Fresh row over South Ken Tube redevelopment

Londoner’s Diary, Evening Standard

Unknown date

INTERNECINE WARFARE is breaking out in well-heeled corners of South Kensington over the controversial redevelopment of the Tube station and Thurloe Street.

Word reaches me that furious members of the Brompton Association have banned their chairman Jeremy Taylor and Honorary Secretary, Lady Anstruther from speaking in public about the scheme.

Members of the residents’ group were livid when it transpired the chairman and secretary had written to Kensington & Chelsea Council earlier this year to back the scheme without actually consulting them, particularly since Lady Anstruther’s family interests are at stake.

Developers Stanhope and Hutchison Whampoa want to demolish an historic terrace on Thurloe Street, including the celebrated Polish restaurant Daquise, and are proposing an 11-storey tower on top of the tube station.

While householders are disgruntled, landowners like the Anstruther family who own the Thurloe Estate worth hundreds of millions could stand to gain value and opportunities for their properties.

The Brompton Association will now be writing to the council withdrawing the earlier letter and joining other South Ken objectors like Edward Fox’s daughter Lucy Gormanston, Julian Lloyd Webber, Wayne Sleep and Mark Birley, owner of Annabel’s.

Let battle commence.