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Harry the hermit at his makeshift home on the Heath |
Home blow for hermit
Lawyers claim shack on land next to Heath is technically illegal
HARRY Hallowes, the Hampstead Heath hermit, is now the proud owner of a half-acre of land overlooking the grounds of Kenwood House, but lawyers have discovered his shack may be breaking the law.
Mr Hallowes, 76, originally from County Sligo in Ireland, has lived in his makeshift home at the bottom of the garden of Athlone House, a former old people’s home in Hampstead Lane, for nearly 20 years.
When the old people’s home was sold to developer Dwyer to be turned into luxury homes, an acre of land was handed over to the Heath with a £50,000 windfall to pay for its upkeep. Harry’s legal rights to his separate half acre were confirmed last year and he received the deeds last month.
But reports that the land could be worth up to £2 million or that Harry could now build a more permanent home have been dashed.
Under a restricted covenant agreed in 1923 between the 6th Earl of Mansfield, whose family built Kenwood House, and Sir Robert Waley Cohen, who owned Athlone House, no building of any kind – temporary or permanent – can be placed on the land.
This means Harry’s home of plastic sheeting, old doors and a soot-engrained brick wall, which used to be part of a Victorian greenhouse heater, appears to be technically illegal.
Mr Hallowes said: “I asked my solicitor what exactly was permissible and he said I would have to ask for planning permission for a permanent home, and he did not think under the title it would be possible.”
He is considering living in a caravan on the land. “I’m not sure what I can get away with, so I plan just to keep quiet about it,” he said. “I would like to risk a caravan and see what happens.”
A spokesman for the City of London, managers of the Heath, said: “As far as we are aware, Harry can’t build on the land, either permanently or temporarily, although he has said he doesn’t want to anyway.” |
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