SHEPHERD'S BARMichael Glynn (producer) says:
"The exterior of the quayside bar
at which many of the The Lotus Eaters
scenes were played was, before our designer repainted and dressed it,
a desolate, dirty boarded-up uninhabited building staining Aghios Nikolaos's
quayside. Some of the building's interior was used as the unit's property store.
It was amazing to find in the cellar, attractive drawings on the walls, still in reasonably good condition. The locals told us that during World War Two the cellar had been used by Italian soldiers and their artistic ability had been preserved for all to admire."
As the picture on the left - courtesy of website visitor (and Aghios resident) John Harraway - showed, in 2006 it was a restaurant.
Or was it?
In Off the Beaten Track a short feature article published in the KO-GO Khronicles (the bilingual Newspaper of the Gouves Township - Crete) in September, 2007, writer Tom Feise stated that the bar "is a jewellery shop these days". John Harraway assured me that although the building had been a number of things in its time the latest incarnation was the restaurant.
Jumping ahead to 2012, website visitor Kevin Marshall just back from Agios Nikolaos, e-mailed to report that "Shepherd's Bar is now an up-market restaurant called 'The Blue Lagoon'".
In 2015 Anna Pereboom, on her annual pilgrimage to Crete, checked it out and reported: "As there seems to be some controversy about the exact location ... Shepherd's Bar is called the "Blue Lagoon" these days and is situated on the lake (and not somewhere along the harbour as someone suggested). I was quite surprised to see the sign as it is the first time it has been up since we first started coming to Crete. Shows it still lives on.
The waiter asked if I had seen the Lotus Eaters and I said we had watched it again prior to coming to Crete and I mentioned the MJB website and suggested he take a look. He said he didn't have time, much too busy with all the tourists etc."
.jpg "courtesy of Louise Evans")
In April 2022 I received an intriguing email from Louise Evans which threw a cat amongst the Shepherd's Bar pigeons.
Louise says she stumbled across the MJB website while she searching for information about her late father, Brian Shepherd who lived, and owned a bar, in Crete where the Lotus Eaters was filmed. "When I was looking for him, I did an internet search which came up with 'Shepherd's bar The Lotus Eaters'. I dismissed it as a coincidence and moved on. It wasn't till I met him that he told me it was indeed his bar used in filming stories. He was in an episode as a background person. He moved to Crete and somehow knew the writer or someone and he told me that they filmed in his bar. He said he had a fishing boat and they would take people out on the boat (I think he was one for the ladies!)Louise kindly scanned and sent me copies of two photos including a note with the address (in Aghios Nikolaos) on the reverse of one of them. She says "The photos are not too good quality but I also found a letter from him saying he brought the bar and went to Crete in 1971, opening in 1972. I can image how wonderful it must have been back then, rustic and unbuilt. If only there were still places like this now. He had the bar for several years until he met and married a lady over there and moved back to the UK."
In August 2023 I received a lengthy email from website visitor Grigoris Papamatheakis, with accompanying screenshots from the series and photos tracking the use of the building over the years, which appear to nail the location conclusively.
Grigoris said:
Year 1970: Where the tavern Blue Lagoon Tavern is today in front a white caravan van can be seen parked.
The two-storey building with the balcony on the top floor and on the ground floor you can see the three arches of the bar and the tree-lined street in front.
Link to a photo from 2017 of the Blue Lagoon tavern.
1980's photos
In this YouTube video from 1984 it looks like it has become a cafe It has a brown (sign) that says L.A. CAFE (?)
The big tree is seen in the credits at the beginning of the show
The shape on the arches fit. The tavern seems to extend a bit further to the right than the old bar. It has a window with a statue to the right of the central door. To the right of the building of the bar there is another narrower building. The ground floor of this building seems to have been taken by the tavern to expand.
Finally a YouTube walking tour passes in front of the Blue Lagoon restaurant.
Christ Church, Neapoli 724 00, Greece
Towards the end of the final episode there is a scene filmed at a cemetery in the mountains near Neapoli. Ian Hendry's character has come to say goodbye to the people he had loved and lost during the series. Website visitor Simon Wray sent me the photograph (left) which he says "was taken at my best guess of where Ian Hendry stood for some of the cemetery scenes. Some of the gravestones have been changed over the years and the cross next to Ian has been moved"
And Simon supplied the map reference: Lat/Long (35.2641994,25.6078424). You can check it out on Google maps.
CHURCH
The church featured in the second series, where Ann Shepherd wanders dazed after the death of Donald Culley, and the road leading up to it, website visitor Simon Wray identified as Panagia Kera, Ag. nikolaos 721 00, Greece.
Subsequently confirmed by Grigoris Papamatheakis with a further photograph and screenshot.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology we can actually visit the church virtually on our computer via Google Earth and even go inside.
VILLAGE OF KRITSA
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Thanks again to the wonders of modern technology we can visit the area. via Google Earth
THE ANCIENT CITY OF LATO
