It was her first TV home with Del Boy Trotter and baby Damien.
But Only Fools and Horses’ Raquel has clearly not been missing Nelson Mandela House since Del and brother Rodney became millionaires.
For while Sir David Jason has called for the real-life tower block to be made into a listed building, actress Tessa Peake-Jones believes it might better to bring in the bulldozers.
Her words come as Harlech Tower, in Acton, West London, which was used for exteriors in the show, is due to be demolished and replaced with up to 2,500 new homes in a £650million 50/50 mix of private and social housing.
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Tessa, 61, tells me: “If it’s that the flats are really old and haven’t been cared for then I’d say it’s just as well they are being knocked down.
“As long as they are building new flats with affordable housing, then I think that’s great.”
Some fans of the classic sitcom have claimed the 1950s flats — 13 miles from Peckham, where the Trotters lived — should be preserve and Comedy channel Gold has been driving a campaign for a Del Boy statue.
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“If it had been another shop then of course that wouldn’t have been good,” says Tessa. “But we need all the affordable housing that we can get.”
She’s right. In today’s market, experts say Del Boy’s Peckham flat would set someone back a not-so lovely jubbly £850,000...
