13 Bannerman Road

13 Bannerman Road.

13 Bannerman Road was the address of a house in the London suburb of Ealing. In the early 21st century, it was the home of Sarah Jane Smith and her adopted children Luke and later Sky

Features

The house, architecturally, was an older, Tudor bricked home rather unlike the rest of Bannerman Road, which were all modern detached houses. Inside, the living room was quite small and held an old television and objects collected by Sarah Jane Smith in her travels.

There were many bookcases in the house. Among the books were:

• The short stories of H. G. Wells
• Rider from Rifle Rock by Gladwell Richardson
• The Tumbled House by Winston Graham (TV: Invasion of the Bane)
• French cooking
• Dan Dare 9: Terra Nova trilogy by Frank Hampson, The Photographer's Library
• UNIT Fighting for Humankind by Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)

The Attic

The attic was the largest room in the house, and served as Sarah Jane's home office and base of operations. Several photographs hung there; among them were portraits of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Harry Sullivan and K9 Mark III & herself; along with these were old drawings of the TARDIS. (TV: Invasion of the Bane) The attic also contained a telescope and a chair for which stargazing. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

After K9 Mark III broke down and Sarah Jane was unable to repair his future technology, she stored him to a cardboard box in the attic. (TV: School Reunion; PROSE: Moving On) He was repaired when Sarah Jane found the Tenth Doctor, but promptly sacraficed himself in the line of duty. (TV: School Reunion)

When Sarah Jane discovered that the Xylok crystal she found could communicate with her laptop, she followed its plans to build for it a supercomputer in the attic wall, into which the Xylok was integrated. the resulting sentient computer took the name, Mr Smith and provided her with access to countless databases, communications systems, and functioned as a research laboratory . (TV: The Lost Boy, Invasion of the Bane)

K9 Mark III's successor, K9 Mark IV, was forced to leave Sarah Jane soon after his arrival, in order to stabilise a black hole. A space-time link in a safe in the attic allowed periodic contact between K9 and his mistress (TV: Invasion of the Bane) and brief teleportation of K9 back to the attic in emergenices (TV: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love, Journey's End, The Lost Boy, The Mad Woman in the Attic)

After K9's mission was complete, the safe became a storage unit for any alien weapon Sarah Jane had acquired. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic, Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith)

Up until September 2010, there was a pillar in the middle of the space. After this time, the top had been removed and it had become a stand on which alien objects could be placed for Mr. Smith to scan. (TV: The Nightmare Man)

After occupation of the house passed to Rani Chandra sometime before 2050, Rani made her home office on the same portion of the attic as Sarah Jane had done. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic)

History

13 Bannerman Road was the home of Sarah Jane Smith and her adopted son, Luke who, after discovering a Xylok unearthed at Krakatoa, built Mr Smith the computer above a fake fireplace in the attic. (TV: The Lost Boy) Later, Maria Jackson saw Sarah Jane communing with the Star Poet in the garden of the house.

The house suffered minor damaged after Davey, a member of the Bane family was sent to kill Sarah Jane. The front door was ripped of its hinges and a couple of banisters damaged. Soon after, 13 Bannerman Road became home to Luke Smith. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)

13 Bannerman Road served as headquarters from where Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Maria would hunt aliens. There, Alan Jackson was turned to stone by a Gorgon. (TV: Eye of the Gorgon)

The attic served as one of the nodes of the Sub-Wave Network used to guide the Tenth Doctor to Earth after the Daleks had re-located the planet to the Medusa Cascade. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

After Maria left for America, the group met Rani Chandra, who soon found out about Sarah Jane and what she did. (TV: The Day of the Clown)

Other information

• Harriet Jones knew that Sarah Jane Smith lived there. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
• Sarah Jane put a key under a flowerpot at the side of the house to allow for emergency entry. (TV: The Last Sontaran)
• Chrissie Jackson found her way into the house twice through the same window and commented that "Some people never learn." (TV: Eye of the Gorgon and The Last Sontaran)

The Tardis landed here twice

Behind the scenes

• The shooting location for Bannerman Road is Clinton Road, Penarth, Cardiff. The house used is on the northern corner with Victoria Road (which corners Clinton Road), number 21.
• Unlike the other occasionally seen portions of 13 and 36 Bannerman Road which were filmed on location, Sarah Jane's attic was a purpose-built set and the series' principal standing set. As the ongoing base of operations and information center, the attic served the same narrative purpose as the TARDIS control room on Doctor Who and the Hub on Torchwood.
• In 1987, Doctor Who a story aired titled Delta and the Bannermen.
• In Eye of the Gorgon and The Lost Boy, the house was seen with the location's actual 21 rather than 13 on it. The same error occurs in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? in which 21 is clearly visible on the brick wall around the house.

See also

• 13 Bannerman Road - List of Appearances