‘£400,000’ basement bills for neighbours

Published: 14 October, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

A BILL of £400,000 could land on the doormats of neighbours living either side of the derelict house which was once home to murdered Hampstead pensioner Allan Chappelow, a planning inquiry has been told.

The new owner of number 9 Downshire Hill, Anthony Joseph, has appealed against a Camden Council planning committee decision to throw out a scheme which would have seen a two-storey basement carved out beneath the ramshackle building.

Stephen Ainger lives next door to the house that was owned by Mr Chappelow’s family since the 1930s. He told the inquiry yesterday (Wednesday) morning that a surveyor’s report stated that if the work to build the basement beneath the home went ahead, he and Lady Pamela Listowel, who owns the property on the other side of number 9, might have to pay up to £400,000 to shore up their own homes.

Mr Ainger described how when he bought his home in 1996, it had damp in the basement, shallow foundations and basement walls that bowed under the pressure of 200 years of being cut into the slopes of Hampstead.

Mr Ainger said: “The developer may be financially able to pay but the point is this has the potential to cause such extensive damage and we would have to move out for a year to put it right.”

Because Mr Chappelow declined to carry out any work on the home he inherited when his parents died in the early 1960s, it has been deemed beyond repair by engineers and English Heritage. The plan is to demolish it and start afresh.

Mr Ainger added that he and his neighbours would not object automatically, but said two new storeys below ground for the new house was too much. 

He said: “Mr Chappelow was an excellent neighbour in many ways. He was very quiet but he would not allow us into his house to do party wall inspections. He was a Miss Havisham character.”

The appeal was launched after the council threw out a planning application in 2009.

The inquiry, held at the New Diorama ­Theatre in Euston, is due to end early next week after a site visit by planning inspector John Papworth. A decision is  expected by the end of the year.

Hampstead Conservative councillor Chris Knight said: “This is not the Bishop’s Avenue and is wholly inappropriate, as the council originally stated.” 

Owner Mr Joseph said he did not want to discuss the planning application until the appeal had been concluded, but added: “It is a beautiful road in a beautiful area, and the application was done with the advice of English Heritage.”