For generations of viewers, catching a glimpse of the familiar confines of the Trotters’ lounge instantly feels like coming home. This little cluttered set has been with us for decades, becoming the stage on which some of Britain’s most treasured comedy moments were performed.
Only Fools and Horses was originally conceived as a classic studio-based sitcom, with only limited scope for location filming. Budgets for both studio space and set construction were tightly controlled, so when writer John Sullivan created the series, he knew the value of having one regular set to anchor the action.
In the very first script, Sullivan described the Trotters’ lounge in remarkable detail:
The room should reflect their style of business. Nothing is permanent. The settee and two armchairs are from three separate suites… There are three TV sets. There are a couple of stereo music centres… Dozens of clashing patterns. It should look like the start of a bad trip.
As well as serving as a visual metaphor for Trotters Independent Traders’ way of life, the set became the perfect springboard for almost every story. More often than not, it appeared immediately after the familiar slow pan up Nelson Mandela House at the end of the title sequence, instantly setting the scene for the episode ahead.
An important point to remember is that studio space was always at a premium during much of Only Fools‘ production. The Trotters’ lounge was never left permanently standing, even during the recording of a series. Once an episode’s final recording night had finished, BBC props staff and scene shifters would carefully pack away every piece of furniture, painting and ornament before dismantling the walls, doors and flats. Everything was stored in caged trolleys until the set was needed again—sometimes just five days later, sometimes several years later.
During its lifetime, the Trotter flat was rebuilt across five different studios at BBC Television Centre, a warehouse in Hull, and, on a handful of occasions, Elstree Studios.
The Lounge
Throughout the first four years of the series, the overall layout of the lounge remained largely unchanged, although the furniture and clutter were in constant rotation. Series 2 notably introduced the circular yellow-and-red “No Waiting” sign, while the wall-mounted record player speakers disappeared by the start of Series 3, making way for the first of four different 1960s-style cocktail bars.
For the show’s first feature-length special, To Hull and Back, both the Trotters’ lounge and The Nag’s Head were transported to Hull. As this production was filmed entirely on location, free from the restrictions of a multi-camera studio setup, the crew were able to build a complete fourth wall for the flat for the very first time.
Returning from Hull for Series 5 in 1986, the lounge received its first dramatic refresh. The memorable black-and-white bamboo wallpaper appeared on the left-hand wall, while the previously blue doors were repainted yellow. Both would become defining features of the set for the remainder of the series.
The design remained largely unchanged for the feature-length specials A Royal Flush and The Frog’s Legacy, although these episodes marked the final appearance of Grandad’s armchair. With original director Ray Butt making his last contributions to the series, it’s tempting to imagine he took the distinctive patterned blue chair home as a well-earned souvenir.
Although incoming director Tony Dow was keen to experiment with new camera angles for The Nag’s Head, he wisely left the established lounge set largely untouched. However, the move to longer 50-minute episodes gradually stretched the possibilities of the existing layout, particularly as the Trotter family expanded.
As a result, an enlarged version of the lounge was built for the 1990 series. By extending the room several feet to the right of the window, the production team suddenly had far more space to move cameras and follow the actors naturally across the room. This wider lounge remained in use until the end of the 1996 Christmas trilogy.
When the series returned in 2001, production designer David Hitchcock oversaw the construction of an entirely new lounge set. Rather than replicate the enlarged 1990 version, Hitchcock returned to proportions much closer to the original 1981 design. To ensure authenticity, hundreds of production photographs and the original floor plans were consulted. Several surviving props—including the famous curtains—were even retrieved from BBC stores and reinstated.
Hitchcock would revisit the Trotter flat once again for Rock & Chips. Free from the limitations of a multi-camera studio audience, he was able to construct a far more realistic set with four fully movable walls, allowing complete flexibility for cameras and lighting.
The Kitchen
Only fleeting glimpses of the kitchen were seen during the early years of the series, with little more than a 1950s dresser visible through the lounge doorway. A full kitchen set finally made its debut in Series 3’s Yesterday Never Comes before returning in the following episode, May the Force Be with You.
It appeared again in Series 5’s From Prussia with Love and featured at least once in every subsequent series. Interestingly, the arrangement of the cooker, cupboards and wall units changed slightly with almost every production block.
Hallways and Bedrooms
As the series developed, viewers gradually saw more of the other rooms within the flat.
Grandad’s bedroom first appeared in 1983’s Homesick, with only a brief glimpse later in Dates. It wouldn’t be seen properly again until the final trilogy, by which time it had become Rodney and Cassandra’s bedroom. Since the room had previously belonged to Uncle Albert, a few suitably nautical decorations were added to reflect its former occupant.
Series 2’s Ashes to Ashes also gave us our first look at the internal hallway, built specifically for the memorable sequence in which Del Boy torments Grandad using a traffic cone and a fishing rod. The hallway echoed the lounge’s décor of the time, featuring matching wallpaper and blue doors, while the bathroom door proudly displayed the unforgettable “4U2P” number plate.
We next saw a very different corridor in 1989’s Little Problems. Painted orange, this was clearly a more minimal set, although the adjoining bathroom was built in full for the scene in which Del reveals the bruises he’d received from the Driscoll brothers.
The 1990 redesign of the lounge also brought with it the first clearly defined corridor and main bedroom sets. These remained in use until the end of the 1996 trilogy and loosely followed the original 1982 layout, complete with an angled bathroom door and Rodney’s bedroom, which finally made its full appearance in Miami Twice.
Outer Corridor
While it hardly diminishes the magic of Only Fools and Horses, there’s no escaping the fact that the corridor outside the Trotters’ flat changes almost every time it appears.
During the early years, we catch only brief glimpses of anonymous graffiti-covered walls—usually decorated with Millwall or QPR slogans—through the open front door. Our first substantial scene outside the flat came in 1985’s Strained Relations, when Rodney has his important “safety valve” conversation with Uncle Albert. To the right of the front door stands what appears to be a large frosted window, conveniently providing the perfect place to store Del’s growing collection of car batteries.
Just a year later, the closing scene of A Royal Flush introduced a completely different exterior hallway. This version featured blue and cream painted brickwork, a waste disposal chute directly opposite the flat and a lift marked “13th Floor” positioned where the window had previously stood. It’s worth remembering that this scene was recorded at Elstree Studios, where the larger studio space allowed for a much more expansive set.
The next appearance came in 1991’s He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Uncle, as Knock Knock walks towards the Trotters’ front door. Although the basic layout remained similar, the brickwork and lift had disappeared, while another flat’s front door now occupied the space where the rubbish chute had once been.
Part of this set returned for the closing scene of Miami Twice, before another complete redesign arrived in 1996’s Time on Our Hands. Here the exterior became a long, single-sided corridor, with no lifts or rubbish chutes in sight. Whistling wind effects and distant sirens subtly suggest that this is now an exposed balcony running along the outside of Nelson Mandela House.
For the corridor’s final appearances in If They Could See Us Now (2001) and Strangers on the Shore (2002), the balcony-style approach was retained, complete with its distinctive green stripe, although a lift was once again incorporated into the wall—this time marked as serving the 12th floor.
Our House
Our favourite little cluttered set may have seen countless alterations over two decades, but its heart never really changed. Perhaps, for those of us who have grown up with Only Fools and Horses, something magical really does happen every time we see the familiar bamboo wallpaper, the clashing curtains and Del Boy’s wonderfully mismatched furniture.
For the briefest of moments, we’re transported back home again, reunited with old friends and family gathered around the sofa.
Mike Jones
