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21 Upper Grosvenor Street |
Town Hall planners to consider quality of ‘life downstairs’
Concerns over servants’ quarters at Mayfair mansion
ONE mustn’t offer one’s opinion to one’s master unless asked for it – so goes the etiquette guide for being a good servant.
If you thought live-in-servants went out of fashion with PG Wodehouse, spare a thought for the staff of a new Mayfair mansion, who may have to forget etiquette and “have their say” if they are to prevent themselves ending up in quarters even Blackadder’s Baldrick would balk at.
As the West End Extra goes to press tonight (Thursday), Town Hall planners will decide whether to allow developers Boss Holdings Ltd go ahead with plans for a Grade II-listed townhouse, complete with swimming pool and eight bedrooms, in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair.
The council’s environmental health department have made a formal objection to the quality of the staff accommodation in the building.
A report to go before planners says: “Environmental health raise an objection about the basement staff bedrooms and consider that any staff occupying these bedrooms may not have access to the remainder of the house to use as recreational space.”
The report continues: “This may cause a physical/mental health threat [for staff] associated with inadequate natural/ artificial light and with no view to look out at.”
Number 21 Grosvenor Street has a colourful history, acting as headquarters for the Free French Government, exiled in London during the Second World War.
Last year, it made headlines in the legal press when it became the centre of a landmark court case that could carry a cruel irony for any new “servant” tenants.
In 2008, the then leaseholders Boss Holdings managed to persuade the House of Lords that the freehold of the buildingshould pass to them – under the 1967 Leasehold Reform Act – because the landlord, Grosvenor West End Properties, had let the property fall into disrepair.
Under the terms of the 1967 Act, tenants have the right to acquire the freehold of a house if a property “designed or adapted for living in” is not physically fit for immediate residential use.
But the landlords claimed that although the 200-year-old property was once used as a house, at the time of Boss Holdings’ claim it had just been vacated by commercial businesses, and therefore fell outside the terms of the Act.
The Lords rejected this claim – ruling that despite recent commercial use the property was still laid out in a residential manner and should be viewed as such – and the freehold passed to Boss Holdings.
Boss Holdings now face a very different kind of legal challenge, and if their plans to redevelop the Mayfair mansion are to get the ahead from Westminster planners, they may have to rethink the quality of life on offer to those living and working “downstairs”.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s meeting, Kiu Sami, design consultant for the developers, said the objection lodged by the council was “crazy”.
“I don’t know where they got this psychological, mental health stuff from,” he said.
“Lots of London townhouses have downstairs bedrooms and this is no different.” |
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