The iconic Primrose Hill house home to Paddington bear, and how it creates an idea of home in London
The iconic Primrose Hill house home to Paddington bear, and how it creates an idea of home in London
Where is Windsor Gardens in real life, how much would that house really cost, and how could the Browns afford it? And how does the film portray the idea of home? A full analysis by a North Londoner.
When I lived in Camden it is no exaggeration to say that the majority of my late evenings were spent wondering around Primrose Hill. I dreamed of buying one of those houses in Chalcot Crescent and standing on the balcony on a sunny morning with a cup of tea.
Well, the Paddington films show us the inside of this highly saturated, eccentric lifestyle ideal, with the home of the Browns being one of the colourful terraces of Chalcot Crescent, directly opposite Primrose Hill’s green.
When I stumbled across Chalcot Crescent myself on one of my many late night walks, I had no idea it was the actual street where Paddington was filmed. However from the first time I explored that street I fell in love with it and decided that I would live there one day; for me it was the dream location to live.
As a Londoner who spent two years living in Camden, hopelessly in love with the area where Paddington was filmed, as well as a strong Paddington lover, I have compiled all the information and all of my insights I have about this house that the Brown family call home.
So where is Windsor Gardens?
Windsor Gardens is set in a fictional area of Notting Hill. The Browns’ daily errands are often carried out on Portobello Road, which is also home to the fictional antique shop owned by Mr Gruber. This appears to be a short walk from the Browns’ house. Their local tube station is named, ‘Westbourne Oak’, a mix between the real life tube stations: Westbourne Grove and Royal Oak in West London, which are both around the Notting Hill area.
In real life, the house seen in Paddington is a colourful terrace in Primrose Hill’s Chalcot Crescent. I can confirm that this street looks exactly as it does in the film, and is actually directly opposite Primrose Hill’s green itself. This type of large Regency family home in many different colours is stereotypical to Primrose Hill. Although similar to the architectural style of Notting Hill, it is unmistakably one of the biscuit-cutter Primrose Hill houses and streets.
Various scenes in the second Paddington film also use the canals of Little Venice and Camden as a nearby area to the Browns’ house. Paddington only has to make a few turns off his street to end up by these canals. This adds to the classic ideal of the Primrose Hill North London lifestyle set up.
It seems that this fictional version of West London combines all the best and most romanticised areas of Notting Hill with all the most beautiful parts of North London’s Primrose Hill. I cannot say this is not my dream idea of a fictional London area!
It’s the beauty and cosiness of Primrose Hill but with a bit more Bohemia added in to accentuate the colour of its buildings in its characters too. It’s the most romanticised parts of Notting Hill without the slightly more low rent aspects that give it a less desirable reputation to Londoners. And it’s the pavement orchestras that are sometimes performing in the street, only they’re always where you are when you need a background soundtrack to your emotions.
It makes sense that the directors decided to merge the best of these two locations to create the ultimate colourful and cosy London ideal.
How much does that house really cost?
Now the dream houses of many Londoners, these terraces in Chalcot Crescent tend to sell for a minimum of £4 million these days.
The specific house used in Paddington appears to have gone up for sale in 2017, after they finished making the film. According to Savills it was sold for about £3.2 million at the time.
However, house prices in London have gone up considerably since 2017 and at the time this house was up for sale it was listed with the information that it needed a lot of work doing to it.
Nowadays it would be not impossible, but certainly very difficult to find one of those Primrose Hill houses for anything under £4 million.
So how could the Browns afford it?
The original Paddington books always depicted the Browns as an average middle class family. They were never described as notably wealthy or any different to any other family. They were simply the standard fairly well-off British middle class family. The quality that represented how special they were was always clearly the element of love being extremely prevalent in their home.
However in the version of Paddington that has been translated into the modern day films, the comfort that the Browns seem to enjoy requires a lot more than average middle class financial stability.
In reality, the sort of comfortable lifestyle the Browns enjoy requires a considerable amount of money in London, especially with two children. So, where does all their money come from and how can they afford this house?
In the films, Mr Brown works in insurance as a risk analyst in The City, which is one of the wealthiest areas of London to work in, especially for men. Insurance is already known as an industry that a well-educated and intelligent man can work in and make a great deal of money. However insurance in The City will pay a man much more than the average risk analyst’s salary.
Then consider the fact that Mr Brown appears to be in a fairly senior position at his company. It is implied that he has worked there all of his adult life, meaning that he will be greatly valued and respected by the company, and his salary will have been increased the longer he has stayed loyal to the company. All of these factors should make Mr Brown a very well-off man. Add to this that his whole character is based around the redeeming quality for his job; his constant worry about risk - meaning that most of the money he has ever earned will most likely have been put straight into a savings account with interest or into his investments, and will not have been touched since.
Mrs Brown is a children's book illustrator for adventure stories. As a writer and artist myself trying to break into the industry of children’s book writing and illustrating, it is an industry I know a fair amount about. I cannot yet tell you from personal experience, but I can tell you from what I already know that the industry can be incredibly financially lucrative if you are successful. If you are one of the lucky and hard working illustrators who make it big, this can be incredibly financially rewarding. I am in fact hoping myself that my picture book career will get me my Paddington Primrose Hill house one day!
Mix these two careers together and you've potentially got two very rich Londoners!
Both of them speak very well, so there is a good chance they have been brought up well from families with old London money. This means that they might have easily got help from their families in securing a deposit on a big family London house, especially once they mixed it with their own savings.
Something that is extremely common with these sorts of houses in London is inheritance. If the Browns are indeed from well-off families, it is also very likely they inherited their house. If this is the case then they very possibly have little to no expenses, as they do not have any rent or mortgage to pay off. This means that the majority of their salaries likely goes entirely into their own pockets and their combined savings, giving them a very comfortable lifestyle.
The importance of home in the world of Paddington
With the small bear being sent halfway across the world and ending up in London in his search for home, the Browns decide to help Paddington look for a home, before they come to realise that Paddington has already found his home with them. With this as the whole conceit of the story, the importance of home as a complicated feeling as a well as a place is the whole topic the film explores.
But the film does not only explore the importance of home for Paddington. It shows the importance of feeling at home within many of the film’s characters, such as the owner of the antique shop on Portobello Road, Mr Gruber, whose story of evacuation during the war shows us the varying depths to the different people who live in London who either struggle or love to call it home. Mr Gruber tells Paddington that he learned that ‘home is much more than a roof over your head.’ When he was taken far from home, ‘it took much longer for my heart to arrive’.
Paddington’s London shows us the infamous knowledge that London can sometimes feel like the loneliest city in the world. The delicate soundtrack and cinematography shows us in Paddington’s loneliest moments exactly how lonely and cold London can feel when you feel lost and alone.
When all is right and he is safely with the Browns, accompanying them on their eccentric lifestyle, the setting transforms back into the colourful and bohemian London, lit up by all its lights and exciting people.
As Paddington becomes a part of the family, it is made clear that not only is the Browns’ house home to him; but their house is also more of a home when Paddington is with them.
The film shows this when Paddington has disappeared, with the heartbreaking scene of the pink flowery petals painted on a mural in the large hallway falling off the tree and leaving the painted branches bare. It is clear to Mr Brown that his family house is emptier, and not as much like their home anymore without a beloved part of their family with them.
When Paddington returns, the petals on the mural bloom back into season, even more colourful and extravagant than before.
The Paddington film beautifully portrays the considerable warmth and magic you feel in your heart and in your house when you feel at home and with the people you love. It shows us that the people you love are what makes you feel at home.
Paddington’s London may look like an eccentric, over-saturated and exaggerated version of London, but it does show us exactly how London looks and how it feels when you feel at home there.
Will there be a third Paddington film?
It has been officially confirmed that Paddington 3 is coming to British cinemas November 8th 2024. The third film has been named ‘Paddington in Peru’, according to Studio Canal.
According to Studio Canal’s announcement, the film follows Paddington’s trip to Peru to visit Aunt Lucy, while he is accompanied by the Browns. On their way to visit her at the Home For Retired Bears, they end up wrapped up in a mystery that leads them through Peruvian mountains and even the Amazon rainforest. One can only hope that Mrs Brown’s extensive knowledge of adventure stories and Mr Brown’s career as a risk analyst equips them to deal with these explorations!
Although filming was disrupted by the recent strikes, filming took place in London, Columbia and Peru. Its distribution in the UK will be funded by Studio Canal, which will also lead distribution in France, Germany, Poland, Benelux, Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan. Sony will distribute in America, Canada and Latin America.
All I hope for the third Paddington film is that Uncle Pastuzo will magically be discovered alive to make up for the emotional rollercoaster of that opening scene of the first Paddington film!
With the perfect family life brought from the 1950s books to an artistic modern day London, I cannot claim to be immune to dreaming of the ideal London family lifestyle Paddington depicts.
The Brown family depicts the ideal mix of security with excitement that some of us dream of building in a family dynamic. With Mr Brown and his well-paid job in The City, his unthreatening personality but also just enough ‘head of the family’ nature about him, he clearly always looks after his family very well, and always has their best interests at heart. It is clear that his whole life revolves around their family life, and is the sort of person who would never think about leaving his children or wife, or straying into any disloyalty.
With Mrs Brown and her also being the head of the family but providing just enough contrast to Mr Brown in her mystical and imaginative nature, she has the ideal lifestyle of sitting in her beautiful house illustrating her books, as well as being the strongest supporter of any eccentric adventures Paddington and her children decide to get up to.
I have liked to think of myself at times in the past as being ‘above’ wanting the family ideal and the family house. But with the dream Primrose Hill house of the Brown family, and the love and stability and excitement that founds the basis of the Browns’ family house, it is difficult not to give in to the picture the Paddington film depicts, and end up dreaming of it a little.
