- An Auckland villa featured in a Netflix series with Florence Pugh has been sold.
- The Devonport home, used in East of Eden, received a Hollywood makeover for filming.
- The 1908 house, needing renovation, was bought by a local with ties to the area.
An Auckland mansion that’s due to share the screen with English superstar Florence Pugh in a new multimillion-dollar TV series has been sold.
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The double-storey villa on Cheltenham Road, in Devonport, was one of several homes in the North Shore suburb that served as a backdrop to scenes in Netflix’s big-budget adaptation of John Steinbeck’s celebrated novel East of Eden.
The vendors, Vicky and Murray Henshall, told OneRoof in October that their four-bedroom house got the Hollywood treatment for the show, with the film-makers giving their garden and driveway a makeover and replacing their window dressings with sheers and heavy Edwardian drapes upstairs.
English star Florence Pugh was in New Zealand shooting the Netflix series East of Eden. Photo / Getty Images
The Cheltenham Road villa and other houses next door doubled as turn-of-the-century Californian homes for the series. Photo / Supplied
Some of the neighbouring houses on the street were repainted for the duration of the five-day shoot at the end of 2024, although the Henshalls noted their home already boasted suitable period colours.
The limited series, which stars Oppenheimer actress Pugh alongside award-winning actors Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott and Ciarán Hinds, was filmed in New Zealand and is expected to make its debut on Netflix next year.
Bayleys listing agent Victoria Bidwell told OneRoof that the house was snapped up last month by a buyer with connections to the area, although she declined to say what they paid.
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The 1908 grand house, which is one back from the beach and has an RV of $4.625m, had attracted a lot of buyer interest, but some of the offers fell through.
There was no disputing the fact that the home needed work, Bidwell said, but it was gorgeous and in an amazing position. “As a long-term family home, I don’t think you’d ever want to move,” she said.
“It’s got beautiful high ceilings, beautiful staircase, beautiful windows, beautiful proportions.
“People loved the position just one back from the beach. They loved the fact that you have the views, that you could see the beach from upstairs.
The property overlooks Cheltenham beach. Photo / Supplied
The house was a standout in the market and is packed with period features. Photo / Supplied
“The right [buyer] had to have the will and money to take on what was quite a large renovation because the existing owners had been there for nearly 50 years.”
One of the new owners was originally from the area, Bidwell said, and planned to bring up her own family there.
“It’s lovely that the buyer grew up in Cheltenham and really appreciates the lifestyle there and has probably walked past that house all through her childhood.”
Bidwell added that two-storey villas were a rarity in the Devonport area. “It’s got a very high stud, it’s all kauri, it’s beautiful plaster-mould ceilings and all original, all that sort of thing. The ceilings are in lovely condition.”
Murray Henshall told OneRoof in October that the house was built around 1908. “There are people in Devonport whose great-grandfather built the house. It was converted into three flats around 1920, and then an addition was made to create four flats.”
Rumour had it that it was a brothel around the 1930s or 1940s; it was definitely a “doss house at that time”, he said.
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