These Six Stories Are as British as it Gets

[Music] in the United Kingdom you may ducks chickens geese and na not these they all belong to the Queen well all swans in the United Kingdom can belong to the Queen but she mainly exercises this right on the river thames of course sorry [Music] my name's David barber and I look after the swans wherever the Queen exercises her royal property fright it's not a full-time job although sometimes it feels like a full-time job every year mr. barber runs a census of the Swans for Her Majesty a bit like an annual checkup this is called Swan Appy and he does it with a whole crew like this guy this guy and this guy sworn up in has taken place since the 12th century where swans in those days were actually a very very important food of course today swans are our protected species and no longer eaten we travel in six traditional Rowan's gifts from some Breann thames all the way up to Abington and it's about a seventy nine mile journey what do we say when we say s1 all up all what up each family of swans would come across we will circle the skiffs around them we will tie the wings in their legs we will take them ashore we will weigh them measure them and check them for any injuries after we've done that we will put a ring on them and we will release them back into the river see if these are the Queen swans ways her majesty for all of this she did come sworn up in a few years ago and hopefully she enjoyed it she seemed to enjoy it but I can't answer for the Queen anyway I love swans a royal bird people here in the United Kingdom they love them and you know I want to make sure that they survive for the future all right gents let's toast great nothing says Britain more than nope nope keep going ah yes there it is a nice cup of tea [Music] we know we have China to thank for introducing tea to the Western world but how did it make its way to England and become the cultural obsession is today well that's all thanks to one Portuguese woman the year 1662 the person Catherine of Braganza she just won the hand of England's King Charles the second with the help of a very large dowry including money treasures and spices this worthwhile trade made her the Queen of England Scotland and Ireland when she arrived to her new homeland she brought with her packets of loose leaf tea in crates labeled transport de Vos aromatic us it's a theory that this was later Berube ated tu te a T now T could all be found in England but was only really used for medicinal purposes Catherine continued drinking tea to her heart's content and as the new royal everything about her including her beverage habits was copied by other ladies desperate to be just like their Idol another thing Catherine brought to the table from Portugal was the idea of tea drinking experience she popularized the use of porcelain tea cups and mugs but the end of the 17th century much of British aristocracy were enjoying the hot beverage and soon enough so was everyone else today while tea can be found pretty much everywhere it remains a special daily pastime four Brits hmm so carry on and drink tea people of England [Music] I think people say I look a bit like a queen in this outfit and people call me your majesty people come up and they curtsy it's almost like living two lives really let's commence [Music] I'm Ella slack and I'm the queen standing I've done it for over 30 years now anything that the Queen does is rehearsed if it's just going to a town hall or opening a hospital I've probably been a standing queen definitely more than fifty times a standing is not a look a lie I don't look like the Queen but I'm the same sort of stature and height I'm about virtually five-foot the Queen's about five foot two but I live at royal court on Queens promenade in Royal Ramsey in the Isle of Man and the Queen lives in Buckingham Palace in London I drive a Ford gear automatic car the Queen has been seen to drive Range Rovers and most of the time she's in a trophy driven car or in a carriage well it started because I was at the BBC and the producer who was doing the Cenotaph came to see me and said that the Queen had sent a message to say when she stood at the Cenotaph this son was in her eyes and so could we do anything about it well I said to him would you like me to come and stand in the position for you because all the stage managers were six footmen and then that led on to other things I went in her royal carriage and rode on the boat up to the Tower of London and then there will be the State Opening of Parliament I've never been allowed to sit on on the throne and the House of Lords I have to lurk above it it's a very strict rule if I'm in a carriage or a car I will wave you know it's like that the events that I've been helping with events that are transmitted worldwide in millions of people again to watch I look afterwards and watch the programs going out and I'll see her there and think I did it for you let's say you're in London you need to get from the London Eye to Buckingham Palace taxi please we would leave one hour right Belvedere Road left Chitti Street oh wait you know the whole group already what we have - all London black cab drivers have to have completed the knowledge that we need to know all the streets and roads in London to provide that service okay let's go see with the Queen lives [Music] London is famous for its black taxis you need to get to somewhere no sweat because every black cabbie has to pass insanely hard test known as the knowledge like this guy hello my name is Peter Allen I've been in London taxi driver for nine years okay all the knowledge is the test that you have to pass in order to become a London taxi driver it's the toughest taxi test in the world the first thing you have to do is learn what's called the Blue Book as of cab drivers your Bible you have to learn 320 routes around London so that's six hundred and forty quarter of a mile areas you have to learn 25,000 streets and roads within a six-mile radius or two Fabri Square in London you have to learn every single point of interest place of interest apartment building housing estate lease station mosques synagogues a few moments later Woburn I want to show a club our restaurant everything anyway aware of pain passion you might want to go okay then let's go to the exam center my name is Katie channels and I'm the knowledge of London manager so the exams are several phases of oral appearances it's basically an interview type situation where you describe the streets and roads attempting to use the shortest distance between point A and point B at the beginning we might ask them the name of a theater where that theater is and by the end of the knowledge we expect them to know boys actually showing at that theater what on average it takes two to four years to learn the knowledge the best way to study is to go out onto the streets on a scooter isn't that right at us my name is a bass actor you'd be studied knowledge for about four and a half years now and my next appearance is in about three weeks time it's like a full-time job you wake up in the morning go out on your by a couple of hours come to the College study study study here so it wasn't sleeping over studying as well yeah one in five who attempt the knowledge actually pass that's the same success rate as a u.s. Navy SEAL GPS and Sat Navs are banned in the exam but why not use them on the streets my GPS is here and if we get somewhere and we see a roads closed we need to say right that's closed but I know if I go left here that we take me there I'll go right here that would take me there we need to be able to do all that as well as having a conversation with the person in the back and solving the world problems at the same time Leicester Square to Big Ben please so you'd leave Leicester Square by Irving straight to turn into Charing Cross [Music] fancy going shopping no no no no whistling in the Burlington Arcade who you we are the Burlington Beatles probably the oldest and smallest police force in the world you could say that we police your manners right okay well Mart Lord had beetle of the bones in arcade tell us your story the beetle story start before we get into that what actually is a beetle to be honest with you I think anybody really knows we predates any police force in the country right back to the story go ahead mark the beetle story started at this arcade okay and they games you know so it's just like a shopping center right yes okay third time lucky go ahead mark the beetle story started on the 28th of March 18 19 London was very different people didn't really trust the water so they drank even gin or beer and obviously at least was so startled behavior people's role really was to keep all the within the arcade and in fact that tradition has carried on right away for today our uniforms are made up of several different layers we first of all put on our waste gates then our frog pose announcer our pants from the summer or the autumn in the winter you will still put on your waistcoat you will then put on your cape and you're sort of half the original rule was here were no whistling because the pickpockets would whistle signals to one another no drunkenness play a musical instrument you're not supposed to hurry assumptions unlike an unladylike carry your own parcels do you mustn't ring a bicycle and the company ladies by the way weren't also allowed it a lot of those rules we couldn't enforce today we still try to enforce it in their horrid in we still try to enforce the low wisdom it's all about behavior as long as you're respecting those around you and respecting the arcade you'll be left alone and I put this uniform on I represent nearly 200 years worth of history it makes me immensely proud yeah once there's no attire if I'm one of you that's actually true by the way isn't just the you know the spill [Music] so these are jellied eels ills in jelly German Jews and these ills with no jelly like loads of eels drawers of ills hold on to your seats this might get a bit weird so we got this giant jiggly bowl of jellied eels from this guy when I miss John Chile's I work for Michiel supply in Billy's gate fish market we supply live eels to the catering trade public I've been selling eels for 33 years since I love school focusing lovely user base all farmed in Holland they like the Rolls Royce of the televisions there are very very slippery by some their customers back in the 18th century London's River Thames was crawling with these eels nowadays John is one of the last few ill suppliers in London so John why were there so popular yeah you need to speak to one of the older fish mongers for that oh okay then I'm 72 years old and I eels everyday perfect so Frank of Bradley's fish supply what made them so popular back then so those days it was it was no-brainer everybody at jellied eels it was an easy source to get and very simple you put a hook out and they catch herself eels are really edible and they were full of goodness the people didn't realize it then but they were they were don't worry - the real good product and we didn't have Indian Chinese takeaway kebabs everything else so it was a it was a source of food so how do you make them quite easy to prepare you to head off guts out chopped in pieces then we cooked them the process of cooking is more of an art you need them to be very soft if you go past being soft all you've got is mash thanks Frank so pie shop owner cane what do they go well with jellied eels and students are very traditional with primary liquor in the East End the London so you know it's not for everybody the world is changing a little bit you do either like and will hate them probably in the old days we will go through maybe 50 or 60 bowls of ills a week probably now we might do 10 or 12 so if you think about food around the world you think about Paris and their baguettes New York do you think about the pizzas the New York cheesecakes that's what they're synonymous for London the traditional food in London is polish annals that is a staple dial and the taste it's like eating basically a chunky white fish [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 1,201,841

Rating: 4.8275204 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, london, royals, great big reel, great britain, queen, tea, taxis, swans, europe, buckingham palace, british, eels, new releases, royal wedding, brits, united kingdom, u.k., weird & fun knowledge, lifestyle & entertainment, biography & profile, travel & adventure, nature & animals, weird food, history

Id: OdV7nHqEf1Q

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 14 2018