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David Starkey attacks plan for 'snotty-nosed punk' of a house near Henry VIII's palace
Dr David Starkey, the historian, has compared a proposal to build a 'zero-carbon house' near the remains of Richmond Palace to a "snotty-nosed punk in an elegant drawing room".
On Thursday planners at Richmond council approved construction of the solar powered, triple-glazed, two-storey house near the site of the palace, which was built by Henry VIII’s father Henry VII.
Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn there and spent Christmases there, as did their daughter Elizabeth I. It was demolished after Charles I's execution in 1649.
Only remnants still exist on the site, near present-day Richmond Green. They were incorporated into later buildings which lie yards from the proposed house. All sit within a formal conservation area.
Dr Starkey said of the futuristic home, proposed by a couple who have lived in Richmond-upon-Thames for 40 years: "To give it planning permission almost to the day of the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Richmond's most famous inhabitant, Henry VIII, would add insult to a grievous injury to the surviving historic fabric and setting of Tudor England."
In a sharp attack on what he believed to be a misplaced piece of modern architecture, he said: "The proposed new building is like a snotty-nosed punk in an elegant drawing room: wilfully and self-indulgently out of keeping with its surroundings – in form, colour and materials."
The presenter of the current Channel 4 series, Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant, told the Evening Standard: "This sort of 'statement architecture' can make sense as part of the regeneration of a run-down port or industrial slum, but in the precincts of Richmond Palace, it is simply bad manners."
The applicants, Peter and Jeanette Reid, were unavailable for comment.
Dr Starkey's comments come shortly after the Prince of Wales became embroiled in a new row with architects over Lord Rogers' plans for a series of steel and glass apartment blocks on the site of the old Chelsea Barracks.
The Prince described the scheme, to be constructed opposite Sir Christopher Wren's late 17th century Royal Hospital, as "unsympathetic" and "unsuitable" for the area.