Billionaire bringing ‘nuisance and distress’ to Kensington neighbours in five-year row

By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter

Ivy restaurant owner Richard Caring has upset neighbours again amid a five-year planning row over his huge London mansion.

People living next to the billionaire have accused him of breaking more planning rules while revamping his £40m house in South Kensington.

The club owner and restaurateur’s property at Onslow Square has been a building site since 2018, when he was given council permission to demolish an old house and build a new one.

At the time, many neighbours feared noisy and disruptive construction work and light getting blocked from their homes.

Caring recently upset neighbours again when he shut down a main road for two weeks to make room for a crane carrying tees over terraced houses to his garden.

He was also told by Kensington and Chelsea Council to remove three “incongruous and dominant” windows that were installed on the house without planning permission.

The local authority sent Caring an enforcement notice regarding the windows in May and is set to make a final decision soon after an appeal was lodged by his wife, Patricia.

In the latest development, Caring has applied for permission to bulldoze a wall outside his home and replace it with a new one with separate openings for cars and people. But neighbours are outraged and claim he has already built the wall without formal consent.

A spokesperson for Kensington and Chelsea said it deals with planning rule breaches “very seriously”.

One neighbour said in a letter to the authority: “THE WALL IS ALREADY BUILT. It was previously taken down without permission and then there was a pretence that permission had been granted in the original application of 2018.”

They added: “This comes as no surprise… this development of over five years has been a series of subversion and subterfuge through an avalanche of confusing and incoherent planning applications. Let’s hope it’s all over soon.”

A report by Caring’s architects said he wanted to “enhance the character, appearance and setting” of the property by building a “high-quality decorative wall and entrance”.

Labour councillor Emma Dent Coad said neighbours have suffered “years” of “distress” while Caring’s home has been under construction.

She said in a letter to the council: “The nuisance and distress caused by years of construction work, with access to garages closed off periodically and the recent closure of Onslow Square has been exceptionally disruptive to the usual quiet neighbourliness of the area…. The addition of massive dormer windows entirely out of keeping with this very beautiful area architecturally, in defiance of the agreed plans, is truly abhorrent.”

A Kensington and Chelsea council spokeswoman said: “We try to avoid road closures where possible but if an applicant can demonstrate it is necessary to complete works safely we will work with them to minimise disruption to others. In this case, the road had to be closed for safety reasons due to the size of the crane needed for the works. The road is now fully reopened.

“Planning regulations exist to protect neighbourhoods. We take breaches very seriously and work with landowners to investigate and fix issues quickly. We will investigate the latest claims regarding a boundary wall.

“The resident has appealed against the council’s instruction to remove windows which in our view did not meet planning permission. This is now a matter for the Planning Inspectorate and we have made a submission in defence of the enforcement action.”

Mr Caring’s team was contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Builders working at Richard Caring\’s South Kensington property in September 2022 (Picture: Hannah Neary)