location: Borehamwood, Herts WD6 1EB [map] open: noon-6pm Tue, Wed, Thu (or 10am-3pm Sat) until: 9 May 2026 admission: free 5-word summary: actual Walford props and memories see inside: on YouTube
They love a good local exhibition at Elstree & Borehamwood Museum, despite the challenges of a tiny room. In 2022 the volunteers focused on the unbuilt Northern line extension, complete with working model railway layout, and more recently a Tipsy Nipper formed the centrepiece of The Story of Elstree Aerodrome. At present they're offering a full-on celebration of EastEnders, partly because it's the show's 40th anniversary year but mainly because the BBC film their top soap just 200 metres away.
The big central object on this occasion is Martin's fruit and veg stall (which is no longer Martin's because [spoilers] he died in the live anniversary episode after the pub exploded). It's not the actual stall, it's a recreation knocked together by museum volunteer Tony, but these are the actual fruit and veg used on the show. It's all plastic to save money, obviously, but sufficiently convincing for television purposes. The boxed fruit selection doesn't allow you to handle Martin's plums but you can pick up his bananas and try flogging his lemons.
At the far end of the room is the Queen Victoria pub. They've had a bit of fun here and provided facemasks of Peggy, Grant, Kat, Alfie, Pat and Mick so you can pretend to pull a pint in character for selfie purposes, which I can confirm I have seen visitors doing. Again it's not the actual bar but those are genuine Luxford & Copley pumps, that is genuine E20 flock wallpaper and the bust of Queen Victoria is real too. Apparently the show's used more than one bust over the years so this may not be the precise Archie Mitchell murder weapon from 2009.
Household items used as violent weapons are however very much present in a separate glass case. Only afficionados will remember the candlestick Claudette nearly killed Gavin with and the carriage clock which Ravi used to kill his stepfather, both displayed alongside the foam version used during the actual head-thwack moment. A more significant presence is the two-pronged meat thermometer used to despatch Keanu on Christmas Day 2023, here presented on a scarlet cloth.
Sonia's trumpet has only ever been used to damage eardrums but is perhaps the most significant prop on display. Other costume icons include Dot Cotton's handbag and beige coat, a pair of Pat Butcher's earrings and the fluffy wedding dress Sharon wore on Meat Thermometer day. A few behind the scenes secrets are additionally exposed including the designer's mock-up for the pub interior following the 40th anniversary explosion and a looping video showing the cast preparing to broadcast live.
But what really caught my eye was this streetmap of Walford. And the more I stared at it it, the more I thought "You what?!"
It's a prop of some kind, possibly from one of the many cab companies that have been based in E20 over the years. I tried to date it but the adverts down the side don't match with any particular era of the show. Albert Square is in the middle, surrounded by Bridge Street, Turpin Road and Victoria Road in their approximately correct arrangement, But everything beyond that is fictional including dozens of additional streets, multiple railways and even a canal... and all I can say is I bet the cartographer never intended for it to be scrutinised up close.
• As well as Albert Square there's also Gladstone Square, Lower Square and Lindsay Square, identically-shaped and abutting the railway but disconnected which'll be why we've never heard of them. On the other side of the tracks is Cannon Square, bigger and glimpse-able across the allotments, but similarly never mentioned.
• A nearby grid of terraced streets is called the 'Emma Chant Estate', whoever she was.
• Walford General Hospital is less than 200m from Albert Square, so goodness knows why characters pay for taxis to get there and why ambulances take so long to arrive.
• The East Junction Canal passes through Walford, which is probably the most believable feature of the lot.
• There are two stations, not just Walford East but also Walford South which looks to be less than a minute away by train. Ridiculously the railway crosses the canal twice between the two stations.
• The railway branches into three different lines just south of Walford East station, two of these matching the viaducts that cross Bridge Street and Turpin Road on set.
The street names are weird too. Some sound eminently believable for an East End neighbourhood, like Lincoln Street, Cole Street, Parsons Road and Whiteside Avenue. Others sound odd like Spickle Road, Mustard Road, Filigree Street and Blanket Street. Most unnerving is that several streetnames appear twice on the map, no more than a few hundred metres apart. There are two Upper Parades, two Clay Roads, two Alabaster Streets, two Cole Streets, two Castle Parades, two Eastcoat Terraces, two Rowe Avenues and two Albert's Avenue. There are also two Arnold Crescents, both of which are straight, and two North Roads, neither of which runs north-south.
I can only assume that the map was only ever meant to be seen in the background and was knocked up fairly haphazardly by a graphic designer. If her name was Emma Chant, that wouldn't surprise me. It means we can't alas add this to the canon of official EastEnders cartography, which to the best of my knowledge consists of a)confirmation that Walford East station takes the place of Bromley-by-Bow on the tube map. b)confirmation that the E20 postcode lies to the north of E15.
My favourite quirk on the map is the compass rose which points north, straight up the map. If that's true then Bridge Street, where the pub and launderette are, must point west. However when the Albert Square set was built the real Bridge Street at BBC Elstree definitely pointed southeast. And when a new set opened for filming in 2022, now with proper buildings, it was reoriented so that Bridge Street points northeast. It means that even though BBC designers tried to make the new set look as much like the old set as possible, the sun rises and sets in a completely different direction so the shadows aren't consistent.
After my trip to the museum I crossed the High Street and walked up Clarendon Road for a couple of minutes to see if I could spot the two sets in real life. It's a dead ordinary terraced street but if you look beyond a short modern cul-de-sac, above someone's garage, you can see the rooftops of the flats on George Street on the old set. Meanwhile the new set can be seen up a short private access road very close by, signed 'BBC Elstree Studios' and with a turnstile at the far end where employees go in and out. That's the back of Dot Cotton's old house over the razor wire.
And for an even better look, head to the runty greenspace that is Clarendon Park. It has lovely gates, a carved grizzly bear and the odd bench, but also a heck of a lot of chimneypots visible over the back hedge. The nearest house belongs to Phil Mitchell, while the modern-looking wall is the back of the former B&B where the Truemans and Foxes live. Matt from Londonist visited in 2021 when the hedge was a lot lower and a lot more was visible, including the front of the Queen Vic. That's now better concealed but Albert Square is always visible, and all you have to do is pop down to Borehamwood and look up. Alternatively there's a much easier-to-see exhibition at the museum until 9th May, and every visitor gets to walk away with a free 40th anniversary beermat too.
