New nightm are next door for Led Zep’s Jimmy Page
AMILLIONAIRE rock star’s home is his castle, so Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page pulled out all the stops to protect his Gothic mansion in West London from his neighbour Robbie Williams’ ‘catastrophic’ building works.
After a rancorous battle, Page successfully forced the former Take That star to revise his plans for major renovations at his £17.5million home in Holland Park, formerly owned by film director Michael Winner.
But he now faces a further major headache. I can reveal another of his neighbours, newly knighted City tycoon Sir Harvey McGrath, is pressing ahead with controversial plans to build a basement under his £12.8 million mansion. Sir Harvey’s original scheme was blocked this spring, after Page complained that vibrations from the building works would damage the delicate frescoes in his 19th-century home, the Grade Ilisted Tower House, designed by William Burges.
‘Many of these fixtures and fittings are extremely delicate and irreplaceable,’ Page wrote in a letter to council planners.
But Belfast-born Sir Harvey, a multimillionaire philanthropist who chairs Big Society Capital, is determined to get the green light for his home improvements. After taking advice from ‘vibration specialists’, he has moved the proposed basement further away from Page’s mansion and resubmitted plans to the council.
In a blow for Page, planners have said they are ‘likely to support’ Sir
Harvey’s plans, which include a basement stretching under the ground floor and front and back gardens, and a new glass terrace.
The tycoon hopes to make modifications to every floor, but architects insist his grand designs are ‘low-key’.
‘We believe the proposal to be a simple and elegant solution to improve the existing amenity for our clients,’ say designers.
Page, 72, could not be reached for comment, so it is unclear whether he will object for a second time.
In the meantime, the legendary guitarist is amping up the volume on the planning discord. Last month, I reported that he’s getting the builders in himself, after being given the green light to restore his home’s historic brickwork.
Take that, Robbie and Harvey.