Every show needs a pub, and The Nag’s Head is the heart of the Trotter universe. The exterior shots were filmed at a real pub called The Golden Heart in the Borough of Croydon, though it’s had a few name changes since. If you’ve ever been to a pub that smells faintly of stale beer and pie, where the landlord knows your name but not your bank balance, you’ve found a Nag’s Head equivalent. It’s the kind of place where you’d go to drown your sorrows after a failed business deal — or celebrate a “brilliant” idea that you’ll regret tomorrow.
Bristol TV and film locations: a free walking tour
The interior was a studio replica, but it’s so authentic that you can almost hear Mike the barman sighing as Del Boy orders three pints and a packet of peanuts. I remember going to a similar pub in my hometown once; there was a bloke at the bar trying to sell a “genuine” Fabergé egg that looked suspiciously like an ostrich-egg tea cosy. You just knew he’d watched every episode of Only Fools twice.
Street Scenes and Sidesplitting Locations
A lot of the outdoor scenes — like the one where Del Boy falls through the bar flap or when they chase a runaway parrot — were filmed on a backlot at BBC Television Centre in West London. It’s a bit of a cheat, but it worked. It’s like when your mum says she’s “going to the shops” and comes back an hour later with a loaf of bread and a story about a dog eating her car keys. Not quite real, but perfectly believable.
Only Fools and Horses: Archive found on 40th anniversary - BBC News
Then there’s the episode where they go to Miami — obviously not real. They filmed it on a beach in West Sussex and added palm trees. Honestly, it’s the most British thing ever: pretending a drizzle-on-sea-front is the Florida coast. If you’ve ever had a holiday in Skegness and taken a photo with a cardboard cut-out of a dolphin, you’ll find this hilarious.
For the “Time on Our Hands” episode, where they finally become millionaires, they used the Thames Barrier as a backdrop. It’s a bit like using your local landfill site as a photo backdrop for a vacation brochure — it works, but only if you squint. The real charm is that the show never tried to be glamorous. It was about the grit, the lager, and the sheer bloody-mindedness of trying to make a life; a life that, let’s face it, most of us know a version of.
So, next time you’re stuck in a traffic jam or trying to sell an old phone on eBay, remember: you’re basically living in an episode of Only Fools and Horses. The filming locations are scattered across London and a studio lot, but the real location? It’s in your kitchen, your local pub, and that tiny bit of your brain that thinks, “This time next year, we’ll be millionaires.”
