Pop stars settling scores on London’s chicest street

Indeed, the one who was a rebellious imp has embarked on a ruthless tussle with his neighbors of Ilchester Place over the pharaonic renovations undertaken by other big names in show business.

“Inadequate, deafening, antisocial and dirty” sites

Starting with pop singer Robbie Williams, who intended to build a huge basement with a swimming pool and gymnasium. After seven years of legal wrangling, “Robbie” won but his nemesis appealed. Further up the small, slightly sloping, tree-lined avenue, Riccardo Zacconi, developer of the popular mobile games application Candy Crush Saga, wants to create an elephantine expansion. According to the Daily Mail, Franco-Moroccan radio host Jacques Essebag, known as Arthur, has also undertaken major work on the house he owns in the driveway.

In total, no less than eight properties of the richest artery of the capital are today covered with scaffolding. Hence the anger of Jimmy Page who wrote to the municipality of Kensington & Chelsea to stop rehabilitation projects that he considers “inadequate, deafening, antisocial and dirty, undermining the tranquility and security of the neighborhood”. It’s hell, says the complainant. The noria of trucks transporting earth or the deafening noise of drills make you dizzy. There is also the risk of the buildings concerned collapsing following a landslide.

The obsession with basements

The case is causing a stir because of the fame of the protagonists who appear in the first ranks of the 2020 ranking of owners. The district particularly attracts the stars of show business because of its proximity to the M4 motorway serving Heathrow airport, a veritable umbilical cord connecting London to the two other Mecca of the music industry, New York and Los Angeles. Jimmy Page has also received the support of other entertainment stars involved in similar actions against their billionaire neighbors seized with megalomania, like the actress Joan Collins or the guitarist Brian May, ex-Queen.

The digging of basements, called basements in English, has become the obsession of the well-off Londoners, says the Times. Traders of the City, oligarchs, Arab sheikhs and other nouveau riche intend to install underground swimming pools, gymnasiums, games or ballrooms, maids’ rooms or art galleries. Nothing is too expensive, nor too luxurious, to realize the most extravagant whims like a cinema, even a fine sand beach!

The precedent of the French Ambassador

One can imagine the embarrassment of the councilors. The prices of properties in Ilchester Place can reach 35 million pounds (40 million euros), with an average of 17 million pounds! The super-rich living within a three-kilometer radius of Holland Park support a whole host of subcontractors, from construction and caterers to gardening, security, decorating and cleaning companies. The expenses of the beautiful people feed the coffers of a conservative town hall, known for its low local taxes.

« An Englishman’s home is his castle »(The house of an Englishman is his castle): to achieve his ends, Jimmy Page invokes the good old hymn to property dear to the subjects of the queen which dates to the 17th century^e century. The singer highlights the precedent of the residence of the Ambassador of France located in Kensington Palace Gardens, a stone’s throw from Ilchester Place. In 2015, the left neighbor, Jon Hunt, founder of Britain’s biggest real estate agency, was given permission to create a huge six-story basement to store his collection of old cars. The residence of the representative of the Republic, which had become unlivable, should have been sold. Faced with the outcry of residents, the promoter was dismissed in extremis.