Totter's Lane in Shoreditch was "a glorified alley, dank, dirty, cast in brick." Barbara Wright thought it a dismal place to live. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane) In the winter, it had cats and dogs frozen solid under masses of snow. (PROSE: Time and Relative) The street lamps were smashed, dark and useless. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane)
Geography[]
Totter's Lane was located in East London. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)
Totter's Lane was a ten minute stroll from the Wimpy Bar, and just around the corner from Main Street, as the Pump had entrances to both roads. (PROSE: Time and Relative) It was also close to Piccadilly Circus. (GAME: Dalek Attack)
Along the street were a garage, a row of lock-ups, a railway siding, "but no houses, and no sign of life". (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane) At 76 Totter's Lane was a junkyard owned by I.M. Foreman. His sign read scrap merchant. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Day of the Doctor)
History[]
20th century[]
Compelled by the Father of Time, who knew they would find "a new life" there, (COMIC: The Test of Time) the First Doctor and Susan Foreman parked the TARDIS on 76 Totter's Lane around November 1962, and came to live there, as Susan attended the nearby Coal Hill School. Mrs Faulke lived at Number 79, and in the winter had to clear off her own front step and path to the kerb every morning. She told Susan she was writing to the council to complain, as snow-cleaning crews stopped coming to the road, instead focusing on High Street and arterial roads. (PROSE: Time and Relative)
Mrs Smith, an usherette, had encountered the Doctor and his granddaughter in the Ritz Theatre on Totter's Lane, but she told them to leave after the Doctor continually and rudely pointed out inaccuracies in a film about the fall of Rome, and the duo left in the direction of a junkyard. In early 2005, Mrs Smith wrote about her encounter on whoisdoctorwho.co.uk. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)
Barbara and Ian discover the TARDIS. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")
On 22 November 1963, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton followed her home, worried about her, and heard her voice from inside the TARDIS. Upon walking into the TARDIS, they were taken away from 20th century Earth against their wishes, as the Doctor knew he couldn't let them go after what they had seen. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
The next day, PC Reg Cranfield made his rounds on Totter's Lane, complaining about the fog and the cold, when he heard a voice calling out his name. He shone his light on the fog to reveal the face of his recently-deceased father, which was actually the Shroud. (PROSE: Shroud of Sorrow)
76 Totter's Lane was visited by the Doctor many times, in numerous incarnations. (PROSE: Those Left Behind, TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: The Algebra of Ice, AUDIO: The Perpetual Bond, TV: Attack of the Cybermen, PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
21st century[]
More information from AUDIO: Bessie Come Home needs to be added.
Circa 2003, there was a building development on Totter's Lane. By 2005, the Ritz Theatre had been demolished and flats were built in its place, (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?) and over the next two decades, the street became a commercially zoned area of Shoreditch, with many office blocks being built (AUDIO: The Harvest) as well as a few luxury apartments, (AUDIO: Bessie Come Home) although 76 Totter's Lane, the scrapyard, seemingly still existed by 2013. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
In around 2003, Steven Hudson saw the Ninth Doctor, wearing a frock coat, near a construction complex in Totter's Lane, muttering about "they’re all gone, I'm the only one left." Steven thought he was either a "loon or drunk", and he wrote about his encounter of Doctor Who?. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)
In 2013, a sign for 76 Totter's Lane was visible outside Coal Hill School. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
By 2021, Totter's Lane was , which was mostly made up of office blocks. The Seventh Doctor kept his TARDIS at parking bay number seventy-six of a car park on Totter's Lane while investigating the Cyberman at St Gart's Bankside Hospital. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
23rd century[]
By 2254, a pub called The Red Lion had been built at 76 Totter's Lane. The Seventh Doctor walked past the pub when he defeated the Daleks in London. (GAME: Dalek Attack)
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