Dolly Alderton/Pandora Sykes

[SpellingBea]

Yes, I don't think anyone's saying she still lives there, but it's where she grew up and had her wedding I think? If you google her mum (Hon. Nicola Mary Caroline Buxton) and follow the Peerage link you'll find it.

The house she lives in in Kensal Green isn't exactly a shack either - I'm not in London but £1.5m is presumably still a lot for first time buyers?

Journalist Pandora Sykes' London home

Optimism, bold vision and love of a vintage bargain helped achieve a distinctive look in record time.

www.houseandgarden.co.uk

looking at this house actually makes me a bit nauseous - she cannot ever paint herself as an everywoman... ever. that house is extravagant and the use of the term 'vintage bargain' really annoyed me because i just know those 'bargains' are actually incredibly pricey. Also, who commissions an artist to paint a mural in the garden?! serioussss money was spent on that i'm sure.

of course she is entitled to do whatever she wants to do with her wealth, more power to her, but she really really needs to fully acknowledge her privilege here.

 

[Mustard]

I would say that if you come from Landry gentry that £1.5 million is bargainous.

landed! Not Landry ! Dang autocorrect.

 

[Mbella]

I remember an early episode of the podcast before Pandora had bought the house... She said she was saving up to buy a house so had cancelled her New York Times subscription... If that's all it takes to get a 1.5m house I should really cancel my own NYT subscription

 

[SpellingBea]

I remember an early episode of the podcast before Pandora had bought the house... She said she was saving up to buy a house so had cancelled her New York Times subscription... If that's all it takes to get a 1.5m house I should really cancel my own NYT subscription

HAHAHAHA noooo!! i am screaaaaming.

i just checked and a subscription is around $225 a year, which is like the equivalent of one leg of one of her 'vintage bargain' armchairs.

you really can't make this up!!

 

[ceebs233]

Yes, I don't think anyone's saying she still lives there, but it's where she grew up and had her wedding I think? If you google her mum (Hon. Nicola Mary Caroline Buxton) and follow the Peerage link you'll find it.

The house she lives in in Kensal Green isn't exactly a shack either - I'm not in London but £1.5m is presumably still a lot for first time buyers?

Journalist Pandora Sykes' London home

Optimism, bold vision and love of a vintage bargain helped achieve a distinctive look in record time.

www.houseandgarden.co.uk

omg finally! thank you! truly a revelation I was so stumped. My god I totally agree that's not what I envisaged when she mentioned her Essex routes.
Really dumb question but does that peerage thing mean that she and Ollie are extremely distantly related or what?

I was never blown over by her house in those magazines, but you are totally right, it's just because it's located in London so isn't like, Hollywood-size, but is definitely a pretty penny.

 

[cholulamare]

looking at this house actually makes me a bit nauseous - she cannot ever paint herself as an everywoman... ever. that house is extravagant and the use of the term 'vintage bargain' really annoyed me because i just know those 'bargains' are actually incredibly pricey. Also, who commissions an artist to paint a mural in the garden?! serioussss money was spent on that i'm sure.

What I find baffling is they completed on the house in late December, when she was 7 months pregnant, and her daughter was born on March 1. So she decided to totally make over an already updated, gorgeous house (seriously - the before pictures are far better than after in most cases) in 2 months while heavily pregnant, just because... she couldn't bear to not live in a house without this much animal print?

And yes, claimed 'bargains' aside (some antiques from that notoriously bargainous location... Portobello Market, and £126 Pooky pendant lights which, sorry if I don't consider that a bargain, but when you need six of them is there really any argument?), she must have saved up a fortune to redecorate the whole place to her taste in 2 months. Somehow I don't think cancelling your NYT subscription = Farrow & Ball paint throughout, Scalamandré and Christian Lacroix wallpaper, custom-made curtains with designer fabrics everywhere, custom framing of all her posters and prints, £3.5k on a rug plus other Conran Shop rugs, new sofa amongst other large furniture, custom dining table, over a grand on dining chairs, £25 per tile kitchen tiling, vases being sent from New York, custom mural on the garden wall, and everything else. She says it came in under budget but I'd love to know what the budget was!

 

[Lanavalentine]

What I find baffling is they completed on the house in late December, when she was 7 months pregnant, and her daughter was born on March 1. So she decided to totally make over an already updated, gorgeous house (seriously - the before pictures are far better than after in most cases) in 2 months while heavily pregnant, just because... she couldn't bear to not live in a house without this much animal print?

And yes, claimed 'bargains' aside (some antiques from that notoriously bargainous location... Portobello Market, and £126 Pooky pendant lights which, sorry if I don't consider that a bargain, but when you need six of them is there really any argument?), she must have saved up a fortune to redecorate the whole place to her taste in 2 months. Somehow I don't think cancelling your NYT subscription = Farrow & Ball paint throughout, Scalamandré and Christian Lacroix wallpaper, custom-made curtains with designer fabrics everywhere, custom framing of all her posters and prints, £3.5k on a rug plus other Conran Shop rugs, new sofa amongst other large furniture, custom dining table, over a grand on dining chairs, £25 per tile kitchen tiling, vases being sent from New York, custom mural on the garden wall, and everything else. She says it came in under budget but I'd love to know what the budget was!

You can’t make it up, can you? I’m clearly an everywoman because I stuck to a budget of a mere £100k* while decorating and furnishing my new house!

* I have no idea if that’s what she spent, I’m just making a joke. Wouldn’t be surprised though!

 

[Debarkle]

omg finally! thank you! truly a revelation I was so stumped. My god I totally agree that's not what I envisaged when she mentioned her Essex routes.
Really dumb question but does that peerage thing mean that she and Ollie are extremely distantly related or what?

I was never blown over by her house in those magazines, but you are totally right, it's just because it's located in London so isn't like, Hollywood-size, but is definitely a pretty penny.

All poshos like them will be distantly related. I think it’s hard to comprehend if you’re normal but they are all one big club and will know someone from school or the pony club or one of daddy’s friends. Privilege!

 

[Silentcritique]

I did actually post a link a few pages back, that if you open is a family tree that connects them both back to a Barclay, as in the founder of Barclay's the bank! Crazy.

£1.4M is obviously crazy money, but it's so sad that that has become the price of a terrace in London? I mean, Pandora has a wealthy family, and success as a journalist and podcaster, now author, and her husband is obviously of the same ilk, but how are the other people on the street affording those houses too? I really don't get it I have to say... When I suggested on the Zanna van Dijk thread that London money helps, there was a backlash, but I genuinely can not see any other way that profiting from rise in property value (which has been most extreme in London)

 

[Mustard]

That area is where people migrate to from Notting Hill or West Hampstead/Hampstead. They could have been gifted an inheritance from a grandparent, too as well as family trust funds. I hate all the china bits and pieces she has dotted around. It’s verging on the tacky.

 

[Mbella]

It's definitely not the price of a terraced house in all parts of London!

 

[Shutterbug99]

That area is where people migrate to from Notting Hill or West Hampstead/Hampstead. They could have been gifted an inheritance from a grandparent, too as well as family trust funds. I hate all the china bits and pieces she has dotted around. It’s verging on the tacky.

I think Panda lived in a flat in Notting Hill before moving to this place. Full of eBay finds, naturally.

 

[Silentcritique]

It's definitely not the price of a terraced house in all parts of London!

still 900k is the lower end i've seen, and that still evokes a 'blimey' reaction in me!

 

[Mustard]

I’ve got friends living near Kensal Green station and they paid about £100k 25 years ago.

 

[Silentcritique]

I’ve got friends living near Kensal Green station and they paid about £100k 25 years ago.

So if they were to move, they'd be able to afford somewhere in the region of £1M I imagine! Without that historical investment I don't know how people do it

 

[Mustard]

So if they were to move, they'd be able to afford somewhere in the region of £1M I imagine! Without that historical investment I don't know how people do it

Yes, and they had a flat before they bought the house. What part is Sykes’ house in?

 

[Silentcritique]

Close enough to the tennis club...

 

[cholulamare]

Yes, and they had a flat before they bought the house. What part is Sykes’ house in?

Near Kensal Green Station as well.

100k 25 years ago! Mad.

 

[stealthbtch]

To be fair: about her redecorating the new place and how much everything appears to cost--Pandy and her ilk certainly do not pay retail prices. She has friends who are interior designers and she gets the 40 percent off price that the interior designers pay to Scalamandre etc ("to the trade" explanation when you see that in shelter mags).
And on another point, one newspaper or magazine interviewer did mention how fluent she was in discussing social-media numbers and visitors to her web page, and on the podcast she has also made a few comments that tell us she has some impressive digital skills. And she said that when they began PanDolly she did all the brand negotiation deals, or maybe that was for the High Low. She said that they pursued sponsors and by they I mean she and I imagine that cut-glass accent DOES work miracles when cold-calling.
Summarizing: Pandora is very Type A and knows her way around $$$. It would be great to be born on third base like her and be the granddaughter of Prince Philip's friend Baron Asda of Buxton but I know I can work on my own personal-finance skills and practice some things and get better.

 

[TGreece76]

Yes, I don't think anyone's saying she still lives there, but it's where she grew up and had her wedding I think? If you google her mum (Hon. Nicola Mary Caroline Buxton) and follow the Peerage link you'll find it.

The house she lives in in Kensal Green isn't exactly a shack either - I'm not in London but £1.5m is presumably still a lot for first time buyers?

Journalist Pandora Sykes' London home

Optimism, bold vision and love of a vintage bargain helped achieve a distinctive look in record time.

www.houseandgarden.co.uk

£1.5m AND the cost of redecorating/renovating every room with the finest antiques, art, upholstery in the short time she had before the baby arrived. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have that kind of money! Life must be less stressful but I quite like saving up for something, working hard for it and the feeling you have when you’ve completed it.