EastEnders Set

The EastEnders Set is located in Elstree Studios, Borehamwood. Originally built in 1984 on wasteland, the set has been maintained over many years and has been updated to conform with High Definition standards. A new set was built in recent years and the show began filming on it in late 2021. In November 2022, the old set began being demolished.

Former Set[]

Pre Build[]

Inspiration[]

Finding the Set[]

Building the Set[]

Duch Set (1993)[]

Introduction by Dreek Biesiot Directed by Eddy Habbema - Vara - 1993 Soap series about the residents of the Rotterdam neighborhood 'The old north'. The data for the series came from the well-known series Eastenders, but the Dutch version only lasted one season. With design assistant Nick de Weerd I designed a square in the working-class neighborhood and all the interiors. The Burgemeester Roosplein is such a small, normal square. A greengrocer, Surinamese toko, dump shop and a launderette. In the middle a small playground with some seesaw chickens and a telephone booth. Director Eddy Habbema preferred to shoot everything on location, but that turned out to be very expensive. The facades and streets of the square are therefore 'real' - of (brick) stone and wood - only at the back you can see that it is a decor. The interiors are in a studio in Almere.

Images © Dreek Biesiot 1993. See original link.

Set Today[]

Bing[]

Apple Maps[]

Current Set[]

In 2014, then executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said that he wanted Albert Square to look like a real-life east London neighbourhood so that the soap would "better reflect the more fashionable areas of east London beloved of young professionals" giving a flavour of the "creeping gentrification" of east London. A temporary set will be created on-site to enable filming to continue while the permanent structure is rebuilt.

The new set (Project name E20) would increases the size of the set by 20% compared to the original set and the project will be managed by Jenkins Design Services Ltd.

In May 2016 the rebuild was delayed until 2020 and forecast to cost in excess of £15 million, although the main part of the set is scheduled to be able to start filming in May 2019. In December 2018, it was revealed that the new set was now planned to cost £59 million but a National Audit Office (NAO) report stated that it would actually cost £86.7 million and be completed two-and-a-half years later than planned, in 2023.

It was completed ahead of schedule and began being used in February 2022. The first episode on the new set aired on February 28 2022

Gallery[]

2019

2020

2021