The Real Housewives show even the rich are poor in London
The Real Housewives of London show even the super-rich aren’t immune to all consequences of the housing crisis, writes Anna Moloney in today’s Notebook
The Real Housing Crisis of London
“Back to Paddington! Back to Paddington! Back to Paddington!” – this is the battle cry of Real Housewife of London Amanda Cronin, rumoured to be the show’s second richest cast member, as she denounces pauperess of the series (estimated net worth circa £5m) Juliet Angus. “No cost of living crisis here,” Cronin cackles in another episode.
But that isn’t quite true. If The Real Housewives of London has shown anything compared to the show’s glitzier US editions, it’s that wealth does not go nearly as far this side of the pond. Sweeping camera shots of the housewives’ various property portfolios can only do so much as the producers try to ham up the magnificence of a London mews, while a squabble over whether one housewife can still use another’s ‘friends and family discount’ (dispute over the ‘friend’ condition) for their caviar dealer shows there’s been some belt-tightening in Chelsea too. It’s interesting too that it took so long to get a London series (there have been 31 other versions), with the producers reportedly struggling to find enough wealthy and willing participants.
Perhaps most telling though, is episode three, in which former investment-banker-turned-royal-cakemaker Nessie invites the girls for a country getaway to her Cotswolds property – but doesn’t even have enough room for them all to stay. Instead, they are put up in a local hotel.
Fine, they do travel there via helicopter, but if even a Real Housewife can no longer host her girlfriends, what hope is there for the rest of us?
In a weird way, it brings to light the less tangible consequence of the housing crisis: the hosting crisis, and the subsequent erosion of community. The death of the house party for Gen Z has been much lamented, but who’s surprised when young people are faced with sky-high rents for a houseshare with no living room. In my own relentless scrolling on Spareroom, I’ve come up against more and more requests for quiet tenants, who don’t work from home, who don’t want to have people over and, in extreme cases, who will vacate the properties on the weekends. This is no way for young people to live, Amanda Cronin would certainly agree.
The trad wife paradox
The biggest irony of The Real Housewives of London? None of them are housewives, of course. Juliet, an influencer; the other Juliet, an interior designer; Nessie, a former investment banker who now owns a cake business.
The only actual housewife is Panthea Parker, whose lifestyle is sustained by her lawyer husband Edmund Parker, and has had more than one slight made at her because of it. Of course though, even Panthea is now not strictly “just” a housewife. Indeed, she admits, adding an income stream to contribute to the household amid rapid inflation was a prime motivator for joining the show. It brings us to the ultimate trad wife influencer paradox, recently embodied by Erika Kirk urging women to stay at home as she leads her own business: do as I say, not as I do.
Another blow for London clubbing
Yet more reason why Gen Z’s social lives are struggling: even beyond measly flatshares, there’s nowhere left to party. News this week that Corsica Studios, the iconic nightclub set within the railway arches in Elephant and Castle, is set to close is just the latest blow. Opened more than two decades ago, the venue will shut its doors for good next week, according to The Londoner. While an exact reason for closing has not yet been given, the publication cited noise complaints, as well as the wider crisis for nightlife in London, as contributing factors.
In the last five years, around 400 clubs have closed in Britain – more than a third of the total number of venues and averaging around 10 closures a month. Part of the problem is demand – young people are drinking less – but it’s also a matter of affordability, with Gen Z having less disposable income to burn on increasingly pricey nights out.
What I’ve been reading
Luckily, I’m only drip-fed one episode of Housewives a week, so I haven’t completely neglected my reading. Currently, I’m whiling away my commute with Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, which I picked up at P&G Wells in Winchester, the bookshop Austen herself once shopped at. 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the writer’s birth, so it’s as good a time as any to pick up one of her novels and, to be fair, makes a fitting companion piece to the Real Housewives, who seem to have inherited many of Austen’s creeds.
“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of”
Jane Austen in Mansfield Park or The Real Housewives of London, I forget which
Next on my reading list though: the latest edition of Morning Wire Magazine, which hit the streets this week. Rubber duck cults, the power of sound therapy, an interview with Usain Bolt and books coverage from yours truly, head to the Royal Exchange to pick up your own or read online here.
Anna Moloney is deputy comment and features editor at Morning Wire