Sophie Hicks, 58, who wants to build the new home, outside London's High Court yesterday
A celebrity architect's plan to build an underground dream home for her family is being foiled by her neighbours and four self-seeded sycamore trees.
Sophie Hicks, 58, a fashionista turned architect and mother of model Edie Campbell, wants to build the futuristic home in Kensington, West London.
Wealthy residents of the exclusive 'millionaires' row' neighbourhood include the Beckhams, Elton John and Robbie Williams - and mansions can change hands for more than £30million.
Her plan was approved by planners at Kensington and Chelsea Council, but is being blocked by the owners of the Grade II-listed Victorian townhouse next to the proposed building site.
They say the new house would be 'out of keeping' with the 150-year-old Italianate villas locally, and claim four 'valued' sycamore trees which have sprung up around the site would have to be felled.
Ms Hicks is now suing the tenant-owned company which owns the freehold of the neighbouring house, claiming that blocking her from building her underground dream home is 'unreasonable'. But the management firm is resisting, insisting the proposed house would 'harm the setting' of the exclusive area.
The council had given permission subject to the management firm's approval, but the firm has refused to give this – and Ms Hicks is therefore taking it to court.
The plot in Kensington, West London, where Ms Hicks wants to build the underground house
A former fashion editor at Vogue and Tatler, Ms Hicks began working as an architect in 1994.
Her daughter is Vogue cover girl Edie Campbell - whose sister Olympia is also a model - and her mother, Joan Hicks, was a successful model in the 1950s.
Ms Hicks bought the wedge-shaped parcel of land she wants to build on at auction, for £880,000, in 2011.
She later submitted plans for a four-bedroom house, with two floors beneath ground level, a lift and a swimming pool.
The design leaves only a 'glazed cube' made of translucent glass with a bronze anodised aluminium frame and a 'carefully designed roof garden' visible from ground level.
Neighbours say the new house would be 'out of keeping' with the 150-year-old Italianate villas. The plot where Ms Hicks wants to build is to the left of the buildings above, in Kensington
She says in her planning application the proposed house 'allows the two adult generations of my family to live together with some privacy'.
Ms Hicks's daughters Edie (left) and Olympia (right) at a party in 2017 in Northamptonshire
But she has run into problems with the owners of the neighbouring property, a large Victorian villa which has been divided into flats.
That house and the proposed building plot were once both owned by the same man.
When the plot was sold around 50 years ago, a clause in the title deeds gave the freehold owner of the neighbouring house power to veto the design of any house that may be built on the land.
That power of veto is limited however, in that it must be applied 'reasonably'.
Ms Hicks is now suing the management of the neighbouring building - who have refused to give the green light to her house design - claiming that refusal is 'unreasonable'.
In documents lodged at the High Court, her barrister Mark Sefton says complaints the new house would be 'aesthetically out of keeping with the adjoining building' because it 'is modern in its design rather than a Victorian pastiche' are 'not a good reason for the refusal of approval'.
'The
