Web Video / Unfinished London

Unfinished London is an Edutainment web series created by musician Jay Foreman, focusing on various unbuilt projects in London. First started in 2009 (and still ongoing!), His quirky, off-beat humor is a good framing device for Jay to show off weird parts of Londons' history, such as the roads that were never built, why there's so many boroughs, why there's so many airports, among other things.

As with Map Men, Jay has a Patreon page, which you can donate to here. It also shares a lot of tropes with that series.

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Unfinished London provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: In the episode about London's airports, Jay explains that it had become difficult to build new airports in London, saying, "Not just any place possessed the appropriate properties to be propelled into a popular passenger port for people." This is immediately lampshaded when a crude medal falls from above and lands directly on Jay's neck. Also in the same episode, there's "Naturally, the no-nonsense, nimby, naysaying neighbors said no."
• Audience Participation: For his second video on London boroughs, Jay put out a Twitter poll to ask if Londoners always knew what borough they were in. The overwhelming answer, with two thirds of the votes, was 'curious non-Londoner'.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In Episode 7, Jay is holding two ends of a electricity wire, with a man in the background attached with some headwear from a machine. When Jay connects the two together, Jay gets electrocuted, not the man.
  • From Episode 8:
    • Jay uses a "lets go back in time" transition, complete with appropriate music, but the scene doesn't change until a full second later.
    • Outraged citizens from various parts of London spit tea out of their mouths, except the male Kent resident, where the person reading the newspaper, while having visible puffed cheeks, gets tea spat at them by the female Kent resident right besides them.
    • Jay looks like he's about to hit a cricket ball, then a football hits him in the back of the head.
• Black Comedy: Episode 2 depicts Patrick Abercrombie as fully nude at all times, and later as having killed himself with an overdose of pills in his bathtub.
• Bystander Syndrome: Brought up with regards to borough divisions in Episode 10, giving an example that a particular location has a constant issue with fly-tipping because it's located at the border of three different boroughs, who all claim it's not their problem.
• Call-Back: Episode 13, about the lack of bridges in East London, calls right back to the Ringways scheme in Episode 2.
• The Cameo:
  • Tom Scott appears in Episode 6 as a person paying for a proposed "lamp post tax" so the street can have light.
  • In Episode 8, Dan Bull and Stuart Ashen appear as Professors William Lawson and William Mackenzie, respectively, while TomSka appears later in the same episode as a resident of Kent.
  • Dodie Clark appears in Episode 9 as a Beleaguered Bureaucrat working for a hypothetical London Supercouncil, trying to address the entire city's problems at once.
  • Matt Lucas (of Little Britain fame) appears in Episode 10 as a devoted supporter of the Hounslow borough. ^note  Word of God has it that this was a complete accident, and Lucas threw it in, just because he recognised it was Jay at the last minute.
  • Episode 12, focussing on Tower Bridge, features a bevy of cameos from various YouTubers and other personalities, including:
    • Adam Blampied (of pro wrestling channel Cultaholic) as Richard Trevithick, who attempted (unsuccessfully) to build a tunnel under the Thames.
    • TomSka as Marc Isambard Brunel, who successfully built the first tunnel under the Thames.
    • The design for Tower Bridge was decided on by having engineers submit their proposals to Sir Horace Jones, chief architect of the City of London Corporation, who is played by comedian Matt Green. The various engineers include Alan Melikdjanian, aka Captain Disillusion, as Frederic Barnett, comedian and presenter Kieran Hodgson as F.W.J. Palmer, YouTuber Alasdair Beckett-King as William Arroll, and John Finnemore (of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme) as Sir Joseph Bazelgette.
  • Episode 14 features London transport YouTuber Geoff Marshall as London Transport head of publicity Frank Pick, who has no lines at all and remains almost completely static in every one of his shots. It also has a brief cameo from railway historian and TV presenter Tim Dunn as a pair of ticket clerks and a confused passenger.
    • Episodes 14 and 15 star another London transport YouTuber Jago Hazzard as Harry Beck, the designer of the diagrammatic Tube map. Jago had previously never shown his face on his own channel, and went uncredited in the first episode and had no lines, so many found it a Wham Line in the second when Harry Beck closed his relationship with London Transport with Jago's voice and Catchphrase ("You are the X to my Y.") Episode 15 also has a closing remark from Mark Cooper-Jones (credited as 'MAP MAN') echoing commenters from Episode 14 saying that it could have been a Map Men video instead.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Jay's reaction to the aerodrome that was planned to be built on top of King's Cross Station in London. He does point out that it looks silly in hindsight, but planes were pretty new developments, so it wasn't a stretch for architects of the age to make the plans they did.
• invokedFollow the Leader: Several in episode 3. When aerodromes fell out of fashion, they converted into airports to cash in, and Jay later mentions airports that changed their name to brand themselves as a "London" airport, including the ludicrously far away London Oxford Airport (61 miles from London), and London Ashford Airport, which Jay points out is closer to France than London.^note It's also 13 miles from Ashford itself and is more commonly known as Lydd Airport.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Several visual gags appear throughout the series:
  • In Episode 1, a dogs' head on a pigeon can be briefly seen when Jay skips through various pieces of media.
  • In Episode 3, on the map with all of the RAF bases drawn on, RAF Dunsfold is labelled as 'The Top Gear Test Track'.
  • In Episode 6, Jay shows off twelve better names for the "underline" project.
  • Episode 9 describes Holborn Town Hall's repurposing with, "No one really knows what this building is used for now. I knocked on the door, and a speakeasy-door-slit-hatch-peephole thing opened up, and out came this horrible growling noise that went on for a bit too long. I walked away."
• Flashback Effects: Subverted in Episode 8 when Jay discusses what London was like in 1964, where it transitions to the past by distorting...only for the effect to stop and we just get a hard cut instead.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Jay sitting on a car parked in someone's driveway in Episode 1, while a man in the background opens his door to see what he's doing (implying that Jay is randomly sitting on someone's car without permission).
  • A person on the street in makeup waves at the bottom right corner of the screen in Episode 7.
  • Jay throws a cardboard outline of London behind him in Episode 8, only to hit a police horse behind him.^note He clarified in the comments that this was added in editing, and his throw did not actually hit the horse.
  • In a very subtle background joke in "Why does London have 32 boroughs?" Jay looks over a miniature model of London. If you listen carefully, you can hear screaming, implying the model has tiny inhabitants who perceive him as a Kaiju.
• Fun with Subtitles: Jay making fun of the cockney accent in Episode 6 with pre-written subtitles that translates the taxi drivers' grunts.
• Gag Dub: Episode 6 has Jay do one to an elderly man giving an interview, and summates his viewpoints by talking over him as "couldn't hear him over the roar of traffic". The inverse happens ("Ms Panhandle" dubs over Jay) when Jay reads a letter.
• Hat of Authority: Played for Laughs with a mock-up of George Francis Train (Yes, that's his actual name)
• Inherently Funny Words: The name "Biggles". Jay uses the name to compare how some experts thought planes would become smaller and more accessible.
• Irony:
  • The Edgware fields were beautifully depicted in a poster advertising a new train line. They were subsequently completely destroyed to make way for housing taking advantage of the new train line.
  • Due to the way Greater London was formed by annexing all of Middlesex as well as parts of Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire, Surrey's county hall is in Kingston.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Plane Mania was shortened by Jay to "Plania", which was met with booing, to which he responded with a forceful "Shut up!".
• Multistage Teleport: Episode 9 has a bit where Jay constantly teleporting to specific backgrounds while talking to camera, at one point picking up a child on a playground who was in their way.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Jay expresses surprise when Biggin Hill Airport closed in 1994 (with the rest of the mentioned airports closing within 15 years of the end of World War II).
• Non-Indicative Name: Episode 9 showcases how many of the old boroughs of London were named for former church parishes. This results in places named after boroughs not being any near each boroughs; St. Marylebone Crematorium is nowhere near Marylebone, while St. Pancras Cemetery is nowhere near St. Pancras. Justified, given the names were given before the boroughs were built.
• Old Media Are Evil: Jay gets annoyed at the newspapers constantly writing hit pieces on cyclists being elitist, being road menaces and generally being a nuisance that makes them look like cyclists are scourges of the road, with the (genuine) headlines shown off that would make J. Jonah Jameson proud.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: In Episodes 5 and 6, the general gist of why cycle lanes are not all around London is down to the borough councils, who all own their streets, and can veto the Mayor of Londons' requests. Jay even calls Kensington and Chelsea the "Slytherin" of the boroughs, as they didn't want cycle lanes going through them.
• Overly Long Gag: In "Why does London have so many airports?" Jay uses one of these in the leadup to the section on Heathrow Airport.
  Jay: So, in 1945 the government converted an airbase to the west of London that they thought was far away enough. We know it today as the airport that rules the roost. You know the one I mean...it's this one...the one we all know...this is what it is...I'm going to say it now...here it comes...yes, it's the one you think it is...you've guessed it...the jewel of West London, here it comes...this is what it is...it's this...everyone's favourite airport...you know the one...it's what you've all been waiting for...here it comes now!
• Overused Running Gag: By the point of Episode 13, Jay is sick and tired of the fact that a lot of Unfinished London is entirely down to the Second World War draining all of the money that would otherwise have been used for development.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • In Episode 3, Jay closes off the short segment about London City Aiport by saying "To this day, it's only used by wankers."
  • In Episode 9, Jay points out "Greater London is f***cking enormous".
• Running Gag:
  • Mustaches in Episode 3.
  • Harry Beck constantly bothering Frank Pick in unusual places in Episode 14.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Slytherin house gets mentioned in Episode 6, while the transition music from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons gets used.
  • To CGP Grey in Episode 8, where a section uses music used by Grey, an artstyle parodying his, as well as reciting his "Story for another time" catchphrase.
  • Episode 12 features a Zoom meeting between various engineers trying to come up with a design for Tower Bridge, and ends with a parody of the infamous Handforth Parish Council meeting that went viral in late 2020, this time with Sir Joseph Bazelgette bellowing "You have no authority here!" at Sir Horace Jones.
  • The sponsored segment at the end of episode 12 has Jay parodying retro-tech enthusiast Techmoan, who buys an obscure 1980s Japanese gadget which, like many of the real Techmoan's finds, arrives broken (in this case, reduced to a pile of dust).
  • Episode 15 has the opening theme to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue as part of its BGM, which comes to an abrupt halt with an audience cheer as soon as Jay mentions Mornington Crescent.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: A gag in "What's wrong with London's boroughs?" has Jay complain about the signage and the fonts used on them from around the London Boroughs in increasingly nit-picky ways (such as Camden having a font for the street name that is at odds stylistically with the Camden logo.)
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Jay opens Episode 2 about London's unfinished motorways with, "If you've ever tried driving around London you'll know what a (hits car horn)' -ing nightmare it is."
• Standard Snippet: Jay, as a musician, often uses bits of other songs that often relate to the subject at hand:
  • King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" is played in Episode 1 as Jay jabs at London's 1960s-era housing architecture.
  • The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" is used in Episode 2 as Jay talks about how confident and brass London was about progress during the 1960s.
  • When discussing the trolley bus in Episode 7, he uses an instrumental version of "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis.
  • Episode 3 has the Thunderbirds theme tune being used when Jay talks about the planned aerodrome to go on top of Kings Cross Station.
• Stock Footage: Justified, given that Jay uses it as visual shorthand for what he talks about in any given topic.
• Suddenly Shouting: "Armadillos!" in Episode 5.^note This happens to be a reference to a 1995 Dime bar commercial., thus making it another example of a Shout-Out. Elsewhere in the same episode, Jay screams in surprise when his on-location clip suddenly comes on, to which his on-location self screams in return before carrying on with his narration as if nothing had happened.
• Stylistic Suck. Some of the visuals qualify, but the mustaches falling off their owners in Episode 3 is a good example.
• Take That!: In Why does Heathrow need to expand?, (then) London Mayor Boris Johnson delivers his idea for "Boris Island" (an airport made on land reclaimed from the Thames estuary) while he stuffs his mouth with a Swiss roll.
• Title Drop: In Episode 1:
  "[This is] a story of a town planning cock-up that happened 50 years ago, one of many examples of Unfinished London."
• Understatement: In Episode 3, Jay discusses the proposal to build a new airport on an artificial island in the Thames Estuary, and how it would cost "more than £100,000". Well, yes...rather a lot more!^note When the project was scrapped in 2014, the estimated cost was up to £100 billion.
• Visual Pun:
  • The word "London" in the title card is missing the last stroke of the second "N". Thus, "London" in the title card is unfinished.
  • In "Why Does London Have So Many Airports?", Jay mentions the Royal Flying Corps, and illustrates the name with a picture of an apple core with wings wearing a crown.
  • In "Why Drivers Should Want Cycle Lanes", Jay blasts water from a pressure washer at a man with a bicycle while asking "Why is cycling being watered down in the capital?".
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Margaret Thatcher is depicted opening the M25 and proceeding to vomit all over herself, which probably represents what the Green Party-voting Jay thinks of the woman.
• invokedWhat Could Have Been: The focus of the series. Among the projects discussed:
  • The Northern Heights plan in Episode 1, an expansion of the Northern line into Brockley Hill, Elstree South, and Bushey Heath. Drawn up in the 1930s, delayed by World War II, and cancelled after London's green belt stopped any of the housing development the rail system would have supported.
  • The Ringways in Episode 2, huge motorways that would've been an attempt to improve London's infamously bad road systems. Drawn up in the 1960s and 70s, but cancelled amidst public outcry.
  • The King's Cross Aerodrome in Episode 3, an enormous bicycle wheel-shaped series of aircraft runways built on the roof of King's Cross railway station, which never happened when aircraft started getting bigger and more commercial rather than smaller and more private.
  • The Skycycle lanes in Episode 6, which were canned for being unpractical, convoluted and expensive, while the "Underline" was also scrapped (and also having a very bad name).
  • Episode 12 goes into the alternate designs submitted for Tower Bridge, including a double swing bridge, one where the roadways slid sideways, and several where the roadway was simply high enough to avoid getting in the way. It also shows a 1943 concept to encase the bridge in an art deco frame of steel and glass.
  • The plans for London crossings east of Tower Bridge in Episode 13, including the onramp to a bridge which was built before being abandoned when the plans were.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The start of Episode 7 has Jay teleport a lady to speak about where trams are in London, and after they teleport out, Jay is now in a similar dress to the one the lady wore.^note The lady in concern is his (then) girlfriend and, later, wife.