A tycoon has vowed to “never stop” fighting to protect his home after winning a High Court block on his neighbour’s plans for a super-basement in the heart of Mayfair.
Stelio Stefanou OBE, 63, objected to plans for a three-storey excavation to include a kitchen, cinema, gym, and two-storey swimming pool beneath a listed building in Charles Street.
Planners at Westminster City Council gave the go-ahead for the work in August last year, but Mr Justice Gilbart yesterday overturned the decision, saying officials had not taken sufficient account of their own policy on super-basements.
The judge said the huge development beneath the three-storey 18th-century terraced house, which has been Grade II listed since 1969, would cause a “great deal of upheaval” and “lengthy building and excavation works”.
Mr Stefanou, whose £50 million house next door was once home to the Duke of Clarence before he became King William IV in 1830, said: “It’s a massive relief, we’re pleased the judge has seen sense.
“These historical buildings need to be protected. We’ve no idea how this development was even allowed in the first place. It would have been so disruptive.
“Going to judicial review was a big risk but there was no other option, I will not stop fighting to save my house.”
The businessman and philanthropist said his 260-year-old home had suffered damage from previous subterranean developments nearby.
He added: “This was a lovely little community, but things like this break it up. You don’t need to dig three floors underground to use a house. It is an enormous worry for us.”
The judge said the council had made a “very straightforward error of law” when considering plans by specialist conservation architects Feilden and Mawson and submitted for planning permission by Cunningham Management Limited.
Because a basement extension had already been allowed in 2011, the council believed it only had to consider additional work being planned. But the judge said it should have considered the “whole scheme” against its policy on basements.
“The council was bound to have regard to it,” he said, quashing the planning permission and the listed building consent.
Plans for a £24 million “mega basement” in the grounds of Kensington Palace near the home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been criticised by locals. Historic Royal Palaces is seeking permission from Kensington and Chelsea council for a £50 million, two-storey-deep basement next to Grade I listed Queen Anne’s Orangery to house staff. More than a dozen objections have already been submitted.
