Brian May: I’ll quit London over ‘basement barbarians’

QUEEN guitarist Brian May yesterday declared war on the ‘basement-building barbarians’ he claims are forcing him out of his multimillion pound home.

The musician said his plush residential street in London’s exclusive Kensington has turned into a ‘hellhole’ from ‘unbearable disruption’ caused by basement extensions.

The property add-ons have become the norm in recent years in affluent areas of London, where residents looking to expand drill down rather than building out.

In an open letter to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, May, who is married to Eastenders actress Anita Dobson, said they had reached breaking point and are now planning to leave London.

He urged the council to refuse all future planning applications for basements. Insisting he would not be ‘backing off an inch in the fight against basement-building barbarians’, he added: ‘I will be battling on, for common decency, and the quality of life of the remaining residents. But I may do it from a home where I don’t wake up to being persecuted every day of the week.’

May, 68, who is worth an estimated £70million, explained that after buying his dream home, he and Miss Dobson, 67, had now reached ‘breaking point’.

‘Kensington truly has become a hellhole. You only have to walk around it to see. We will now be seeing more and more decent people quitting in disgust, in search of a decent place to live,’ he claimed.

Kensington and Chelsea councillor Tim Coleridge said all future basement developments will be ‘sensible and proportionate’.