Powell Estate
The Powell Estate was a council estate in the London Borough of Southwark where Rose and Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith lived.
Location
- For a detailed out-of-universe explanation, please see the behind the scenes section.
The exact location of the Powell Estate varied between accounts.
According to some, the estate was located in Kennington, (PROSE: Rose Tyler [+]Loading...["Rose Tyler (short story)"], TV: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"], etc) but according to others, it was located in Peckham, (COMIC: Silver Scream [+]Loading...["Silver Scream (comic story)"], PROSE: Downtime: Child of the New World [+]Loading...["Downtime: Child of the New World (novel)"], AUDIO: Ghosts [+]Loading...["Ghosts (Redacted audio story)"]) specifically north Peckham, (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Everything Changes","page":"71","chaptnum":"3","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) with its nearest station being Peckham Rye. (AUDIO: Ghosts [+]Loading...["Ghosts (Redacted audio story)"])
Either way, it was located in the London Borough of Southwark. (TV: Father's Day [+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"]) Its postcode was SE15 7GO (TV: Army of Ghosts [+]Loading...["Army of Ghosts (TV story)"], PROSE: Meet Rose [+]Loading...["Meet Rose (short story)"])
According to one account, it had two towers of sixteen floors, unofficially called Enoch and Powell, with six flats per storey. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"]) Other accounts indicated there were more than two towers. (TV: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"], etc.) The towers rose above a squat quadrant with shops, (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"]) known as Maddock Way. (TV: World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"], The Christmas Invasion [+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"]) Some of these shops included: Maddock Way Chemist, (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"], PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"]) Maddock Way Surgery, (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"]) Maddock Cleaners, (TV: World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"]) a youth club named the Brandon Youth Centre. (TV: World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"], PROSE: Winner Takes All [+]Loading...{"page":"13","chaptnum":"1","1":"Winner Takes All (novel)"}) a newsagents, Dev the bookie's, Chicken Shack & Rack, (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"]) a library, and a Chinese takeaway. (PROSE: Winner Takes All [+]Loading...{"page":"13","chaptnum":"1","1":"Winner Takes All (novel)"})
Residents
Between 2005 and 2006, its residents included Rose and Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, (TV: Rose) Arianna, Jolene, Gemma, (AUDIO: Retail Therapy) Trisha Delaney, Rosita, Yasmin, Henry, Frank, Doris, Bill, Maxine, Mrs Boufakis, (AUDIO: Wednesdays For Beginners) Mrs McGregor, Mrs Pye, Darren, (PROSE: Winner Takes All) Sandra, Jason and Tina. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
History
This section is stubby and some of the information would be better served to be duplicated and/or moved to Maddock Way, which is specifically the area of shops at the base of the towers. Also some parts aren't in chronological order.
In 1879, Queen Victoria knighted future resident Rose Tyler as "Dame Rose of the Powell Estate" before exiling her from the British Empire. (TV: Tooth and Claw [+]Loading...["Tooth and Claw (TV story)"])
The Powell Estate was built in 1973. By this account, in which there were only two towers, they were unofficially called Enoch and Powell under the mistaken belief that Enoch Powell MP had christened the estate when in actuality it was named after the developer's wife's mother, Mary Jane Powell, who had died in 1951. (PROSE: Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"])
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While trying to siphon off of the Tenth Doctor's emotional pain, the Reach deposited him at the Powell Estate shortly before its opening. (COMIC: Revolving Doors [+]Loading...["Revolving Doors (comic story)"])
On several occasions during the 1990s, Captain Jack Harkness, who travelled with the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler for some time, visited the Powell Estate to watch Rose grow up, but did not approach her to avoid disrupting her timeline. (TV: Utopia [+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"])
The Ninth Doctor visited the Powell Estate in 1998 after buying Rose a red bicycle for Christmas. (PROSE: The Red Bicycle [+]Loading...["The Red Bicycle (short story)"])
In September 2004, Len Cawl and Sid Adarsh stashed the kidnapped teenagers, Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Conall Wilson, in a flat in Bucknall House, and talked about a woman who lived below them called Jacks, who had a gobby teenage daughter. (PROSE: Downtime: Child of the New World [+]Loading...["Downtime: Child of the New World (novel)"])
Jackie Tyler first moved into 48 Bucknall House (TV: Love & Monsters [+]Loading...["Love & Monsters (TV story)"]) at the Powell Estate in the late 1980s with her husband Pete. It was there that their daughter Rose grew up. (TV: Father's Day [+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"], Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) River Song briefly moved into number 23 in 2007. (AUDIO: R&J [+]Loading...["R&J (audio story)"])
The Tenth Doctor, just before regenerating, made a final visit to the Powell Estate on 1 January 2005. He observed Rose and Jackie, months before he first met them in their timeline. He also exchanged a few words with Rose before staggering back to the TARDIS, parked nearby, to regenerate. (TV: The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])
Powell Estate Motors was a business located around the Powell Estate by 2007. (TV: Love & Monsters [+]Loading...["Love & Monsters (TV story)"])
The Powell Estate became the site of considerable excitement from the years 2005 to 2007 after Rose Tyler encountered the Ninth Doctor.
Mickey Smith was believed to have murdered his girlfriend, Rose Tyler, when she disappeared, due to leaving to travel with the Ninth Doctor and returning home a year later than she intended. As a result, he was shunned by the Powell Estate, especially when Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler, continuously spread rumours of his guilt. Two weeks after Rose's return on 6 March 2006, (TV: Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"]) the people around the estate began being more helpful to Mickey, now that they knew he wasn't a murderer, (PROSE: Essay Competition [+]Loading...["Essay Competition (short story)"]) although the youths of the estate still theorised he was. (PROSE: Winner Takes All [+]Loading...{"page":"189","chaptnum":"16","1":"Winner Takes All (novel)"})
The Powell Estate was one of many sites in London and around the world which were invaded by Cybermen from the alternate reality known as "Pete's World" before the Tenth Doctor expelled the invaders into the Void. (TV: Army of Ghosts [+]Loading...["Army of Ghosts (TV story)"]/Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) As a result of these events, Rose and Jackie were stranded on Pete's World, effectively abandoning their home in the Powell Estate. (TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]) Sometime during these events, Suzy Monroe went to the Powell Estate to film the Cybermen, who looked like ghosts. It was broadcasted live on Ghostwatch. After she had filmed several Cybermen Suzy left to have a look at some other viewers' sightings and was attacked by a Cyberman. (GAME: Ghostwatch [+]Loading...["Ghostwatch (video game)"])
The Tenth Doctor claimed he had picked up his accent from the Powell Estate, when talking to Archie Maplin in 1929. He found common ground with Maplin by noting that the estate was in Peckham, Maplin's home. (COMIC: Silver Scream [+]Loading...["Silver Scream (comic story)"])
Cleo Proctor grew up at the Powell Estate. (AUDIO: Interrogation [+]Loading...["Interrogation (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes
In-universe location
First and foremost, it should be clarified that the scenes for the Powell Estate block of flats were, primarily, filmed at the Brandon Estate in Kennington,[1] and that Kennington is situated on the border of London Borough of Lambeth and London Borough of Southwark. The stairwell[2] and other parts of the estate[3] were also doubled by locations in Cardiff.
- First, the establishing shots of the camera zooming from space onto Rose's alarm clock at 48 Bucknall House after the opening titles in the first episode of series one, Rose, (reused in the pre-titles scene in the 2005 Christmas Special The Christmas Invasion, this time transitioning to a bauble Jackie picks up at home) shows the geography of Kennington, including the Brandon Estate, the Oval and Kennington Park.
- Second, the shots of the Slitheen craft in the fourth episode of series one, Aliens of London, depicts the flight-path following the real-world geography of London; it is seen that the craft flies over the Powell Estate, in the direction of Tower Bridge with the Gherkin towards the top-left. Other Southwark landmarks, such as London City Hall and HMS Belfast, are also seen.
- Third, in the fifth episode of series one, World War Three, a poster for the Brandon Youth Centre is seen, which in the real world is located at 19 Maddock Way, within the immediate proximity of the estate.[4]
- Fourth, many other businesses along Maddock Way are seen in various episodes, from Maddock Cleaners in World War Three, Maddock Way Surgery in The Christmas Invasion, and Maddock Way Chemist in The End of Time.
- Fifth, while never explicitly stated on screen, scenes located at Walterley Street in the eighth episode of series one, Father's Day, there is a street sign that names the street as being part of the "London Borough of Southwark". In that episode, Walterley is implied to be a short walk from Jordan Road and the Powell Estate. The scenes on each of these roads were filmed in Cardiff,[3] more than a hundred miles from either the boroughs of Southwark or Lambeth.
The televised stories that featured the Powell Estate seemed to imply that the estate was virtually identical to the Brandon Estate, from geographic location to appearance, perhaps suggesting that the only difference between the real world and the DWU was the name of the estate. Although technically, in the real world, the quadrant of shops are not technically part of the Brandon Estate, despite being located right next to the base of the towers; many of the businesses that operate along Maddocks Way are include "Brandon" in their names, such as the Brandon Library, and many other businesses include "Maddock" in their names.
Some spin-off media — such as the short story Meet Rose explicitly stating that the Powell Estate is located in Kennington and the novel Winner Takes All also showing similarities to the real Brandon Estate, including having a library, a youth club, and its implied proximity to London itself — aligns with the televised geography, however most other spin-off media contradicts this.
In the comic story Silver Scream, it is stated that the Powell Estate is located in Peckham. This is reiterated in the novel Downtime: Child of the New World and the audio drama Ghosts. While the Peckham locations is within the London Borough of Southwark, it adds around three extra miles and around a 60° angle on the shot of the Powell Estate to Tower Bridge, meaning that several shots in Aliens of London couldn't be possible. No in-universe explanation for this discrepancy has been given As of April 2022[update].
Further complicating matters, the BBC's webpage on Doctor Who from 2005 states that Rose is from SE15, which is Peckham's postcode,[5] whereas the postcodes for Kennington are SE11 and SE17. Furthermore, the twelfth episode of series two, Army of Ghosts, (a story filmed partially on the Brandon Estate and partially in Cardiff) and the short story Meet Rose give "SE15 7GO" as her postcode, and the aforementioned Walterley Street sign in Father's Day is also marked as SE15.
Furthermore, given that the scenes for the Powell Estate were filmed across four different locations, each varying in terms of size and shape,[6] confuses the appearance of the surrounding area somewhat too.
Footnotes
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