Stairway to... hell!
Jimmy Page and Robbie reignite giant basement feud
PERHAPS it was inevitable that a hard-rock guitarist would not see eye-to-eye with the pop star living next door.
Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page’s planning war with Robbie Williams started about four years ago.
But now Page has reignited the dispute by blasting the latest building plans submitted by the ex-Take That singer to extend his £17.5million home.
Williams, 44, has made an application for an ‘iceberg’ basement with a gym and a 30ft swimming pool underneath the garden of his Grade II-listed home.
The plan includes a tunnel, garden landscaping and work on the groundfloor balcony to install a ventilation system. Page, 74, who lives next door in the Grade I-listed Tower House on an exclusive street in Kensington, West London, has written to the council saying the proposed work would be ‘catastrophic’.
The rocker, who is in a relationship with actress and poet Scarlett Sabet, 27, also criticised the pop star’s plans to remove two sweet bay trees, which he claims will ruin his view.
The musicians have been at war since Williams bought the 46-room property four years ago. In 2015, Williams withdrew plans for a two- storey basement and had a plan for a summerhouse rejected last year after neighbours said he was trying to build a granny flat. Page’s Gothic-style home was designed by Victorian architect William Burges in the 1870s and was previously owned by former poet laureate John Betjeman.
In a letter to Kensington and Chelsea Council last week, Page urged it to stop Williams’ work from going ahead. He wrote: ‘It seems reasonable to expect the council to dismiss any application for subterranean development on a site so near to such an important “heritage asset” as the Tower House.’
Page said he was concerned that vibrations from the works could damage his home, adding: ‘The interior is richly decorated with a variety of fin- ishes/techniques designed in a highly original manner. Many of these finishes and fittings are extremely delicate and, of course, irreplaceable.’
Page argued that the proposed work was too close to his house and the ‘basement development (at just over 200 sq m) is only slightly less than the footprint of the main house and therefore excessive’. He said: ‘ The consequences for building fabric and decorative finishes of the Tower House may well be catastrophic.’ Page, known for hits such as Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven, is reportedly worth £110million.
He got back at his neighbour in 2016 after Williams, who lives at the property with his American actress wife, Ayda Field, 38, and their two children, had renovations for 11 hours a day for more than a year. When it was over, Page had roof work done using a firm with the same name as one of Williams’ hits, Millennium. Last year Williams’ builders were fined £3,000 for disturbing Page by taking apart a shed on a Sunday, breaking strict noise limits.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council said the planning application decision was due by March 20.
‘Catastrophic consequences’