A Home That Inspired Pride & Prejudice Is For Sale

Over 200 years since the beloved literary auteur’s death, Jane Austen-mania is only getting louder. We’re still raving about the Gen-Z take on Sense & Sensibility that hit our screens in September – the sixth major screen adaptation of the novel – and this Christmas we’re gearing up for the new six-part miniseries adaptation of Pride & Prejudice to land on Netflix. For two centuries, the love story of Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy has enraptured readers and viewers alike – not to mention having provided us with that white shirt scene that Austen-lovers still dream about thirty years on. 

Each time a new edition drops, whether it be with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, Matthew McFadyen and Kiera Knightly or now Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden, cinemas erupt and Austen book sales boom. The real hard-core fans even dress up to attend the annual Jane Austen festival in Bath – a city that, despite its modern obsession with the author, Jane herself despised. 

All that’s to say that when a chance to own a piece of Pride & Prej history arises, the competition from Austenites is rife. So, if you fancy yourself a piece of literary history in the form of a stunning 17th-century Hertfordshire apartment in the building that inspired Pride & Prejudice’s Netherfield Park, you’d better sharpen those elbows. 

Now on the market is The Mansion, a grand apartment in the West Wing of Balls Park: a Grade II listed mansion constructed in the mid-1600s. Legend has it that Balls Park served as the inspiration for Netherfield Park, one of the central locations of the classic novel. In the book, Charles Bingley, a wealthy but charming gentleman, moves into Netherfield Park – a mansion that neighbours the Bennetts’ own Longbourn estate – giving Mrs Bennett hope that one of her daughters might marry well enough to save the family. The residence later serves as the setting for grand balls, and is also where Lizzie Bennett first catches the eye of a certain Mr Darcy. 

Take A Look Inside

While the grand house and ballroom may have been where inspiration for the Bennett-Darcy romance first stirred, the house has been modernised and converted into 40 apartments. On sale is The Mansion which occupies the West Wing: a spacious two bedroom, one bathroom home. 

The house itself sits on an estate, and is accessed by travelling through the vast grounds, just as our regency characters would have done via horse and cart back in the 1800s. The gardens that surround the house are immaculately kept – think perfectly pruned shrubs and vines climbing up the exterior – creating a picturebook-esque scene. 

While the house no longer hosts grand balls, it’s far more suited to modern courting, with a grand red entryway with wooden features leading to a light-filled stairwell with striking light fixtures that’s perfect for catching the eye of a future suitor. 

Once inside the apartment, you’re met with a beautifully painted corridor flooded with natural light that retains characterful features like wall moulding and wooden window frames. The living room is immediately to the left, and the corridor leads all the way down to the bedrooms at the rear of the apartment.

The living room has retained its period charm, with high, moulded ceilings and walls, a huge fireplace, and cast iron radiators, while still being bright and fresh, with modern carpets and painted walls, and opens onto the contained fully-fitted modern kitchen. 

Both bedrooms are generously sized and similarly have retained their period features, with one featuring fitted wardrobes providing extensive storage – perfect for any regency-era dresses you may need to store. The bathroom is bright and stylish, and all windows in the apartment overlook the grounds of Balls Park.

On the market for £499,500, sheperdsofhertford.co.uk