect of South of the Thames, no one calls themselves 'East London' no matter how far East they are. The concept of East London is most certainly a North London concept. I would be genuinely interested to learn whether other people agree or disagree.
Yes, in common parlance east London is north of the river. If you're dull then London postcodes can be slightly interesting. There's no NE (this is Newcastle) and whilst there's North (N), there's no South (S) which is Sheffield. There are also peculiarities in that faraway places like Wimbledon and the the Houses of Parliament both have postcodes starting SW1.
As someone from Erith and live close enough to the river to see it from my front door - the thought of being called "East London" sickens me. East London is everything on the other side of the Thames - anyone asks where I'm from, I always just reply "South East"
@@Noea93 I think you are well and truly in the majority when you write that. I was born just outside Stratford and I remain a proper London East End Cockney inasmuch as I fled and now live in Milton Keynes. I don't know if this was covered in the video or not, but most Cities historically have been wealthy at the West and poorer at the East and this is due to the prevailing winds from the West- the wealthy in the West didn't want to smell the factories (or personal odour!) of the working class to the East. Maybe South London just historically doesn't want to be associated with the poor image of the East. I would add that when I used to be a bus station manager, I would occasionally cover for driver shortages- mostly on the Kent coaches and I always felt safer driving through South London than the North. Victoria (central), Pimlico, The Elephant, Old Kent Road and out... I wouldn't like doing a stopping service at night like that in the North through places like Willsden. Furthermore, I have noticed- real or imagined?- that the different ethnic groups now making up London tend to get on better with each other South of the Thames too.
The reason the Romans built a bridge where they did is that it was the furthest point up river that a vessel could readily get on the incoming tide. The area immediately downstream of the bridge was through much of history a flattish bank where ships could be beached and unloaded before floating off and going downstream on a rising tide. London Bridge was therefore as far downstream as one could build a bridge without impeding trade.
@@Aliquis.frigus I was playing that last night! Absolute blast. I'm studying Geography though so I don't fashion myself to be the best urban planner O_O xD
If you like these videos I would recommend checking out Not Just Bikes channel. Filled with interesting videos that mostly cover the Netherland and the US.
Documentaries were better back in the day, never really thought about that before. These days they'd prefer not to let the truth get in the way of a good story!
My city, while very different than London, has an old, historic bridge that was deemed unfit for car's weight and made redundant by other nearby, larger crossings. They were going to tear it down but activists fought to make it a pedestrian and cyclist only bridge. It's one of the top focal points of the city now and allows me to live car-free (car-lite) on one side of the river while comfortably getting to services on the other side. Edit: City is Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Bridge is the Walnut Street Bridge. Has it's own Wikipedia and Tripadvisor page haha
My concern would be that the maintenance on a bridge designed for one kind of traffic might be too much when it comes to it supporting a different kind of traffic. Not necessarily a bad thing to use a bridge that's in decline for though.
@@chaos.corner don’t be dense. Pedestrians and cyclists don’t cause nearly as much strain or damage to a bridge designed for cars and trucks than do the cars and trucks that use it.
@@riz3310 @IcedCat Right. But bridges still need maintenance beyond that caused by wear from the traffic. A bridge built for cars and trucks will need more maintenance than one built for pedestrians even if it's only being used for pedestrians. Don't be dense.
Jay and Tom Scott are a great example of how two people from the same place can talk about essentially the same topics (Infrastructure) yet still be very unique.
1. I used to live next to where the Wandsworth pedestrian bridge was supposed to be built - you can even see my house (one of the white houses right off the skyscraper). I lived on that side (Chelsea/Fulham) and my school was in Battersea. A 5 min walk in a straight line, yet a 30min drive when going over Battersea bridge. We were so excited to find they might build a pedestrian bridge since the train bridge already existed there. 2. I now live in Fulham near Putney Bridge and oh my god Hammersmith bridge being closed has caused so many issues. The pollution in the area has literally gone up because of it. They’re reopening it properly in a few years to cars, but they still won’t fix it permanently. It means they have to fix it for 3ish years and millions of pounds every 15 years or so, rather than just taking a few years to fix it properly. It annoys me how much the council mismanages funds.!
My river city in the States has similar vexations. When one of my sisters bought a home on the other side of the river, we starting calling it the Wrong Side of the river. Too few crossings and congested approaches to those crossings means it was quicker to drive into the surrounding towns, and enter the city from the opposite side than it was to attempt to cross the river through the city center. Sure, there might be a few bus routes that could get us near her home, but no one wants to ride in a bus for 3 hours to just cross your own town.
That's the problem with public transit... If you don't have a decent system first, building just part of a decent system will seem very wasteful. We really need to plan ahead at timescale we're not accustomed to.
@@Furko08 my guess based on their username would be Boston. If ur into urban planning it’s kind of an odd mix of a city. It’s kinda the best and also a little bit sorta the worst. Still probably the best big city in the country, besides maybe Chicago (which probably won’t hold that title for long either way)
@@travcollier B-But "thinking and planning ahead", "being selfless and considerate", and "acknowledging public transportation as legitimate" are *un-American!* You can get yourself lynched in worryingly large parts of the USA/by a worryingly large amount of citizens of the USA for even _thinking_ like that!
We get that in Portland as well. There's plenty of bridges, but they definitely dictate how one gets from *here* to *there* and if you go too far south you get stuck quickly. And then there's other issues like the main bridge Clackamas County uses not being in Clackamas so they keep voting down attempts to get them to help fund it instead of saying "make Sellwood pay for it, it's their bridge".
The riverbed in Valencia is a great and unique part of the city - acres of green space, fields for football or rugby, and paths for runners and cyclists. But draining the Thames would sort of ruin the whole Tower Bridge post card thing, yeah?
This is the first video of yours I have viewed (all hail the youtube algorithm), and I have to say I LOVE your storytelling. A well earned subscribe from me :)
And I also really enjoyed the ad read at the end. The amount of effort that went into this video is on par with legends like Ryan George and Daniel Thrasher.
I was surprised you talked about Valencia at the end. The old river, now turned into a massive urban park, is so useful for the citizens I can't even explain in a message. But it always comes with a cost. A big new concrete river was needed to build at the outskirts of the city implying at the time a major environmental impact. Also, at the end, the new-built river is becoming a new barrier at the south of the city
That was done in Franco times when the dictator could do what he liked. Impossible to do in London. Also the British government are not capable of doing even moderate infrastructure projects without it going 10 times over budget. So its better they dont try.
Quite a few bridges over the new river, and of course there is the road either side as well, used to be a lot more rural until you got to Alfafar, Benetússer and Parque Alcosa etc. The one thing the new river always seem to lack, is water!
I think a Ferry system like the ones mentioned but also Brisbane makes a lot of sense you can even tie it in to other transport lnks so being close to the river is effecticely like being close to a Tube Station.
@@jonathanmelhuish4530 some other cities in Turkey have ferry service as well. İzmir and İstanbul are the only services reasonable enough for commuters though.
This brought back painful memories of being an East Londoner who was going to university in South London and having to take an awkward DLR route just to cross that blasted river.
In architecture achool we once had a lecture by a brilliant urban planner- Prasanna Desai, who said- “if you design for more cars, you will get more cars. So design for what you want.” That thought has stuck with me forever and resonates so well with your support of the unconventional connection bridges.
Alternatively DON'T design for the cars and you'll find that no one wants to go there... I really think a lot of those phrases are self referential chicken and egg type.
As a South East Londoner all of my life i massively appreciate the attention given to the lack of crossings, It's absolutely absurd. Silvertown tunnel having no cycle/pedestrian access is asinine when you consider how desperate Khan is to reduce emissions. All you have left are two shady tunnels with unreliable lift service and a Ferry that is equally unreliable due to strikes and the congestion buildup to get there.
I've only tried to go from SE to NE London a few times and once I was stuck for 4 hours in traffic before giving up because Blackpool tunnel flooded. The queue to the boat crossing was hours long. I only wanted to drive about 5 miles.
If this were anywhere other than London you wouldn't have any crossing because the Government only invest in London. The regions may as well be an uninhabited desert
You might ask why there are so few tube stations south and east of the river. Its the same answer - the substructure is Thanet sand which the Victorians had no ability to tunnel through as the tunnels would collapse. Thats why the Jubilee Line extension in the 90's (13 New stations) was so important. They used a technique called NATM (New Austrian Tunnel method) to tunnel safely through sandy layers.
Clearly, the best answer to getting back and forth in east London would be paired sets of large trebuchets and giant bouncey castles to catch the cars on the opposite side. Quick, efficient, and a technological breakthrough in motor transport.
Your Unfinished London series is so high quality and creative, if it weren't for the advert for a VPN at the end I'd believe I was watching a clip from a TV show! Amazing work as always!!
I think that sums up London. I'm always knackered when I come back from there, for a place with so many transit systems you seem to end up having to walk your legs off there going anywhere.
@@Darth_Chicken It helps explain why there are far fewer overweight people there too compared to other parts of the UK. Bad public transport so you rely on driving has other long term negative effects you often overlook.
@@TalesOfWar More likely is money. People with money tend to be in better shape. Poor people usually don't eat healthy foods and are statistically more overweight. Plus they are lazy. Also, large cities like London are a destination for attractive tourists and locals with money.
7:00 I never knew that this statistic of 4 wasn't just a joke for the video until I watched a great video on the cable car recently. 4 people use it as part of their daily commute
City planners will always invest in areas of the city that produce the most income, any tourists travel in east London? Tourists spend money, lots of it; that's your answer! Same everywhere, no tourists go to Watts in L.A., too dangerous, but they do still go to Hollywood to see the stupid sign, and the stars on the streets!
@Killjoy That is simply not true. There is so much money in East London now it’s unbelievable. The continued growth to the east side of London is alarming and I’m surprised the environmentalists are not hitting the roof. You talk about it being so poor….well, they have solved that problem by forcing out the poor and sending them to Clacton. If you’re looking to make big gains in property, East London is the place to be.
It’s funny you mention Watts as an example, I’m from London but when I went to LA as a tourist I drove down to Watts one day to see the Watts towers, which I thought was really cool, had a nice little walk around the immediate area too such as the park and the arts centre there. I see what you mean about the area being dangerous though, frankly it’s embarrassing that in a city as wealthy as LA, the conditions that existed in that neighbourhood resembled something like a South American favela. The few locals I spoke to by the arts centre were lovely though
@@Sabotaz80xx like a lot of areas in L.A. they were once nice, long ago, when the Watts towers were built by that artist. I think he was an immigrant, at the time. Things change in big cities, all over the world, usually not for the better. At least no wars will ever happen here, like they are in Ukraine, except for a nuke war, of course, then the perpetrator country, take your pick of a few, will be utterly destroyed as well.
I don't know how he does it, but Jay always has a magical way of making me invested in something I shouldn't care about and will never need to know again He's also probably the reason I'm now so fascinated by London
As a Dutch person that loves making videos about transport infrastructure myself, I always enjoy your fantastic videos that combine this with amazing humor. can't wait for the next video to come!
Birssy has small population when it is compared to London. But I agree with you Brisbane is unique and brilliant with these fast boats to cross the river.
The nose sellotape is an excellent level of commitment to the local place for local people reference. This is the kind of excellence I've come to expect from you.
@@drbarnack1885 It's a reference to a rather surreal BBC comedy show "The League Of Gentlemen" (no relation to the film). ua-cam.com/video/meF7NmfnXZ0/v-deo.html
Well Jay finally addressed the Lower Thames Crossing after emailling me back about three years ago saying it was a worthwhile idea to consider. Its a massive clusterfuck and deserves its own video by somebody.
Found myself wondering this during a recent trip to London. I never could have guessed how funny and interesting the answer could be when randomly clicking your video. Pausing at 5:16 to write this comment in honour of the League of Gentlemen reference. Amazing video, great job. Will be checking more of your work!
The nose edit and phrase is a reference to Edward, a character from The League of Gentlemen ("This is a local shop for local people!") which is a British sitcom from the early 2000's.@@ixlnxs
As a civil engineer I’m in the fortunate position of both seeing the changes we need to make, and being at the coal face implementing them. You are quite right that at present we are building infrastructure for cycle demand that doesn’t yet exist. A lot of people get up in arms about this, but forget it’s also what we’ve been doing with motorways and trunk roads for the last 60+ years. I find it almost romantic that car usage has come full circle in almost a century and a half. And a quote attributed to Henry Ford: “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” A move to to greener modes of transport may not be what the people want, but it is certainly what they need.
Also have you seen some of the infrastructure that has been made. It's already full of cyclists at rush hour that weren't cycling those routes a few years ago. This comes up quite a lot on cyclist twitter. You just need the right routes and whole network connectivity (ie build routes that people travel and make sure they actually up and don't drop out like most bad cycle infrastructure) and it won't even take that long for them to fill up. Part of the problem in London are councils, particularly tories councils, who are mostly able to scupper cycling schemes that actually get you into the centre of London where people work. Westminster and Wandsworth are Labour now so the opportunities are there for big improvements. RBKC is still a massive problem and red routes (and a minister needs to sign off those changes) may solve some of that but really transport and roads long term probably need to be centralised in the mayoral office in a rare case of the UK needing less centralisation.
The bike circle in downtown Croydon is absolutely useless and makes travel a huge pain in the ass. I've literally never seen a bike there ever. It just makes going to and from your hotel an absolute nightmare and a great way to pay extra for your uber or minicab getting lost just trying to go one block. Why not take public transit, you ask? Because the tram doesn't run after midnight! So trying to get back from your buddy's house in Sutton late at night means you have no choice but to call a cab.
I'm a driver in East and to be honest, an alternative to blackwell tunnel is much needed, though I can see how paradoxical it is. I think going for more sustainable public transport solutions over the thames is the way to go. They really need to improve the public transport infrastructure though, which is falling desperately behind other developed nations in terms of quality.
I think he may have overlooked the amount of freight and trade that is transported on the dartford blackwall crossings. We need better connections especially with the ports actually a major part of the infrastructure in the south east
This guy’s videos make me feel so calm. I like the nostalgic and witty feeling of them. And of course the educational aspect is fantastic, especially as a woman who is born and raised in London since 1992 👍🏾
these videos are so well put together and equally hilarious. you can really tell how much effort is put into these. The writing and timing are just so good, you can clip any part of this video and have at least ten good jokes and clever puns packed into every sentence pretty organically. *I wish London was real.*
I just came to UK 4 months ago, living near London now, and I am civil engineer. I simply love this video!! Thanks for telling the story of London bridges!! By the way I am from Valencia and it was very surprising to find comment about my hometown in your video. Yeah, our ¨river¨has no water since the 60´s and now we enjoy an 8 km long central park.
full circle! i binged the entire series of unfinished london the day before my a level results day in 2019 to calm me down. now you've released this just in time to calm me down before tomorrow - my last final and my 21st! thanks for keeping us all entertained, jay. loved the video (as ever!)
8:54 we've been doing this on a massive scale in the Netherlands. Bridges are a fantastic way to separate cycle highways and motor highways. Separating these reduces accidents between them, especially the soft-bodied people against hard protective cars. Make the most convenient way for bikes and people will cycle, also freeing up traffic that's on the less convenient way motor vehicles have to take. Cars that would have been stuck in the road now are left at home when the owner opts for a bike.
The most annoying part about this from my experience is that if you live really close to the Thames and you're looking for a job or somewhere to live, you usually have to select a radius for how far out you'd go and something that says it's only a couple miles away would actually take several hours to get to!!! We need a "within 10 miles north of the Thames" option
@@themaskedmaestro4699 one of the issiues bridges are like funnels, people people who want to use a bridge the more congested it can get. for my job since i live in a small village, i have to go to town which is 27 min (21.5 miles). although i do think most people get traffic work im not a expert but people forgot if you ban cars, everyone has to walk or bike if you ban walking then people have to use cars and bikes? your basically moving traffic type around like a juggler. then you have the amount of traffic and bridges if you only have 1 bridge 100% traffic will use it, if you have 3-4 bridges traffic will be more split up depending on where people live and work i personally think most minds sets are also to point of local traffic only for most people
I want to say I live in Rural Arkansas in the U.S. and my general interest in London's infrastructure was limited in the past, I have to say your series is absolutely fascinating. Your content is always engaging, irreverent, and just well nice. I feel like I could even stomach a cup of tea and call my cookies biscuits on your behalf... Well I mean almost...
Why would you think biscuits have anything to do with London? The city has become a cesspool of violence and filth. Less than half the population is now white British - there is nothing English about it. Only hellfire will cleanse it.
I just wanted to mention how much better the camera quality is in most of the video than your previous ones. Video quality has never been necessary for videos like yours with such great content but it looks amazing!
The quality is very good in this one, I have to agree, but many of the older ones were released in a time where the now common resolutions of displays weren't supported by UA-cam
Unfinished London Ep. 2: “In other words: Why is North London better than South London?” Unfinished London Ep. 13: “In other words: Why is West London better than East London?” Love the callback.
Every time when Jay uploads a new video it gets trending. Looks like Jay has the UA-cam game sorted and the long absences of no uploads from Jay is highly calculated and deliberate in nature.
@@JayForeman That's why your videos always trend when you upload as it's due to the high quality content you create and high quality research you conduct. Keep up the great work.
@@mastersingleton It's not about caculating absences. The 'Trending' page is essentially a 'UA-cam staff picks'. It seems they've specified particular thresholds for videos of particular channels, of which Jay is fortunate to be part of.
I think this is one of your best videos. It's very informative, got /that/ brand of humour, and not shy of talking about the politics involved. As always, but somehow better. And it got lots of throwbacks (and plug-ins) too! I think this episode showed us how much you've been in all these years, yet also telling us that your works will always in good quality *hats off*
At this point I am pretty sure that Jay and Tom Scott always plan beforehand to upload videos at the same time (maybe a few minutes apart), just to troll us. This video was as usual amazing ❤️
This is brilliant. Ultimately East London problems are also accentuated by the - not mentioned on the video - fact that most of the trade comes and goes via Kent to the Channel Tunnel / Ferries. This is adding more pressure than ever on the M25, especially around Dartford Crossing when every single day we face miles of queues and inevitable high pollution levels. And really frustrated drivers and residents. Regardless of what the future bring us in terms of transportation, being it fossil fuels, electrics or hydrogen, the need for transport and commerce will always put pressure on the few London crossings that we have in East London. So forcing to ditch the car isn't necessarily a solution at all the further out of the city centre we expand. Kent and Essex 100% need some sort of 21st century, highly innovative and efficient connection, wither by tunnel or bridge, so all our lovely goodies keep coming and going without impacting London.
8:33 Jay always manages to deliver these jokes in the flat and understated way. I imagine him being the narrator in some WWII documentary describing the invasion of Poland as "kind of a minor inconvenience when you think about it"
Midroll ads usually suck, but nothing gets better than Foreman asking at 8:20 "So, what on Earth could be the solution [to East London connectivity]?" then smash cutting to Chris Hadfield in that Masterclass ad proudly offering with a fatherly smile, "The Rocket Equation!"
Rotterdam has similar issues to London: there is a big North-South divide because of the river and there are too few crossings, partly because of the once so busy port. Rotterdam did already start using the river more to its advantage: there's an elaborate taxi service with speed boats (but it's a bit expensive, just like any cab) and there are 'waterbusses', i.e. ferries that are integrated into the public transportation system and that even go far out of the city, connecting hard to reach villages to the centre of the city. There has also been a push to start giving space to public transport at the cost of cars in one of the most important crossings (Maastunnel), with the usual complaints from drivers, of course.
I was in London once in 2016. I imagine it changed a lot in eight years. I hiked a lot, I only took the big red bus once to try it, and I used the subway just to go from the suburbs to the big city. I walked everywhere (once I did 30 km in a day). But recently I've been to Venice and I was completely impressed with the city. Instead of cars and buses, they mainly use bikes and boats and I find it fascinating. I was lucky because I was there during the low season, but I found that efficiency kinda refreshing. Even Amsterdam wasn't like that, though I adored it.
I actually watched the ad at the end too … unlike most content providers where I fast forward or leave early! Love the unfinished London series … it doesn’t even age! Keep up the good work!
This is the first time I think I’ve ever known a slightly more in-depth bonus fact about the video. Before you even brought it up I knew that East London was likely the less wealthy side. Not because I know anything in particular about London wealth but because the east side is typically the poorer side in any northern hemisphere countries. The reason being naturally downtown has a lot going on, has more pollution and more “bad smells”. Which wouldn’t be that noteworthy except for the fact the jet streams and wind currents send wind blowing east. Rich people figured out pretty quickly the west side was more pleasant because they didn’t have downtown air blowing on them so they moved there and made it even nicer. Which I find pretty interesting, obviously cities are complex but it’s usually a factor to some degree allowing you to predict the wealthier side only off the direction wind typically blows.
Oddly enough it's the east side of Charlotte that is the wealthier side, especially the southeast side - but then Charlotte's growth has mostly been since the mid-20th century and it is far less densely populated than older cities. The river running north-south a few miles west of town also seems to limit connectivity and growth on the western side of town.
East side poor because river is bigger. River bigger means docks. Docks are inevitably full of working class people, so working class people like to live near docks and non-working class people like to live nearer to a lack of docks.
I have been a massive fan of this series ever since I found it back in 2019. Thank you, Jay (and friends), for making these funny and informative videos!
I normally use the thames clippers whenever I go to london for sightseeing, they're so much nicer than the underground (and feel faster, though that's probably just subconsciously, as you're not in a dark pit of stinky despair with loud screeching noises...) I still use the Underground though if I just need to get from point A to point B with no-nonsense...
Nice one. I stumbled across this at random, but hit 'subscribe' at 3:39. I love the rapid delivery, quick cuts, and silly messages you have to hit 'pause' in half a second if you want to read them. After so many talkumentaries where they appear to believe it's a good idea to pad things out with repetition, saying things again, and repetition (in case we are so stupid we didn't get it the first time), plus heightened heroic language and a good dose of dramatic music to make it MORE INTERESTING, this is a breath of fresh air.
As a mobile engineer, I have to drive into and around London a lot to get to different sites. I live 70 miles from Watford and the drive from Watford to central or south London takes as long as it does to get the 70 miles to Watford. As a non-Londoner, I always thought that London needed better roads, but now I can see the reasons behind making London less car-friendly, and in doing so will actually make my travel times quicker. Not as quick as it was during the lockdowns, but that is just a distant memory now
1:54 "Sorry about that. I accidentally said "bridges", when I was supposed to say "crossings". Unfortunately, I can't just leave that mistake in, otherwise the next section all about tunnels won't make any sense. So I dubbed the word "crossings" in afterwards using computer technology. I don't think anyone noticed."
San Francisco ferries are only just barely above the tourist trap level with limited service almost entirely directed at upper middle income residents of wealthy suburbs. Meanwhile, the new span of the Bay Bridge has drastically improved traffic without adding a single road lane by simply providing pull-over sections to help clear car accidents. /rant over, I wish we had halfway effective European transit options like London.
And we still probably have one of the top ten systems in the states... And I try to play tourist and take the ferry home sometimes, although not in pandemic years. (And thank you for commenting on the ferries, so I didn't have to, although I seem to have had no problem responding.)
And despite the 10 lanes and billions of dollars spend on it, the Bay Bridge still only carries only half the number of people at rush hour that the 2 lane Bart tube does. Transit - and rail transit in particular - is a much better investment than car infrastructure, as Jay points out.
The Thames as a "road" is hugely underutilised. My g-g-g-grandfather started a lighterage business at Deptford in the 1830's. It remained in the family for nearly 130 years. It was one of many businesses that traded up and down the river and into east coast ports.
I live on the north facing, southern coastline of the Bristol Channel. 90% of the things you search for locally return results from South Wales. A eight hour, 400 mile round trip. At least Londoners have options. Our only real option is to travel to Bristol and head over the water. e.g. Bideford and Tenby are less than 50 miles apart (as the crow flies). But it's a 222 mile drive past Taunton, up to Bristol, across the Severn, past Newport and Cardiff, Swansea and Carmarthen. AND BACK again. There's no ferry either. Now THAT'S inconvenient! To put that into context, that's not a lot further apart than Manchester and Liverpool, or Birmingham and Leicester.
We were taught in school, 1962-66 in London, that there were no bridges due to the wharfs, the then ships were cutters, the masts would never have passed under the bridges, and even Royal Navy ships used the dock facilities of London in that time 18th- 19th centuries.
Mountainous cities suffer the same “Pac-Man” phenomenon. The areas on one side and the other of the mountain are like two different cities with no connectivity whatsoever. However, the only option to connect them is with tunnels, which there are quite a few of, since you can’t build a bridge to cross a mountain.
Also Montreal, QC. It's not technically a mountain (though we do call it the mountain, or Mont Royal), but a big ass hill that's mostly forest and park area. Going to the other side of it is quite the trek, and culturally each side is pretty distinct.
@@rosiefay7283 I live in Monterrey Mexico (metro area of 4.6 mil.), some examples of parts divided by the mountains are Cumbres and Santa Catarina, Carretera and Guadalupe, Valle Oriente and Independencia, etc.
As a rural Australian, it's quite the uncanny experience to have 2 Aussie cities list as examples for public transport. Not just listed but the first 2 too
I lived in Brisee from '04 to '10 and that clip of the CityCat bought back some good memories. It's inexplicable why London doesn't have vessels like that.
I have to congratulate you for _twice_ mentioning trams as the clean, green, sustainable way to transport people, even across rivers. I live in Medway, east of Dartford and the proposed Thames Gateway Tramlink (KenEx). The government is inflating our region like a balloon by insisting on building huge numbers of "little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky". The place is screaming out for a light rail solution. But no. The nearest our local authority comes to such ideas is "green" buses.
I'm also from medway and seeing old photos tram cars and trolley buses makes me so upset that there gone, medway would gain so much from trams. Gillingham is stuck on a hill, Rainham is in the middle of nowhere, Chatham is dying from being stuck in a valley and austerity, Rochester is a potential tourist centre and Strood is just a mess. Won't fix everything but could definitely be a step in putting medway on the map.
We don't seem to matter to Jay as not in London... At least kenex got a mention, I dont know if it will happen, been in planning by a private company, AFAIK. Who will pay? Thurrock Council bankrupt and can't even build an pedestrian underpass they had promised years ago at the notorious Grays Level Crossing. Will be nice to better link the two sides of the river. I basically never go to Kent. Blackwall tunnel was closed this weekend, and it caused all kinds of gridlock near the QE2 Bridge and surrounding areas. While it would be nice to have other options to cross by car, it will induce demand. Outside London however it isn't the same, train every 30 mins, no buses near enough to be useful. I do have a bike, however, and try to use it when I don't need the car, but most people here drive and won't be giving it up without a fight.
I've always watched your videos when I was back home in NYC, but now I can finally say I just watched your video while living here in London!!! Gosh it's even better to watch a video about the place that you're already in! Also, can I just say how impressed I am with how you do your speaking bits all over the city? Like, the amount of planning that must have gone into that, it's so unnecessary but you do it anyway! You're such a gem, Jay!
Your videos are not only hilarious with your perfect deadpan humor, but they are also super informative. And yours is also one of the very very few channels where I watch the sponsored ads, which are just as great!
I inherited my grandfather's Surfshark. I keep it well oiled and use it every now and then. It's really amazing how things were built to last back then!
I used to live in Ilford, east London doing carpentry work. I did avoid jobs in South east London and South west just for the traffic reason as It was impossible not to spend at least one hour for 10 miles. Rush hours were literally meditation times in traffic:)
No demand? A pedestrian bridge (or a Foot Tunnel) between Erith [London borough of Bexley] and Coldharbour Point (Rainham, Essex [London borough of Havering]) would make life easier and one could then pop across it to visit the Rainham Marshes, see the Rainham Clocktower Memorial, see the Church of St Helen and St Giles, do the London Loop there (without having to take 2 trains and the Tube or the Woolwich Ferry to North Woolwich and then take 2 buses [which takes serveral hours just to get from Erith to Rainham Essex]) or if you live in Rainham pop over to Erith to visit to the pier (one can see the Erith Pier from the red Coldharbour Point Light Tower and viseversa from Erith Pier which is 672 metres across) and get some food. The ferry between two places stopped in the 19th century with plaques entitled 'Pilgrim Ferry' which commemorate this in Coldharbour and Erith. The Thames Clippers (Uber Boat) only go as far as Barking Riverside so it isn't any use to people in Erith and Rainham Essex.
hehe yep always does. Newcastle also had the river issue. With that one pesky roman bridge causing all the issues. Till it was rebuilt and it moved so boats can get past...
I moved to Woolwich 5 years ago and i really love how this side of the River Thames still feels like a working river. Sure it does feel little dilapidated but i do like that industrial chic If you walk from Woolwich to North Greenwich. I think East side of the River Thames is pretty interesting.
@@bobbykane-fearn186 I agree and i think you are near the historical Bo Water street, Former Siemens Cable Factory. Which itself is an area of interest. But yeah During lockdown period i had so many lovely walks pass this spot.
East London is the last part that resembles a normal city. The rest is a film set inhabited by people who think a film set is ideal habitation. A life holed up in close confines punctuated by wearing comedy glasses and buying unpronounceable cheese.
hello neighbour(ish). I'm in the Woolwich area too. Recently moved in the past year. It's very interesting hearing about the history of the crossings from Jay.
What I normally do if I need to cross the river is jump in and pretend to drown. Then when the RNLI come, I hijack the lifeboat at gunpoint. It's great, they'll take you anywhere.
now that's a much more risky tale from the tube,
Aren't you supposed to jump in with one of the tethered roundels positioned along the riverbank? Excellent service in my experience, always picked up promptly, given a warm blanket and a hot cocoa. I can't see where to swipe my oyster though.
Lololol 😂
Considering that sewage waste is dumped into the Thames, why would anyone want to jump into the Thames?, especially the part of the Thames between Surrey and Essex, beyond Thamesmeade the Thames is so much cleaner. Imagine drowning in the section of the Thames that is most polluted by sewage?, that is a Hellish way to die, because you will get sewage waste going into your airways.
Video or it didn't happen :)
I've lived in east London for many years, we need someone to make an Uber service for local boat owners, so we can cross the river or get into central. The Thames clipper service is obscenely expensive. £9.60 for a 430 meter trip 1 stop, from double tree to canary wharf and back. How?
Uberboat sounds like a pretty viable idea actually
Uber boat is already a thing?
I think the Germans have something like that. I think it's called U-boat or something
ELIZABETH LINE OPENING TOMORROW!! You can get to Canary Wharf across the river easily!!
There is an Uber Boat in the video. Probably not the one you want though...
The Millennium Bridge didn't actually struggle to take the weight, they just accidentally didn't take into account the resonance effect of hundreds of pedestrians walking in step, the small vibrations of the bridge would produce a slight sway which made people start to step in time with the sway and that added to the effect.
Interesting!
It's weird Tom Scott didn't bring this up in his bridge series of his very own
Hence the signs telling soldiers to break their stride on some bridges. Apparently the Broughton Suspension Bridge collapsed in 1831 because of marching soldiers.
Mechanical engineer?
He has actually covered a bridge in Ireland that does famously sway. Only a few weeks ago.
"In 1987, the government accidentally built an International airport"
Can relate. Happens all the time to me.
"Hello, local zoning board speaking? ...again? You know, one of these days the county's going to figure out what laws you're breaking."
One of the consequences of thinking you're better than the Lego instructions
As a Mexican, this is more common than people might think...
@@343BlackFoxI need more context.
@@Plumjet09No, really, you do not. If ever you see terrain you wish to transport yourself over or through, just add politics, companies and what not.
This series feels like it would be a BBC documentary series that would be on in the background in the morning some time in 2007, and I love everything about that.
these series feel*
Not thatvdeep
@Piotr Gołacki yeah that bugged me too. They hired a comedian and then limited his comedy.
@ijemand No
@@ijemand5672 bruh, he wrote it right, you are the one who messed up
I've never been to London or even the island upon which it sits, but darn, these videos are just fascinating!
i have been to london like 5 years ago on a school trip and despite not crossing any bridges, the traffic was horrendous
I really want to visit, but I'm waiting until London is finished.
Sorry but I don’t think you can travel that far in a coffin
I used to live there
@@JosephDavies so it's never then
I had no idea that Ken’s bridge started construction! I used to always wonder why that random flyover between Tesco and the road to Asda even existed. It just went between parallel roads. Jokes aside, the cross river transport chaos is one of the reasons I left 😐
What is this? Some kind of crossover episode?
The fact you watch all my favourites is amazing
GOD'S STANDARD FOR HEAVEN IS PERFECTION AND ONLY JESUS (THE SON OF GOD/GOD IN THE FLESH) LIVED THAT PERFECT LIFE! HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE & TOOK THE WRATH OF THE FATHER ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SINS! GOD IS JUST SO HE MUST PUNISH SIN & HE IS HOLY SO NO SIN CAN ENTER HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY GOD WILL SEE YOU AS HIS PERFECT SON (SINLESS SINCE YOUR SINS ARE COVERED BY JESUS' OFFERING). YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO REJECT JESUS' GIFT/SACRIFICE & PAY FOR YOUR OWN SIN WITH DEATH (HELL) BUT THAT SEEMS PRETTY FOOLISH! GOD SEES & HEARS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID & DONE. YOU WONT WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH HIM & YOU CANT DEFEND ANY OF YOUR SINS TO HIM. YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON, I'M NOT A GOOD PERSON... ONLY GOD IS GOOD! WE'RE ALL GUILTY WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS' SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS!
MUHAMMAD DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, BUDDHA DIDN'T DIE FOR YOUR SINS, NO PASTOR/NO PRIEST/NO SAINT/NO ANCESTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, MARY DIDN'T, THE POPE DIDN'T EITHER, NO IDOLS OR FALSE gods DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO MUSICIAN OR CELEBRITY DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO INFLUENCER OR UA-cam STAR DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN DIED FOR YOUR SINS, NO ATHLETE OR ACTOR DIED FOR YOUR SINS! STOP IDOLIZING & WORSHIPING THESE PEOPLE!
JESUS CHRIST ALONE DIED FOR YOUR SINS & WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE! HE IS ALIVE & COMING BACK VERY VERY SOON WITH JUDGEMENT (THESE ARE END TIMES)! PREPARE YOURSELVES, TURN FROM SIN & RUN TO JESUS! HE KNOWS YOUR PAIN & TROUBLES, HE WANTS TO HEAL & RESTORE YOU! TALK TO HIM LIKE A BEST FRIEND! ASK HIM TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU & HELP YOU TO BELIEVE IF YOU DOUBT! DON'T WAIT TO CRY OUT! NO ONE IS PROMISED TOMORROW! HE LONGS FOR YOU TO INVITE HIM IN, HE LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANY PERSON EVER COULD, HE CREATED YOU!
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14:6
"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew 10:33
“For the wages of sin is death (hell), but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 6:23
Depends where you shop... Tesda or Asco?? Lol😂
Is Medlife Crisis a channel? Should I follow my instinct of any friend of jays is etc you know the saying dont make me say it
I worked on the Greenwich Penninsula in the run up to the Millenium; it was a very strange place in many ways- one minute you're next to houses worth millions, the next you're walking past some pretty grim streets. The river walkway from the Cutty Sark out to the Dome was not in a straight line but almost castellated- the remnants of all the old shipping of the era. But I can tell you with a degree of confidence that in respect of South of the Thames, no one calls themselves 'East London' no matter how far East they are. The concept of East London is most certainly a North London concept. I would be genuinely interested to learn whether other people agree or disagree.
Yes, in common parlance east London is north of the river. If you're dull then London postcodes can be slightly interesting. There's no NE (this is Newcastle) and whilst there's North (N), there's no South (S) which is Sheffield. There are also peculiarities in that faraway places like Wimbledon and the the Houses of Parliament both have postcodes starting SW1.
hmm no most ppl ik r very proud to be east london
greenwhich isnt rlly real east its south east so thats probs why
the real east is above the river
@@ASJattarwhere does he say they aren’t? You’re replying to something that wasn’t said.
As someone from Erith and live close enough to the river to see it from my front door - the thought of being called "East London" sickens me. East London is everything on the other side of the Thames - anyone asks where I'm from, I always just reply "South East"
@@Noea93 I think you are well and truly in the majority when you write that. I was born just outside Stratford and I remain a proper London East End Cockney inasmuch as I fled and now live in Milton Keynes.
I don't know if this was covered in the video or not, but most Cities historically have been wealthy at the West and poorer at the East and this is due to the prevailing winds from the West- the wealthy in the West didn't want to smell the factories (or personal odour!) of the working class to the East. Maybe South London just historically doesn't want to be associated with the poor image of the East.
I would add that when I used to be a bus station manager, I would occasionally cover for driver shortages- mostly on the Kent coaches and I always felt safer driving through South London than the North. Victoria (central), Pimlico, The Elephant, Old Kent Road and out... I wouldn't like doing a stopping service at night like that in the North through places like Willsden.
Furthermore, I have noticed- real or imagined?- that the different ethnic groups now making up London tend to get on better with each other South of the Thames too.
The man just doesn't miss! He's been making this series almost half his life and he hasn't missed once! Incredible.
@Ghea Pubi🪐 ok
@@repentandbelieveinjesuschr7792 Nah I'm good.
@@repentandbelieveinjesuschr7792 If Jesus will show me the holes in his hands like he did for Thomas, then I'll believe in him.
The Mans taken about 15 years to put out 7 unfinished London videos but all of them are of immaculate quality.
ok
The reason the Romans built a bridge where they did is that it was the furthest point up river that a vessel could readily get on the incoming tide. The area immediately downstream of the bridge was through much of history a flattish bank where ships could be beached and unloaded before floating off and going downstream on a rising tide. London Bridge was therefore as far downstream as one could build a bridge without impeding trade.
okay mr roman history expert
I figured it must have originally been something to do with shipping.
But why not start building drawbridges when that became available
It's called tower bridge but okay
dartford?
Jay, your videos were my gateway drug to pursuing Civil/Transport Engineering and Planning. Keep up the great content!
Have you played Cities skylines?
Because y'know, I'm somewhat of a transport engineer myself...
@@Aliquis.frigus I was playing that last night! Absolute blast. I'm studying Geography though so I don't fashion myself to be the best urban planner O_O xD
I'm in my third year of my degree now and work in the field😁 dreams come true
i'm hopefully starting an urban planning degree in september!! these videos are the best
If you like these videos I would recommend checking out Not Just Bikes channel. Filled with interesting videos that mostly cover the Netherland and the US.
The Unfinished London series is so dense and fascinating and entertaining I wish there were a series like this for other cities.
Guess there is no other city like London
Prague or Bratislava would be great examples. They are so unfinished
Yes! Jay would never get bored or be out of work
I wish there was something like this for NYC, mostly because it's the closest major city to where I live.
@@reinterpret_castBasically any large European city would have a similar amount of content
This is like a documentary you watched in school in the 90s/00s. Love it!
So glad you think so, cos that’s exactly the vibe I was going for.
@@JayForeman all that's missing is VHS static and scanlines 😂
Defo got a sub out of me, proper nostalgic plus funny and educational. Trifecta 👌
Documentaries were better back in the day, never really thought about that before. These days they'd prefer not to let the truth get in the way of a good story!
No - it is not.
In the 90s and 00s we were given more objective information and taught not to be afraid of difference.
@@simonbarry6582 they meant the aesthetic. The aesthetic is the same. 🙄
My city, while very different than London, has an old, historic bridge that was deemed unfit for car's weight and made redundant by other nearby, larger crossings. They were going to tear it down but activists fought to make it a pedestrian and cyclist only bridge. It's one of the top focal points of the city now and allows me to live car-free (car-lite) on one side of the river while comfortably getting to services on the other side.
Edit: City is Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Bridge is the Walnut Street Bridge. Has it's own Wikipedia and Tripadvisor page haha
My concern would be that the maintenance on a bridge designed for one kind of traffic might be too much when it comes to it supporting a different kind of traffic. Not necessarily a bad thing to use a bridge that's in decline for though.
@@chaos.corner don’t be dense. Pedestrians and cyclists don’t cause nearly as much strain or damage to a bridge designed for cars and trucks than do the cars and trucks that use it.
@@chaos.corner a person weighs like 70 kg. A car weighs more than a thousand kg. Come on.
@@riz3310 @IcedCat Right. But bridges still need maintenance beyond that caused by wear from the traffic. A bridge built for cars and trucks will need more maintenance than one built for pedestrians even if it's only being used for pedestrians. Don't be dense.
@@icedcat4021 See my response to Riz. In fact, a bridge would still require maintenance even if it wasn't used at all.
Jay and Tom Scott are a great example of how two people from the same place can talk about essentially the same topics (Infrastructure) yet still be very unique.
There's another guy who's a Tom Scott wannabe called "The Tim Traveller".
And them being old friends just makes it better
I love Jay and I hate Tom Scott. Guess you're right.
@@miosz8385that’s an L
@@miosz8385 Like, personally? Seems a bit extreme.
1. I used to live next to where the Wandsworth pedestrian bridge was supposed to be built - you can even see my house (one of the white houses right off the skyscraper). I lived on that side (Chelsea/Fulham) and my school was in Battersea. A 5 min walk in a straight line, yet a 30min drive when going over Battersea bridge. We were so excited to find they might build a pedestrian bridge since the train bridge already existed there.
2. I now live in Fulham near Putney Bridge and oh my god Hammersmith bridge being closed has caused so many issues. The pollution in the area has literally gone up because of it. They’re reopening it properly in a few years to cars, but they still won’t fix it permanently. It means they have to fix it for 3ish years and millions of pounds every 15 years or so, rather than just taking a few years to fix it properly. It annoys me how much the council mismanages funds.!
corruption
My river city in the States has similar vexations. When one of my sisters bought a home on the other side of the river, we starting calling it the Wrong Side of the river. Too few crossings and congested approaches to those crossings means it was quicker to drive into the surrounding towns, and enter the city from the opposite side than it was to attempt to cross the river through the city center. Sure, there might be a few bus routes that could get us near her home, but no one wants to ride in a bus for 3 hours to just cross your own town.
which city is that, if I may ask?
That's the problem with public transit... If you don't have a decent system first, building just part of a decent system will seem very wasteful. We really need to plan ahead at timescale we're not accustomed to.
@@Furko08 my guess based on their username would be Boston. If ur into urban planning it’s kind of an odd mix of a city. It’s kinda the best and also a little bit sorta the worst. Still probably the best big city in the country, besides maybe Chicago (which probably won’t hold that title for long either way)
@@travcollier
B-But "thinking and planning ahead", "being selfless and considerate", and "acknowledging public transportation as legitimate" are *un-American!*
You can get yourself lynched in worryingly large parts of the USA/by a worryingly large amount of citizens of the USA for even _thinking_ like that!
We get that in Portland as well. There's plenty of bridges, but they definitely dictate how one gets from *here* to *there* and if you go too far south you get stuck quickly. And then there's other issues like the main bridge Clackamas County uses not being in Clackamas so they keep voting down attempts to get them to help fund it instead of saying "make Sellwood pay for it, it's their bridge".
The riverbed in Valencia is a great and unique part of the city - acres of green space, fields for football or rugby, and paths for runners and cyclists. But draining the Thames would sort of ruin the whole Tower Bridge post card thing, yeah?
Plus they would probably have to dam both up and down river to block tidal surges
Yeah, I imagine the Thames is probably quite valuable for tourism and whatnot, moreso than tourists would be interested in a green space.
Ah, but now the postcards would be "historic". Also, the crew of the Belfast might object.
Shit, I'm spanish and I didn't know we drained a river in Valencia
And what would they do with all the water?
I'm a geography teacher and this is just a brilliant and fun approach to geographic thinking and problem solving. You are an amazing teacher!!
Yknow you could just watch mapmen
Cool! I have a Geography undergraduate degree. 🙂
Literally just drive to west london so much easier.
This is the first video of yours I have viewed (all hail the youtube algorithm), and I have to say I LOVE your storytelling. A well earned subscribe from me :)
Yeah for the UA-cam algorithm indeed! I didnt know I wanted to watch video’s about bridges in Londen but apparently I really do!
And I also really enjoyed the ad read at the end. The amount of effort that went into this video is on par with legends like Ryan George and Daniel Thrasher.
I was surprised you talked about Valencia at the end. The old river, now turned into a massive urban park, is so useful for the citizens I can't even explain in a message. But it always comes with a cost. A big new concrete river was needed to build at the outskirts of the city implying at the time a major environmental impact. Also, at the end, the new-built river is becoming a new barrier at the south of the city
And let's not forget, the Thames is tidal as well.
The amount of former rivers that got pressed into the London sewage system...
That was done in Franco times when the dictator could do what he liked. Impossible to do in London. Also the British government are not capable of doing even moderate infrastructure projects without it going 10 times over budget. So its better they dont try.
Maybe London could drain the Thames, but only in the eastern part? 👌
Quite a few bridges over the new river, and of course there is the road either side as well, used to be a lot more rural until you got to Alfafar, Benetússer and Parque Alcosa etc. The one thing the new river always seem to lack, is water!
I think a Ferry system like the ones mentioned but also Brisbane makes a lot of sense you can even tie it in to other transport lnks so being close to the river is effecticely like being close to a Tube Station.
Also Istanbul.
@@jonathanmelhuish4530 some other cities in Turkey have ferry service as well. İzmir and İstanbul are the only services reasonable enough for commuters though.
And Brisbane will need to continue improving on it. If they want a seamless Olympics in 2032, they have to.
@@ianhomerpura8937 what transport role do you think the Brisbane ferries will play in the Olympics?
This brought back painful memories of being an East Londoner who was going to university in South London and having to take an awkward DLR route just to cross that blasted river.
Same!
Is that because people from East London don't usually need access to universities?
@@michaeldavison9808 there are literally unis in east london 😂
@@michaeldavison9808Why wouldn’t they?
In architecture achool we once had a lecture by a brilliant urban planner- Prasanna Desai, who said- “if you design for more cars, you will get more cars. So design for what you want.” That thought has stuck with me forever and resonates so well with your support of the unconventional connection bridges.
Alternatively DON'T design for the cars and you'll find that no one wants to go there...
I really think a lot of those phrases are self referential chicken and egg type.
As a South East Londoner all of my life i massively appreciate the attention given to the lack of crossings, It's absolutely absurd. Silvertown tunnel having no cycle/pedestrian access is asinine when you consider how desperate Khan is to reduce emissions. All you have left are two shady tunnels with unreliable lift service and a Ferry that is equally unreliable due to strikes and the congestion buildup to get there.
South london desperately needs more crossings
To be fair west London is more popular so the government so spend more money there to keep bringing in cash
I've only tried to go from SE to NE London a few times and once I was stuck for 4 hours in traffic before giving up because Blackpool tunnel flooded. The queue to the boat crossing was hours long. I only wanted to drive about 5 miles.
If this were anywhere other than London you wouldn't have any crossing because the Government only invest in London. The regions may as well be an uninhabited desert
Just go to west london simple
My day gets 100% better when a new Unfinished London video comes out!
Same
@@LOLquendoTV Same
FACTS!!!! 💯
Your next better day is in 3022
You might ask why there are so few tube stations south and east of the river. Its the same answer - the substructure is Thanet sand which the Victorians had no ability to tunnel through as the tunnels would collapse. Thats why the Jubilee Line extension in the 90's (13 New stations) was so important. They used a technique called NATM (New Austrian Tunnel method) to tunnel safely through sandy layers.
Clearly, the best answer to getting back and forth in east London would be paired sets of large trebuchets and giant bouncey castles to catch the cars on the opposite side. Quick, efficient, and a technological breakthrough in motor transport.
I'd vote for that!
Your Unfinished London series is so high quality and creative, if it weren't for the advert for a VPN at the end I'd believe I was watching a clip from a TV show! Amazing work as always!!
When’s the BBC Four documentary series coming out?
What tv have you watched without adverts??
@@WaddickLawnCare anything on the BBC
@@WaddickLawnCare Well a) the BBC and b) I meant that it's that kind of advert that feels especially UA-cam like
@@Ghiaman1334 welcome to UA-cam ya goof
8:31 I love how the walking symbols is just a dismembered foot with the bone and skin still attached
That is fantastic, good spot!
I think that sums up London. I'm always knackered when I come back from there, for a place with so many transit systems you seem to end up having to walk your legs off there going anywhere.
I LOL'ed when I saw that and decided I had to comment! Glad to see I was beaten to it :-)
@@Darth_Chicken It helps explain why there are far fewer overweight people there too compared to other parts of the UK. Bad public transport so you rely on driving has other long term negative effects you often overlook.
@@TalesOfWar More likely is money. People with money tend to be in better shape. Poor people usually don't eat healthy foods and are statistically more overweight. Plus they are lazy. Also, large cities like London are a destination for attractive tourists and locals with money.
Looking forward to part 4
!remindme
@Animation 🅥 no
I'll make sure not to make other plans that day.
...if Jay lives that long. He doesn't seem very confident.
its friday may 27 2022 not may 27 3022
7:00 I never knew that this statistic of 4 wasn't just a joke for the video until I watched a great video on the cable car recently. 4 people use it as part of their daily commute
As an East Londoner, I've always wondered why it's impossible to get across the river.. very informative video!
it’s because the area is poor and frankly there’s no demand.
City planners will always invest in areas of the city that produce the most income, any tourists travel in east London? Tourists spend money, lots of it; that's your answer! Same everywhere, no tourists go to Watts in L.A., too dangerous, but they do still go to Hollywood to see the stupid sign, and the stars on the streets!
@Killjoy That is simply not true.
There is so much money in East London now it’s unbelievable.
The continued growth to the east side of London is alarming and I’m surprised the environmentalists are not hitting the roof.
You talk about it being so poor….well, they have solved that problem by forcing out the poor and sending them to Clacton.
If you’re looking to make big gains in property, East London is the place to be.
It’s funny you mention Watts as an example, I’m from London but when I went to LA as a tourist I drove down to Watts one day to see the Watts towers, which I thought was really cool, had a nice little walk around the immediate area too such as the park and the arts centre there. I see what you mean about the area being dangerous though, frankly it’s embarrassing that in a city as wealthy as LA, the conditions that existed in that neighbourhood resembled something like a South American favela. The few locals I spoke to by the arts centre were lovely though
@@Sabotaz80xx like a lot of areas in L.A. they were once nice, long ago, when the Watts towers were built by that artist. I think he was an immigrant, at the time. Things change in big cities, all over the world, usually not for the better. At least no wars will ever happen here, like they are in Ukraine, except for a nuke war, of course, then the perpetrator country, take your pick of a few, will be utterly destroyed as well.
I don't know how he does it, but Jay always has a magical way of making me invested in something I shouldn't care about and will never need to know again
He's also probably the reason I'm now so fascinated by London
As a Dutch person that loves making videos about transport infrastructure myself, I always enjoy your fantastic videos that combine this with amazing humor. can't wait for the next video to come!
@Guys look 👇 🅥 Report the spam.
Same, and i hope the bots above here or people get cancer
Hallo, ik ben ook Nederlands! Fijn om een andere nl gast te zien hier
@@TechnicallyLogical2009 Nobody cares, Jamie
@@TechnicallyLogical2009 Hier mag er nieg gekoloniseerd worden
The Brisbane City Cats are brilliant. You can cross up and down the Brisbane River quickly and use your bus and rail card to pay.
London has those, called Thames Clippers
Birssy has small population when it is compared to London. But I agree with you Brisbane is unique and brilliant with these fast boats to cross the river.
"accidentally built an international airport", "pun massively intended". Ah Jay Foreman, we've missed you.
The nose sellotape is an excellent level of commitment to the local place for local people reference. This is the kind of excellence I've come to expect from you.
Can you explain the reference (at 5:18) for us non-locals? Thanks!
@@drbarnack1885 It's a reference to a rather surreal BBC comedy show "The League Of Gentlemen" (no relation to the film). ua-cam.com/video/meF7NmfnXZ0/v-deo.html
D'oh, I thought it was someone else.
Glad others picked up on it too, nice one.
Hello Dave……
Well Jay finally addressed the Lower Thames Crossing after emailling me back about three years ago saying it was a worthwhile idea to consider. Its a massive clusterfuck and deserves its own video by somebody.
Found myself wondering this during a recent trip to London. I never could have guessed how funny and interesting the answer could be when randomly clicking your video. Pausing at 5:16 to write this comment in honour of the League of Gentlemen reference.
Amazing video, great job. Will be checking more of your work!
Who is that man at 5:16? I don't get the reference but then I'm not British (Spain, now Vietnam)
The nose edit and phrase is a reference to Edward, a character from The League of Gentlemen ("This is a local shop for local people!") which is a British sitcom from the early 2000's.@@ixlnxs
@@ixlnxs ua-cam.com/video/F75d01l5AxM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AnttiLiljo
As a civil engineer I’m in the fortunate position of both seeing the changes we need to make, and being at the coal face implementing them. You are quite right that at present we are building infrastructure for cycle demand that doesn’t yet exist. A lot of people get up in arms about this, but forget it’s also what we’ve been doing with motorways and trunk roads for the last 60+ years. I find it almost romantic that car usage has come full circle in almost a century and a half. And a quote attributed to Henry Ford: “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” A move to to greener modes of transport may not be what the people want, but it is certainly what they need.
Also have you seen some of the infrastructure that has been made. It's already full of cyclists at rush hour that weren't cycling those routes a few years ago. This comes up quite a lot on cyclist twitter.
You just need the right routes and whole network connectivity (ie build routes that people travel and make sure they actually up and don't drop out like most bad cycle infrastructure) and it won't even take that long for them to fill up.
Part of the problem in London are councils, particularly tories councils, who are mostly able to scupper cycling schemes that actually get you into the centre of London where people work. Westminster and Wandsworth are Labour now so the opportunities are there for big improvements.
RBKC is still a massive problem and red routes (and a minister needs to sign off those changes) may solve some of that but really transport and roads long term probably need to be centralised in the mayoral office in a rare case of the UK needing less centralisation.
@@mytimetravellingdog The pandemic had a lot to do with the increase in cycling in London. It's probably the only good thing that came out of it
"At the coalface", what a wonderfully British metaphor.
The bike circle in downtown Croydon is absolutely useless and makes travel a huge pain in the ass. I've literally never seen a bike there ever. It just makes going to and from your hotel an absolute nightmare and a great way to pay extra for your uber or minicab getting lost just trying to go one block. Why not take public transit, you ask? Because the tram doesn't run after midnight! So trying to get back from your buddy's house in Sutton late at night means you have no choice but to call a cab.
Beautiful comment 👏
I can't accurately depict in words how much I love this series. Everytime I see that a new one was uploaded I get so excited.
@yuitr loing or a horse of a "different colour", eh? ;D
I'm a driver in East and to be honest, an alternative to blackwell tunnel is much needed, though I can see how paradoxical it is. I think going for more sustainable public transport solutions over the thames is the way to go. They really need to improve the public transport infrastructure though, which is falling desperately behind other developed nations in terms of quality.
At least you have public transportation here in the US good luck finding any out side of the realy big city's
@@jeffarbogash4269 London is a really big city though
Argh, the Blackwall Tunnel - hell on earth. Still, there's always the Woolwich Ferry...
@@jeffarbogash4269 Yeah, I was going to say, if London's public transport is falling behind, I hate to think what that makes most of the USA 😂
I think he may have overlooked the amount of freight and trade that is transported on the dartford blackwall crossings. We need better connections especially with the ports actually a major part of the infrastructure in the south east
This guy’s videos make me feel so calm. I like the nostalgic and witty feeling of them. And of course the educational aspect is fantastic, especially as a woman who is born and raised in London since 1992 👍🏾
these videos are so well put together and equally hilarious. you can really tell how much effort is put into these. The writing and timing are just so good, you can clip any part of this video and have at least ten good jokes and clever puns packed into every sentence pretty organically.
*I wish London was real.*
I just came to UK 4 months ago, living near London now, and I am civil engineer. I simply love this video!! Thanks for telling the story of London bridges!! By the way I am from Valencia and it was very surprising to find comment about my hometown in your video. Yeah, our ¨river¨has no water since the 60´s and now we enjoy an 8 km long central park.
Valencia is very beautiful, if only there was better employment opportunities out there, I would actually go and live there.
I'm sorry you are too late to see real the London :(
@@raijinenel3116 Yes, I went there first time in 1980, then back again in 2007, mostly the same but "different" in many ways too.
full circle! i binged the entire series of unfinished london the day before my a level results day in 2019 to calm me down. now you've released this just in time to calm me down before tomorrow - my last final and my 21st! thanks for keeping us all entertained, jay. loved the video (as ever!)
Good luck and Happy Birthday!
@@Davey-Boyd thank you! that's so kind! have a lovely evening!
good luck! I’m watching this on a break from studying for uni exams which are 2 days away lol. at 4am for some reason
Good luck!
Happy birthday! Hope it goes/is going/went well! And if not, I'm sure there'll be a skillshare promo at some point too! ;-)
I've watched this video about half a dozen times and I've just noticed that at 3:20 Jay shaved half his beard for a single joke. That's dedication
8:54 we've been doing this on a massive scale in the Netherlands. Bridges are a fantastic way to separate cycle highways and motor highways. Separating these reduces accidents between them, especially the soft-bodied people against hard protective cars.
Make the most convenient way for bikes and people will cycle, also freeing up traffic that's on the less convenient way motor vehicles have to take. Cars that would have been stuck in the road now are left at home when the owner opts for a bike.
Yes, this.
The most annoying part about this from my experience is that if you live really close to the Thames and you're looking for a job or somewhere to live, you usually have to select a radius for how far out you'd go and something that says it's only a couple miles away would actually take several hours to get to!!! We need a "within 10 miles north of the Thames" option
Yep, I live right next to the riverside and something that's 0.5 miles away can take up to 30 minutes to get to on a good day
Would this be on the same or opposite side of the river?
@@themaskedmaestro4699 Wow. Sounds like a great opportunity to become an olympic swimmer...
@@themaskedmaestro4699 one of the issiues bridges are like funnels, people people who want to use a bridge the more congested it can get.
for my job since i live in a small village, i have to go to town which is 27 min (21.5 miles). although i do think most people get traffic work im not a expert
but people forgot if you ban cars, everyone has to walk or bike
if you ban walking then people have to use cars and bikes?
your basically moving traffic type around like a juggler.
then you have the amount of traffic and bridges if you only have 1 bridge 100% traffic will use it, if you have 3-4 bridges traffic will be more split up depending on where people live and work
i personally think most minds sets are also to point of local traffic only for most people
typical lazy millenial mentality. just learn to swim
I want to say I live in Rural Arkansas in the U.S. and my general interest in London's infrastructure was limited in the past, I have to say your series is absolutely fascinating. Your content is always engaging, irreverent, and just well nice. I feel like I could even stomach a cup of tea and call my cookies biscuits on your behalf... Well I mean almost...
Why would you think biscuits have anything to do with London? The city has become a cesspool of violence and filth. Less than half the population is now white British - there is nothing English about it. Only hellfire will cleanse it.
You can call your cookies whatever you like!
Yes...😊
@@paulhaynes8045 That seems a bit assive paggressive.
@@krashd Naw, just a good ol' southern boy, from the same state as Bill and Hillary Clinton. Now do you get why!! :D LOL
"Ken's bridge was going to be a local bridge for local people."
Hilarious reference!
I just wanted to mention how much better the camera quality is in most of the video than your previous ones. Video quality has never been necessary for videos like yours with such great content but it looks amazing!
The quality is very good in this one, I have to agree, but many of the older ones were released in a time where the now common resolutions of displays weren't supported by UA-cam
Unfinished London Ep. 2:
“In other words: Why is North London better than South London?”
Unfinished London Ep. 13:
“In other words: Why is West London better than East London?”
Love the callback.
Can we deduce from this that Jay lives in North West London?
@@stevecriddle He lives in Enfield
Unfinished London Ep. 99;
"In other words: Why is Fallen London better than Surface London?"
We can tell from this that northwest London is the best part of London.
@@kurabis nae, the bestest part.
Jays complete and utter hatred of Canary Wharf will always be one of my favourite running jokes of this series.
there are two words he could've said when he censored "and full of c****"
As a sadly under informed American, I heard that and was very surprised to find out that Canary Wharf has worse things than Cybermen.
Incredible how you make your sponsor ads as entertaining as the video itself! Also, who the heck is the stunt double at 5:18?
Every time when Jay uploads a new video it gets trending. Looks like Jay has the UA-cam game sorted and the long absences of no uploads from Jay is highly calculated and deliberate in nature.
The long absences are just because it takes me aaaaaages to make my videos.
@@JayForeman That's why your videos always trend when you upload as it's due to the high quality content you create and high quality research you conduct. Keep up the great work.
@@JayForeman binging your videos entertaining and informative! A quality combination. My brother just showed me the ring road one
@@mastersingleton It's not about caculating absences. The 'Trending' page is essentially a 'UA-cam staff picks'. It seems they've specified particular thresholds for videos of particular channels, of which Jay is fortunate to be part of.
@@ASLUHLUHC3 no it isn't lol
I think this is one of your best videos. It's very informative, got /that/ brand of humour, and not shy of talking about the politics involved. As always, but somehow better. And it got lots of throwbacks (and plug-ins) too! I think this episode showed us how much you've been in all these years, yet also telling us that your works will always in good quality *hats off*
At this point I am pretty sure that Jay and Tom Scott always plan beforehand to upload videos at the same time (maybe a few minutes apart), just to troll us.
This video was as usual amazing ❤️
I think that they've said it before, they just happen to both do Mondays at 4
@@Telly_1 yeah, still it's funny
I wonder if they hire assistance from the same ‘walk backwards and film a monologue’ company
@@CityState_of_Valletta 😂😂
Now I know where I saw this before
This is brilliant. Ultimately East London problems are also accentuated by the - not mentioned on the video - fact that most of the trade comes and goes via Kent to the Channel Tunnel / Ferries. This is adding more pressure than ever on the M25, especially around Dartford Crossing when every single day we face miles of queues and inevitable high pollution levels. And really frustrated drivers and residents.
Regardless of what the future bring us in terms of transportation, being it fossil fuels, electrics or hydrogen, the need for transport and commerce will always put pressure on the few London crossings that we have in East London. So forcing to ditch the car isn't necessarily a solution at all the further out of the city centre we expand. Kent and Essex 100% need some sort of 21st century, highly innovative and efficient connection, wither by tunnel or bridge, so all our lovely goodies keep coming and going without impacting London.
Wait ages for a Jay Foreman video, but it's always worth it. Can't fault anything with it, so thorough.
8:33 Jay always manages to deliver these jokes in the flat and understated way.
I imagine him being the narrator in some WWII documentary describing the invasion of Poland as "kind of a minor inconvenience when you think about it"
the fastest I've ever clicked a notification
Me fuckin’ too. Jay posts infrequently but its always a joy
Same
okay
dare you say "first"!!!
Me too!😂🤣😅
Midroll ads usually suck, but nothing gets better than Foreman asking at 8:20 "So, what on Earth could be the solution [to East London connectivity]?" then smash cutting to Chris Hadfield in that Masterclass ad proudly offering with a fatherly smile, "The Rocket Equation!"
Rotterdam has similar issues to London: there is a big North-South divide because of the river and there are too few crossings, partly because of the once so busy port. Rotterdam did already start using the river more to its advantage: there's an elaborate taxi service with speed boats (but it's a bit expensive, just like any cab) and there are 'waterbusses', i.e. ferries that are integrated into the public transportation system and that even go far out of the city, connecting hard to reach villages to the centre of the city.
There has also been a push to start giving space to public transport at the cost of cars in one of the most important crossings (Maastunnel), with the usual complaints from drivers, of course.
This channel hasn't changed in 12 years and I absolutely love it
5:16 this threw me completely off guard holy hell
Do you know why he looks like that? 😭
@@aquamech154 ua-cam.com/video/meF7NmfnXZ0/v-deo.html
@@aquamech154 no
@@aquamech154 League of Gentlemen
I can't find anyone else in the comments talking about this??
I was in London once in 2016. I imagine it changed a lot in eight years. I hiked a lot, I only took the big red bus once to try it, and I used the subway just to go from the suburbs to the big city. I walked everywhere (once I did 30 km in a day). But recently I've been to Venice and I was completely impressed with the city. Instead of cars and buses, they mainly use bikes and boats and I find it fascinating. I was lucky because I was there during the low season, but I found that efficiency kinda refreshing. Even Amsterdam wasn't like that, though I adored it.
I actually watched the ad at the end too … unlike most content providers where I fast forward or leave early!
Love the unfinished London series … it doesn’t even age! Keep up the good work!
You should go work for UA-cam.
🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
This is the first time I think I’ve ever known a slightly more in-depth bonus fact about the video. Before you even brought it up I knew that East London was likely the less wealthy side. Not because I know anything in particular about London wealth but because the east side is typically the poorer side in any northern hemisphere countries. The reason being naturally downtown has a lot going on, has more pollution and more “bad smells”. Which wouldn’t be that noteworthy except for the fact the jet streams and wind currents send wind blowing east. Rich people figured out pretty quickly the west side was more pleasant because they didn’t have downtown air blowing on them so they moved there and made it even nicer. Which I find pretty interesting, obviously cities are complex but it’s usually a factor to some degree allowing you to predict the wealthier side only off the direction wind typically blows.
Oddly enough it's the east side of Charlotte that is the wealthier side, especially the southeast side - but then Charlotte's growth has mostly been since the mid-20th century and it is far less densely populated than older cities. The river running north-south a few miles west of town also seems to limit connectivity and growth on the western side of town.
Well that's interesting. Makes sense.
I can tell you, at least for Milan, it's not the case.
East side poor because river is bigger. River bigger means docks. Docks are inevitably full of working class people, so working class people like to live near docks and non-working class people like to live nearer to a lack of docks.
This is exactly the case in Oslo, Norway
I have been a massive fan of this series ever since I found it back in 2019. Thank you, Jay (and friends), for making these funny and informative videos!
Me, I have never got over how GOOD Jay looked in a pretty floral frock while filming.. (I think it was on the Embankment.)
I normally use the thames clippers whenever I go to london for sightseeing, they're so much nicer than the underground (and feel faster, though that's probably just subconsciously, as you're not in a dark pit of stinky despair with loud screeching noises...)
I still use the Underground though if I just need to get from point A to point B with no-nonsense...
Nice one. I stumbled across this at random, but hit 'subscribe' at 3:39. I love the rapid delivery, quick cuts, and silly messages you have to hit 'pause' in half a second if you want to read them. After so many talkumentaries where they appear to believe it's a good idea to pad things out with repetition, saying things again, and repetition (in case we are so stupid we didn't get it the first time), plus heightened heroic language and a good dose of dramatic music to make it MORE INTERESTING, this is a breath of fresh air.
As a mobile engineer, I have to drive into and around London a lot to get to different sites. I live 70 miles from Watford and the drive from Watford to central or south London takes as long as it does to get the 70 miles to Watford. As a non-Londoner, I always thought that London needed better roads, but now I can see the reasons behind making London less car-friendly, and in doing so will actually make my travel times quicker. Not as quick as it was during the lockdowns, but that is just a distant memory now
1:54 "Sorry about that. I accidentally said "bridges", when I was supposed to say "crossings". Unfortunately, I can't just leave that mistake in, otherwise the next section all about tunnels won't make any sense. So I dubbed the word "crossings" in afterwards using computer technology. I don't think anyone noticed."
This and Map Men are the only two channels where I hang around to watch the VPN ad.
San Francisco ferries are only just barely above the tourist trap level with limited service almost entirely directed at upper middle income residents of wealthy suburbs. Meanwhile, the new span of the Bay Bridge has drastically improved traffic without adding a single road lane by simply providing pull-over sections to help clear car accidents.
/rant over, I wish we had halfway effective European transit options like London.
I love San Fran ahaha
And we still probably have one of the top ten systems in the states... And I try to play tourist and take the ferry home sometimes, although not in pandemic years. (And thank you for commenting on the ferries, so I didn't have to, although I seem to have had no problem responding.)
I remember how much the ferry system was used after Bayquake 89.
Vancouver is probably the best example of it, I was taking water taxis constantly while on vacation there without a car
And despite the 10 lanes and billions of dollars spend on it, the Bay Bridge still only carries only half the number of people at rush hour that the 2 lane Bart tube does. Transit - and rail transit in particular - is a much better investment than car infrastructure, as Jay points out.
This channel is brilliant. So many shots in different parts of London in such a short video, superb research, and even the sponsor bits are great!
The Thames as a "road" is hugely underutilised.
My g-g-g-grandfather started a lighterage business at Deptford in the 1830's. It remained in the family for nearly 130 years. It was one of many businesses that traded up and down the river and into east coast ports.
Thought you just had a stutter until I realised what the Gs meant
So it started around the time of railways coming around and ended when moaterways was popping up everywhere. Cool
@@jackdog06what does it mean? Does it mean his grandpa died?
@@justsaadunoyeah1234 each g is one “great”
I live on the north facing, southern coastline of the Bristol Channel. 90% of the things you search for locally return results from South Wales. A eight hour, 400 mile round trip. At least Londoners have options. Our only real option is to travel to Bristol and head over the water. e.g. Bideford and Tenby are less than 50 miles apart (as the crow flies). But it's a 222 mile drive past Taunton, up to Bristol, across the Severn, past Newport and Cardiff, Swansea and Carmarthen. AND BACK again. There's no ferry either. Now THAT'S inconvenient!
To put that into context, that's not a lot further apart than Manchester and Liverpool, or Birmingham and Leicester.
this is genuinely SO interesting 👏
Yes, it's very interesting indeeeeeeeed.
hello youtube llc
Shut up susan
Idk think Jay knows UA-cam commented
what a job it must be to spend your time making UA-cam comments on UA-cam as UA-cam
I think this episode has some of the best, smoothest sound design of the entire series, possibly of any video ever committed to UA-cam.
@Guys look 👇 🅥 report the spam
I had a lot of time to give Jay notes on this one. 70% of my notes are “music is too loud”.
Huh? What??
@@chasbodaniels1744 Is that “what” addressed to me?
@@jadeforeman131 I was pretending not to hear you because of the loud music.
Oh I wish all documentaries were this exciting, I'd get an A* in History if you were my history teacher. Brilliant videos.
ok
Yes, history is important, look only to the events of the day in Europe to see how it keeps getting repeated over and over, with wars!
ok
ok
ok
We were taught in school, 1962-66 in London, that there were no bridges due to the wharfs, the then ships were cutters, the masts would never have passed under the bridges, and even Royal Navy ships used the dock facilities of London in that time 18th- 19th centuries.
Mountainous cities suffer the same “Pac-Man” phenomenon. The areas on one side and the other of the mountain are like two different cities with no connectivity whatsoever. However, the only option to connect them is with tunnels, which there are quite a few of, since you can’t build a bridge to cross a mountain.
Could you give us some examples? I can't offhand think of one which is built on both sides of the mountains.
@@rosiefay7283 Yes, could you please provide some examples?
El Paso, TX
Also Montreal, QC. It's not technically a mountain (though we do call it the mountain, or Mont Royal), but a big ass hill that's mostly forest and park area. Going to the other side of it is quite the trek, and culturally each side is pretty distinct.
@@rosiefay7283 I live in Monterrey Mexico (metro area of 4.6 mil.), some examples of parts divided by the mountains are Cumbres and Santa Catarina, Carretera and Guadalupe, Valle Oriente and Independencia, etc.
As a rural Australian, it's quite the uncanny experience to have 2 Aussie cities list as examples for public transport. Not just listed but the first 2 too
Particularly given the general competence and effectiveness of our public transport networks.
@@timconnors I miss when sydneys transport was public
I lived in Brisee from '04 to '10 and that clip of the CityCat bought back some good memories. It's inexplicable why London doesn't have vessels like that.
Australia is a pretty good example of concentration camps in the modern day too
@@TheAurelianProject there's no concentration camps you fucking idiot.
I have to congratulate you for _twice_ mentioning trams as the clean, green, sustainable way to transport people, even across rivers. I live in Medway, east of Dartford and the proposed Thames Gateway Tramlink (KenEx). The government is inflating our region like a balloon by insisting on building huge numbers of "little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky". The place is screaming out for a light rail solution. But no. The nearest our local authority comes to such ideas is "green" buses.
I'm also from medway and seeing old photos tram cars and trolley buses makes me so upset that there gone, medway would gain so much from trams. Gillingham is stuck on a hill, Rainham is in the middle of nowhere, Chatham is dying from being stuck in a valley and austerity, Rochester is a potential tourist centre and Strood is just a mess. Won't fix everything but could definitely be a step in putting medway on the map.
And they all look just the same!
We don't seem to matter to Jay as not in London...
At least kenex got a mention, I dont know if it will happen, been in planning by a private company, AFAIK. Who will pay? Thurrock Council bankrupt and can't even build an pedestrian underpass they had promised years ago at the notorious Grays Level Crossing.
Will be nice to better link the two sides of the river. I basically never go to Kent.
Blackwall tunnel was closed this weekend, and it caused all kinds of gridlock near the QE2 Bridge and surrounding areas.
While it would be nice to have other options to cross by car, it will induce demand.
Outside London however it isn't the same, train every 30 mins, no buses near enough to be useful.
I do have a bike, however, and try to use it when I don't need the car, but most people here drive and won't be giving it up without a fight.
I like the addition of a office chair squeaking as jay slid by on the beginning map of he Thames
I've always watched your videos when I was back home in NYC, but now I can finally say I just watched your video while living here in London!!! Gosh it's even better to watch a video about the place that you're already in! Also, can I just say how impressed I am with how you do your speaking bits all over the city? Like, the amount of planning that must have gone into that, it's so unnecessary but you do it anyway! You're such a gem, Jay!
Your videos are not only hilarious with your perfect deadpan humor, but they are also super informative. And yours is also one of the very very few channels where I watch the sponsored ads, which are just as great!
4:29 wow what an incredible original animation I've never seen anything like it
?
Its from the ringways video
You and your brother have brought me so much amusement over the years. Huzzah for the Foreman brothers!
I inherited my grandfather's Surfshark. I keep it well oiled and use it every now and then. It's really amazing how things were built to last back then!
We need more videos from Jay. His stuff is entertaining and informative. I need to watch them 2-3 times just to catch everything he packs into them.
I used to live in Ilford, east London doing carpentry work. I did avoid jobs in South east London and South west just for the traffic reason as It was impossible not to spend at least one hour for 10 miles. Rush hours were literally meditation times in traffic:)
No demand? A pedestrian bridge (or a Foot Tunnel) between Erith [London borough of Bexley] and Coldharbour Point (Rainham, Essex [London borough of Havering]) would make life easier and one could then pop across it to visit the Rainham Marshes, see the Rainham Clocktower Memorial, see the Church of St Helen and St Giles, do the London Loop there (without having to take 2 trains and the Tube or the Woolwich Ferry to North Woolwich and then take 2 buses [which takes serveral hours just to get from Erith to Rainham Essex]) or if you live in Rainham pop over to Erith to visit to the pier (one can see the Erith Pier from the red Coldharbour Point Light Tower and viseversa from Erith Pier which is 672 metres across) and get some food. The ferry between two places stopped in the 19th century with plaques entitled 'Pilgrim Ferry' which commemorate this in Coldharbour and Erith.
The Thames Clippers (Uber Boat) only go as far as Barking Riverside so it isn't any use to people in Erith and Rainham Essex.
I always love seeing how history keeps coming back to itself, like with the ringway scheme. Wonderful deep dive into the River Thames!
hehe yep always does.
Newcastle also had the river issue.
With that one pesky roman bridge causing all the issues.
Till it was rebuilt and it moved so boats can get past...
About the only deep dive into the River Thames that anyone would want to do
I propose catapults. They're fast, environmentally-friendly and were used during the Medieval days.
trebuchets, ballistas, I think you are on to something, .....vaguely reminiscent of a Monty Python episode that!
But they weren’t designed for cars. Until now.
Tonight, on Bo'om Gear:
I moved to Woolwich 5 years ago and i really love how this side of the River Thames still feels like a working river. Sure it does feel little dilapidated but i do like that industrial chic If you walk from Woolwich to North Greenwich. I think East side of the River Thames is pretty interesting.
totally agree, i can step outside my door and look across the river at the tate and lyle factory of all things
@@bobbykane-fearn186 I agree and i think you are near the historical Bo Water street, Former Siemens Cable Factory. Which itself is an area of interest. But yeah During lockdown period i had so many lovely walks pass this spot.
@@bobbykane-fearn186 I think you are Sugar Coating it, Bobby..
East London is the last part that resembles a normal city. The rest is a film set inhabited by people who think a film set is ideal habitation. A life holed up in close confines punctuated by wearing comedy glasses and buying unpronounceable cheese.
hello neighbour(ish). I'm in the Woolwich area too. Recently moved in the past year. It's very interesting hearing about the history of the crossings from Jay.
This is the only channel that i stay in for the ads. Well done!