When one corner of London's East End is transformed into a late-Victorian slum, Michael Mosley puts modern Britons to the test to see if they can survive there. Without these slums, the welfare state wouldn't have come into being. This is the story of what life was like for the people who lived in the slums and how their plight came to the attention of the world and gave birth to a fledgling welfare system. The volunteers have a personal connection to the slums, and will now need to make the slum their home, feed themselves and make enough money to pay their rent for a full four weeks.
