Zach and Vinbee receive a note from an apparent fan, spawning a discussion about how you can’t Zach without Vinbee, just like how you can’t have Kensington without Chelsea!
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“BOROUGH BUGS” is a series where two insects, Zach, a blue monarch butterfly, and Vinbee, a pink bumblebee, host a show where they aim to visit every single London borough, all 32 of them, they gather their research on the boroughs, and explain to viewers what’s so special about the boroughs, what transport links they have, what landmarks they have, and if anything else is worthy enough of being told to the viewers. The show encourages people to visit London, and go explore the incredibly convoluted capital city themselves.
ADDITIONAL MUSIC CREDITS:
“Hammock” composed by David Cutter – https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic
Kevin MacLeod – https://incompetech.com/ – CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
“Tada3.mp3” composed by usinggarageband – https://freesound.org/s/152574/ – CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
“record scratch.wav” by luffy – https://freesound.org/s/3536/ – CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
ADDITIONAL IMAGE AND VIDEO CREDITS:
Edwardx – Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
4K Explorer Walks (youtube.com/@4KExplorerWalks)
Spike – Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Subtitles by ISBSP
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Intro
00:18 – Opening
01:53 – Overview
03:29 – Landmarks
08:38 – Transport
13:54 – Trivia
16:27 – Credits
# Zach and Vinbee:
the Borough Bugs # Together they review the
boroughs of London! # From Westminster to Islington,
from Hillingdon to Havering, # They find out what is there and
then they show it to you! # Recently, we’ve received a
letter from a completely real fan of the show! You wrote that yourself,
didn’t you? The letter reads: CLEARS THROAT ”Dear Zach, how come you have
Vinbee on a show about London? ”She is very clearly from the Midlands,
her accent gives it away”. Trust me, ugh,
I- I wish it wasn’t like that. Same, anyways, welcome
to Borough Bugs! The show where we
research all about the interesting things within all
32 London boroughs! Hello, I’m Vinbee, and
I’m genuinely really jealous that you live in London, Zach. And I’m Zach, and that’s
not my problem. BOTH: And this is… Borough Bugs!
Borough… Bugs? Uh, I’m just tired of living
in the North, you know? The internet out in the countryside
is as slow as dial-up. I wish you could be closer
to London as well. It would make sense, as we’re
Zach and Vinbee, the Borough Bugs! Which reminds me, there’s a London
borough which also has an ‘and’ in it! Oh yeah! Kensington & Chelsea! This borough was the first one to have
two place names in its name. And the history about its name
is rather interesting. So, without further ado, today’s borough is… BEEPING Kensington & Chelsea!
Ooooh! Kensington & Chelsea’s full name is ’The Royal Borough of
Kensington & Chelsea’, A bit like how Westminster is officially
known as the ‘City of Westminster’. Just like how we have full names! Zach Atwood and Vinbee Langley! Your last name is ‘Langley’? Yep! Huh. MUSIC: “Hammock”
by David Cutter MUSIC FADES OUT Kensington & Chelsea is one of the more
pretentious boroughs of London. Ironic, considering Kensington & Chelsea
is the smallest London borough. K&C’s total amount of land
is 4.68 square miles. Or 12.1 square kilometres. Wow, with such little space, it’s a
wonder how they managed to cram all of the
museums into the borough. Speaking of which, let’s
talk about them now! VINBEE: South Kensington is where
most people go to see the museums, located on the appropriately named
’Exhibition Road’ in South Kensington. There are three major museums
in South Kensington, we’re not gonna cover them individually
as that will take quite a bit, so, here they are in a short list. VINBEE: The Natural History Museum,
ZACH: the Science Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. There’s a lot more museums here
other than these three, but these are the more well-known ones. To get to these museums,
you’ll have to walk through an incredibly long walkway
at South Kensington tube station. It’s not a fun walk but once
you exit the tunnel, you’ll be at the museums! Which museum is your
favourite, Zach? Ooh, I quite like the
Science Museum, they have lots of funny
contraptions in there. That’s my favourite as well! Awesome!
Oh, by the way, entry to all museums
here are free! ZACH: This is Harrods, one of the world’s most
famous department stores. It was founded in 1849. VINBEE: Harrods is 20,000
square metres big, and it has 7 individual floors
of selling space. equalling about 90,000 square metres, which is over one million square feet! Making it the biggest
department store in Europe! Wow! And with all that space, the shop has a total of 330
individual departments, selling a huge range
of products, services and almost anything you
could think of, as well as a food hall! They also have a seasonal
Christmas department, because who doesn’t love
Christmas shops? Oh, I know I do! Also, Harrods has it’s own motto! ”Om-nye-uh… ”om-nee-bus… ”yoo-bi-kway”?? It’s actually
”Omnia Omnibus Ubique”, which is Latin for
”All things for all people everywhere”. Ooh, I didn’t know you
spoke Latin, Zach! I don’t. ZACH: This is Portobello Road. Wow, we’ve run out of landmarks
and we’re resorting to roads? No-no-no-no-no, this one’s
a notable road! Portobello Road is home to none
other than Portobello Road Market! This market is usually open
on weekends. The market area is almost
a kilometre in length, being around 940m in length,
or 1,028 yards. so it’s quite a trek if you
plan to walk the whole length. Markets bore me to death, so I don’t plan on walking
through here any time soon. Well, you could use a
bit of exercise, Zach. BLOWS RASPBERRY ZACH: This one isn’t really a landmark,
but it occurs throughout Kensington, VINBEE: The Notting Hill Carnival is an event
which is led by the British Caribbean Community, it began on the 13th of January, 1959 when they held an indoor
Caribbean Carnival. This was a response to racial abuse
in the UK around that time, and the event was
broadcasted by the BBC. Nowadays, the Carnival averages
around two million attendees! With around 40,000 volunteers. The event takes place every year
towards the end of August, and in 2006, the Notting Hill Carnival was
voted onto a list of icons of England. Of course, when you have a show about
several aspects of London. there’s obviously going to be some things
which aren’t very lighthearted. Some things may include disasters, or other
serious events which happened somewhere. Which is why this part of the episode
will be dedicated to a subject which may be a rather serious one. We have to discuss Grenfell Tower,
in North Kensington. ZACH: This tower was the site of one of
the worst residential fires in the UK
since the Second World War. On the 14th of June, 2017, a fire broke out at around
1 o’clock in the morning, and the fire lasted for a whole 24 hours before
finally being fully extinguished after 60 hours. VINBEE: The fire was caused by
faulty electrical wiring in a refridgerator on the
4th floor of the tower, and it spread due to the insulation
of the building’s windows, which were made of a combustible foam, which means that it was incredibly flammable. A total of 70 people died at the scene, and the whole incident left more
than 70 people injured, and 223 people managed to escape. The tower is currently covered in
scaffolding and a protective wrap, with a message at the top saying
”Grenfell – Forever in our hearts”. Recently, the UK Government has
announced that the building is to be demolished at some point
in the near future. As long as it’s still
standing as of now, it reminds the people of London,
and the UK, of the disaster. We apologise if that last bit
was a serious subject. Sometimes there’ll be topics in this
show that may be of a serious subject, and we’ll try to explain it in
the best way possible. We do try to keep a silly and
fun vibe for this show, but sometimes, there’ll be times
when we have to do this, we don’t know how often
this will happen, this could just be for
this episode only, so, there’s a fair warning. I feel like now that we’ve
made our point clear, shall we continue with the
rest of the programme? I feel like we should, we have
several other bits to talk about. There are a total of three stations
in the borough named after Kensington, but, interestingly, there are no
stations named after Chelsea. VINBEE: South Kensington,
High Street Kensington, and Kensington (Olympia). There’s also West Kensington,
but that is, in fact, not in K&C, so we aren’t counting it. ZACH: All of these stations
are on the District line, High Street Kensington is on both
the Circle and District lines, and South Kensington is on the Circle,
District and Piccadilly lines. VINBEE: Kensington (Olympia) is also on the
London Overground Mildmay line, as well as Southern
on National Rail. both of which actually receive
more services than the District line, we’ll get to that soon, though. Let’s bring down the TfL Tally
to show the stats of each tube line in the borough. MACHINERY WHIRS Well, it looks like the Circle line
is back to first place with eight stations in total, along with the District line, as well. And the Overground has fallen into
last place, with the Central line, both with two stations each. And since we count the
Overground lines, too, let’s show all of the Overground
lines in Kensington & Chelsea. Welp, the Mildmay line has two
stations, who’d have guessed(?) Given that it’s the only Overground
line in the borough. Also, Kensington (Olympia) runs through
both Kensington & Chelsea AND Hammersmith & Fulham, but since
it’s officially under the authority of K&C, we’re counting it for this borough! Speaking of, let’s talk about
that station now! Kensington (Olympia) is the only station
on the entire London Underground network to be directly on a limited service
line, on the District line. ZACH: Normally, Olympia sees three trains per hour
on the District line on weekends, as it’s advertised that the District line
runs there on weekends and public holidays. There used to be three trains
per hour on weekdays, too. Nowadays, however, there are
only eight trains per day which run from High Street
Kensington to Olympia. And then there’s an extra two trains
which run from Olympia to
High Street Kensington, instead. The station also sees more use when there’s
an ongoing event at the Olympia Exhibiton Centre. Unfortunately, there are no bus stations
in Kensington & Chelsea, but we can use this opportunity to talk
about something we haven’t mentioned
before on this show, cycling!
Oh, yes! Cycling in London has become
a lot more common in recent years, as there have been new cycle ways
installed in some parts of London, painted in either blue, red
or not painted at all. These cycle lanes are all
across London, However, Kensington & Chelsea have been
incredibly strict when it comes to cycle ways. VINBEE: For example, Cycleway 3 was
originally planned to go to Acton, but, it instead ended at Lancaster Gate. Similarly, Cycleway 9 originally planned
to go all the way to Central London. but, instead ended at Kensington (Olympia). ZACH: Uncoincidentally, these stopped specifically
where the boundary of Kensington & Chelsea was. More recently, in 2019, the council of Kensington & Chelsea
vetoed a programme by TfL to allow safer walking and
cycling in the borough. And in 2020, a cycle lane in
Kensington High Street was scrapped after only seven weeks. Needless to say,
Kensington & Chelsea are terrified of vehicles with two wheels. Anyway, back to the rails! VINBEE: There’s only one currently disused
tube station in the entire borough, that being Brompton Road
on the Piccadilly line. It closed on the 13th of July, 1934. This station suffered a similar
fate to Down Street, which we discussed in a previous episode. ZACH: Yep, Knightsbridge station had a newer
entrance built near to Brompton Road,. as newly built escalators replaced the lifts, and, as a result, Brompton Road
ceased operation. When it was a station, it closed on
the 4th of May, 1926 due to strike action, but it didn’t reopen until
the 4th of October the same year, and from then, it was only
served during weekends. Sunday servies were restored
on the 2nd of January, 1927, and even then, the station
had low passenger usage, which was a factor of it’s closure. Knightsbridge’s new entrance was the
nail in the coffin for Brompton Road, though. Also, since this borough is
adjacent to the River Thames, there’s a river bus pier here! VINBEE: Cadogan Pier is the only river bus
pier in the borough of Kensington & Chelsea, River Bus 6 is the one that stops there. Oh yeah, we should also
mention the river services, as we didn’t mention this in the first episode
where we spoke about the river buses. There are several boat services
which run along the River Thames, all being named “RB”
with a number. ZACH: RB1 runs from Battersea Power Station
and Westminster to Barking Riverside, RB2 runs from Battersea Power
Station to Embankment, RB4 runs between Canary Wharf and the unnecessarily longly-named
’Doubletree Docklands Nelson Dock’, and RB6 runs from Putney to
Canary Wharf and North Greenwich. VINBEE: There’s also lots of river tours
running between various parts of London, and the Woolwich Ferry, connecting
North and South Woolwich. you know, with K&C being such
a small borough, it’s hard to find anything to talk about
for transport, considering not many stations here have that
interesting history to talk about. The river buses are cool, though.
We can mention that Southern runs to two stations in the borough, but we don’t
normally cover National Rail stations. Which is why we didn’t talk about the amount
of Thameslink stations last episode. Anyway, with that being
said, onto trivia! ZACH: Kensington and Chelsea,
the metropolitan boroughs, were merged into one borough during
the merging of the boroughs in 1965, Kensington was a royal borough,
so the merged borough had the full name of ‘The Royal
Borough of Kensington’. VINBEE: The borough was initially
intended to be named Kensington, but due to protests by the
residents of Chelsea, and the member of parliament for Chelsea,
Captain John Litchfield, the borough ended up being
called Kensington & Chelsea. Or say it with me now: BOTH: The Dodecasyllabic
’The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea’! ZACH: Now, where have I
heard that before? Part of Hyde Park runs through
Kensington & Chelsea, and Kensington Palace is in this part. This place is where some
Royal Family members have resided. ZACH: Kensington & Chelsea used to have a very small
population, especially for Central London. Between 1801 and 1901, the population count has increased
from 22,000 to 250,000! In 2022, the population count
decreased to 146,000. Okay, I’m just gonna ask, what is with all these boroughs and the sudden
increase and decrease in population? I’m aware two world wars happened,
but what happened here in the late 1900s? Maybe it had something to do with
new towns being constructed, so, people moved out of London
to more affordable areas? Well, as a result of this, Kensington & Chelsea has the smallest
populaton out of any borough in London. No surprise, as we mentioned
it’s the smallest one. Kensington & Chelsea is twinned
with Cannes in France. The city is situated
on the French Riviera. There’s no sole Chelsea station
on any train line here, But, there would’ve been one
as part of the Crossrail 2 project. It was shown that the station
would’ve been located on King’s Road, specifically the section of the
road by Dovehouse Green,
a small park next to the road. However, Crossrail 2 plans were
shelved in late 2020, likely due to the ongoing
pandemic at the time. At least we still have Crossrail 1, which became the Elizabeth line! Well, that’s something, I guess, at least we got a new train
line in recent years. Well, that about concludes this
episode of Borough Bugs! Crazy how Kensington & Chelsea just decided to
have its name be that because of protests. Yeah, other boroughs weren’t as
lucky with their protests, as some boroughs campaigned hard for
two place names in their borough’s names. In fact, there’s two other boroughs in London
which include two place names in their name. Want to find out more? Stay tuned! Or… don’t, you could just
ignore this all together. I’d prefer if they didn’t
though, please stay tuned. Free will is a thing,
Vinbee! It’s 2025! STAY TUNED!! Subtitles by ISBSP
[email protected] ZACH: Support Borough Bugs at
patreon.com/boroughbugs to get
exclusive perks! Four tiers to choose from
any amount is appreciated,
link in the description!
8 Comments
WAKE UP EVERYONE!!! BOROUGH BUGS E3 IS COMING!!! 🗣️🔥
What is episode 4 coming up next?
i swear i forgot about borough bugs 💔😭✌️
also check out 'FOR SOME WEIRD REASON', by Vinbee's VA, okie cokie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhgZnuXN-Yg
STAY TUNEFFD HKHFASHDGFHAGSGFGAS-
no but srsly, thx for the support, we couldn't have done this without your support lol
Love of the son
Came back again to make it clear that
He never said it would meet demand
Shame on a martyr, claiming friends from
Either perspective of 'and'
Weak and strong
And wet and dry
And right and wrong
And live and die
And sane and gone
And love and not
And all the and's that we forgot
So sing while you hear it and don't deny it
Leave if you can't stand the thought of it
Come back again to make things stand
With no disrespect to the 'and'
High and low
And new and old
And stop and go
And hot and cold
And John and Yoko
Dark and light
It's almost time to say goodnight to it
They took a lesson from their fathers
Told them that they were the same command
Wait for the minds to make complete
Their lies stuck beside every 'and'
Words and numbers
Sound and silence
Stop the peace
And keep the violence
No and yes
And we digress
It lives with sad and happiness
Oh, God!!
Big bad Betty of the 'pocalypse
She opens her lips and it goes like this
When the golden rule and the jungle meet
There'll be nothing to love and there'll be no one to beat
Oh, the things we know, the things we don't
Oh, the things we think, we can't, will and won't
We're loathed together and nothing's left
We're all together and they're all bereft
Capitalist, communist
You did the hokey-pokey and it went like this
You hate each other and you love yourselves
It might be heaven and it might be hell
Oh, the things we do, the things we say
Oh, the things we wish we could wash away
mother flippin’ epic episode
Kentucky and Chicken