please empty your brain below
I was surprised when in Monday's Eastenders a long shot of the square showed the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf in the distance. It's easy to forget that Walford is actually in the Bow / Poplar area, especially when I know it is actually a set in Elstree.

Jon | 19.02.15 - 8:53 a.m. | #

Walford, of course, is also very easy to fake on signs which say "Watford". Out of focus in the background signage which the set dressers missed is unlikely to arouse suspicion. A lot of exterior work is shot around Watford - it's also handily close to Elstree.

Walford East tube station is also the only one on the network where you can tap in using your left hand. It seems that whichever gate is the more convenient for that shooting angle is the one that opens, no matter which reader pad you press. I must admit, I didn't spot that one - it was pointed out to me by someone who works on the tube gateline and instinctively spots irregularities with the way the gate operates. Fare dodgers and all that.

Uncle Audrey | 19.02.15 - 10:07 a.m. | #

At last you make it as far as my old area (or should I say "manor"). I lived in four different addresses within a cauliflower's throw of Walford Road for 20+ years until the late 90s. Both the first house, in Farleigh Road in which I rented a flat, and the last, in Foulden Road where I owned the upper maisonette, were carbon copies of the flight of steps up to the front door style you call "especially Branningesque".

The "sturdy pub" on the corner of Stoke Newington Road used to be called the Walford Arms. See http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/StokeNewington/Walford.shtml

However, I disagree with you that the area is correctly called Shacklewell. The border between the E8 and N16 postal districts runs along Shacklewell Lane and this used also to be the border between the parliamentary constituencies of Hackney Central and Hackney North & Stoke Newington. Anyone living north of this would consider themselves as living in Stoke Newington. I know I did, and this was long before it became a trendy place to live.

dg writes: Text tweaked, thanks.

What was odd in 1985, and even odder now, is that none of the houses in Albion Square had apparently been done up by their middle class owner occupiers. By 1985 much of the Graham Road area had been bought up and converted. I'll bet that it is even more true now.

Charles | 19.02.15 - 11:59 a.m. | #

I made a couple of errors in my comment above. The border between E8 and N16 postal districts runs mostly north of Shacklewell Lane, not the road itself. And the old Rectory council ward, in which I lived, was in Hackney Central, not Hackney North & Stoke Newington. The border between the two constituencies ran up Stoke Newington Road/Stoke Newington High Street and then took a dog leg right around the top of Stoke Newington common. I should have remembered the latter as this is where I voted in the 1979 general election.

Charles | 19.02.15 - 12:58 p.m. | #

Amazed to discover that I rode through the location this morning, with the diversion on the Lee Navigation tow path. And have been cycling through the Teviot Estate for the last two years!

Half a physicst | 19.02.15 - 1:21 p.m. | #

The bicycle/fence arrangement you photographed could almost be a piece of public art. It seems to me to be open to interpretation.

Great Aunt Annie | 19.02.15 - 9:33 p.m. | #

Re: Ridley Rd: "The speciality is food rather than clothes, which in 1985 would have been standard fruit and veg but today is anything but."

I lived on Graham Road in 1991-3 and I can assure you there was a strong West Indian presence - I loved buying, and experimenting with cooking, plenty of fruit, veg and fish that I'd never seen before. Even tried goat once, though I didn't know you needed to cook it for about 4 hours... Never walked round Fassett Sq. though - no reason to go, and there was no DG (or indeed internet) back then to tell me about it. Oh well.

Graham | 20.02.15 - 7:26 p.m. | #

Better than Eastenders, Noel Gallagher's new video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzQYtpjMjSo

Recorded around your way?

Karl, Dover | 20.02.15 - 8:10 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy