Call the Midwife: Poplar and Chatham Dockyard

The drama follows the midwives and nuns of Nonnatus House as they cope with the medical problems of the deprived Poplar district of London's East End in the 1950s. The first series is set in early 1957, and with between 80 and 100 babies born each month in Poplar alone, delivering them is the main work. Poplar is where the story is set, not where most of it was filmed: the streets you see on screen are mostly elsewhere, starting with the dockyard at Chatham.

Location precision: The series is set across the Poplar district; the pin marks Poplar generally, not a single building.

The ship in the opening titles is the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line liner QSMV Dominion Monarch, shown in dry dock at the King George V Dock. The road beside it is Saville Road, Silvertown, in east London. The dock is one of three in the Royal Docks, now part of the redeveloped Docklands in Newham.

Many of the exterior scenes are shot at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, which stands in for East London streets and buildings. The 80-acre site has over 100 buildings from the Georgian and Victorian periods, which makes it a natural choice for period filming. It is used mainly for exterior shots.

Visitor guidance: The dockyard is open to the public as a visitor attraction in Kent.

HMS Cavalier is used for scenes on ships during the series. She is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, launched on 7 April 1944, preserved as a museum ship and now berthed at Chatham Historic Dockyard, so one visit covers both stops.

Visitor guidance: She lies inside Chatham Historic Dockyard.

A reconstructed prefab house at the Chiltern Open Air Museum in Buckinghamshire has also been used as a filming location. The museum's collection has more than 35 buildings on view, including barns, farm buildings and houses.

Visitor guidance: The museum is open to visitors near Chalfont St Giles.