Barbara Windsor returns to the ‘Queen Vic’ this week—but a long way from the BBC’s Albert Square TV set at Elstree.
The soap star who ran the Queen Vic boozer in EastEnders is visiting the real ‘Queen Vic’ in the real East End of London.
She cuts the ribbon to open a new wing at the Queen Victoria Seamen’s Rest in the East India Dock Road at Limehouse on Thursday.
The Royal British Legion, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, has given the seamen’s hostel �336,000 to provide accommodation and support with a 14-bed residential wing for ex-Service personnel.
The ‘Queen Vic’, first opened in 1849, provides accommodation for up to 170 seafarers, active and retired, ex-servicemen and others in need of accommodation.
One of the Servicemen Barbara meets on Thursday in the new wing is Private David Waymark, 56, who joined the Scots Guards in 1974 and was stationed in Germany. David is divorced with two sons and has been homeless many times during the past 35 years while living in London and Edinburgh, but has been living at the ‘Queen Vic’ since 2007.
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