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And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week
CMU Beef Of The Week #239: Jimmy Page v Robbie Williams
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 16 January 2015
There’s nothing more rock n roll than a planning dispute. Nothing. So it doesn’t get much more rock and/or roll than Jimmy Page going head to head with Robbie Williams via a terse letter to the local council about an planned extension to the latter’s house. [Play air guitar solo.]
Williams wants to get a little more space in his 46 room Holland Park mansion, which was previously occupied by late film director Michael Winner. His planning application apparently states that the extension will provide him and his clan with a “contemporary standard of family living”.
Page is not happy about this at all. Not because he has anything against contemporary family living (I’m sure he understands the trouble any family of three would have living in a 46 room house these days), but because the extension would overlook and potentially cause structural damage to his house next door.
But of greater concern is what the building work will do to Williams’ house itself. The Led Zeppelin guitarist has lived next door to the neoclassical Victorian home, designed by architect William Burges, since 1972, and is apparently very protective of it due to its history.
According to The Telegraph, Page wrote in a letter to Kensington & Chelsea Council: “I am extremely concerned that this work will cause vibrations and possible structural damage with my house. It appears the proposed new window is at a height that will overlook the side of my house as well as the garden at the rear of my property, thus having a significant impact on the amenity of the house and its garden”.
And he added: “Although I understand that much of the interior was altered (and therefore compromised) by the current owners’ predecessor, I believe most of the exterior of the original building remains intact and should therefore be considered sacrosanct”.
As well as blocking Williams’ building plans, Page suggests making his rival music star’s home Grade II listed in order to protect the “building’s fabric” from further attempts to update it.