Somewhere random: Lou and Andy's house When Matt Lucas and David Walliams were filming the first series of Little Britain, they brought AndyPipkin and his wheelchair to Tower Hamlets. Because most Tower Hamlets residents don't live in shiny skyscrapers or refurbished wharves. They live in council blocks, ordinary terraces and social housing. All of which made Globe Town, halfway between Bethnal Green and Bow, the perfect spot to place the imaginary community of Herby. It's here, amongst the tower blocks on the Cranbrook Estate, that all of Lou and Andy's domestic scenes were filmed.
"Tower blocks were introduced in Britain in the 1960s and were an instant success. People loved the sense of social alienation, entrapment, and the stench of urine in the lifts." (Tom Baker, 2003)
There are six tower blocks clustered on the Cranbrook estate, surrounded by lower flats and terraces in a sort of figure-of-8 shape around the perimeter. Some council architect, in an attempt to give the estate some "character", has nailed identical green rectangles all over the buildings in a starkly geometrical fashion. This may not be high class design, but it gives the estate a peculiarly collective style.
I didn't manage to find and photograph Lou and Andy's fictional residence whilst wandering around the Cranbrook estate at the weekend. I did track down a few likely candidates, but was frightened off on each occasion by the appearance of the man of the house in the front garden. One bloke was busy emptying his flat into the back of a truck, another taking his ferocious runty hound for a walk. A third was visible only from his bull-neck upwards, crouched on the concrete tinkering with the remains of a motorbike. Elsewhere three kids kicked a football across the threadbare grass, while a bored child threw bread out of St Gilles House in an over-successful attempt to attract pigeons to his windowsill. I passed a couple pushing a premature pushchair towards VictoriaPark - he broad of belly, she wide of hip. But of a lank-haired carer pushing an ungrateful liar in an unnecessary wheelchair there was no sign. What a kerfuffle. by tube: Bethnal Green by bus: 8, D6
When Matt Lucas and David Walliams were filming the first series of Little Britain, they brought Andy Pipkin and his wheelchair to Tower Hamlets. Because most Tower Hamlets residents don't live in shiny skyscrapers or refurbished wharves. They live in council blocks, ordinary terraces and social housing. All of which made Globe Town, halfway between Bethnal Green and Bow, the perfect spot to place the imaginary community of Herby. It's here, amongst the tower blocks on the Cranbrook Estate, that all of Lou and Andy's domestic scenes were filmed.
"Tower blocks were introduced in Britain in the 1960s and were an instant success. People loved the sense of social alienation, entrapment, and the stench of urine in the lifts." (Tom Baker, 2003)There are six tower blocks clustered on the Cranbrook estate, surrounded by lower flats and terraces in a sort of figure-of-8 shape around the perimeter. Some council architect, in an attempt to give the estate some "character", has nailed identical green rectangles all over the buildings in a starkly geometrical fashion. This may not be high class design, but it gives the estate a peculiarly collective style.
