Agatha Christie's London Flat and Inspirational Mansion on Sale

The two-bedroom flat in Chelsea where Agatha Christie lived and wrote several of her most famous works is on the market with Sandfords for £1.95m ($2.6m).

Christie bought 48 Swan Court in London in 1948 and wrote Witness for the Prosecution, Crooked House, and part of The Mousetrap there. It is also thought that she based Borodene Mansions in her Third Girl on the building.

Built in 1931, Swan Court is an Art Deco brick apartment building close to King's Road. Christie's second floor former flat (1,170 sq ft/109 sq m) is in fact two flats that have been knocked together, although it's not clear if the author herself arranged the work. she lived there for 28 years.

Swan Court's former ground floor restaurant was a regular stop for Christie as was the nearby pub The Cross Keys in Chelsea which has a Blue Plaque noting that she, and Dylan Thomas, both drank there.

Meanwhile, the Grade II-listed Abney Hall in Greater Manchester that inspired other Christie classics has gone on the market for £3.75m ($4.95m) with Obi Property.

Christie visited the Victorian mansion in Cheadle Village as a child when her sister Madge married its owner James Watts and moved into the house. Its grounds inspired her 1957 novel The 4.50 from Paddington, while Christie mentions her happy experiences there in the foreword to her 1960 The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding which is also dedicated to the property. The nearby railway station also provided the name for her fictional detective Miss Marple.

After she was found following her 11 day period of being missing in 1926, Madge brought her back to Abney to recuperate over Christmas.