Babies bicycles and post-war Britain – that’s right this is the Call the Midwife tour! The hugely successful BBC period drama series films many of its exterior scenes at Chatham Dockyard and this is where your Official Call the Midwife walking tour takes place.
London 1957. The deprived Poplar area of the East End is experiencing a baby boom with calls to the midwives of Nonnatus House to deliver 80 to 100 newborns every month. The nurses and midwives use their trusty bicycles to get around assisting new mothers and generally nursing this rundown area of the capital.
Chatham Dockyard is the perfect place to shoot many of those classic Call the Midwife scenes. Covering over 80 acres there are around 100 well-preserved original Victorian and Georgian buildings complete with cobbled streets. You can just imagine the scruffy kids playing in the streets whilst the likes of Trixie weaves in and out of makeshift clothes lines on her bicycle to get to her next patient.
All tours are hosted by a costumed ‘midwife’ who’ll guide you around the dockyard pointing out and explaining where key scenes have been filmed as you go. As well as the famous street scenes you’ll also see places like the Commissioner’s House which doubled as a 1950s style restaurant in the series. The pace is a gentle wander so you have plenty of time to take in everything that you see and take photos too. There’s even a dedicated area at the dockyard where costumes and props from the show are on display.
As well as exploring the filming locations for Call the Midwife you’ll also be regaled with behind the scenes anecdotes about the show and historical Chatham Dockyard tales too. Your ‘midwife’ guide is very knowledgeable about this once pivotal dockyard and the TV show too. There’s ample opportunity for Call the Midwife fans to pose their questions but it’s probably best not to ask her for advice on anything like babies with colic or teething cures!
In our opinion the Call the Midwife tour is excellent value for money too as a standard on-the-day entry ticket to the historic Chatham Dockyard alone is £24 for adults. And as Sister Monica Joan said: ‘I find two opinions are better than one particularly if one is mine!’. We couldn’t agree more!
