Lights, camera, action: ITV's Vanity Fair shines the spotlight on London's grandest historic homes, from Chiswick to Mayfair

She is flirty, ferociously ambitious and altogether rather fabulous. And Becky Sharp, anti-heroine of what promises to be the hit TV costume drama of the year, has also got pretty decent taste in property.

Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the irresistible rise of Miss Sharp, was published during 1847-1848. While the penniless schemer is the star of the ITV adaptation, London steals a well-deserved second billing.

From Chiswick to Mayfair, with stopoffs in Fitzrovia, Russell Square and even a sojourn in Brighton, Thackeray’s meandering tale showcases some of the most aspirational addresses of the early Victorian era. Now, 170 years on, they have stood the test of time.

The action began at 9pm on Sunday, September 2, in Chiswick, where the impoverished Becky, played by Olivia Cooke in the production, and her good-natured if marginally dim friend Amelia “Emmy” Sedley attend Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies.

CHISWICK TIME CAPSULE

Becky is thrilled to turn her back on the school in Chiswick Mall — where she is treated as a glorified servant — despite its status as one of west London’s most desirable streets.

“It is certainly one of the best, if not the best, street in Chiswick,” says James Waight, sales manager at John D Wood estate agents.

“It is like a time capsule. If you stroll along by the river you wouldn’t know what century you are in. It feels a bit like being in the countryside, but you are only 20 minutes from central London.”

Adding to the Mall’s charms is its riverside location, for which buyers must be prepared to pay a premium.

A seven-bedroom double-fronted house would today cost around £6 million. A smaller, four- to five-bedroom period house would come in at £2.2 million to £2.5 million, while even a typical two-bedroom flat in one of a handful of purpose-built blocks that have sprung up more recently would cost about £900,000.

Chiswick Mall’s grandest house is Walpole House, built at the start of the 18th century for Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland and mistress of King Charles II.

It was used variously as a boys’ school, attended by Thackeray who based Miss Pinkerton on his old school days; an “asylum” for vagrant girls, before being converted back into a house.

In 2006 the fashion designer Jasper Conran paid £7.25 million for the property, which he renovated and sold two years later for £12.5 million.

Becky Sharp’s next stop is Russell Square, Bloomsbury’s largest garden square, where the Sedley family live. The square was set out in 1804, making it, in Thackeray’s day, a relatively arriviste sort of address suitable for new money like the Sedleys — Emmy’s doting daddy is a wealthy merchant.

Today private houses have largely been ousted from the square by offices, and the area is handy but not fashionable. The University of London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies is based on one corner of the square, and the frivolous Gothic hotel The Principal London dominates its northeastern side.

Residents of Russell Square mostly live in one of the interwar mansion blocks that overlook the gardens. Here, you can expect to pay £600,000 to £700,000 for a one-bedroom flat, and to compete with international parents looking for digs for their fortunate offspring studying nearby.

When Becky finally arrives in Mayfair it is to take up a position as governess in the “tall, gloomy” home of Sir Pitt Crawley in “Great Gaunt Street” a pseudonym for Hill Street, which runs from Berkeley Square towards Park Lane.

Hill Street was hugely fashionable in the 18th century, popular with the aristocrats, admirals, and politicians who lived there and with novelists who used it as a shorthand for social success. Jane Austen in Mansfield Park, Sir Walter Scott in Waverley and Evelyn Waugh in Vile Bodies name-checked Hill Street.

Many of its white stucco and red-brick townhouses have been converted into offices now, with estate agents and law firms heavily represented, while the Coach & Horses pub is popular with after-work drinkers, and The Naval Club is an old-school private members club for those with maritime credentials.

Precious few full houses still survive in Hill Street, says David Lee, head of sales at Pastor Real Estate. He estimates that the home described by Thackeray for Becky would now, in fully renovated condition, be worth some £30 million. A two-bedroom flat in Hill Street would cost in the region of £3 million.

MAKING IT IN MAYFAIR

Despite this, Hill Street is not, quite, Mayfair’s Premier League. Homes in “Mayfair Village” around Mount Street, and close to Grosvenor Square, its absolute alpha address, are more sought after.

“Arguably you could call it south Mayfair,” admits Lee. “It is only a couple of streets away, but it is perhaps a bit more commercial and therefore a bit less prestigious.”

Later in the novel, Becky contrives to marry Sir Pitt’s son, Captain Rawdon Crawley, and the not-particularly-happy couple set up home in a rented house in nearby Curzon Street, which runs almost parallel with Hill Street and was equally chic during the 18th century.

More recently, however, Curzon Street has become more associated with office workers than lords and ladies, with private banks much in evidence. M15 was based at Leconfield House, Curzon Street, from 1945 until 1976, and is now an office. Curzon Square, formerly Curzon Place, has a footnote in musical history.

The late songwriter Harry “Without You” Nilsson owned a flat there in the Seventies which was rented by The Who drummer Keith Moon, who died there in 1978. Singer Cass Elliot of Sixties group The Mamas & the Papas suffered a fatal heart attack at the same flat in 1974. Both were just 32.

“Curzon Street used to be considered quite a peripheral address, full of gambling clubs,” says Tim Macpherson, partner and head of London residential sales at Carter Jonas estate agents.

However as demand for Mayfair has increased, and with stock limited in “Mayfair Village”, buyers have started drifting a few streets south. “It is becoming more popular,” adds MacPherson, who recently sold a 3,000sq ft house there for about £10 million to an American looking for a pied-à-terre.

A more high-profile buyer is Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and chief executive of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer, who is said to have purchased a huge Curzon Street house as a wedding gift for his daughter.

The fact that Shepherd Market, on the east side of Curzon Street, is losing its red-light reputation, with the arrival of new high-end restaurants and a lavish new private members club, is also helping to polish up Curzon Street’s appeal.

A two-bedroom apartment will now cost about £2 million which, while expensive, is still about 10 per cent less than in Mayfair Village itself, says MacPherson.

SPOT THE LOCATION

ITV took a fairly relaxed attitude towards locations when filming Vanity Fair. Its selection included Marble Hill House in Twickenham, Osterley House in Isleworth, Fitzroy Square in Fitzrovia and Princelet Street in Spitalfields.

Further afield, filming was carried out at Chatham Historic Dockyard, while the stony beach at Deal in Kent stood in for Brighton.

And while the novel takes readers to Paris, Rome, Brussels and the small German town of “Pumpernickel”, the TV series was partly shot in Budapest.

Eagle-eyed viewers should look out for scenes filmed at One Great George Street, a Grade II-listed Edwardian landmark in Westminster.

When not in use for corporate events and weddings, Number One has been the location for a string of movies including Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, when it stood in as the venue for a Law Society dinner attended by Mark Darcy and poor, gaffe-prone Bridget.