“Eastenders” must surely now be the most ironic name for a television show ever, and that irony keeps getting clearer and clearer. Of course, when the soap was created in the early eighties, the east end of London was a very working class, downtrodden area synonymous with grift and grime. Eastenders worked harder for very little pay, living in postwar council houses quite removed from their central London neighbours. 

These days, however, east London is a completely different place: probably starting with the transformation of the Isle Of Dogs in the late eighties and continuing with the creation of national cultural destinations like the Dome and the Excel Centre, the area has been gentrified beyond recognition. Rows of terrace houses have been replaced one by one with smart blocks of flats, complete with coffee shops and bourgeois  bistros. You only need to go to Stratford to see how radical the transformation has been; but the same thing is happening all over the east end of London, from North Greenwich to Woolwich to Kidbrooke. Of course, the extension of the jubilee line and then the creation of the DLR and Elizabeth Line have made a real difference in uniting the capital with its historic east end. The area is also vastly more gentrified and multicultural than it once was. Thus I no longer think the name Eastenders and the connotations it once carried really holds true, unless the soap is now set in an area of well maintained parks, enormous skyscrapers, huge shopping centres and multi billion pound transport projects.