Gillian Anderson’s Former Portobello Road Home Is On The Market

Who didn’t dream of a house with a slide as a child? Whether you were inspired by the contraptions of Wallace & Gromit, the fireman pole in The Princess Diaries, or those lucky kids in TV ads who could effortlessly glide down from the heights of their pastel pink castle bunk beds to a ball pit below, we were all left questioning: why use stairs when you could simply whoosh down from bed to breakfast each morning?

And if you do eventually have to make the trek back up, what better way than with a rainbow staircase which looks like something out of a storybook? It seems the former owners of this Notting Hill home had taste, at least by the standards of my 10-year-old self. Or at the very least an admirable sense of whimsy about them. Even if you have outgrown childhood dreams of indoor slides, this home also comes with the ultimate adult dinner party boast: it was once owned by X Files and Sex Education star Gillian Anderson.

Discover Gillian Anderson’s Notting Hill Home

Though Kensington & Chelsea is no longer the celebrity hotspot it once was, the traces of its A-listers past and present remain – largely in the form of all their old properties hitting the market. Don’t be perturbed if Tilda Swinton’s King’s Road flat didn’t do it for you, Gillian Anderson’s former Portobello Road house is undeniably a masterclass in modern (and magical) design. 

Step Inside

Located at the end of the terrace on Portobello Road, since Anderson’s residence in the early 2000s this three-bedroom home has been playfully reimagined by renowned Swedish interior designer Carolin Larsberg. With 3,500 sqft of space, arranged across four floors, this wide and light-filled property, with its exposed brickwork, dark parquet floors and metallic decor, has a hip warehouse feel about it. 

The spine of the home takes the form of a rainbow spiral fibreglass staircase designed by AB Rogers. Painted in an array of kaleidoscopic hues, circle your way up somewhere over the rainbow to the first floor, where the high-ceilinged reception room, and its ten large sash windows plus dining room, await. Spiralling further up, the second floor comprises the master bedroom suite, complete with skylights, triple aspect windows, and floor-to-ceiling mirrored wardrobes for maximum brightness.

Want to make an entrance at your next party? Open up the trapdoor and drop down the slide from your bedroom to the living space below. Just promise not to try and scramble back up it when you’re a few drinks in – nor go full slip and slide using the bathtub which sits alarmingly nearby. 

Up above is a further bedroom complete with its own west-facing roof terrace decked out in vegetation, while down below is an open space which can serve as either an additional entertaining zone or guest accommodation, with a snug sat at the rear to work as a quiet dining nook, study or extra sleeping area. Also on this floor are the home gym and kitchen, while outside boasts an additional terrace space.

The History Of The Home

Having served as the home of Gillian Anderson in the early 2000s, the property has since operated as a recording studio called JBJ – the go-to destination for some of the biggest names in music, including Olivia Rodrigo, Stormzy, Charlie XCX, Doja Cat, Skrillex, Stormzy, The 1975, and Sabrina Carpenter. The property is also available to rent for private events, filming, music videos and photography.

Anderson’s own time at the home was brief (having bought it for £1.4m in 2002 and sold it for £100k more just eighteen months later) but impactful. She transformed the basement into a flat for her mother to stay in, painted the kitchen and dining room red, and created a Moroccan-inspired chill out room with a mosaic floor and stained-glass window, furnishing the whole house in treasures she’d source on her far-flung travels and on-the-doorstep Portobello Road Market. ‘I just went mad with colour. Spent an exorbitant amount of money on layers and layers of paint,’ she said in an interview with The Guardian. ‘Very funky, bohemian, Moroccan.’

Born in Chicago, Anderson had lived in Haringey north London as a child, before moving back to the US – though she did return to England each summer. In 2002, having risen to fame for her role as Dana Scully in The X-Files, she returned to the big smoke and bought this three-bedroom house on Portobello Road. Since selling the house in 2004, Anderson has developed and sold a number of other properties, including a Georgian townhouse in Clerkenwell, another in Barnsbury and a villa in Sri Lanka.

On the market for £4.5m. Find out more at sothebysrealty.co.uk and struttandparker.com