WANT to know where Richard Burton slept off his hangovers or where Jacqueline Onassis took a shine to a 13th century door? None other than a ‘magical’ house in seemingly sleepy Sydenham.
‘The funny thing is how nice they were.’
Pamela Evans, wife of the late great writer Peter, is gracious about her role in the swinging 60s as she describes party guests Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
She has put her £1.25million house on the market after "almost 50 amazing years" there.
Peter was a renowned showbiz writer and got to know a raft of movie stars on a personal level and author Len Deighton said their house should have a plaque saying: "This is where the swinging sixties began."
It is clear their life in Sydenham Hill, moments from Crystal Palace park, was glittering from the start.
Pamela said: "We were always going to premieres and Peter had such amazing stories - if you were interviewing him right now, he’d know exactly what to say.
"We helped design the house and when we moved in it just felt magical."
The born and bred south Londoner is full of anecdotes about movie icons.
She said: "Richard Burton used to get rid of his hangovers in our sauna - he used to get so many.
"Once when Peter went out with him, he thought Richard was drinking water because he was getting through his drink so quickly - it was actually vodka.
"I liked Peter Sellers, he was a bit erratic, but very nice."
It was also in the Sydenham house that former wife of JFK, Jacqueline Onassis, took a shine to one of Pamela’s unusual decorations.
The 78-year-old explained: "We’d come across a 13th century door from Welsh monastery in a shop and used it as a headboard.
"Jacqueline said she really liked it and I wished we’d given it to her because it was stolen some years later whilst in storage."
"Peter wrote a book called Nemesis based on the life of Aristotle Onassis which was produced in the West End as a play starring Robert Lindsay as Onassis and it is now due to be made into a film."
In the 1980's Ava Gardner, once known as the "most beautiful woman in the world", asked Peter to write her autobiography saying it was a choice between that or selling her beloved jewels.
Pamela said:" Ava would often phone Peter in the middle of the night after a few drinks and speak candidly about her past and then deny everything the following day, saying 'I never said that'."
"It was such a different time then - nowadays journalists only get five minutes with the stars.
"Peter died two days before his book was due to be finished but we used his notes and now Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations will be published in July - Publishers Weekly has just given it a glowing review."
Pamela remains a devout fan of south London.
She said: "We would have been there for 50 years next October. If Peter hadn’t passed away last year, we would have liked to have stayed another half-century."
"I brought up my children there and now my son Mark runs restaurants including Ferraris in East Street, Bromley.
"I’m moving to Surrey to be nearer my daughter Lisa Jane but I don’t think I’ll be having as many parties in my new house."
For more information on the house, visit: pedderproperty.com or themodernhouse.net
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