Chatham Historic Docks/Call the Midwife Tour

Unfortunately, this wasn't the visitors' entrance.

 On one of the wettest Saturdays of the month I met with my youngest son and his girlfriend at Victoria Station to catch the train to Chatham. They had asked me along because they know I am a big fan of Call the Midwife TV series, and the outside scenes are filmed at Chatham Docks. Of course there is now an official tour. 

The heavens really threw down the rain as we stepped outside the station at Chatham, and it's a fair old walk to reach the docks, at least twenty minutes. We'd been requested to arrive half an hour beforehand, so it had been an early start to the day.

We later went to look at this ship

We met our guide by the ship known as The Cavelier at 10.30am. She was dressed in the midwives uniform, plus a see-through plastic mac against the rain. The tour (mainly outdoors) was due to last an hour and a half. We set off to various points around the docks where our guide described scenes filmed there. The ship where we started from had been used for various scenes and used as a different type of ship each time, and some filming took place on board. There was also a small rowing boat that was used by two of the midwives to row out to a ship which could not dock. The scene was actually filmed in a small space and never left the dockside. However, you'd never know that from the end result.

This was used at the hospital, CGI covered the crest

Used for many scenes

The rowing boat (far end) used in a scene

We saw the pier which stood in for a scene at Southend, and for an engagement scene, an alleyway where Fred would 'do his business' with others, the hospital, the church used for a wedding, with artificial snow, and the cobbled streets which would be hung with washing lines. Another small street was viewed and used as a market, a tunnel where an unexploded bomb had to be defused, and a set of steps used for any number of scenes, including a dairy. There was also the courtyard where Chummy learned to ride a bike and crashed into a PC (who she married later in the series).

Our group walking down one of the roads used in Call the Midwife

This will feature in the Christmas Special!

Ropemakers Hall with our guide

Cobbled street

Where Chummy learned to ride a bike

The steps used for all sorts - a woman sweeping them, the dairy

 and a trade union member addressing workers.

Where the washing hangs across in the series

The chalk marks

The police station

We were interested to learn that the chalk marks on the walls were not done by the children in the TV programme, but by the set design team and then the chalk was handed to the children. They were not allowed to make marks themselves! Set design also made scenery to fit over original buildings (some buildings are Grade II Listed), so it appears that a door opens into a hallway, though its just a wall behind. The rest of the scene is filmed in a studio. Nonnatus House is filmed in a building elsewhere in Surrey.

The Ropemakers Hall was also used. This is an enormous building and we went back later to take more photos. I found this fascinating. Extras were taken from those who worked there. They changed the colour of their overalls, and a woman had to push her long hair up into her hat and keep her head down in order to look like a man (there would not have been a woman working there in those times). 

The umbrellas were up and down, and at one point our guide did part of the tour in reverse order so we could shelter under a roof. However, one of the most exciting places to visit was the props room. This was in a locked space and contained things that had been used in the series, including clothes, bikes, a record player, toys, a full table laid out for a meal at Nonnatus House and the surgery. There was also a prosthetic doll from the time when the first thalidomide baby was born. We spent about ten to fifteen minutes in here, and it was a bit like walking through my childhood!

In the props room

Trixie's wedding dress

After the tour we were at liberty to enjoy the rest of Chatham Docks. The rain had stopped at last and we visited two ships, and a shed containing lifeboats and rowing boats. We stopped for lunch, after which we looked in at a few exhibitions. One was Sea Monsters, another on model ship building and a photographic exhibition. 

Ropemakers Hall

On board The Cavelier

On board the other ship with rigging

Boat shed

Upstairs hall in boat shed

Exhibition

Cross section of model ship transporting horses

It was a long day, and a long walk back to the train station. I'd visit again as there is also a Chatham Waterfront near the shopping precinct, as well as a nearby fort. There wasn't time or inclination to stop longer, and in fact I fell asleep on the train back to London. My son informs me that he and his girlfriend are now watching Call The Midwife from the start again, especially as they know where everything is filmed. We were told there is a Christmas Special coming and a new series. There will be a few more years of Call the Midwife yet.