Spare us the rock racket, Idris! Neighbours’ fury over studio in basement
HE has been awarded an OBE for services to drama and is tipped by many to become the first black James Bond.
But Idris Elba has received less than favourable reviews from his new neighbours.
The actor, known for his role as BBC detective Luther, has outraged residents on his smart East London street over his plans to build a mega-basement film and music studio beneath his £2.5million home.
The 44-year-old actor, who is also a keen DJ, musician and music producer, has submitted plans to the local council to build a vast underground studio that would be open 15 hours a day, seven days a week.
On Wednesday, neighbours in Hackney held a special community meeting to voice their anger over the plans for the Grade II-listed building. ‘There is almost unanimous upset,’
‘We don’t want the noise’
said one neighbour, who did not wish to be named. ‘We know he’s a DJ and we don’t want the noise. There was a charity based in his house before and they sold it to him. It’s been quiet up to this point.’
According to the plans, Elba, intends to demolish large parts of the current basement and extend it into the back garden to accommodate a ‘film, TV and music post-production’ studio. The plans state that the studio would operate from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week with two fulltime staff and would be ‘hired out to different companies’.
It would include a ‘production room’, a ‘live room’ for music performances, ‘edit suites’ and a ‘cinema room’ likened to the one at exclusive London private members’ club Soho House.
Elba, who won a Golden Globe for his role in BBC crime drama Luther, has applied to convert the rest of the house, which he bought last March, into a three-bedroom home from its previous use as a charity office. The star’s neighbour added: ‘It’s the noise and people visiting at all hours that worries us.
‘A couple of neighbours have had experience of recording studios and they both said there’s no way it will close at 11pm. No one would want that next door to them. We’re also looking at a year-and-a-half of constant noise from the building work.’
Elba is currently filming The Mountain Between Us, a romance, in Canada with Kate Winslet. He split from his girlfriend Naiyana Garth, with whom he had son Winston in 2014, last year. The actor has a teenage daughter Isan, from his marriage to Hanne Norgaard. The couple split in 2003. He also had a shortlived marriage with lawyer Sonia Hamlin.