The Queen Victoria


The Queen Victoria is the Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.

Appearance and development

In the series' backstory, Albert Square was built around 1860 during the reign of Queen Victoria. In February 2020 Sharon Mitchell revealed that the original landlords of The Queen Victoria were Mr and Mrs Bagstock, and that he’d drowned his wife in the bath. Originally the pub was to be called The Balmoral but after the death of Prince Albert it was renamed as a tribute to the mourning Queen. In reality, Albert Square is based on the real Fassett Square in Hackney, but there is no pub there so The Queen Victoria is based on what was once College Park Tavern on Harrow Road in Harlesden. Initially, the pub's exterior is first seen painted brown. This is later changed to a green and cream colour scheme before Grant Mitchell sets alight to the Queen Victoria in 1992, after which it is painted red. Following another blaze in 2010, the pub is painted red, green and cream. On Boxing Day 2013, the new family to the square, the Carters, took over the Queen Vic and since then it has had a refurbishment and has been painted red once again.
During the first months of the show, The Queen Victoria has a partition wall down the middle of the bar which separates it into two sections. The smaller section, known as the 'snug', houses a dart board and fruit machines, whilst the larger section, known as the saloon bar, is used primarily as the customer seating area. Den Watts gets permission from the brewery to remove the partition in 1985, and hires Tony Carpenter to do the job. In 2007 the pub has its first refurbishment in 15 years, and another in late 2010.
In reality the pub exterior shell on the outdoor permanent set was built during 1984 for the new series the following year. The exterior shell was made to look as though it had stood for a hundred years. The internal sets are in a studio separate from the building situated in the Square.
Inside Soap said that the pub was the most "haunted" location in EastEnders, considering the number of characters who have died in or outside the building, including Den, Archie Mitchell, Bradley Branning, Tiffany Mitchell and Tom Clements.

2010 fire

In a storyline shown during September 2010, The Queen Victoria was severely damaged by a fire. This allowed for a subtle redesign and upgrade of the set; required when high-definition broadcasting commenced. A separate set was built on the George Lucas sound stage at Elstree Studios to enable the pub interior to be set alight safely.
A team of nearly forty-five crew members were involved in the filming of the fire including makeup, stunt team, fire safety officers, cameras, lighting, sound and the costume department. The exterior scenes took five half days to shoot and were shot at the BBC studios in Borehamwood. The interior scenes were shot a week after and took three days to film.
Safety necessitated having the set re-created at the Elstree Film Studios stage facility that is designed and equipped to film fire scenes. EastEnders Production Manager Rona McKendrick says "Potentially hazardous scenes like this always require specialist knowledge and we rely on their experience and advice to ensure that everything is achieved as safely as possible. We had a Stunt Team comprising Lee Sheward, our Stunt Co-ordinator and his team of Stunt Doubles. A Visual FX team designed and executed all the fire sequences and we had specialist Fire Officers providing out of vision fire cover / safety."
Of the fire itself, McKendrick said "Everyone was very sad to see The Vic taken out of Stage One and moved to Elstree Film Studios for the burn, I've known the set for 18 years and to see the enormous space it left was as if a piece of history had been removed".

Storylines

In the EastEnders series spin-off CivvyStreet life in Albert Square is featured between 1939 and 1945, and The Queen Victoria freehold is owned by the brewery, Luxford & Copley. Ray and Lil Sewell are the landlords. When the series begins, the brewery remain owners and Den and Angie Watts have been landlords for ten years; previous landlords alluded to in conversation include Gus and Flo Leonard and Alf and Polly Barrett. In 2020, the first landlords of the pub are mentioned as being Mr and Mrs Bagstock, Mrs Bagstock having been drowned by her husband in the bath.
Angie is served with divorce papers by Den on Christmas Day 1986 and two years later he passes control to Frank and Pat Butcher. In 1990, Frank and Pat hand over the pub to Eddie Royle. Eddie is murdered by Nick Cotton the following year, and the daughter of Den and Angie, Sharon Watts, becomes the first licensee when she buys the freehold of The Queen Vic with the assistance of her husband Grant Mitchell and his brother Phil ; the three live there. Grant sets fire to the pub in 1992 in an insurance scam and it is refurbished. Grant and Sharon divorce and their share of The Queen Vic is sold to Grant's mother, Peggy. Peggy marries Frank in 1999 and he again becomes a landlord. When Grant leaves Walford, Peggy's alcoholic son Phil sells his share of the pub to Dan Sullivan for a mere £5 to spite his domineering mother. However, he subsequently buys back his share and evicts Dan from The Queen Vic. After Frank disappears and leaves her penniless, Peggy is forced to sell the pub in early 2001. The new buyer is revealed to be Sharon, in partnership with Steve Owen. Steve has to sell his share to raise ransom money for his wife Mel and Phil buys back part of The Queen Vic. In 2002, Sharon also sells up to Phil and the pub returns to the control of the Mitchells. Peggy appoints Alfie Moon as manager later that year.
In 2004, Den tricks his way back into ownership of The Queen Vic, and within a few months he is killed by his second wife, Chrissie, who buries his body in the cellar of pub. Chrissie forges his signature on a deed of transfer and tells the customers that he has left Walford, signing The Queen Vic over to her. Sam Mitchell digs up Den's body and Chrissie, in a plan to escape, sells the pub to Ian Beale and is subsequently arrested for murder. Her confessing to forging his signature nullifies the sale to Ian and ownership reverts to Sharon, Den's heir. Sharon returns The Queen Vic to Peggy and Phil. When Sam breaks bail in 2009, the family goes into debt. Phil secures The Queen Vic against a loan from Ian, who is forced to sell it to Peggy's ex-husband Archie. The Mitchells initially continue running the pub but Peggy relents and hands over control to Archie and his fiancée Janine Butcher after her step daughter Ronnie Mitchell suffers a miscarriage during a confrontation with her father Archie. After Archie is murdered on Christmas Day, his daughter Roxy inherits The Queen Vic. When Roxy tries to sell it on, Peggy objects, and Roxy signs over the pub to her. Later in 2010, Phil develops a drug addiction and is locked in a room in the pub by Peggy. After he escapes, he argues with his mother and sets fire to the pub as an act of revenge. The fire traps him and Stacey Branning along with her baby Lily, but they all manage to escape.
Again, fire destroys The Queen Vic and Peggy transfers ownership to Phil before she leaves Walford. Phil renovates the pub and rents it to Alfie Moon and his wife Kat. Kat is away temporarily in 2012 when Roxy again is landlady but upon Kat's return, The Queen Vic is forced to close down due to an outbreak of bed bugs, the source of which was thought to be Shirley Carter, who has been staying. Instead, it was found that the source was the flat where Kat was meeting her lover Derek Branning. The Queen Vic returns to Phil when Kat and Alfie fail to pay rent and Roxy is again made manager. However, Phil has a change of mind about Kat and Alfie when he finds out from Kat about her affair and subsequent attempt to save her marriage, all the while leaving Roxy as manager. During Christmas 2012, Alfie finds out about the affair, they separate and Roxy and Amy move back to The Queen Vic. Roxy replaces Kat as the joint licensee of the pub with Alfie, but leaves after Alfie reunites with Kat on the day of his and Roxy's wedding. As an act of revenge against the Moons, Phil decides to sell the pub and Alfie and Kat are forced to move out. Janine initially tries to buy the pub, but is arrested for murder before paying Phil. Mick Carter buys The Queen Victoria on Christmas Day, 2013, and the following day moves into the pub with his wife Linda Carter and son Johnny Carter. Phil is surprised to discover that Mick is Shirley's brother. When Shirley persuades their estranged father into giving them £10,000 to repair the rising damp in the cellar, Mick and Linda give Shirley a 10% stake in the pub.
In 2016, Mick and Linda's son, Lee Carter gets into debt, and Mick pays it off by taking out loans. The family struggle to pay for court fines after Babe Smith sells alcohol outside of licensing hours, repairs to a leaking roof, for Sylvie Carter's funeral, and vets bills for their dog, Lady Di. While Linda and Mick are away, Linda sends Woody Woodward to look after the pub as a manager. Max Branning hears of the Carters' financial problems and suggests to Shirley that they sell the freehold of the pub. Shirley convinces Linda but they do not tell Mick, and Shirley forges his signature. The new freeholders, Grafton Hill, send Fi Browning, a business consultant, to look at ways to maximise profit at the pub, and she concludes that two members of staff need to be made redundant, but insists that the freeholders want Woody to stay, so Sharon, and barmaid Tracey are made redundant. It then emerges that the company Max works for, Weyland & Co, are involved and they have a mole in the pub, as the company is planning to redevelop the local area and The Queen Vic is their first target. It is soon revealed that Fi is the mole, and Grafton Hill makes them pay for further repairs. Fi tricks the Carters into thinking the debt is less, so when they fail to pay, they are given a month to leave and it is revealed that Fi's father, James Willmott-Brown is the owner. However, after Fi realises that James is a rapist, who had raped Kathy back in 1988 and he is arrested for fraud, she offers the Carters the chance to buy the Vic back, which they are eventually able to do.
In 2020, after Linda struggles with alcoholism, Mick decides to sell the pub in order to help Linda recover. Phil tries to buy the pub in order to repair his marriage to Sharon, but after he kicks her out, Linda refuses to sell to Phil. The pub is therefore sold to Ian, who installs Sharon as the landlady and she moves in with her son, Kayden Watts.

Employees

Current staff

Previous staff

Key events in The Queen Victoria

;1980s
;1990s
;2000s
;2010s
;2020s