Fawn stirs up trouble with her plans for Jamie’s old £15m home
ONE of the country’s wealthiest women is facing a planning battle to build a huge basement in chef Jamie Oliver’s former home.
The £15 million mansion in Highgate, North London, was bought from Jamie last year by FIJ PTC, a company which is ultimately controlled by porn heiress Fawn James and her stepfather John.
Mrs James, 37, and her half-sister India Rose James, 31, inherited the majority of their grandfather Paul Raymond’s £450 million Soho Estates business empire upon his death in 2008.
Raymond was most famous for his strip club, Raymond Revuebar, as well as his roster of adult magazines, but the one-time ‘King of Soho’ diversified into various businesses, and at one point was said to have been worth more than £1 billion.
Now planning documents for what is believed to be his granddaughter’s marital home reveal proposed changes include a new swimming pool and summer house where the Naked Chef’s large greenhouse used to be. The vegetable patch is being preserved.
Plans to build a large basement beneath the front garden of the 17th Century Grade II-listed house, near to the late pop singer George Michael’s home, have attracted local concern, however. Responding to Camden Council’s consultation, Louise Lewis, of Highgate Neighbourhood Forum, wrote: ‘We object to the removal of trees and vegetation in the front of the house. Removal of greenery from the front garden will impact the character of this part of the Conservation Area with its run of listed buildings and their verdant front gardens. It will also affect the setting of the listed building itself.’
Happily for the owners, the local group does not appear to have set its face against the basement entirely. ‘If there is to be a basement, the applicant needs to find a way of maintaining overall appearance of the front garden,’ Ms Lewis concluded.
Soho Estates was contacted for comment.