Call the Midwife

LONGCROSS, SURREY
PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2023

Barrow Hills house has appeared on screen as ‘Nonnatus House’ since December 2013.

The Barrowhills estate comprises of the listed Barrow Hills house and its later-added garden terrace, Japanese garden, and cottage known as New Cottage – as well as tennis and squash courts. The house was built in 1853 as a family home but was passed into commercial hands in 1937 when it became the Greyhound Racing Association’s Kennels & Training HQ for around a decade, potentially saving as many as a thousand greyhounds from the London Blitz.

^{_{Barrowhills estate in the 90s, showing New Cottage and stables on the left. Courtesy Chertsey Museum}}

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, a tank testing facility opened on the north side of Chobham Lane. The facility remained active after the war, and in 1951, the Government expanded it to include a test track around Barrowhills estate, with the Ministry of Supply acquiring the house itself in 1952 from a short-lived school. Barrow Hills house then became an officers’ mess from 1953, forming part of the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE) at MOD Chertsey before eventually being decommissioned in the mid-2000s and sold to a property developer who leases the land to Longcross Studios.

^{_{FVRDE (later Military Vehicles & Engineering Establishment (MVEE)) site plan, courtesy PCA.}}
^{_{Barrow Hills Officers Mess marked ㉔.}}

Originally filmed at St Joseph’s College in Mill Hill, London, Call the Midwife moved to Longcross Studios in 2013 after work commenced to develop the semi-derelict former college into luxury flats. As a result, series 3 onwards saw the real-life Barrow Hills house transformed into ‘Nonnatus House’, built into the storyline by the detonation of an unexploded bomb forcing the midwives to relocate. The surrounding East London streets are an elaborate set built around Barrow Hills house, with Chatham’s Historic Dockyard also doubling as Poplar for scenes away from the house.

^{_{Barrowhills estate with Call the Midwife set built between cottage (left) and house (right) ©Microsoft}}

Until 2021, production offices, film stages, workshops and associated facilities were based within the Longcross North section of the studio site. This part of the site, however, is now under development for exclusive use by Netflix, forcing Call the Midwife to move its entire production to Longcross South (where ‘Nonnatus House’ is already located) at a cost of around £1 million. This consists of a number of temporary buildings, with Stage One and Stage Two occupying a former squash court, a set store/workshop occupying a former tennis court, and car parking with support buildings sat atop an area of backfill material from the historic test track construction.

^{_{Plan showing the new temporary filming structures, courtesy Runnymede Borough Council}}

Filming was set to end by November 2023 as Barrow Hills house and its garden terrace are to become part of a residential development known as Longcross Garden Village. However, reports suggest that the site is still being used to film Call the Midwife.

Gallery