101 Dalmatians family home inspiration: pink mansion in Primrose Hill listed for sale for £9 million

An elegant Victorian mansion on Primrose Hill that helped inspire the 101 Dalmatians story has gone on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years.

The eight-bedroom pink-fronted home on Albert Terrace — priced at £8.95 million — is thought by researchers to be the model for the family home where dalmatians Pongo and Perdita lived with owners Roger and Anita Dearly in Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel.

Ms Smith lived nearby in Dorset Square and walked her own nine dalmatians in Albert Terrace on her way to the park.

In the novel, made into a Disney animated classic in 1961 and a live-action version starring Glenn Close and Jeff Daniels in 1996, the dalmatians battle with evil Cruella de Vil who wants to turn them into a fur coat.

The first edition 1956 book has a pink cover with illustrations by Janet and Anne Johnstone.

It shows a semi-detached house strikingly similar to the Albert Terrace property with pillared entrance portico and glass-panelled front door with a classic drawing room, entrance hall and Roger’s study.

The 4,876 sq ft four-storey house was built in 1847 and was last sold in 1987.

Cruella lived in Hell Hall in Suffolk — the de Vil ancestral mansion based on Greys Hall in Sible Hedingham in Essex, near Finchingfield where Dodie Smith lived in her early years.

She is said to have got the idea for the story while dining at a friend’s house in Primrose Hill when another guest said her dogs “would make a lovely fur coat”.

Jeremy Gee, managing director of Beauchamp Estates, which is handling the sale, said: “Primrose Hill and its surrounding houses helped to inspire Dodie Smith and Disney in the world-renowned 101 Dalmatians classic which has been loved by children and their parents down the generations.”