Taboo

For Taboo, the BBC drama starring Tom Hardy, Totom worked with Production Designer Sonja Klaus to transform Tilbury Fort into the streets of historic Wapping. The fort, hired from English Heritage, served as the base for a four-month build that created a self-contained 18th-century riverside environment from scratch.

Totom constructed 14 timber buildings within the fort’s existing walls, including a working boat-building yard, a London street, drinking dens, and a brothel. The structures were built using weathered timber cladding and period detailing to create the kind of riverside buildings that no longer exist anywhere in London. 

The existing bridge on site presented an additional challenge. Condemned by structural engineers, it needed to be reinforced by the construction team to bear the weight of a funeral cortege for filming. Working within a listed historic site meant all interventions had to be carefully managed to satisfy English Heritage requirements while still delivering a fully functional period location.

Tilbury Fort was used for five weeks of the 24-week shoot, with the build standing long enough to allow the production to return as needed before the site was restored.