Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Practically perfect
A chance to own the former home of Mary Poppins creator PL Travers
SHE created one of the best-loved children’s characters of all time, which went on to become a Disney film classic.
Now the beautiful London mews terrace where Mary Poppins author PL Travers lived for more than 30 years is on the market for £4.85m.
Just off the fashionable King’s Road, Grade II listed 29 Shawfield Street was bought by PL Travers in 1962 following the release of the fifth book, Mary Poppins from A to Z.
She went on to write three further novels in the house, living there until she died in 1996.
Her former home, which is spread over more than 2,000sqft, has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, three terraces, five entertaining rooms and a good-sized garden.
Recently refurbished, the fourstorey house is just a short distance from the one lived in by the Banks family on nearby Cherry Tree Lane.
The property has its own claim to fame: it featured in the movie Saving Mr Banks, starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as PL Travers.
The film covers the 14-year period in which Disney courted a rather reluctant Travers to persuade her to let him turn her beloved book into a film, making good on a promise which he had made to his daughters who were big Mary Poppins fans.
In what the agent describes as “an exceptionally sought-after area of Chelsea”, 29 Shawfield Street has a reception room leading to a sitting room and study downstairs, with views over the garden. The lower ground floor features an elegant kitchen/dining room and a cinema room which opens onto a secluded high-walled garden. To the front of the lower ground floor is a utility room and additional bathroom.
The first floor houses the master bedroom with Juliet balcony and en-suite bathroom, plus a second bedroom and bathroom, and the second floor has two further bedrooms with terraces and a shared bathroom.
■ 29 Shawfield Street is for sale, priced £4.85m, through Russell Simpson (russellsimpson.co.uk).