Making History | The refugee crisis – Restoration style


pick-of-the-podcasts

\What would happen if you took the Calais ‘Jungle’ and moved it to the heart of London? Is this a dystopian view of a post-Brexit Britain? Or a fascinating look at an overlooked part of the Great Fire of London’s impact on people.

Today, Finsbury Circus is home to some of the world’s most important financial and corporate names. It is in the heart of the City of London, sandwiched between Liverpool Street and Moorgate.

In 1666, the area was Moorfields and it was the nearest large open space to the tightly-packed and overpopulated Square Mile. It was a natural refuge for Londoners fleeing the blaze.

It became a refugee camp and, amazingly, was still housing dispossessed people eight years later.

This week’s Making History from BBC Radio 4 continued the refugee theme by focusing on Hungarians fleeing the failed uprising of 1956. Sixty years later, the BBC catches up with Bob Somogyi for a vivid account of his teenage life in Budapest and in Britain.