Residents are digging in to stop a local business tycoon from building a “giga”* basement under the back garden of his Chelsea home.

Mr Peter Dubens, the flamboyant “serial” entrepreneur behind the multi-billion pound Oakley Capital private equity company, has put in an audacious bid to build a 721 square metre underground leisure complex and entertainment space.

The concrete-lined “bunker” will extend for 54m under the 1,513 sq/m back garden of his home in Chelsea, which sits within a conservation area.

Architectural designs show that the state-of-the-art basement – with ceiling heights between three-four metres – will house a large dining room with a bar, luxury cinema, wine cellar, two saunas, plunge pool, massage room, gymnasium, and a high-tech golf simulator. The works will mean removing an existing all-weather tennis court, which it appears will be replaced.

The plans also include ripping down and replacing the existing pool house with a larger one – connected by stairs to the new health spa – and adding an extra basement kitchen to the main house. Developers behind the design say that the build could begin as early as July and will take at least two years and three months to complete. It will cover 47.7% of the available sub-garden space.

Architectural drawings and associated documents, which run for around 100 pages, have been submitted by Savills. The detail and scope of the designs and research are certain to have cost a significant six figure sum to compile.

Furious locals are aghast at the scale of the development and the “un-ending havoc and pollution” it will cause. They say that the plan has no consideration for the surrounding community, nor for the aesthetic and historical nature of the immediate area.

They also fear for the protection of a Grade II Listed Tudor wall, dating from Henry VIII’s manor house, that is part of the perimeter to the garden.

“This is nothing more than one man’s appalling vanity project,” one resident told The Citizen. “Mr Dubens clearly has absolutely no regard for the disruption his basement will cause, but this is about far more than ‘NIMBY-ism’. A development at this scale is entirely wrong for the area and does nothing for the public good.”

Mr Dubens, aged 59, made his first millions in his early 20s by selling clothes to C&A and Marks and Spencer. At the time, he was closely associated with tycoons Phillip Green and Richard Caring. Since then, Mr Dubens has invested successfully in scores of international businesses, not least Time Out magazines. According to Oakley Capital’s website, the company, which is based off Sloane Street, has raised £10 billion “across nine funds” to back more than 40 businesses.

Mr Dubens is also known for his love of sailing and has competed in and won competitions at prestige regattas around the world in a spectacular racing yacht called North Star. He has been photographed receiving a prize from the former King of Spain Juan Carlos and once won a coveted trophy in a race sponsored by Rolex.

According the land records, Mr Dubens’ three-storey house was originally built circa 1865. It was bought in October 2020 for £10,250,000, presumably by Mr Dubens. Back then, it had 359 sq/m, but a considerable extension was commenced very soon after it was bought. Its previous sale was in 2010 for £3,900,000.

Angry residents have laid out a number of reasons why they believe the Director of Planning at RBKC should reject the application. They claim that the Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP) is flawed and inaccurate in key aspects. Most importantly, they say, the architects have wrongly stated the width of the access street as 3.1m to support the notion that it can accommodate large lorries. Residents say that the true width is nearer 2.7m, a significant difference that makes it impractical and unsafe for lorries.

Residents refer to complaints during the three years that Mr Dubens took to complete an earlier basement conversion to the main house and garden landscaping. During that build, residents claim that cars were damaged by construction vehicles, due to the limited width of the crescent. Residents also claim that builders also repeatedly – and illegally – parked by some emergency gates near the house because they could not drive into the access street.

The new basement build would, residents say, involve at least 400 movements of eight-wheeled tipper lorries to remove hundreds of tonnes of soil. Plans submitted to RBKC show that a long and elevated conveyor belt will be constructed in the garden to deliver the soil to the front of the house for removal. In order to create a concrete “bunker” shell with a four metre ceiling height, builders will need to dig down at least seven metres into the London clay foundations.

In various objection letters, residents insist that the noise from a piling rig in the garden – used to put 100+ supporting steel struts into the earth – will be intolerable, as well as the resulting dust and pollution. They also claim that a basement on this scale is a serious flood risk. A flood risk assessment submitted on behalf of Mr Dubens disputes the flood risks and a noise report analysis claims that there will not be un-due disturbance to residents.

One letter states: ‘The scale and extent of the proposed basement excavation constitute overdevelopment, which is entirely out of keeping with the historic, delicate urban grain of the area. It fails to respect the established scale and form of surrounding development and will likely lead to long-term adverse effects on neighbouring residential amenity, including structural risk, noise, vibration, dust pollution, and construction traffic congestion, over an extended period.

‘The owners of this property have already enlarged the house in the very recent past over a period of three years causing enormous disruption and annoyance to their fellow neighbours. They have now applied for a major underground new build into the originally Elizabethan Garden from which the tenants in the square benefited.

‘Approval of another large basement scheme in this sensitive location would set a damaging precedent, undermining local and national efforts to manage flood risk, protect heritage assets, and maintain community cohesion.’

Another letter added: ‘The current CTMP envisages 10 concrete mixers and 10 skip lorries a week (averaging one every two hours, with a forty minute maximum dwell time) for a period of many months. In other words, hundreds of vehicles will be needed to drive up a road which is too narrow to take them, because the CTMP does not comply with the width requirements.

‘This is an unacceptable risk to the property of the residents. RBKC should require the CTMP to be resubmitted in order that it meets the requirements. RBKC and the residents should then be given an opportunity to submit comments on the revised plan. Otherwise, the plan as it stands should be rejected.’

A spokesman for Mr Dubens gave this statement: “We make every effort to listen to the concerns of our neighbours. In the event that any development work does take place, it will be undertaken with due care and consideration, and in strict accordance with planning regulations.”

 

The Daily Telegraph’s report about the surge in objections to Mr Dubens’ grand plan

 

 

 

*Believed to be a new term, created by your friendly neighbourhood reporter. Named after ‘giga yachts’ that are so-called, if they stretch beyond 100metres.

 

4th July 2025, Editor’s note: This article has been materially amended since it was first published. Regrettable, but necessary.