100 Hours Of EastEnders To Be Screened In London's East End Boozers

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 22 months ago
100 Hours Of EastEnders To Be Screened In London's East End Boozers
Peggy Mitchell, in a pink jacket, screams at Pat Butcher from behind the bar
This but for 10 hours. Image: BBC

Get inta my pub!

A new art installation will entice drinkers into various East End pubs, by screening 100 hours of scenes set in the Queen Vic from EastEnders. Just think of it as a really, really hardcore omnibus.

The Lock-in is the work of Stanley Schtinter, who spent his lockdown splicing together footage from the infamous fictional boozer, from between 1985 (when the soap started) and 1995.

The video will 'tour' proper boozers in east London — each of them screening footage from a different year. (In case you wondered, Barbara Windsor's fearsome Peggy Mitchell first entered Albert Square in 1991, so there should be plenty of her bellowing "get outta my pub!" at the locals.)

The average screening lasts 10 hours (fyi: you don't have to watch the whole thing), with The Queen Adelaide in Cambridge Heath first up, on 3 June.

Once it's completed the pub circuit, the whole 100 hours of the thing moves to the Barbican, where it'll be in residence from 1-30 July.

Anita Dobson, who played another legendary Queen Vic landlady, Angie Watts, has dubbed The Lock-In "an interesting project", while it reminds us of another epic video installation — The Clock — which came to Tate Modern back in 2018. Although that was a breezy 24 hours long.

The Lock-In is at various east London pubs 3-June-1 July 2022, then at the Barbican 1-30 July daily. It's free to view, as long as you buy a drink (and honestly, if you're planning on watching 10 hours of Dirty Den, better make it a double).

Last Updated 30 May 2022

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