The 101 Dalmatians House, Primrose Hill, London
"...A small house on the Outer Circle of Regent's Park-- just the right house for a man with a wife and dogs." Writers find inspiration everywhere, and author Dodie Smith is thought to have found inspiration for her 1956 book The Hundred and One Dalmatians in this just right, pink house for sale.
She would pass this house on Albert Terrace as she walked her own nine dalmatians to the 'Outer Circle of Regent's Park'. It's a little bigger than the small house she gave the Dearly family (or Radcliffes, in the animated movie). This 5 story semi-detached house has 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms in 4,876 square feet. It was built in 1847. This is the first time it's been on market in 37 years.
The house overlooks Primrose Hill, which also looks like a lovely place to walk a bunch of dalmatians.
When she was writing the novel, Dodie Smith researched the house and found that it had been owned by Harry Newsom, a financial wizard who lived with his wife, dogs, two nannies, a cook, and a butler. Book character Mr. Dearly was thus a wizard of finance who lived with his wife, dogs, and two nannies named Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Butler (who conveniently also took on their namesake jobs).
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She also had first hand inspiration for Cruella deVil-- more on that in a bit. First let's check out the house and see how it compares with the illustrations of it.
The first floor has a reception room and kitchen. "The Dearlys and the dogs thought how very nice their brightly lit kitchen looked. It had white walls, red linoleum, and a dresser on which was blue-spotted china. There was a new-fashioned electric stove for the cooking and an old-fashioned kitchen fire to keep the Nannies happy.... Near the fire were two cushioned dog-baskets."
Here's the reception room:
Here's the kitchen:
The second floor has a study and a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom.
{source - more good animation history/source unknown}
This study is the room I would most want to call mine. Here is what I would do to make it mine:
{source unknown, do any of you if it were miners recognize it? Yes, I changed the mantel artwork.}
Here is the listing bedroom:
The third floor has two additional unpictured bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as a cheery balcony.
Back downstairs, the "raised ground floor" and "lower ground floor" both have two unpictured bedrooms as well as an additional reception room.
That sunny room makes for a tough segue to Cruella DeVil, but I thought you'd like to see Dodie Smith's inspiration for her house:
{source}
This is the house, Greys Hall, near her childhood home in Finchingfield that apparently looked like an evil lair to a creative writer. As for Cruella herself, all it took was one memorable dinner guest commenting that Dodie's dalmatians would make a lovely fur coat, and Dodie was off to her own study and writing desk. The rest is history.
If you're inspired to write yourself into this house's history, the listing is here.
