The Big City

Westminster
1940
Sound
12m

Personal stories from the Londoners who rely on a successful and reliable transport system

Experience the pageant of work-a-day urban life in the big smoke as Londoners explain their reliance on the buses, trains and trams of the London Transport System. Factory workers and dockers feature as a stevedore is interviewed outside his home with his wife. In the financial area of London, bank employees inspect pound notes. Chorus girls rehearse a tap dance routine in a club. Housewives come up to town for shopping. Office workers go about their business, students arrive at the British Museum - and all rely on public transport.

Picture of living and working in London, seen through examination of the London Transport System with personal stories of people who depend on it.

Life Under Fire

The horror of Luftwaffe bombs coloured daily life in Britain's cities and beyond, and war brought myriad daily hardships besides. But Britain could take it!

The Blitz receded after May 1941, but even after the Battle of Britain, the nation faced a barrage of incendiary bombs, V-1s and V-2s. While young men fought Axis powers across three continents, their families listened anxiously to the wireless, while many worried too about children far from home. But in the face of the destruction, sirens, blackouts and hours in shelters, the now-legendary 'Blitz spirit' kept despair at bay. Britain held her nerve thanks to mutual support, defiance and wit - plus a good grumble and as many cups of tea as rationing allowed.