Royal hotel cries foul in battle with neighbours
AS THE only hotel to have received a royal warrant — conferred on it by the Queen in 2013 for ‘ hospitality services’ — The Goring can fairly claim to hold an unrivalled place in monarchical affections.
But that has not, alas, insulated it from a fraught battle with the owners of the neighbouring building, which, I can reveal, is now heading to the High Court.
It’s there that The Goring — where Kate Middleton spent the night before her wedding to Prince William — is seeking an injunction against Belgravia Mansions Estates, a company established in 2021, more than 110 years after the former.
Aware that it has acquired a prime piece of Central London, Belgravia Mansions is intent on going full steam ahead with a multi-millionpound development, involving the demolition of the existing building and its replacement with a new one containing 42 ‘residential units’, plus an array of shops and a twostorey basement with a ‘wellness facility’ and car parking.
This has prompted The Goring to cry foul. In legal documents submitted to the High Court, The Goring cites a 1921 covenant drawn
■ PRINCES William and Harry’s former nanny Tiggy Pettifer — who received £200,000 in damages from the BBC after Martin Bashir wrongly implied she’d had an affair with the then Prince Charles — has raised £700 by knitting wading socks to auction for one of the King’s key charities, the Atlantic Salmon Trust. She is a fly fishing instructor.
up by the 2nd Duke of Westminster when he sold the site now earmarked for development. This stipulates ‘the purchasers will not do or permit . . . any act or thing which . . . may . . . be a nuisance, damage, grievance or annoyance . . . to the owners of the neighbouring property’.
The Goring also cites a 2013 agreement which, it claims, prohibits any development unless ‘a steelframed acoustic tunnel’ is built ‘to control the sound of all delivery waste removal’, with ‘an acoustic screen’ erected above the tunnel.
But that’s not all. The Goring additionally claims the agreement stipulates that ‘a mature, evergreen barrier’ must screen the hotel from the development.
If that’s not enough for the developers to contend with, it also claims the agreement states all ‘noisy works’ are to be limited to four hours a day at most.