Walford

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This article is about the fictional London borough. For real places called Walford, see Walford (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Watford.

Walford
London borough
LocationsThe Queen Victoria
CharactersEastEnders characters

Walford is a fictional

borough of east London in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is the primary setting for the soap. EastEnders is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location work is filmed in nearby Watford
, which was chosen for many of the exterior scenes due to its close proximity and the town's name being so similar to Walford. Thus, any stray road signs or advertising boards which are accidentally filmed in the back of shots will appear to read Walford. Locations used in Watford include most interior and exterior church scenes of various churches, the snooker club, the County Court and Magistrates' Courts courtrooms, and the cemetery (where most of the deceased characters are interred).

The name Walford is both a street in

Children In Need charity appeal, Walford became twinned with Weatherfield in a special programme uniting the two soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street called "East Street
".

Locations within Walford

Albert Square

"Albert Square" redirects here. For other uses, see Albert Square (disambiguation).

The main setting of EastEnders is Albert Square, where many of the characters reside. Central to the Square is the garden. The garden is home to

Fassett Square in Dalston,[8] and was given the name Albert Square after Prince Albert. The Queen Victoria, was also given its name due to this.[9] The Queen Victoria public house, known to residents as the Queen Vic or simply 'The Vic', stands south of the square at number 46 Albert Square, where it joins with Bridge Street. East of the pub is a building with 2 flats and west of these in the southwest corner leads off to a walkway through to Turpin Way, on which the Walford Community Centre and Playground are found.[7] To the west of the Queen Vic, across the junction with Bridge Street, is the Beale house, 45 Albert Square. Next to that is 43 Albert Square. In the southwest corner of the square is number 41.[7] Between numbers 41 and 43 is Daisy Lane, a pathway connecting Albert Square to Victoria Square. Daisy Lane was named after the daughter of Series Designer Steven Keogh.[10] On the west edge of The Square there are two houses 18 and 20 Albert Square, which have been knocked through as a single property and then later separated again. It was previously Walford's B&B, 'Kim's Palace'. North of the old B&B is the rear of 55 Victoria Road. A row of five terraced houses line the north edge of Albert Square. The westernmost house is number 31. The property next door is split into two flats. Number 25 is the home of Dot Cotton (June Brown). The easternmost property in the terrace is number 23, which was destroyed in September 2014 by a fire.[7][11] On the northeast edge of Albert Square is a car lot, south of which is another terrace of three elevated properties. The northernmost house is number 5. A road leads north at the square's northeast edge, passing by the car lot. The middle house is at 3 Albert Square. Most southerly of this terrace is number 1,[7]
originally flats with the doctor's surgery on the ground floor, which later became a single house.

Bridge Street

The fruit and veg stall from Bridge Street Market

Bridge Street is the location of the

Fi Browning (Lisa Faulkner), a business consultant for the company, gifts the café to Kathy after discovering that her father, James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde) raped Kathy.[14]

The launderette is owned by

Apostolos Papadopolous. Apostolos sells the launderette to Phil Mitchell and Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace
) in 2021, and Kat also sets up a taxi company called “Kat’s Cabs” in the backroom.

Turpin Road

The exterior of the R&R nightclub as it looked in 2009

Turpin Road is the location of a war memorial, bookmaker, chip shop, funeral parlour, restaurant and an upmarket bar as well as several other businesses.[7] The name Turpin Road was chosen after the show's creator read that the East End was the haunt of notorious highwaymen, such as Dick Turpin.[10]

The nightclub on Turpin Road is originally named Strokes Wine Bar until

Jonah Tyler (Mark Mooney), is planning on buying the club from Ruby. She approaches Phil with this news and they agree to outbuy Jonah, reopen the club as a wine bar and run it together; renaming it "Peggy’s" in honour of their late mother, Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor
). Co-run by Phil, Sam, Kat and Sharon, the opening night of Peggy’s was on 7 July 2022.

The Dagmar at 10 Turpin Road is first mentioned in 1986 and seen in 1987 when

Kim Fox-Hubbard (Tameka Empson
), run it until he is forced to sell it to pay people he owes money to and it is left empty in early 2018. Kathy buys the building in 2019, and decides to reopen it as a gay bar called The Prince Albert.

Next door to the nightclub is a building that originally housed the Snooker World snooker club. When Johnny Allen buys Angie's Den, he buys Snooker World and merges the two together to give Scarlet a more open space. After 4 Turpin Road is again separated into two buildings in 2011, Janine Butcher uses it to house her property management business, Butcher's Joints. After Janine's arrest for murder, it is converted into a salon called Blades, owned by

Belinda Peacock (Carli Norris) then opens her own salon called Elysium until she is forced to close it down a few months later due to high debts. It is reopened in 2019 by Denise Fox (Diane Parish
) as a salon named Fox & Hair.

George Street

The Argee Bhajee restaurant on George Street

George Street is the location of an Italian restaurant, Giuseppe's, which later becomes an Indian restaurant, The Argee Bhajee, when a new owner takes over. Walford East tube station is on George Street,[7] which first appeared on screen in late 1985 when Lou Beale (Anna Wing) collapses outside it. On maps seen inside the station it replaces Bromley-by-Bow on the District line, although the building is in the style of the Bakerloo line stations designed by Stanley Heaps.[16] The train sound was first heard in 1987 and the train's first appearance was in 1988 at Lou Beale's funeral. Trains did not appear again until 4 February 2010, when CGI was used in the show for the first time.[17] Platforms within the station were first seen in 2011 when Charlie Slater (Derek Martin) left Walford. George Street also has a B&B, King George Guest House, which opened in 2008.

Other streets

Turpin Way includes the local garage, informally known as The Arches, the community centre, a playground and a boxing gym.[7] Other locations seen or mentioned in the series include Victoria Square, Walford Towers, Kingsley Road,[18] Spring Lane and the High Street. Storylines in 2017 mentioned the demolition of Walford Towers, as a means of introducing new characters to the series, although the demolition was cancelled. Walford Common was introduced to the series for the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline in 2014, while Walford Common underground station was introduced in 2019. Other Walford streets mentioned at various times include Clifton Hill Road,[19] New Street,[20] Fairford Lane,[21] Elwell Road, Sewardstone Road, Clarisdown Street, Wellington Road, Crescent Park Road, Somer Street, Station Road, Elm Road and Montpelier Road. Lou Beale (Anna Wing) also mentions in 1987 that Bassett Street is just off Turpin Road.

See also

References

  1. ^ Smith 2005.
  2. ^ "BBC - EastEnders - Have your Say - Your Questions -". BBC. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007.
  3. ^ "London Postcodes". Flatshare Ltd. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  4. ^ "ROYAL MAIL INTRODUCES NEW E20 POSTCODE FOR THE OLYMPIC PARK". London Legacy Development Corporation. 18 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Underground EastEnders". Underground History. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  6. ^ Eastenders Website
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Welcome to Albert Square". Inside Soap. 12–18 July 2014.
  8. ^ "Interesting Places and Famous Faces". Hackney Borough Council. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
  9. ^ "What's the history of the Queen Vic?". BBC. Archived from the original on 20 December 2006.
  10. ^ a b "How was the name Walford chosen?". BBC. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007.
  11. ^ Kilkelly, Daniel (4 September 2014). "EastEnders reveals dramatic September storylines". Digital Spy. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h "Kathy's Café: Back where it belongs". BBC Online. 6 December 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  13. ^ Executive Consultant: John Yorke; Director: Steve Finn; Writer: Rob Gittins (5 December 2017). "Episode dated 05/12/2017". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.
  14. ^ Executive Consultant: John Yorke; Director: Lance Kneeshaw; Writer: Carey Andrews (28 December 2017). "Episode dated 28/12/2017 (part 2/2)". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Club classics!". Inside Soap. 2018 (8): 52–53. 24 February – 2 March 2018.
  16. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64597. Retrieved 1 July 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)    (subscription required)
  17. ^ "Get your anoraks on... trains are coming!". BBC Online. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  18. ^ "Lucy Beale Case File – Evidence: Funeral". EastEnders. BBC Online. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  19. ^ Executive Producer: Sean O'Connor; Director: Lance Kneeshaw; Writer: Daran Little (17 April 2017). "Episode dated 17/04/2017". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.
  20. ^ Executive Producer: Sean O'Connor; Director: John Greening; Writer: Natalie Mitchell (24 April 2017). "Episode dated 24/04/2017". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.
  21. ^ Executive Consultant: John Yorke; Director: Dominic Keavey; Writer: Carey Andrews (16 February 2018). "Episode dated 16/02/2018". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.

Bibliography

External links

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