BBC Wales may have been the production company responsible for most of 21st Century Doctor Who, but that did not stop them from setting the show and often filming it in England’s capital city.
London has a long history with the show (and technically a long future too, no spoilers), and so much of it has been shown on screen that it is unsurprising that Doctor Who location maps exist for the city.
Londonist, a website dedicated to all things London, made such a map during Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary year a decade ago with the help of famous journalist John Elledge, and it has decided to update its map for the 60th anniversary celebrations. In part, that’s because London’s geography has changed a bit in that time, but primarily because there is even more Doctor Who filming spots that could be added.
This map not only covers everything from the First Doctor’s era to the present, and all of those instantly recognisable places like St. Paul’s Cathedral (Dark Water), the Tower of London (The Day of the Doctor) and the Shard (The Bells of St John), but it also lists Doctor Who locations that were not even seen on the show.
Examples include the office which Virgin Publishing was based in as it produced book after book of new adventures for the Seventh Doctor (and his predecessors) in the 1990s, settings from the west London-based television spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the area of Tooting Bec which the Doctor claims contains a loo with a Yeti sitting on it. How’s that for variety?
For the TV filming locations, the digital map shows the face of the relevant Doctor whose episode was filmed or set in that spot. What makes it even easier to use is that the map itself is essentially an overlay of pins on top of Google Maps, meaning it should be easy to load on any computer or smartphone.
Londonist admits that it does not consider Peter Cushing’s movie Doctor as canon, so filming locations for him do not appear, but vows to “continue to update the map into the Tennant#2 era, and on through Gatwa’s tenure, and beyond”.
