Canadian billionaire’s grand plans for London mansion sends neighbours into uproar

Your upper-class Brit has never been comfortable living alongside people who were "in trade," especially if they've made their fortunes in the colonies.

Retired Canadian cable-TV billionaire David Graham has his neighbours in the posh Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea up in arms over plans to expand his his three-storey Victorian mansion by four floors — underground.

The borough, second-wealthiest in Britain, has been dubbed "the village of palaces" by real estate agents, the National Post reports.

But apparently extravagant displays of one's wealth are frowned upon. The idea of burrowing under the home, which started life as a school before becoming a local magistrate's court, has rattled some teacups.

"These plans are absolutely monstrous and unnecessary," Gillian Beauclerk, the Duchess of St Albans and one of Graham's neighbours, told the London Evening Standard. "It's just absolute greed. No one needs that much space. Quite apart from that, the commotion is going to be dreadful."

Graham, 75, approached borough authorities for permission to excavate more than 15 metres beneath his home to construct four levels that would include a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, massage room, ballroom, wine cellars, art storage room, a gym and living quarters for staff, as well as underground parking for three vehicles reached by an elevator located by the front door.

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When Graham, whose ex-wife Barbara Amiel is married to disgraced Canadian newspaper baron Conrad Black, bought the building, he was granted permission to turn it into a family home with a swimming pool and one basement level.

But the Post reported the building, known as the Old Courthouse, was simply not big enough for him and efforts to find a larger London house were unsuccessful.

"He therefore wishes to extend his home to provide further accommodation to suit his family's needs as required by today's contemporary living," according to planning documents reported by the Evening Standard.

The Milner Road Area Residents Association is adamantly opposed.

"This is totally out of keeping with the relatively small size of other houses in the area," an association spokesman told the Evening Standard. "Why should we all suffer just so one man can indulge his fantasy?"

According to documents submitted to the borough, the project would take 13 months and require the removal of almost 1,400 truckloads of earth. Opponents say the work would disrupt the neighbourhood as dump trucks navigate the narrow local streets and threaten the foundations of adjacent buildings.

To be fair, it's not just the wealthy who object to Graham's plans. Opponents include novelist and playwright Edna O'Brien (The Country Girls), textiles shop owner Mona Perlhagan, art gallery owner Stephanie Hoppen and the operators of a an upscale restaurant that shares a common wall with the former Ottawa businessman's brickpile.

But local blogger The Dame reflected the down-the-nose viewpoint towards Graham as a nouveau-riche interloper.

"What is it about Commonwealth media tycoons...especially the Canadian variety: they seem to think their money gives them carte blanche to ride roughshod over people," The Dame wrote on her blog From the Hornet's Nest. "The owner of The Old Court House having made his vast fortune burying cables underground in Canada now decides he wants to live underground too!"

The anonymous Dame and other British media gleefully pointed out Graham's former connection to Barbara Amiel, wife Conrad Black, aka Lord Black of Crossharbour.

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Graham is now single, she wrote, and reportedly owns other homes in Canada, St. Barth (St. Barts) and St. Tropez.

"For a single, elderly man, living on his own, it could be a very lonely existence. He will certainly be rattling around."

The Dame suggests Graham's project may be aimed at upgrading the house in order to flip it, estimating its value at about $143 million.

The Evening Standard noted applications for basement conversions in the borough have quadrupled since 2003 and the local council is drafting rules to limit below-ground development to just one floor.