Where is EastEnders shot? Albert Square was recently rebuilt brick for brick — at a cost that made the national news
Where is EastEnders filmed? The real location behind Albert Square, what happened when the BBC decided to rebuild Walford, and why the project ended up in front of a spending watchdog.
Walford is not in the East End. Walford has never been in the East End. Walford is, and always has been, in Hertfordshire — and its recent glow-up came with a bill that had MPs clutching their pearls.
Let's rip the plaster off: EastEnders is not filmed anywhere near the East End of London. Every market row, every Queen Vic pint, every doof-doof cliffhanger is shot at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire — a good hour and a change of postcode away from anything resembling Walford. The square itself is loosely modelled on Fassett Square in Hackney, but the actual bricks live on a BBC backlot up the A1.
And about those bricks. For decades they weren't bricks at all.
A set built to last two years. It lasted thirty-seven.
The original Albert Square went up in 1984 out of plywood and plaster panels, intended for roughly two years of use. It then soldiered on for nearly four decades, gamely pretending to be solid Victorian London whilst being, essentially, a very committed stage flat that couldn't survive HD cameras.
So the BBC launched the E20 project: a full rebuild of the square, this time in actual brick, right next to the old one. What could go wrong?
Everything. Everything could go wrong.
- The 2015 budget was £59.7 million. The final figure landed at £86.7 million — £27 million over budget, according to the National Audit Office.
- The set was meant to open in 2018. Cameras didn't roll on the new square until January 2022.
- Among the delays flagged by the NAO: prolonged discussions about the type of bricks required, and underestimating how long it takes to "weather" a set so it doesn't look suspiciously new.
The overspend made the national news, the NAO wrote a genuinely scathing report, and Labour MP Wes Streeting got his soundbite in:
"Even avid fans of the soap will raise eyebrows at these costs," Streeting said at the time, comparing the square's costs to east London house prices.
Was it worth it, though?
The cast, to be fair, seemed chuffed. Martin Fowler himself — actor James Bye — bid the plywood goodbye graciously:
"The new set is open for new stories to happen," Bye said, whilst admitting the old Vic roof would always hold the memories.
Postscript for maximum irony: in 2024 the BBC, hunting for £500 million in annual savings, sold the entire Elstree site to insurance giant Axa and leased Albert Square back. So Walford's landlord is now an insurance company. Somewhere, Phil Mitchell is furious and doesn't know why.