First look at Kathy’s burnt out cafe as huge blaze hits Walford before The Six reveal on EastEnders

WALFORD looks a winter wonderland as Albert Square is decked out for Christmas – but my exclusive photos also hint at the dark storylines that will be unravelling, too.

While the Queen Vic is decorated in fairy lights – and a festive tree is standing proud outside – the pictures also give a first look at Kathy’s Cafe in the aftermath of an enormous fire with crime scene posters and tape stuck to the boarded-up building.

BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

Kathy Cotton, played by Gillian Taylforth in long-running BBC soap EastEnders[/caption]

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The Queen Vic is decorated in fairy lights as Albert Square gets an Xmas makeover[/caption]

BBC

Kathy’s Cafe is hit by an enormous fire[/caption]

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The boarded-up building has crime scene posters and tape stuck to it[/caption]

The Sun exclusively revealed in August how the blaze would gut the cafe in a suspicious plot linked to the six Walford matriarchs who featured in a flash-forward scene to EastEnders’ Christmas Day show.

It showed Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) all stood around a dead male body in The Queen Vic.