The real Poplar stories behind BBC’s
Call the To celebrate ten years of BBC’s Call the Midwife we share the reallife stories of the Poplar residents who inspired the storylines of the award-winning show. WOR DS R UBY F LA NAG A N
They were by my mum and dad’s side when they had to turn off my brother’s life support. They came to the funeral and they never left them. Now if that doesn’t tell you about our community and how much they were a part of our community then I don’t know what will.
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n the TV show Call the Midwives a convent of religious sisters, along with a handful of young midwives, live in Nonnatus House in Poplar, East London, and work in the community providing district healthcare and delivering babies. Written by Heidi Thomas, the concept of the show is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, who herself worked as a young midwife in the 1950s and 60s East End. The real Sisters were the Religious Sisters of Saint John the Divine and were based at the St Frideswide’s Mission House on Lodore Street, which still exists. The Sisters of Saint John the Divine were established in 1848 in Fitzroy Square near Euston and were trained as nurses and midwives in Germany. T HE S L ICE 0 8
They have worked in maternity homes and hospitals across London since then. The Sisters were invited to Poplar in the 1880s by the Church of All Saints Poplar to work in the East End community. In the period of the 1950s and 60s, the Sisters and midwives became an iconic part of the East End, with many from the community describing them as an integral part of life in Poplar. ‘It was exactly like what they show you on the telly, they rode around on the bikes, the midwives in their uniforms and the nuns; and the nuns look exactly the same too’ says Jean Whitelock, now 79 years old, who had two of her five children with the Sisters in 1964 and 65. ‘The young nurse was sitting at the
end of my bed knitting, whilst I was having my daughter, she kept turning occasionally to check on me, but it was a long 28-hour labour. She kept telling me not to push and the nun arrived to help. I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I pushed and they screamed no at me, and then she arrived,’ Jean says. ‘My husband was sitting on the stairs outside the flat with my mum and my sons were in bed, and the nurse went outside and asked him if he wanted to see his daughter. All my neighbours were coming back from bingo and they all cheered and clapped.’ Valerie Vanderson, now 73, had her son Darren in 1970 with Sister Monica and her labour with Darren was particularly traumatic for her. ‘She was just passing by, we had such a lovely relationship, she popped in for
